Arsenal summer signings steal the show vs Southampton

Arsenal had to get back to winning ways against Southampton on Saturday. While nobody was overly keen to admit it, they had to do so in a convincing manner too.

Continuing on this trajectory of losing to the sides around them competing for European football, when the so-called lesser teams head to the Emirates it’s essential that three points are picked up to keep them in the mix.

Barring a forgettable opening 20 minutes, the kind that will need extensive internal analysis to dissect and amend moving forward, it was a performance where the show was stolen by the summer recruits.

With the returns of Granit Xhaka and Kieran Tierney to the starting lineups it appears as if more fleeting roles for Sambi Lokonga and Nuno Tavares will play out, although form and rotation will see them get the minutes.

Arsenal summer signings Odegaard, Tomiyasu and Ramsdale steal the show in thumping 3-0 Premier League win over Southampton

However, three of the other recent additions continue to hold down their positions and are doing so with aplomb: Aaron Ramsdale, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Martin Odegaard were all excellent against the Saints.

It is far from hyperbolic to put Ramsdale in the highest goalkeeping echelon around in this kind of form. Trawl Europe and there are better all round goalkeepers, but are there many more in better form? Even in the Premier League he’s flying that flag.

Otherworldly distribution, immense composure under pressure and saves made to look comfortable are part and parcel of a 90-minute performance from him.

Just to his right is Takehiro Tomiyasu, who is earning himself the title of ‘Mr. Reliable’. Watching him defend 2v1 situations and come out on top, the recruitment team deserve a large round of applause for such an astute signing. He eats duels for breakfast.

But on the day the man who gets the headlines is Martin Odegaard, who it continues to be overlooked is just 22 years old.

With three goals in his last three Premier League outings, he’s combining all the playmaking elements this side have needed with an extra serving of goal threat. Dropping deep to facilitate play when the midfielders were found missing, he glued the collective performance together with vision, invention and bravery.

Sometimes he might be too ambitious on the ball over playing the higher percentage pass, but that’s what Arsenal want to see from their key creator. His intention is always to be vertical. Confidence is soaring through his veins at the minute and given license to play more advanced consistently is bearing delicious ripened fruit.

Netting at his current rate is unsustainable. It can’t go on forever. But a lot of players don’t tend to discover their goalscoring attributes until later into their 20’s, and with the variety of goals he’s scoring there plenty of reason to foresee this becoming less of a rarity than initially assumed.

West Ham follows and all of the positive notes from the Saints win might evaporate before we’ve even had time to fully enjoy the aspects of this one. But with talent like these three continuing to impress, it bodes well for a future with more of the good and less of the bad.

All of this without mentioning Gabriel Martinelli or Bukayo Saka. The kids are alright, aren’t they?