Are we sure Arsenal didn’t sneak in a November trip to Dubai?
Last season, Arsenal returned from their January warm weather training camp a team transformed.
Having lost consecutive games against West Ham and Fulham in December 2023, they bounced back with eight straight Premier League wins. Most notably, their form in front of goal was transformed. A previously misfiring Arsenal attack returned in devastating form. In the course of those eight wins, they scored 33 goals — averaging more than four per game.
Since returning from this season’s November international break, Arsenal have found a similarly rich vein of form. Three goals against Nottingham Forest, five against Sporting CP, and another five against West Ham. Arsenal’s armoury appears well-stocked again.
This game even saw the return of the Arsenal chart that accompanied the first few months of 2024: “Who put the ball in the West Ham net? Half the f***ing team did!”
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But there was no trip to the United Arab Emirates this time. Many of the squad were scattered across the globe with their national teams in November and the remainder were at London Colney. Mikel Arteta was part of the executive team who flew to California for meetings with the club’s American owners. So, if the feeling around this Arsenal team has changed, it can’t be attributed to the sun and seclusion of a Dubai training camp.
Instead, it appears to owe plenty to the return of Martin Odegaard. The availability of the Arsenal captain has revived Arsenal’s attack. His combinations with Bukayo Saka are entrancing, and almost unstoppable. When Odegaard misplaced a pass to Saka during the second half against West Ham, there were practically audible gasps from the travelling fans.
Odegaard scores Arsenal’s third from the penalty spot against West Ham (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Odegaard is not the only technician to have helped restore some style to Arsenal’s game. They lost Thomas Partey to a muscular issue on Friday so for the second time in three games, Arteta turned to the experienced Jorginho to deputise. What the Italy international lacks in physicality, he makes up for with intelligent positioning and immaculate use of the ball. His reintegration to the first-team group has brought greater emphasis on ball dominance.
After beating West Ham 5-2, manager Mikel Arteta spoke of the “flow” returning to Arsenal’s game. “I think the first 30 minutes was spectacular,” he told Arsenal’s official website. “The quality, the understanding, the purpose and how the boys played and competed, it was second to none. You score three great goals, take control of the game, score the fourth one and then we could probably not maintain that level.”
As so often, it was a set-piece goal that popped the cork so Arsenal’s champagne football could begin to flow. West Ham were the latest team unable to deal with the aerial power of Gabriel — so much so that, with three Premier League goals this season, Gabriel joins his countryman Gabriel Martinelli as Arsenal’s joint-second top goalscorer.
This was not a perfect performance. Having amassed a three-goal lead in midweek against Sporting in the Champions League, Arsenal appeared to wobble slightly when the Portuguese side pulled back a goal at the start of the second half. And at the London Stadium, Arsenal looked a little lackadaisical for a spell in the first half: within four minutes of Kai Havertz (below) putting Arsenal 4-0 ahead, West Ham had pulled it back to 4-2.
Havertz celebrates Arsenal’s fourth (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
“Conceding one wasn’t a problem but conceding the second one straight away, then the margins become less,” admitted Arteta. “You just give them hope, that’s something we have to improve, we have to learn from it. Once your opponent is there on the ropes, you have to make sure that they stay there and they have no hope.”
But Saka’s penalty on the stroke of half time reasserted Arsenal’s dominance, and effectively settled the game.
According to Opta, this is only the third time in Premier League history that Arsenal have scored five first-half goals. Two of those occasions have come under Arteta, and in this calendar year. Arsenal’s blistering start at West Ham matched their explosive opening away to Sheffield United in March.
That was the game effectively done. Arsenal had the luxury of being able to bring off the likes of Saka, Odegaard, Gabriel and Riccardo Calafiori. Arteta described the latter pair as carrying “niggles”, but did not seem concerned about their participation in the midweek match against Manchester United.
Arteta could watch Liverpool’s comfortable win over Manchester City on Sunday, content in the knowledge his side have done their part. A difficult start to the season left Arsenal with ground to make up and the gap to Liverpool is still nine points — but recent performances underline that they have not yet given up the fight.
“We are in a great moment right now, but in football, be on your toes and be prepared the best possible way for tomorrow because it’s so competitive,” said Arteta. “This league, the position that we are playing every three days, that’s the only thing that you can do: analyse what we’ve done really well; lot of things to improve; and still today, go again tomorrow.”
(Top photo: David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
