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Saturday’s win at Aston Villa was huge for Arsenal, especially given the context of what happened against Unai Emery’s side last season.
This was the first away game of the season and with trips to Manchester City and Spurs on the horizon, a win was crucial to give the team an early shot in the arm in terms of belief and confidence.
If Arsenal had lost, everyone would have been talking about Villa getting the better of them again, so there was plenty of pressure on them going into the game.
So the way they came through it was very impressive. Yes, they had to ride their luck at times and had Ollie Watkins had his shooting boots on they may well have ended up losing.
But you have to make the most of what luck you get and Arsenal did that with those two goals from Leandro Trossard and Thomas Partey.
David Raya’s save from Watkins at 0-0 was absolutely huge. Trossard’s arrival changed the game obviously, but had Raya not made that save earlier in the second half the game would have been very different.
It was a magnificent stop. Watkins obviously should have done better, but the speed of Raya’s reaction to get himself back up so he could make the save was remarkable.
That’s the second weekend in a row that Raya has made a crucial save for Arsenal. The Spaniard has had a fine start to the season and is really showing his importance to the side.
Trossard was superb after his introduction as well. He’s such a ruthless finisher and he showed that again when he scored with his first touch.
He’s clearly not very happy at starting games on the bench. You could see there was a fair bit of pent up frustration during his celebration and that is understandable.
He’s an excellent player and is undoubtedly Arsenal’s best finisher. I do think he will start against Brighton this weekend, but you can see why Arteta likes to bring him off the bench because his record as a substitute is so good.
All in all it’s been a strong start to the season by Arsenal. If they can manage to make it three wins from three against Brighton on Saturday then they will go into the international break feeling very good about themselves.
I’ll be really happy for Eddie Nketiah if the Crystal Palace deal goes through. At the time of writing this, it’s not done yet, but the expectation is that the move should go through, which will see Arsenal receive up to £30 million for the forward.
It’s a good deal for Arsenal, but I also think it’s a good deal for Palace. I can see Nketiah doing good things for them once he settles in.
Obviously, it looked just a few days ago like he would be going to Nottingham Forest, but Nketiah decided that the move wasn’t really for him after the two clubs agreed a fee.
Some of the reaction I saw to that decision was ridiculous, although I really shouldn’t be surprised anymore by what some people think is fine to say on social media.
A player has every right to decide where he goes. Clearly, Nketiah didn’t think Forest was a good fit and wanted to hold out for Palace, who have long been interested in him.
Providing this deal goes through, he will now get to stay in London as he looks to get his career gaining again. Good luck to him, I hope he does really well there and I think he will.
It’s tough to say right now whether Arsenal will pull something out of the bag late on in the transfer window. I think they should, because I really believe they are a bit light in terms of attackers.
They have let Emile Smith Rowe go and now Eddie Nketiah and Fabio Vieira are expected to follow him out of the door. I know the three of them played very little football last season, but they were still attacking options that Arteta could have turned to who have now departed.
So I really believe someone should come in to give Arteta another option in attack. If that doesn’t happen, it will feel like a bit of an underwhelming window for Arsenal in my opinion, despite the decent additions of Riccardo Calafiori and Mikel Merino.
Nico Williams is a winger we know they like, but that would be a tough deal to get done this late in the window. Yes, he has a release clause which makes it impossible to rule out, but it’s far from clear whether he would even want the move should that clause be activated.
So if Arsenal are to do something, it looks like being one of those surprise signings that potentially catches us a bit off guard.
Arteta did hint that something could still happen after the game against Villa and I’m sure he will be pushing for more because he will want as strong a squad as possible ahead of such a demanding season.
I haven’t really looked around at the business being done by other clubs this summer and felt any hint of jealousy.
To be honest, I think it’s been a pretty average window in terms of the top teams strengthening their options.
I don’t look at anyone harbouring hopes of competing for a top four spot and think they have done much to close the gap to City or Arsenal.
I’m stunned Liverpool haven’t done anything yet. If Pedro Neto stays fit, I think he could be a fine addition to Chelsea, but aside from him none of their captures have really caught my attention.
It will be interesting to see how Dominic Solanke does at Spurs. I know he cost a lot of money, but he really impressed me last season. He has matured into a good Premier League striker and it wouldn’t surprise me if he scores a decent amount of goals again.
I’m backing Emile Smith Rowe to be a big success at Fulham. He’s already showing what he’s capable of there and he will just get better and better as he gets up to speed.
Another player who has caught the eye in the opening couple of games is Savinho. At £30m he looks like a bargain. Although that’s not really a surprise is it, given where City signed him from.
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