He was anonymous: Arteta could now be forced to drop 5/10 Arsenal star

Last week Mikel Arteta would have been waking up with cold sweats, that’s if he was even able to sleep.

The Arsenal manager was given a number of dilemmas after his squad were seemingly dropping like flies in the build-up to a pivotal north London derby.

They knew about Declan Rice for two weeks after his red card against Brighton but there were late blows to the likes of Riccardo Calafiori and Martin Odegaard who were both injured on international duty with Italy and Norway respectively.

They were also missing new signing Mikel Merino with a shoulder problem and Oleksandr Zinchenko sat out with his own fitness issues.

That meant that Arsenal’s bench was extremely thin on the ground for their trip across north London with five of the players named among the substitutes being Hale Enders.

Ethan Nwaneri was the most notable and was joined by Maldini Kacurri and Ismeal Kabia who enjoyed their first senior call-ups. Ayden Heaven and Myles Lewis-Skelly who were both seen in pre-season were on the bench too.

So, although it was only Nwaneri who was seen on the field, this was a remarkably impressive win for the Gunners who ran away back to the Emirates with a 1-0 win courtesy of Gabriel’s bullet header in the second half.

Arsenal’s best players against Spurs

Well, deservedly so, Gabriel took the Player of the Match award home for a brilliant dominant performance in both penalty boxes.

He shrugged off Cristian Romero with absolute ease for his goal before leaping high and heading past a helpless Guglielmo Vicario in the Tottenham net.

The goal-scoring defender was also a monster at the back, making a whopping eight clearances, blocking two shots and winning two of his three ground duels.

It was a complete performance but compliments must also be handed to goalkeeper David Raya who is proving to be quite the signing, just over one year on from his initial loan move from Brentford.

Raya won 100% of his duels in the match – he hasn’t actually lost a duel yet this season – and made four saves inside the penalty box. Spurs couldn’t get past him, nor can many teams. The Spanish gloveman already has three clean sheets to show for his efforts in four matches.

However, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows from an Arsenal perspective

Arsenal’s biggest underperformer against Spurs

Speaking at full-time, Arteta obviously sported a beaming smile but was he 100% happy with the performance of his side? No.

Talking to Sky Sports, he noted: “We had some great moments in open spaces where we should have done a lot more than we actually did.

“We weren’t the best with the ball today and we did a lot of simple things wrong. The sequence of passes you can do against them are very few because they jump and press every ball, they make it very difficult.”

Those difficult moments that the Spaniard talks about were perhaps as a result of not having Odegaard in the team.

The Norwegian has been the man who makes things tick in this Arsenal team for so long and when the club can’t play him, they do lack genuine creativity from a central area.

So, how did Arteta try to fix that on Sunday afternoon? He gave Leandro Trossard the playmaking keys.

Did he make up for Odegaard’s absence? In truth, the Belgian struggled in an unfamiliar role. Handed a 5/10 match rating by GOAL’s Charles Watts, the Arsenal reporter noted that Trossard ‘couldn’t really get into the game and took some risks when in possession.’

Indeed, there was one particular moment in the first half where he surrendered the ball far too easily in the middle of the park when the Gunners were in a promising position in Spurs’ half. He should have done much better to continue the attack.

That was one of nine times the former Brighton star gave away the ball during an indifferent performance where he left the pitch having had fewer touches than Raya’s 48.

Arsenal face Atalanta in the Champions League on Thursday and with Odegaard still a bit of a doubt, Arteta may have to stick with Trossard in an unfamiliar role.

That said, he does have other options. Kai Havertz could be moved back into more of a number 10 role while Nwaneri – who looked so composed when he came on in the derby – may well be handed his first senior start. The latter, in particular, is something the Arsenal boss must explore, with Trossard moving back to the bench.