Everything’s coming up Milhouse for Arsenal as the Gunners stole a march in the Premier League title race and qualified for the UEFA Champions League final in the space of 24 hours.
Here are the important pointers from Tuesday’s win over Atletico Madrid.
MATCH FACTS
- Result: Arsenal 1-0 Atletico Madrid
- Goal: Saka
- Assist: Trossard
- Line-up: Raya, Calafiori (Hincapié 58), Gabriel Magalhães, Saliba, White, Lewis-Skelly (Zubimendi 74), Rice, Trossard (Gabriel Martinelli 83), Eze (Ødegaard 59), Saka (Madueke 58), Gyökeres.
- Changes from Gameweek 35: 0
ARTETA ON NAMING AN UNCHANGED TEAM
Mikel Arteta liked what he saw in Gameweek 35 so much that he kept the same starting XI.
That included an ‘out of position’ Myles Lewis-Skelly (£5.0m) over Martin Zubimendi (£5.0m) in midfield. The returns of Martin Odegaard (£7.8m) and Kai Havertz (£7.3m) didn’t budge Eberechi Eze (£7.3m) and Viktor Gyokeres (£8.9m), at least not from the start, while Riccardo Calafiori (£5.6m) got the nod over Piero Hincapie (£5.1m) at left-back.
“If you see my iPad, the amount of line-ups I’ve done and changed and turned it again, and what about this and the possible subs and if they do that, we do this. In the end it was my gut feeling. I had such a good feeling from what I saw a few days ago against Fulham. To do that, it was painful because it was difficult to leave important players out because they all want to be involved and start this kind of game. You saw all the finishers, the manner that they got into the pitch and how much they helped the team.” – Mikel Arteta
With plenty of recovery time between now and Sunday’s trip to West Ham United, might Arteta go unchanged again in Gameweek 36?
MORE SAKA + EZE MINUTE MANAGEMENT – BUT ANOTHER SAKA GOAL
And the more generous recovery periods ahead raise hopes that Bukayo Saka (£9.8m) can start being handed more prolonged run-outs. Arteta again took him off early against Atleti, before we’d reached the hour mark. In Gameweek 35, the Arsenal boss hooked him at the interval.
Not that it’s hampered his ability to contribute so far. The match-winning strike on Tuesday, in which he pounced on Leandro Trossard‘s (£6.5m) saved shot to score, followed a goal and an assist against Fulham.
With Saka, at least, there’s a chasm in quality between him and his deputy, Noni Madueke (£6.8m). The ex-Chelsea winger was, not for the first time, poor when he came on.
Eze owners may be a little more jittery about his game-time. He came off with Saka and Calafiori in the sub-60-minute triple change; perhaps recent muscle issues are influencing his managed minutes.
But the former Palace man was quiet on Tuesday, a lone ‘6/10’ in a performance full of 7s, 8s and 9s.
With Odegaard back fit, and Trossard good on the left, it’s not absolutely certain Eze starts in Gameweek 36. Might Arteta opt for more control/assurance in possession by deploying Odegaard in central midfield, for instance?
GYOKERES “IMMENSE”, RICE DEEP AGAIN + DEFENCE HOLDS FIRM
Gyokeres has had a very good seven days, with two excellent shifts of hold-up play and channel running sandwiching his Gameweek 35 haul.
He could and should have scored here, blazing over the best of his three chances from a Hincapie cross, but he now has a firmer grip on the forward spot despite Havertz’s return.
Arteta called him “immense” after full-time.
There’s no question that Declan Rice (£7.2m) is going to start the final three Gameweeks; it’s just where. Again the deepest of the midfielders against Atleti, he was reduced to two shots from distance – just as he had been in Gameweek 35. He’s at least still on corner-taking duties (one of his two key passes on Tuesday came from a set piece), and it’s not like he was much of an open-play goal threat anyway.
At the back, a remarkable 30th clean sheet of the campaign for the Gunners. Impregnable for much of the game, they’ve also got defenders capable of the John Terry school of last-ditch defending – note Gabriel Magalhaes’ (£7.2m) terrific goal-saving tackle just after half-time – and one of Europe’s best goalkeepers between the sticks when the defence is bypassed.
Julian Alvarez and Giuliano Simeone had early sniffs of goal, while Antoine Griezmann forced David Raya (£6.1m) into a stop in the second half. Really, though, the La Liga side didn’t overly trouble the Arsenal backline:
