ARTETA ROTATION STRATEGY WORKED

JUDGING THE PERFORMANCE THROUGH THE LENS OF THE LONG GAME

Penning this the morning after to see if I’d feel the same after working a night shift at the other gig… I do. Grubby win, but great given the context.

I could weigh in that the team felt unbalanced, too defensive, and oddly mismatched for a deep block… but that’d be wrong.

My narrative has been that Mikel Arteta is allergic to rotation. That leads to deep fatigue later in the season, eventually costing us major trophies. That means I have to back rotation moves when they’re needed – especially when the result is a win.

Yes, the performance struggled at times. Yes, I might have preferred a more aggressive starting XI. But… a deep bench was there so we could lean into it if needed – and we needed it.

Arsenal plays a very specific style of football that requires a lot of moving parts acting as one. That means significant changes to the starting XI will come with slower football that is less incisive.

Partey had to play at right-back because we’d run out of them (mad considering the options). Arteta must have felt it was too early for Merino, as he opted for Rice and Jorginho. He also seemed keen to start Sterling and Jesus, presumably to rest legs and give confidence to two players who have yet to find their rhythm this season.

It didn’t really work. We dominated the opening 15 minutes, but it took Arsenal until the 42nd minute to hit the target. We pestered Southampton, caused Ramsdale to flap a lot from balls into the box, but there were no real attacks on the goal of someone who was clearly a touch overawed by the early return to a club that had rejected him (he cried because of the reception, apparently).

Sterling is still trying to come to terms with playing for a team that doesn’t get easy fouls. He dropped twice in the first half to no whistle, and when he did it in the second half, it caused a sharp counter-attack from Southampton. Cameron Archer made space for himself on the edge of our box, then glided a well-placed shot past Raya.

It was what they call in the industry ‘OMDssssssss what are we gonna do?’

Thankfully, it didn’t take long to get a response. Three minutes to be precise. Saka broke up Southampton’s build-up play in their half, found Kai with a quick release, then the German shook off a challenge, cut inside to his left, and unleashed a Robin Van Persie-esque strike in off the post – my word. We haven’t seen too many of those from him, have we? Six goals in ten, is it? Yes, it is.

Arteta had seen enough of Jesus and Sterling, and brought on Martinelli and Trossard.

The move was rewarded by the footballing gods.

Bukayo Saka dropped a guided javelin to the back post. Martinelli followed it and stroked it into the back of the net.

Did you know in America you can’t ask to stroke someone’s dog? I found that out in a very important meeting about pets. You have to say ‘can I pet your dog’… honestly, what is wrong with this country?

Back to it…

Southampton were still getting at us. They didn’t give up. They had some flashes of brilliance. The kid Dibling was causing problems with his link-up play. There was one particularly hairy moment when he played his full-back in; the cross was fizzed in unchallenged, but no one was on the end of it.

We killed it on 88 minutes. Trossard had a powerful run through the middle, stopped by a block, but the ball fell nicely for Saka, who slid a perfect strike under Ramsdale.

Phew…

So let’s get a couple of the ‘not-so-good’ thoughts out:

Gabriel Jesus looks lost emotionally. He lacks identity, confidence, and purpose. At his core, he’s a street footballer. Everything comes naturally to him when he’s in a flow state, and he can be unplayable. We’re not seeing that right now. He takes too many touches, makes too many bad decisions, and he’s offering next to nothing in terms of production. 243 minutes, no goals, no assists, and he’s played against Bolton and Southampton. Not good.

Sterling, for me, has something brewing. He looks sharp, he’s working his arse off, he’s just a little rough around the edges right now. His pre-season was disrupted, and we have to accept that it’s hard to slip into a complex system at Arsenal. The level isn’t there yet, but ask yourself this: Is he better than Reiss? If the answer is yes, then he was the right move.

I know you don’t like it when I’m on the money – but you all saw Calafiori get outpaced by an 18-year-old, which led to a dangerous situation. This has happened a few times now. Calafiori has so many good things going for him: aggression, flair, the ability to show up anywhere… but the pace problem is going to catch us out unless he can work out a Ben White-like transformation. If the Basel coach said three years ago that he wasn’t fast enough to be a full-back in Switzerland, I struggle to see why he’d be that for Arsenal in the long term. But let’s see. It’s early on in his career, and maybe we just have to accept that all players have their good and bad traits.

Kai Havertz is just a monster striker. He has it all. The people who were crying that he was going to bring down Arsenal have had to deactivate their Twitter accounts and start a new life as observers. I don’t want to hear their spicy takes for the next five years. Kai is scoring goals, he’s adding bang-bang to his game, and he’s breaking records. What more could we want? Not a lot. Arteta said before the game that Kai was feeling the love at Arsenal, and it was translating into great performances. He also lavished praise on him afterward.

“When he’s practising, he wants more and he’s not satisfied with what he’s doing because there is still, I think, another level from him,” said the Spaniard.

“Obviously, he’s surrounded by incredible players, but something has changed in him and that confidence, you really sense it. Now he’s putting it into games and he’s winning football matches, which is great.”

The world is his lobster. We’re lucky to have him. Especially delicious that it’s at the expense of Chelsea.

Closing remarks go to Mikel Arteta. The performances against Leicester and Southampton haven’t been vintage. Doubts have rippled into the system. But we have six points and we’ve scored seven goals. Like, what more do we want? We can’t live in a make-believe world of dominating every minute of every game this season. We played PSG in the week, smacked them up, then buried Southampton. The win is what matters – the fact we delivered one with some strong rotation really should be celebrated. That Arteta managed the game well when things weren’t going our way speaks to his development as a coach. That everyone in the squad steps up when asked also tells you a lot about the culture being built.

Something feels different this season, and I’m here for it.

Ok, that’s me done. The On The Whistle is in the podcast section of the website if you want to join as a member. If not, I’ll see you tomorrow. xx

SOUTHAMPTON - ON THE WHISTLE