Manchester City’s long unbeaten start to the season finally came to an end on Saturday, beaten at Aston Villa for the first time this term. Arsenal had the chance to make that defeat count, and they did not waste it. A 2-0 win over Everton at the Emirates lifted Mikel Arteta’s side level with City on points at the summit, separated only by goal difference. For a club that has spent much of the autumn being asked whether they could really go the distance again after last season’s agonising near miss, it was exactly the response the moment demanded.
It came at a cost, though, and not a small one. Bukayo Saka was forced off after barely ten min
utes of Wednesday’s Champions League draw with Bayern Munich, clutching the top of his leg, and the news that followed was grim. Arteta confirmed it as a quad injury, with another scan needed because there was too much fluid around the area to judge its severity straight away. The early word is that Saka could be out for as long as eight weeks, which would mean missing roughly a dozen matches before he is back in contention, right through to Christmas.
A response worthy of a title challenge
Arteta made five changes from the draw in Munich, handing first league starts of the season to Viktor Gyokeres and Mikel Merino, and Arsenal needed only seven minutes to make the selection pay off. Martin Odegaard’s corner was flicked on, and Ezri Konsa reacted quickest at the back post to turn it in for his first goal since arriving at the club. It was a timely intervention from a defender who has had to wait patiently for his chance.
Everton gave as good as they got for long spells in heavy rain at the Emirates, and Thierno Barry should have levelled before half time when a weak headed pass back from Ben White fell invitingly into his path, only for the chance to go begging. David Moyes’s side continued to press for an equaliser after the break, with Tyrique George, James Garner and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall all threatening, and Dewsbury-Hall in particular will wonder how his header late on drifted narrowly wide.
Arsenal made the game safe just after the hour. White’s overlapping run down the right created the space for a cross to the back post, and although Kai Havertz failed to get a touch, Gabriel arrived to power the ball home for his side’s second. It was the centre back’s goal in his 200th Premier League appearance, a tidy piece of symmetry on an afternoon when Arsenal’s back line did most of the damage at the other end of the pitch.
The cost of victory
Arteta was booked during the match for leaving his technical area, his second caution of the season in the dugout, leaving him one yellow card away from a touchline ban. He was in no mood to apologise for it afterwards, insisting other managers are regularly guilty of the same thing without being punished. It was a minor flashpoint compared with the news dominating his post match remarks.
Saka’s absence leaves Arteta with a genuine problem on the right side of his attack. Christos Tzolis is already out with a hamstring injury, and Riccardo Calafiori was carrying a knock that puts his involvement in the midweek Carabao Cup tie with Fleetwood Town in doubt. William Saliba remains on the way back from a back problem of his own, though Piero Hincapie’s return to the matchday squad against Everton was at least one piece of good news on an otherwise worrying injury front.
Arteta did not hide his frustration with the volume of fixtures his squad has been asked to absorb. He pointed to a punishing sequence: an away trip to Nottingham Forest on a Sunday, a midweek flight to Munich for the visit to Bayern, and then turning around for a Saturday afternoon kick off against Everton, all inside the space of little more than a week. Whatever sympathy that schedule earns him, it will not bring Saka back any sooner, and Arteta’s own assessment of his forward’s condition on Friday was not encouraging. He said Saka was struggling to walk without pain and had been visibly restricted in his movement, and warned that the club needed further scans and specialist opinions before committing to a firm return date.
What it means for the title race
The timing could hardly be sharper. Arsenal’s fixture list between now and the end of November includes a trip to Liverpool, a Champions League visit to Slavia Prague, and, most pointedly of all, a home meeting with Manchester City on 29 November, the kind of match that could end up deciding where the title goes. If the gloomier end of the recovery estimates proves accurate, Saka would still be absent for that one.
What Arsenal have shown this season, and showed again against Everton, is that they are no longer a side who collapse the moment one key player is missing. Two centre backs did the scoring, Gyokeres and Merino were recalled to the starting eleven and did their job, and Arteta still had options to bring on when the game needed closing out. That kind of squad depth said plenty about where this Arsenal side is compared with previous seasons. Being level with Manchester City at the top after City’s first league defeat of the season is a significant marker in itself, regardless of who is or is not available.
Whether that depth is enough to carry Arsenal through two months without one of their most important attacking players is the question the next stretch of fixtures will answer. City will have taken note of Saturday’s injury news as closely as anyone. A title race that already looked set to run deep into spring has just acquired another storyline worth following, and it is one that will not resolve itself quickly.
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