Arsenal: Mikel Arteta not the only one pleasantly surprised

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said that he was “pleasantly surprised” by the performance against Bournemouth. He’s not the only one.

Arsenal didn’t exactly wow the world with their first ever performance under MIkel Arteta, and if you buy into the headlines (you never should), you’d think that they fell flat on their faces all over again. But they didn’t. And it was Arteta who came out after the match and said that he was pleasantly surprised by the team’s attitude on the day.

Again, the scoreline may leave wondering why he was impressed. It was only a 1-1 draw at Vitality Stadium. But if you actually watched the match, you would have seen what was a positive performance.

Not positive from the usual guys, either. Lucas Torreira was energetic, so was Bukayo Saka and Ainsley Maitland-Niles and David Luiz. All to be expected.

But you may have also noticed that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was tracking back on defense like never before. Maybe it was because he was playing winger, but I saw so much of him sliding in to make tackles and getting involved throughout the pitch.

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Mesut Ozil was more of the same. He was lively and positive for most of the match, with dips of physical weakness, but again, overall, positive.

Even Alexandre Lacazette, who had a generally awful day with his finishing and poor touches in the box, was seen tracking back to defend, getting involved deeper in the pitch.

And from the moment Nicolas Pepe stepped onto the pitch, he was a beacon of good energy and positivity.

Granit Xhaka was also more mobile than I had ever seen before. He showed athleticism, he charged this attack quite well from deep. Just a great showing from another guy who has plenty of cause to be a bit… lax.

On the day, not a single person looked bogged down or uninterested. Like I said, Ozil had moments of struggling with a poor attitude, and so did Aubameyang and Lacazette, but overall, these guys played their hearts out. They left nothing on the pitch. It was a bummer not to see it pay bigger dividends since we definitely deserved better on the day. These guys deserved more for their efforts. But hey, hard luck is a real thing.

I think it’s safe to say that a lot of fans, the gross majority, were pleasantly surprised by the team on the day, just like Mikel Arteta.