Sunderland - on the bus. Hunt for spaces
Arsenal with a powerful 3-0 win over Sunderland making another step towards the title.
I was pretty gutted with the starting XI, to be honest. Arteta went for a bit of rotation, but not in the areas where it’s actually needed. Trossard, Jesus, and Havertz were the fresh faces in the frontline compared to the Chelsea game, but we’ve got three possible options for each of those roles this season. Calafiori came into the backline too, but again, we’re well-stocked with three left-backs in the squad. Meanwhile, Rice, Zubimendi, and Timber were straight back on the team sheet, and those are the names I’m genuinely worried about.
Before I get into a proper rant, have a look at this photo.
Those three names are right at the top of our minutes-played charts for the season, and they’re the ones I’m most concerned about. With Timber, I can sort of see Arteta’s logic—he probably doesn’t trust a Madueke and White pairing because the ex-Chelsea man doesn’t exactly put in a shift defensively. We’re basically waiting for Saka to return so White can get a breather. Even then, it makes me question the decision to sign him in the first place.
If we’ve shelled out nearly £50 million for him, shouldn’t we have vetted his defensive work rate properly? Let’s be real—Sunderland are a side full of relegation-tier players who’ve been dragged up to mid-table by a quality manager. If Madueke can’t be trusted against that level of opposition, what were the analysts doing, and why did he cost so much?
Anyway, back to the midfield duo. We’re playing twice a week in massive games, and starting them every single time is just irresponsible from Arteta. It’s even more of a pressing issue now that we know Merino is out until at least the end of April, as he was the only real alternative Arteta used in the league. Now, he’s off the table.
Since we’re looking a bit thin in the middle, we simply cannot afford to lose either of them to injury. We haven’t even seen a potential backup plan given a go. Long-term strategy says you should be trialing different setups now to see who can actually hack it at this level. We weren’t playing a Champions League semi-final or a title six-pointer today, so it was the perfect time to give someone else a run-out. Winning the Premier League requires a mid- to long-term perspective to be considered. Prioritising short-term results over the long-term health of the squad is the kind of thing I’d expect from Mourinho—just so he can moan about injuries later. Arteta isn’t that sort of character.
We had four games in a fortnight before the Wigan match: Leeds away, Chelsea at home, Sunderland at home, and Brentford away. Sunderland at the Emirates was clearly the best chance to experiment. Again, we were facing an organized team full of relegation battle players. From what we’ve seen and heard in the gaffer’s pressers, we’ve got two options in the middle: MLS and Norgaard. While I do get not wanting to throw a youngster in for his first league start, Norgaard hasn’t let us down once this season and would’ve been a very sensible shout.
Arteta might not be Norgaard’s biggest fan—every manager has players they just don’t fancy—but we’ve reached a point where it’s not about personal preference. It’s about the fitness of the squad and ensuring our best players are available for the run-in with three months still to go. Look at Havertz last season: he was struggling on the pitch just two weeks before that injury in Dubai that sidelined him for a year. Even if the injury happened in training, it’s that accumulated fatigue that does the damage.
Grinding Rice and Zubimendi into the dirt does the club no favours. We’re so reliant on them that I dread to think how we’d cope if one of them copped a long-term injury. By starting them in every league game, plus the Champions League and Carabao Cup, Arteta is simply playing with fire. And frankly, my nerves can’t take to see how this battle will play out.
Back to the game
We kicked things off in typical fashion against a low block—poking and probing, trying to find a way through. Ironically, the first real “probe” very nearly ended up in our own net. David Raya went for a bit of a wander in his box and practically beaned the ball off the striker’s head. Brobbey was lurking to tuck it away, and he would have too, if not for Kai Havertz reading the play to perfection. To my mind, Raya was at fault; he wasn’t fouled in the clash. That said, Gabriel was clearly hauled down by Brobbey, so VAR likely would’ve chalked it off anyway.
Our first proper opening came when Declan Rice unleashed an absolute thunderbolt from range that whistled just past the post. Leandro Trossard tried to get in on the act with a couple of snapshots following Rice’s corners, but he only succeeded in rattling a few pairs of shins. Then, it was time for the Spanish magician to take centre stage.
Zubimendi curled the ball with the kind of laser-like precision you only see from a master of his craft, leaving the keeper clutching at thin air. It’s becoming a bit of a theme this season—teams just aren’t tracking his late runs into the box, and he’s punishing them. But it wasn’t just the goal; his celebration, dedicated to the injured Mikel Merino, is exactly what Arsenal football club is all about.
Zubimendi is currently enjoying the most prolific season of his career, and we’re only in early February. Of his five goals, he opened the scoring against Forest and today, bagged the winner against Villa, and notched that crucial lead-extender in the semi-final at Stamford Bridge. Quite remarkable, really.
It’s no wonder Zubimendi and Rice were the most dangerous players for Sunderland on the pitch in the first half. And it’s yet another reason why they have to be handled with care for the rest of the season.
Noni Madueke, who was supposed to be our main threat down the right, was a bit “meh” today. He looked like a lad who hadn’t quite switched on, perhaps thinking 60% effort would do the job. It’s a common frustration with players who lack an end product—that flaky concentration usually suggests a lack of that killer instinct required at the top level.
Shortly after the interval, Madueke was hauled off for Martinelli, while Gabriel Jesus made way for Viktor Gyökeres. Despite the movement around him, Jesus struggled to make an impact, often found clashing for the same pockets of space with Madueke, Havertz or Trossard. Everywhere, but a vacant number nine area. Jesus is a “free artist,” and I do often wonder how he managed to play a major role in Arteta’s rigid, disciplined structure.
It didn’t take long for Gyökeres to make his mark. Havertz picked him out with a lovely ball, and Viktor made no mistake to double our lead. That partnership is really starting to blossom, and you can see Gyökeres’ confidence soaring as the goals fly in. Madueke mentioned that he’s the one constantly counting his goals in training—he lives for them, so it’s no wonder he looked a shadow of himself when the goals dried up at the end of 2025.
The goal was a masterclass in movement from Havertz, though. We look a much more balanced outfit with him in the side. He might not be the everlasting solution to our creative prayers, but he offers a completely different dimension. The league has figured out what Martin Ødegaard does in the number 10 role and how to block him, but they haven’t a clue how to handle Kai playing as a second striker.
His game is all about hunting for spaces in the opponent’s ranks. He hunts for those gaps between the lines, exploits defenders who lose their shape, and knows when to overload a flank and help build the attack. Just look at his touch map:
He only had 25 touches—a far cry from Rice (77), Trossard (69), or Zubi (62). But those touches were meaningful, occurring exactly where we needed a presence (including that goal-line intervention on the far left). The assist for Gyökeres was the perfect example of that successful hunt
Once the second went in, Riccardo Calafiori—who had a bit of a shaky afternoon and was lucky not to see red—was replaced by Hincapie, while Eze came on for Havertz. Rice and Zubimendi stayed on. With a two-goal cushion, we expected Sunderland to commit more men forward, leaving them ripe for the counter.
Gabi Martinelli is another space-hunter, although from a different angle. He looks for those acres of grass where he can really open up the nitrogen throttle. When he smells such an opportunity, he becomes a bulldozer, removing any obstacle in his way to the goal. In the 96th minute, Gabi did exactly that, powering into the box and unselfishly teeing up Gyökeres for a tap-in. For a player who hasn’t been covered in Premier League goals much lately, that lack of selfishness says everything about his character. We are so lucky to have this character in Arsenal—passionate, unselfish, hard-working, and always leaves everything on the pitch.
I am so happy to see us back claiming confident victories. Back in December we used to roll back onto our pitch and protect our narrow lead, ignoring the counterattacking part of the game. Meanwhile City was tacking up the goal difference. Now for two games in a row we threatened until the end and put ourselves back into the driving seat when it comes to the goal difference.
Rice and Zubimendi put in another full shift, and I wouldn’t be shocked to see them do it all again on a wet Thursday night. Brentford rotated a bit in the first meeting, since it was also a midweek battle. However, I expect a much stiffer test away in front of their crowd.
They’re coming into this on the back of impressive away wins at Villa and Newcastle, so it’s going to be a scrap. They’ve got Thiago up top, but I’m not losing sleep over him—he’s exactly the kind of physical striker Gabriel and Saliba love to get stuck into. It’s the pace on the break that worries me—Dango, Damsgaard, and Lewis-Potter. We’ve had a bit of luck with Schade still serving his ban after that moment of madness, mind.
We’ll likely need Rice’s galloping runs again. I’m also hoping Christian Nørgaard gets a run-out against his old club. And, of course, we’ll be looking for that deadly duo of Gyökeres and Havertz to hunt for the vulnerable spaces!
I worry too about those players however I have read before that at least with Zubimendi they are really monitoring his fatigue levels, to the point where they have left him out of multiple training sessions (the already few they have due to multiple games a week). On top of that, fine margins as they say meaning you have to balance being 9 points clear or 6 if man city win with resting player and potentially losing, Norgaard is a quality player but he is no zubi. No doubt they are looking to bolster the midfield come the summer.