3 Positives & 2 negatives from Arsenal's 3-0 win vs Coventry City

Arsenal will endure tougher nights in defence of the Premier League title the club won during the 2025/6 season, but a comfortable 3-0 win over newly-promoted Coventry City still gave Mikel Arteta plenty to ponder at the start of a new campaign.

Goals from manager's favourite Kai Havertz, star player Bukayo Saka and precocious-again playmaker Martin Odegaard will please Arteta. The manager will also be heartened by the continued growth of a young talent who's going to create some selection headaches in a key area of the pitch.

Arteta is less likely to be convinced by how his talisman at the back fared without the injured William Saliba. Nor is the gaffer going to be able to avoid further questions about the future of the expensive import who was supposed to render Havertz moot, but instead continues to be left on the fringes of the team.

Positives & negatives from Arsenal's comfortable 3-0 win vs. Coventry City

Positive #1: Saka up and running

Saka's 23rd-minute goal wasn't exactly the exclamation point to a supremely stylish performance, but it was still a vital marker for one of the Gunners' most important players. His fitness and form were both erratic last season, but Saka remains the magic man in Arteta's setup, the lone attacker opposing teams truly fear.

A lot of that fear has been prompted by Saka's quality in front of goal. He was unerring when the ball fortuitously rolled his way against the Sky Blues, but Arsenal's No. 7 earned the luck thanks to his astute anticipation and rapid reactions.

The goals is part of a process for Saka. He's still trying to return to the peak of his physical powers, a trying journey summed up by some less than inspiring performances for England at this summer's World Cup.

Saka will get the magic back, but first he needs confidence. The kind of swagger likely to grow from this goal.

Negative #1: Gabriel's rough post-William Saliba test

Gariel Magalhães knows his job is going to be harder without injured central defensive partner Saliba, but he probably didn't think things would be as tough as Coventry made them. The visitors went long early and often, trying to isolate centre-backs against towering striker Ellis Simms.

Although he survived most of their tussles, Gabriel took a knock when Sims stamped on his foot. Arsenal's most vocal on-pitch leader also received a yellow card for hauling Coventry's No. 9 to the ground across the last blade of grass before the box.

A booking and cuts and scrapes sure to last a while marked a rough night's work for Gabriel. Unfortunately, he can expect more of the same from other teams likely to also use a direct game to target a back four certain to miss Saliba's height, muscle and recovery pace.

It's why new signing Ezri Konsa should be fast-tracked into the starting XI.

Positive #2: Another goal for Kai Havertz

Havertz is never going to convince everybody he can be the No. 9 to help Arsenal dominate both domestically and on the continent, but Arteta has the vote that counts. The gaffer's trust in Havertz is unwavering after the German's started back-to-back matches and rewarded the faith with goals in each game.

His opener against Coventry owed a lot to yet more smart work from raiding left-back Riccardo Calafiori, but Havertz also merits praise for his movement and timing at the business end of the pitch.

Havertz has always looked more comfortable operating as a striker than in the midfield role Arteta originally signed him to play. Yet, the debate about whether Havertz or more natural centre-forward Viktor Gyökeres should lead the line will only continue to rage.

Negative #2: Viktor Gyökeres still out in the cold

Not getting off the bench against his old club, in a game Arsenal had in the bag from the 49th minute, was the worst kind of start to a pivotal second season in north London for Gyökeres. He still faces an uphill battle proving his doubters wrong, despite how valuable the Sweden international's tireless grafting, clever running and growing confidence as a finisher proved during last season's run-in to the title.

Gyökeres can silence the critics online with a few goals, but winning over Arteta is his toughest challenge. The man in charge only seems to turn to Gyökeres when circumstances dictate, like when Havertz is injured.

Havertz's new lease of life at the start of this season is why Gyökeres was left out in the cold for a home fixture seemingly perfect for his best flat-track bully routine. Arteta already viewed Havertz as the man for the big occasion, but now he's making the former Chelsea man his default option.

It leaves Arsenal to either turn Gyökeres into an uber-expensive substitute, or attempt to recoup some of the €63 million spent on a player who can't get off the bench. Rather you than me, Andrea Berta.

Positive #3: Myles Lewis-Skelly continues to grow in stature

There's never a bad time to remind the hordes of ungrateful Arsenal fans who turned slating Arsene Wenger into a cottage industry about the legendary boss' wisdom. Even if it means quoting one of his most parodied lines: "like a new signing."

That's just what Myles Lewis-Skelly is proving to be now he's getting a long run at his natural position. Arteta's early experiments deploying the Hale End graduate as a left-back were just a means to get a precocious youth onto the pitch, but Lewis-Skelly always looked like he'd grow in stature in the middle of the park.

He's proving that theory right, and in the process, restoring a staple of the peak-Wenger era. His ultimate team, the 2003/04 title winners, were powered by a deep and formidable engine room home to Patrick Vieira, Gilberto Silva, Edu and Ray Parlour.

Any two members of this quartet could and did partner up to give the Gunners the power they needed to go anywhere in the land and still earn a result. Lewis-Skelly is offering present day Arsenal a similar luxury, whether he's playing alongside Declan Rice or new arrival Bruno Guimarães and not to be forgotten holdover Martin Zubimendi.

Choosing the optimal partnerships from this group is the ultimate nice problem to have for the defending champions, who already look equipped to maintain their grip on the title.

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