Arsenal show their brilliant squad depth in Port Vale win

The Gunners made easy work of their Carabao Cup fixture, but one thing stood out.

Arsenal cruised into the next round of the Carabao Cup thanks to a comfortable 2-0 win over Port Vale as an early Eberechi Eze goal inside 10 minutes sent the Gunners on their way before Leandro Trossard made sure of the result with a well-taken goal with just four minutes left in normal time.

We posed the question of Mikel Arteta and whether he would rotate his squad for the clash, and he did, making a whopping nine changes to the side that drew 1-1 with Manchester City in the Premier League, and yet the Gunners still clicked through the gears.

Arsenal will face Brighton in the next round in an all-Premier League fixture as the Gunners will likely face a stiffer test than what Port Vale managed.

1 key takeaway from Arsenal's 2-0 win over Port Vale

When there is a game such as Port Vale for Arsenal, and the manager rings the changes, it is common place to see a host of younger players come into the side.

But for the Gunners, the strength in depth was an eye-opener, and that is with a host of injuries with Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz just to name a few all out.

With Ben White, William Saliba, Mikel Merino, Eze, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri, Christian Norgaard, and Gabriel Martinelli all coming into the starting side, that is the clear depth we are talking about.

Oh, and Max Dowman, Declan Rice, Martin Zubimendi, Jurrien Timber, Viktor Gyokeres, Gabriel and Trossard were on the bench. Holy squad depth Batman.

Depth has long been an issue for the Gunners, dating back to the closing years of Arsene Wenger's reign, but under Arteta, there has been a clear intention to raise the floor of the squad.

And a handful of quality international players to "rotate" for a third round Carabao Cup tie?

Yeah, that's the definition of strength in depth.