Arsenal returned to the top of the Premier League, if only briefly, after a 3-0 victory over Nottingham Forest at the Emirates Stadium. The scoreline was emphatic, but the broader talking point was the balance and options available to Mikel Arteta.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou saw the strength and depth, the substitutes they brought on, whether it’s Myles Lewis-Skelly, Nwaneri, Rice, Martinelli, Trossard. They are now a proper squad and they will be a real threat,\u201d former Rangers and Scotland striker Ally McCoist mused after the full-time whistle at the Emirates Stadium.<\/p>\n
The bench supplied genuine quality. Declan Rice was given a breather following international duty, while familiar faces such as Martinelli and Trossard provided experienced cover. Eberechi Eze, whose \u00a360 million transfer from Crystal Palace was one of the main talking points as the summer window drew to a close, started for the first time in red and white and caught the eye.<\/p>\n
\u201cEze is starting to purr, you’re seeing the touches, you’re seeing the flicks,\u201d Arsenal legend Martin Keown told TNT Sports post-match. \u201cAnd above all else, you’re seeing a winning performance from Arsenal and I think that’s a huge message that Arsenal are better equipped this time around.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a real scary show of strength from Arsenal today with the quality of player. You’ve been without [Kai] Havertz and [Bukayo] Saka unavailable and that was a problem for Arsenal last season, but not this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Viktor Gy\u00f6keres, another big summer signing for Arsenal, singled out Eze and a fellow new arrival. \u201cThose two are amazing in their positions, they always do something special. We definitely saw that today,\u201d the Swede remarked in his post-match interview.<\/p>\n
Arsenal were missing several regulars. William Saliba watched from the sideline as he recovers from an ankle injury, and captain Martin \u00d8degaard lasted just 18 minutes before a flare up of a past shoulder complaint forced him off. His replacement was Nwaneri, the teenager who impressed again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve signed some great players. Eze and Madueke at times were unplayable,\u201d Peter Crouch enthused. \u201cI thought the luxury to rest Rice, Merino and Zubimendi were so comfortable in there, such technical footballers. They gave a good account of themselves. A great day for Arsenal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The win offered a clear signal of squad strength, and it leaves the question of whether that depth will sustain Arsenal across a long season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal’s 3-0 win underlined squad depth; Eze impressed on his first start after a \u00a360m move. Match.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2747,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,969],"tags":[253,414,677],"class_list":["post-2748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-premier-league","tag-declan-rice","tag-eberechi-eze","tag-ethan-nwaneri"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}