Arsenal: 4 major positives from 4-1 Leeds win

3. Emile Smith Rowe Refuses to Be Forgotten

Fielding Martinelli from the start again meant Smith Rowe had to miss out. It’s like a catch 22 situation: you can’t lose in selecting either, but you’re left with a strange sadness that the other isn’t playing.

Football matches are at least 90 minutes long, though, and the team that starts is not the team that finishes, so fortunately supporters still get the chance to see all of the glorious talent on show.

What Smith Rowe is doing is special, however. Since coming into the team nearly a year ago, he’s been practically an ever-present. This is the first time he’ll have a taste of being benched, even if it’s not a permanent matter and rotation is paying a part, so how he reacts to that is important.

Being young and humble he won’t be kicking up a fuss and will understand. That doesn’t mean he’ll like it.

There is, quite literally, nothing more he could be doing to remind the manager that he has an unbelievably tough decision on his mind. Coming off the bench to score twice in two games? Arteta will wake up in the middle of the night hearing his office door banging. To have this from his squad is something he could only dream of.

Heck, he might start feeling like Pep Guardiola being able to rotate attacking talent, albeit him having about eight players fewer than his former mentor.

What is most important is that unity and competition. Martinelli speaking after the match and lavishing Smith Rowe with praise as he did shows that what’s going on to earn a starting berth is all healthy competition, the like that Smith Rowe is fiercely competing for.

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