Zinchenko 'magic'
On a night where the atmosphere was red hot inside the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal were targeting a dish best served cold. For a while it appeared that the revenge over Everton that they craved would not be on offer as a turgid 40 minutes passed by without any note. Just as they did at Goodison Park, the Toffees defended deep in numbers and as Arsenal sought a recipe for success their passing was overcooked and under-seasoned. Then came the moment of "magic".
Oleksandr Zinchenko - who was as poor as anyone in the Goodison defeat - took the initiative and dribbled from his left-back slot over to the right wing area, beating three Everton defenders on the way. Upon arriving in the opposite half of the pitch, the Ukrainian lent the ball to Gabriel Martinelli and Ben White before positioning himself perfectly to spot the gap in the rigid Everton backline that Bukayo Saka had found on the edge of the box and supplying the winger with an inch perfect pass to take advantage of it.
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From that point on Zinchenko marched the match to the beat of his drum, controlling everything. With 109 touches he led the way in terms of the influence any Arsenal player had on the game, and as you can see from his heatmap below, he was everywhere on the night.
It's certainly unusual to see your left-back having this much of an impact on the team, but then again Zinchenko is no ordinary left-back. His work for the night was capped off with a sublime ball into Eddie Nketiah in the build up to Martinelli's second, and speaking after the game, Mikel Arteta was all too keen to highlight the influence Zinchenko's experience of playing deep defences like this.
"That’s why we brought him, because he brings something different to the team," the Spaniard said in his post-match press conference. "His mentality and his quality to do certain things that allows us to be more unpredictable, to generate a lot of threat every time we’re in ball possession. He’s played those kinds of games against low blocks 200 times and that’s very helpful."
For all his class in the match though the moment of the night undoubtedly went to Martin Odegaard, who staked his claim for the most technically gifted player in this Arsenal squad with a slide-tackle-cum-Cruyff turn to pull away from Alex Iwobi. Upon seeing the skill Zinchenko could only hold his hands above his head and applaud. In reality though, it's the Ukrainian who deserves the ovation after taking Arsenal to another level this season.
Martinelli unlocked
It seems strange to think now, but it's only just over 10 days ago that conversations were being had over whether Gabriel Martinelli's form was a problem. The Brazilian had been below the incredibly high standards he had set for himself since the turn of 2023, and it was hardly a surprise to see him taken out of the starting XI for Arsenal's trip to Aston Villa. Since then, though, he has notched four goals in three matches. So what has changed?
Well, put simply the answer is Leandro Trossard. Across two matches now the Belgian has come in and played the false nine role in a manner that has reawakened the early-season form of Martinelli. Whereas in matches against Everton away, Brentford at home and even the Manchester City league clash, Martinelli had found himself stuck rigidly out wide with Eddie Nketiah occupying the central spaces, the Brazilian is now interchanging positions all over the pitch like he did when Gabriel Jesus was in the side.
In the build up to Bukayo Saka's opener he was on the right wing, and for the first of his two goals he pressed in a central space to take advantage of Saka picking Idrissa Gana Gueye's pocket. Then for his second goal, Martinelli popped up in the typical No.9 position ready to slot home a low cross around the six yard box.
Trossard, meanwhile, was equally happy to buzz around Everton's burly central defensive pair of James Tarkowski and Michael Keane. While it took a while for this to pay dividends, the Belgian's unpredictability saw him break free on the left wing to play in Martin Odegaard for his second assist in as many games. Trossard has brought the fluidity back to the Arsenal attack, and after the game Mikel Arteta admitted that the constant changing of positions had in turn brought the best out of Martinelli.
"Probably," he said when asked the question. "Relationships and chemistry build naturally. He has, when you see him play with Fabio [Vieira] there's even more chemistry because they love each other so much and they have that way of looking at each other and understanding what’s going to happen. He’s building that with Leo and he feels a bit more freedom to move into certain areas. Now his confidence his high again. He’s scoring and producing goals and is in a good mood."
It's tough on Nketiah whose goals have quite literally kept Arsenal in the title race during Jesus' absence. But with Trossard bringing the best out of those around him, it's hard to make a case that the Belgian shouldn't be starting against Bournemouth on Saturday.
Arteta vows Arsenal aren't going to stop
Going into this game much of the discourse was around how important it was going to be for Arsenal. All the conversation in relation to the title race had been over how the Gunners' game in hand gave them an advantage over Manchester City. That, though, was only applicable if they won it, and the time had come to see if they would deliver.
Arsenal responded in resounding fashion to open the gap at the top of the Premier League table to five points. Given that Manchester City play ahead of them on Saturday against Newcastle, the psychological boost this gives them, and many people would say that Arsenal are now the favourites to go on and claim a first title since 2004.
Mikel Arteta refuses to be drawn into any conversations about who has the edge. What he was willing to admit, though, was that his side are going to be relentless in their pursuit of this year's title.
"What I like is that everyone has the enthusiasm to do it," the Spaniard said. "We’re not gonna stop that and we have to promote that. The way to promote that is to look at this game and understand that we can do things better, especially in the first half. Make sure we prepare well against Bournemouth."
It's undeniable that the pendulum will swing between the two teams battling it out at the top just again as it has done already this season. Perhaps it's due to being around a winning side in Manchester City already, but Arteta seems very philosophical in his approach to that inevitability, and seems to think that his side are too.
"It’s something we have to train, discuss and build," he said when asked how he keeps up his side's consistency in this title battle. "It’s not easy, but a lot of the time it happens through experiences – most of the time experiences you don’t want to go through. The calendar is going to give that sometimes you are here, sometimes you are there, sometimes you are two points or three points clear, or minus two points. We’re going to have to deal with that."
For now though Arsenal have the league title in their own hands - something that would have been implausible only a few months ago. Taking it one step at time appears to be the way they intend to about delivering on their historic potential.
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