Arteta decided to switch things up in his starting 11 as the Gunners took on the Saints on Saturday afternoon at the Emirates Stadium.
The notable changes were Jorginho starting at midfield (Thomas Partey played right back), Gabriel Jesus leading the attack, and Raheem Sterling starting on the left wing. The trio has been warming up the bench, hoping to put on a show of their own and possibly secure a spot in Arteta’s starting 11, but unfortunately, neither Jesus nor Sterling made a significant impression.
The duo didn’t show any desire to force themselves into the Arsenal starting 11. That said, Gabriel Martinelli, who was also where they were just a month or so ago, but now he seems to be on a resurgence; he’s back assisting and scoring while threatening defenders with his pace. However, prior to his resurgence, he was a source of frustration. Maybe both Sterling and Jesus need a conversation with him about coming back up to the standard because both are miles and miles away.
With those two in the first half, the Arsenal attack looked toothless. But when Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard replaced them, they breathed fresh air into the Gunners’ attack, changing the entire game.
There was a time when Jesus wasn’t scoring, but he played incredibly well and brought others into the game. These days, he doesn’t even make his teammates look better, pulling the strings in attack. He is rash, and his decision-making is poor.
As for Sterling, one might argue he’s rusty, but for all the experience he had and the fact he had a good preseason, he ought to have done better. That said, I doubt Arteta will ever start Sterling and Jesus together again, they’re the same profile and can’t really complement each other.
Daniel O
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Why is there a picture of Nketiah with Martinelli in the photo which the headline appears to allude to?
Ooops, I’ll check that, GB
😊👍
This is the Martinelli that we know.
I haven’t been able to watch games,live on TV and won’t be able to until I return to Australia in time for the Boxing Day fixture, but my second hand hypothesis based on what has been written and spoken about the Southampton game is that we are expecting too much from this group of aging players, re. Partey, Jorghino, Jesus et al., Whatever, we are stuck with them this season, so let’s hope for more decent games from them than shockers. Without Odegaard the best alternative might be to put the kid Nawari ( sorry if I’m still learning to spell his name), in Odegaard’s position and drop Rice back as a six to cover the defence. For the time being Califiori needs some protection to make up for his “wanderings”.so having Rice in front of Saliba and Gabriel might help. Outside of that the manager has to make the most of the cards he has and he still has a pretty good hand, including Harvetz who having left behind the negativity of the Chelsea rabble is thriving with the support given to him by the mob at the Emirates..
Is Jesus really part of the aging group though? He is 27! That should be prime age.I thought Partey played well even at right back and he’s been good for a while now after a shaky start to the season. Jorginho was okay.
They should both be given a chance to show what they can do, of course. There are differences between Sterling and Jesus though.
Sterling is still an unknown quantity (at Arsenal, anyway) so he could well improve with game time.
Unfortunately, Jesus is not. He had a pretty dire 2023-24 overall so while we all hope he gets better this season, evidence suggests that may (well) not be the case.
However, whether or not either/both can/do improve there are few alternatives available, particularly if some first-choice players are injured at some time, which is not that unlikely. We’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.
All it needed was for just one ball sneaked in and the floodgates would have been opened up, the Saints offered absolutely nothing before the big scare.
But this is one time I was not worried, having gone a goal behind I knew we would come back and win it, such is the mentality of this team
I think rotation was a good idea. It just didn’t work as desired. In hindsight,maybe just one of Jesus/Sterling should have started.Sterling,I feel,is still learning the Arsenal way. Jesus on the other hand,is where Martinelli was a few weeks ago. He needs something to go his way,like a goal,to get his confidence back.At the moment it feels like he’s overplaying and complicating things.
By the way,I think that in our current set up,Jesus would play better on the wings than centrally.
Was hoping to see jesus switching between CF and midfield with havertz and linking the play from the half spaces, the way trossard and havertz have played recently – I could really see him being effective at that way of playing. For whatever reason, there wasn’t the same cohesiveness – I don’t remember a single thing jesus did in the game tbh. Agree he needs a goal – maybe that will stop him overthinking/overplaying. Alternatively, he could think about changing his mindset and trying to see himself as a part of the unit, getting his head up more, rather than focusing too much on scoring himself. I really think that’s how havertz and odegaard operate, in particular, and sometimes goals just come.
Hearing the team news, I feared that this could be slippery game especially against a team that have been a bit of a bogey side in recent years – even when they got relegated we took only 2 points off them.
There were too many break-ups of established partnerships, some avoidable. some by design, and it took a while to get things on track.
But they did and that’s another 3 points in the bag