Atleti - on the bus. Have we finally struck the perfect balance?

After a couple of gritty, pragmatic wins in the Premier League, Arsenal well and truly swept aside Atleti from the soaking Emirates pitch in the Champions League.

Perfect Balance

Recent displays from our lads suggest we might just have struck that elusive perfect balance within the squad. We’re still incredibly solid at the back, giving our opponents precious little to work with, yet we’ve shown we can be quite the stingy bunch in attack. And when we do sting, we hold onto the lead with a confidence that’s truly impressive.

Yesterday’s match was no exception. After a probing-and-poking first half, we finally unpicked Atleti after one of the league’s best crossers found one of the league’s most prolific head-strikers from a set piece. That goal forced Simeone’s gang to take risks, and Arsenal never looked back. A relentless 15 minutes of constant penetration secured the result, allowing Arteta to make some crucial safety substitutions and give valuable minutes to the players who really needed them.

It seems Arteta’s squad management has improved even over the course of this very season. He’s not just running his big dogs into the ground; he’s clearly prioritising the development of our wider squad. Every single substitution had “necessary rest” or “necessary minutes” as its primary purpose.

The sheer quality of our player characters also plays a massive role in our results. Every single player is hungry and desperate to show their best out on the pitch. Our nominal “second-choice” left-back drove through the entire Atleti midfield to find our “second-choice” left-winger, who’d been terrorising and stretching the opposition defence all game, ready to double the score. That is the sign of a truly healthy, balanced, and capable squad.

The only remaining task is to ensure we don’t overplay Saka during this Madueke-less period. Bukayo’s featuring in all of Arsenal’s and England’s games, and we absolutely must keep him fresh for the entire season. In the upcoming clashes against Burnley and Sunderland, I wouldn’t even start him. Either Nwaneri or Dowman should be more than capable of stepping in against opponents of that calibre. Generally speaking, our squad depth is so impressive that we can certainly afford to have one or two youngsters in the team who might need a bit of cover or special attention.

On the Saka topic itself, it’s a common consensus that Bukayo makes the correct decision almost every time. However, what I’ve observed this season is that Bukayo is, at times, making rather selfish decisions. Instead of finding a teammate after a successful dribble (which would be the ‘correct’ decision), he continues to drive into the box himself, seemingly attempting to hog all the glory. This is most likely a new phase of his development, a statement of “I am the man.” A phase that, should it continue, ought to transform him into an unstoppable force for any opponent, much like Salah was last season.

All that’s left for us is to hope he truly reaches that final, next level, where he’s genuinely in the conversation for the best player of the year.

Slightest concern

If we are being picky, it is somewhat concerning that we open up most of our opponents from the set piece. While it is a tool we definitely benefit and should benefit from, it would be nice to see us open up the opponents from open play for a change.

Gabriel had an amazing response for this concern:

Source: arsenal.com

This is a multi-layered message. First of all, he, as well as the other boys, is well aware of the narratives that the haters are trying to build around our team as a coping mechanism for their pain. Second, he decided to answer it in the best possible manner. When you embrace the mockery, you simply take away the subject and start owning it yourself. Third, he found the clearest way to deliver this message without any words. Just legendary!

The Gyok talk

It was also fun to see Gabriel assist Gyokeres for the last goal and join the imitation competition for Gyokeres trademark celebration.

The Swede has pocketed two boring, hard-working, slightly ugly goals. We all hoped to see a number 9 that runs past the defenders and shoots cannons in the top corner, but there was only one such goal against Leeds. We hoped to sign a new Haaland, but let’s be honest, Viktor cost us less and earns only a fraction of Haaland’s (and Isak’s) salary.

Despite the lack of breathtaking goals, he constantly occupies the defenders, never tired, doesn’t throw tantrums, doesn’t complain all around and is determined to be helpful for the team. If we didn’t sign a perfect striker, it’s better that we got the one with the right attitude and I like what I see so far. We still need someone to be present in all those dangerous positions ready to tap in when needed.

It was also quite noticeable yesterday how our attack deflated when Merino came on for Viktor. With his slower pace and infrequent runs, the defenders were able to take a breather, regroup and pay more attention to the likes of Saka and Martinelli. They could manage to hold us much better with this lower intensity. And it’s interesting to think that we managed to get into a CL semifinal with Merino upfront. This time we are definitely better equipped.

The only danger on the Atleti side came from Julian Alvarez. That is some player! Probably in the top-5 number nines in Europe: Haaland, Kane, Mbappe, Isak (of last season) and him. I can only imagine how he would thrive in our team and how a dangerous force we would be. He can dribble, can run, can connect play and has brilliant shooting technique. I don’t know whether it was realistic to sign from City after we challenged them for the title, but it would be amazing.

It doesn’t matter now though. We have Gyokeres and we also have a wide squad of professionals and strong individual players, who all want to be the part of a big story. If in the Champions League it can be moments of brilliance that decide the fate, in the Premier League it’s a marathon, where robustness, resilience, completeness, synergy and balance matters. And, boy, we have a good amount of that!

Next up is Crystal Palace. A very tough and impressive team under my new favourite Mr Glasner. Mr Glasner who did so much in the transfer window to benefit us in the title race. I have so much sympathy so I wouldn’t even mind sharing points with his team. But not this time, not at our ground. In the second round when our gap from the chasing pack is bigger, we can be more flexible!