After three games, Arsenal sit top of the Premier League table, but as we know fine well from last season, it’s just three games. A lot can happen in the subsequent 35 so nobody’s getting carried away. However, it’s a much nicer place to be than where we were this time last year.
One of my main takeaways from the All Or Nothing documentary was how much Mikel Arteta tried to compartmentalise each result. On the occasions when he wasn’t absolutely fuming – like Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup – he did his best to ensure the players didn’t get too carried away when they won, or overly despondent when a game didn’t go the way we wanted it to.
He sounded a similar note after the Bournemouth win on Saturday, saying:
It’s just three games. It doesn’t mean anything, there any still other teams that have to play. What it means is that we have managed to win three games, that we are scoring goals, keeping clean sheets, the team is playing and performing well, competing really well, but it’s about Monday, start training again and start to get better at the other things that we have to do as well, and focus on Fulham.
Still, a weekend when Chelsea lose is always good, Man City dropping points against Newcastle was unexpected to me, and West Ham – a team who were in the fight for Europe last season – were beaten at home by Brighton. I know the sample size is quite small after only three games, but it could be the most competitive Premier League for some time. The cliche about there being no easy games is a long-standing one, but I think it might be at its most true this season. I guess we’ll find out.
With a week to go until our next game, and no drama to speak of, perhaps column inches might be filled with transfer news. The manager was asked about this at the weekend, and if the good start to the season had changed the plans at all. He insisted it hadn’t, making clear that they are open to bringing in the right player, but not just any player. I don’t think they’ll compromise anymore, which is a good thing, but it was interesting to hear him talk about what he’d like to do, saying:
We know where we are short and where we have to add more firepower. If we can do it, we will do it.
For those who enjoy attacking, exciting football, the idea that Arteta wants ‘more firepower’ after a start to the season when we’ve scored 9 goals is quite tantalising. When you’re looking to add that firepower to a squad that contains Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli, Emile Smith Rowe, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Eddie Nketiah and our new rampaging attacking midfielder Granit Xhaka, it’s pretty exciting.
Quite who the player they want is remains to be seen. There are some rumours but I suspect this is one they’re keeping as quiet as possible. Perhaps we might get something akin to the Fabio Vieira deal earlier in the summer, one that very few people knew anything about until it was basically done. That’s hard to do in this day and age, but it might be more important than ever because as we’ve seen, as soon as any club’s interest in a player is known, Chelsea try and buy them.
A potential arrival is made more likely by what seems to be the imminent departure of Nicolas Pepe on loan. He was not in the squad for the Bournemouth game, which is often a sign that something is close and nobody wants to take the risk that the deal might be scuppered by an injury picked up in a game. A 15 minute cameo in a comfortable win is no use to anyone if he twangs his hamstring or some clogger makes a challenge that injures his ankle or something similar.
When you look at the players who we all expected to be on the move this summer, we’ve only got a couple left now. If we make the assumption that Pepe does go to Nice, there’s only Hector Bellerin and Ainsley Maitland-Niles left as players who are completely on the fringes and need to go somewhere else for the sake of their careers. I’m ruling out a Reiss Nelson departure this window because he got injured last week and it looks like he’ll be out of action for some time.
The window is open until 11pm on September 1st. We have two games between now and then: Fulham at the weekend, then Aston Villa the following Wednesday. Whether we have any additions for one or both of those games, we’ll have to just wait and see, but fingers crossed we get that firepower Mikel Arteta spoke about, because this season every little bit of edge we can get will be very useful.
Right, let’s leave it there for this morning. James and I recorded the Arsecast Extra for you yesterday, but if you haven’t had a chance to listen yet, all the links etc are below. Enjoy, have a great Monday!
