Arsenal have endured a miserable start to their 2021/22 Premier League campaign.
The Gunners were defeated 2-0 by newly-promoted Brentford on the opening day of the season before suffering the same scoreline on Sunday afternoon as they were outclassed by London rivals Chelsea, leaving them to languish in 19th place.
However, Mikel Arteta's side bounced back from their bitterly disappointing league form by dismantling Championship outfit West Brom in the second round of the EFL Cup.
The Spaniard fielded a strong starting XI that saw club captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and club-record signing Nicolas Pepe lead the line in attack as they ran away with the tie, defeating the Baggies 6-0 in what was a fairly straightforward fixture.
It was Aubameyang that grabbed most of the headlines, netting a hat-trick as Pepe, along with Alexandre Lacazette and Bukayo Saka, rounded off the scoring whilst Martin Odegaard also impressed on his second Arsenal debut.
The north London club also looked assured at the back, with English goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale making his first appearance for the Gunners after completing his £24million transfer from Sheffield United on Friday afternoon.
The 23-year-old commanded his box whilst also demonstrating his ability to pass under pressure, utilising his impressive distribution skills as Arteta heaped praise on his new 'keeper after the full-time whistle.
"Yes, really happy for him," he told the media in his post-match press conference when asked about Ramsdale's performance.
“He hasn’t trained a lot with us but you can see the quality that he has. He’s a really young goalkeeper.
“He’s done a lot already in the league, you can see the personality he has when he plays.”
Ramsdale will hope his fine performance could earn him a chance of playing ahead of current no.1 Bernd Leno this Saturday as Arsenal travel to reigning Premier League champions Manchester City.
The Gunners are in for a tough task, having failed to win at the Etihad since January 2015, when they defeated Manuel Pellegrini's side 2-0 thanks to goals from Santi Cazorla and Olivier Giroud.
