Arsenal eventually click into gear without Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, but not before flirting with disaster

LONDON — Were Arsenal in crisis? It certainly felt like they were teetering on the brink of it 45 minutes before kick off here. Their captain banished from the squad, two woeful road defeats in their rearview mirror and a plentiful supply of questions over whether their 10 game unbeaten run in the autumn had been nothing more than swatting aside the Premier League’s low hanging fruit.

Now? They are a point off fourth heading into Wednesday’s clash with the team that occupy the promised land, West Ham United. Had you offered Mikel Arteta that position at the start of the season, let alone after they’d lost their first three games of the season without scoring a goal, he would surely have taken it. At this stage in the past two seasons Arsenal were an afterthought in the top four conversation. They at least have a fighting chance now.

Yet, it is hard to imagine that they will still do if they play like they did in this 3-0 win over an injury-riddled Southampton. Certainly there were moments when everything clicked into gear — the 16 pass move that ended in Alexandre Lacazette thudding home the opening goal — but it took some time before they outnumbered the early moments at the Emirates Stadium which had fans suitably worried to watch them peering through fingers covering their eyes. 

Now that it’s over, this matched looked like a romp and by the end it felt like one. Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka were cannoning the ball off posts, getting into the penalty area at will and serving up the sort of assertive performance from a team in the lead that Arsenal showed no indication of delivering when they were in the ascendancy against Everton and Manchester United. How could this be squared with the team who so rarely ventured into the Southampton half in the first half?

Goals from Lacazette and the exquisite Martin Odegaard had them two up but aside from those the only effort that the home side mustered on the goal of Southampton debutant Willy Caballero came from Bukayo Saka. Even in good positions this team seems psychologically averse to taking all but the best shots. Lacazette often seems like he wants to consult his lawyer, his bank manager and his priest before he decides to take aim on goal.

Whether Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang would have performed any differently is up for debate. For the second time in 2021 the Arsenal club captain found himself exiled from Arteta’s squad for issues related to his punctuality. In March he was left out of the squad for the north London derby. On this occasion, he returned late from a club sanctioned trip abroad. He had previously had a spell of compassionate absence overrun. 

Still, it was the black cloud that hung over an impressive win. After confirming before the game that he had dropped his skipper for disciplinary reasons Arteta simply refused to engage on which of the “certain non-negotiables” his best paid player had broken. He would not confirm whether Aubameyang’s absence was for this game only nor indeed whether the forward remained club captain.

“Let’s talk about the game guys,” Arteta said. “I’m not going to say anything else. I want to focus on the performance and what the team has done on the pitch.”

There were certainly positives for him to focus on. On this occasion Aubameyang’s absence was not unduly felt even if a game against a high line defense protected by a 40 year old emergency signing might well have offered an opportunity for him to unleash those infrequently seen afterburners. Instead it was Martinelli who provided a directness that few others in this squad offered.

Infield, Odegaard continued what is proving to be an impressive run of form in front of goal. Three of his four goals for the season have come in the last trio of games, all of them coming from shrewd runs around the penalty area in which he seemed to anticipate the ball before his defender. On this occasion Southampton might have a case for the defense, few could have imagine Kieran Tierney would get the ball stuck under his feet attempting an initial cross before looping a header at the near post for the Norwegian to flick in.

“He should have scored a hat trick against Everton,” Arteta said. “He’s making [runs into] the box much more now. He’s understanding why we encourage him to do that. Then he’s a match winner. That’s the difference between a very good player and a match winner. We need more of those players on the pitch doing more in the games.”

Odegaard’s strike was not as easy on the eye as Arsenal’s opener even if that flowing move along the right seemed to teeter on the brink when Aaron Ramsdale and Ben White found themselves under pressure from Southampton’s intense pressure. With no safety valve coming from midfield ahead of them, they squirmed the ball out right to Takehiro Tomiyasu via Thomas Partey. Bukayo Saka feinted to come short for the ball, drawing Kyle Walker-Peters upfield, before turning and accelerating into space from which to square the ball for Lacazette. A long overdue first team shot was too much for Caballero to get near to.

Southampton would have had every right to feel aggrieved at the half time score. It was their misfortune that perhaps the one constant of this Arsenal side is the excellence of Ramsdale. From this game’s earliest exchanges, where he saved well at his near post from Adam Armstrong, to reaction saves from Nathan Tella and Nathan Redmond long after Southampton’s jig was up, the Gunners player of the last two months excelled. Add to that the exuberance of his celebrations and the fizzing passes into space with which he would release Gabriel Martinelli and you have a player in whom you can trust like few others in this squad.

It took Arsenal time to get going but a side that has struggled to deal with life in the ascendancy did so impressively in the second half, threatening from open play before getting the game-ending third when Gabriel flicked home Martinelli’s corner from the left. Arteta’s side got better. Or maybe Southampton got worse.

It still feels hard to know. In their early troughs this team might have found themselves punished by a James Ward-Prowse free kick or one of the early efforts that fell to Armstrong and Tella. Much as Arsenal supporters place great stock in their expected goals-ruining defeats to the big three it feels significant that six of their eight wins have come against teams who occupy the Premier League’s bottom six.

How much store to place in that? Negotiating a minefield of banana skins is a valuable quality to have no doubt. In a season where so many other prospective European contenders look to be vulnerable, exploiting the fixture list could be worth a few places in the final league table.

Or this might just point to a team that are at a level where they can only really put away the worst the Premier League has to offer and even then with some nervy moments. The season is nearly halfway through and Arteta’s side seem to be willfully imperceptible.

Arsenal: a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.