Buildup, news and discussion before Sunday’s games
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No panic at Arsenal despite the lack of a major addition to the forward line.
At Aston Villa on Monday night, Arteta introduced two of Spain’s World Cup winning squad – Mikel Merino and Martín Zubimendi – from the bench. Plus the marquee summer signing, Bruno Guimarães. Plus Eberechi Eze. Plus another high-profile new boy, Ezri Konsa. Arsenal’s strength in depth is really something.
The temptation, after the first two weeks of the season, is to cast Mikel Arteta and Xabi Alonso in a similar light. Arsenal are yet to concede a goal. They dominated the Community Shield from the first minute, beat a shambolic Manchester City 3-0 and gave the sense that they could easily have won more comprehensively had they been minded to do so. They were no more troubled in beating Coventry by the same scoreline in their opening league game and, while they were rather less dominant, they were still extremely comfortable against Aston Villa on Monday and had been slowly increasing the pressure when Bukayo Saka gave them the lead just before the hour.
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