New year, new Arsenal.
They may have fallen to a 2-1 defeat to Manchester City, who look almost certain to win the Premier League this season, but the Gunners can be hugely proud of the performance they put in at Emirates Stadium.
The New Years Day fixture presented a mammoth task for Arsenal which was made even more difficult by the absence of Mikel Arteta, with the Spaniard watching on from his north London home after testing positive for Covid-19.
Arteta was still able to communicate with his coaching staff and it was Albert Stuivenberg who relayed instruction on to the rest of the team, with support from Carlos Cuesta and Miguel Molina - the Spaniards in constant contact with Arteta throughout the game.
Over the years Arsenal have shot themselves in the foot when coming up against big opponents but since the opening three games of the season, they have gradually seen their squad mould into the team that Arteta envisioned about.
‘Strong Young Gunners’ is what the club look for when signing youngsters to the academy but it quite clearly applies for the first team as well, who all possess the ‘champion mentality’ required to fire the Gunners back into a European qualification spot.
Granit Xhaka was speaking just days ago about referees penalising him due to his disciplinary history and it appeared to happen once again as Bernando Silva went down in the penalty area.
The yellow card for Gabriel looked harsh and critics will say it was a challenge that he didn’t need to make in the middle of the pitch. Regardless of those momentary lapses, it was Arsenal who dominated the first half and were highly unfortunate to not come away with a point.
However, the positives were plentiful. Thomas Partey played arguably his best game in an Arsenal shirt since joining from Atletico Madrid last summer, Bukayo Saka was excellent once again and Gabriel Martinelli offered his usual energy and enthusiasm up and down the touchline.
If the latter stages of 2021 were anything to go by, Arteta’s Arsenal could surprise a few people in 2022.
