Arsenal v Conventry: a delightful start of the season

Well, here we go. Welcome to that wonderful time of year when “11 people who have absolutely no idea I exist will determine my psychological state for the next nine months.”

Hopefully, among those 11, Ødegaard, Saka and Havertz will be around a lot more often than they were last season, when injuries meant the three of them managed just 123 minutes on the pitch together.

There was plenty of action down the right from that trio, with White joining in, but both of the first two goals came from the left, where Tzolis is already looking very effective.

The Greek was just as impressive defensively as he was going forward. Perhaps the biggest compliment to his performance came towards the end of the first half, when Coventry started doubling up on him instead of sending just one player to deal with him.

Despite the fresh blood on the left, I’m still not entirely sure who, apart from Tzolis, is going to be competing for a starting spot there. Martinelli has now been left out of the squad for the second game in a row, while there don’t seem to be any realistic transfer targets on the horizon. In fact, I’m starting to think we’re done with transfers altogether.

Eze on the left doesn’t really convince me, to be honest, while Madueke - and I’d probably be a little annoyed if I were Martinelli, by the way - and Dowman have both been playing on the right.

Obviously, it’s a long season and everyone will get their chance. But if we’re going to score more goals this season(than last season), our only real weapon for now seems to be hoping that our attacking players can stay in better, more consistent form than they did last year.