It’s been far from ideal for Arsenal to have had to wait until week nine before fielding their two short-contracted superstars, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, alongside their big summer signing, Alexandre Lacazette. The benefit of doing so was immediately clear, with each man scoring in a 5-2 demolition of a limp Everton side which marked an ideal response to last week's meek result away at Watford. This kind of inconsistency has plagued Arsenal’s early campaign and it’s hard to get a handle on quite how good this team actually is.
What is good, though? Alongside the Everton game, in five out of the other eight games played, Arsenal’s attack has turned up and created a good volume of chances - and in all but one turned those chances into goals. Against Everton they racked up a shade under 30 shots and scored five times, while Leicester and Stoke walked onto 25-plus shots too, allowing four and two goals respectively. Only the Stoke game saw Arsenal fail to convert a strong shot volume into a decent goal total.
The defensive side of the ball hasn’t been too bad either. The Liverpool game was full of sins: a trouncing in terms of scoreline and an inability to limit chances or create their own. But beyond that Arsenal have been fairly successful at heading off opposition shots on goal. While a 0-0 draw at Chelsea may look less impressive in light of the champions’ subsequent performances, it was another game which can’t really be criticised from a performance perspective; Arsene Wenger has long needed to find a way to stem the flow of poor results against rivals and in that match he did.
Outside of that game and the Liverpool fixture, the opposition has failed to trouble Petr Cech extensively, with the goalkeeper making no more than three saves per match. It could be argued that Arsenal’s season might look stellar rather than quietly competent if Cech had made a handful more saves at this point, but the broad process looks potentially stronger than this time last year.
So is there reason to be hopeful? On the one hand, yes. Jokes about Europa League participation ignore the great function the tournament is providing; match practice for squad men and rest for key players is an entirely new experience for this squad. Theo Walcott has just 47 minutes of league play, yet he and Olivier Giroud (eight substitute appearances in the Premier League) are ticking over nicely in non-prioritised European fixtures. The squad is fairly fresh right now.
That said, three of the next six league games are against Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham. By the end of that little run, we will have a very clear idea of whether 17 shot-per-game Arsenal have the guns to put in a solid bid above the top-four line, or whether they will be spending this season in much the same way as last: trying to surpass it.
By thumping Everton, Arsenal added a ton more pressure on Ronald Koeman. His tenure may well end this week, and it’s hard to put up much of a case for his salvation. The attack has been sterile and the defence leaky, and a whole summer of profligacy has seen its effect entrenched quickly. It could be said that their schedule has been tough with five games against members of the big six, but aside from their fortunate draw with Manchester City, they have been brushed aside so routinely as to stand out.
Everton came into this season as the most likely seventh-place finishers for a reason; a trip to Goodison has traditionally been a potential banana skin for the big teams, but it has become all too easy to get a result there. Seven of Everton’s last 10 games in all competitions have been at home, yet they have recorded just two victories. Those came against a struggling Sunderland side in the Carabao Cup and against 19th-placed Bournemouth, and are rare high points in an otherwise bleak season.
Further problems will likely face any new manager trying to work out how to fit the jigsaw pieces in this squad together. Everton have a fairly strong looking core of youngsters such as Ademola Lookman, Tom Davies and Dominic Calvert-Lewin all vying for first team places, alongside a mixed collection of overpriced journeymen and outright gambles in the transfer market.
There is talent in the squad and they should pull well clear of their current position soon enough, but the ambitiously envisaged transition into becoming top-four contenders looked wide of the mark in the summer, and nothing has occurred to prove it otherwise.
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