Arteta promises Arsenal can reach greater heights

 

 

• Arsenal’s record against Italian teams in Europe
• Supposing you wanted to fix a match, what could you do?

By Tony Attwood

Mikel Arteta has suggested that this Arsenal squad are still not at their best, and maybe that was the reason why we let in a goal right at the start.  But whereas at times in the past we might have felt that we couldn’t recover from such an event, now we most certainly can.

It certainly was a shock to see that goal go in, and it seems to have got the commentators rather excited but really there was no need.   For this season we have Kai Havertz and Martin Ødegaard on the pitch from the start.  Take two players of that sort of calibre out of the squad and it is bound to make a difference.   Get them fit and have them back, and there are not too many clubs that are gong to be able to cope with that.  

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Manchester City	3	3	0	0	7	2	+5	9
2	Arsenal	3	3	0	0	6	1	+5	9
3	Hull City	3	2	1	0	3	0	+3	7
4	Chelsea	3	2	0	1	8	7	+1	6
5	Brentford	3	1	2	0	5	2	+3	5
6	Liverpool	3	1	2	0	6	4	+2	5
7	Newcastle Un	3	1	2	0	6	4	+2	5
8	Everton	3	1	2	0	5	3	+2	5
9	Leeds United	3	1	2	0	3	2	+1	5
10	Brighton & Hove Al	3	1	1	1	8	5	+3	4
11	Manchester Un	3	1	1	1	7	6	+1	4
12	Sunderland	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4
13	Crystal Palace	3	1	0	2	4	8	−4	3
14	Ipswich Town	3	1	0	2	4	8	−4	3
15	AFC Bournemouth	3	0	2	1	4	5	−1	2
16	Nottingham For	3	0	2	1	2	3	−1	2
17	Aston Villa	3	0	1	2	0	5	−5	1
18	Tottenham HotS	3	0	1	2	0	5	−5	1
19	Fulham	3	0	0	3	4	7	−3	0
20	Coventry City	3	0	0	3	0	5	−5	0

 

Our next four fixtures are Napoli away on Wednesday 9th, Sunderland away on Saturday 12th, Ipswich away on Tuesday 15th and then Brighton away on Saturday 19th – this last being a game that isn’t even on TV.  Only then on 10 October do we manage to get another home game.

By any stretch of the imagination this is bonkers scheduling, and clearlyi instigated in order to give Arsenal a rough ride in these early days in the season.

It is in fact over a month before we get to have a home game again!   During that same period Manchester City have two home and two away games.   So we can imagine keyboards being got at the ready in media land suggesting that Arsenal are fading away after flattering to deceive.

Which is not to say that I am not hoping for, and indeed expecting, wins starting next monday – but it is typical of the TV Companies and schedulers to give Arsenal a Sunday afternoon away game followed by a Wednesday evening  match  1286 miles away from London.

Certainly what we can say is that if Arsenal come through this next game unscathed then we will have shown the schedulers just what this side is made of.   For as Arteta also said…

“ It depends on how we maintain and sustain that desire, that humbleness, and continue every day to try to find a better version of myself and the team. We still have a lot to grow and a lot to offer. This is the ambition of the team.”

Certainly seeing how the scedulers have fixed up things for Arsenal the squad should be in no doubt that this is Arsenal against everyone else.  But we should also have no doubt that this is Arsenal led by an utterly rejuvinated  Ødegaard with the manager adding, “He has a point to prove from last season as well, missing so much football. Kai is the same. I don’t know how many times they played together in the last three years but probably not much. He is enjoying his football. He was running ­forward, having shots, creating for his teammates.”

And that is a most interesting point which I don’t think we have heard very often.   When players come back from very long term persistent injury we don’t just get the player back, we get a player who is hungry for the game, and keen to show us all what we have missed without him.

There is however perhaps one issue that we might be a little sad about – Arsenal no longer have the best defence in the league – the club with that accoade is now Hull City who sit third in the league.   Their rseults this season so far have been a 2-0 win over Manchester United, a 1-1 draw away with Stoke in the League Cup (Hull went through on penalties), a 0-1 away win against Coventry (who are bottom of the league after three defeats) and a goalless draw with Aston Villa which gave Villa its first point of the season.

And I guess we can’t leave this little round up without mentioning Tottenham who are actually one place below where they finished last season (which is to say 18th) with one draw and two defeats.  According to Transfermarkt the total market value of their arrivals this summer was €410.50m.

Pesky things these transfer windows.