Arsenal: Martin Odegaard superb amid strong start but new signing cools off as transfer shortcomings laid bare

Assessing Arsenal’s start to the season as international break provides time for reflection

Arsenal brought down the curtain on the first section of their season by stumbling into the international break.

Victory over Brighton would have made it eight wins on the bounce and the best start to a campaign the club have made in 123 years.

Instead, a 3-0 defeat in fairly shocking fashion brought the run to a grinding halt. That is a dark cloud looming over an otherwise sunny reflection on the opening weeks of the campaign.

The timing of the Brighton defeat means there is a temptation to refer back to it in every other sentence.

In the interests of time and avoiding a long stream of caveats, let there be an overarching sidenote that the majority of these players produced a performance that has no business in this section of the review.

That aside, though, several in the Arsenal squad have made strong starts to the season.

David Raya made a world-class penalty save against Sunderland to turn that match in Arsenal's favour and continues to cement his position as one of the very best in Europe.

Riccardo Calafiori has contributed more to the Arsenal attack than most of the forwards. He is so unique as a left-back and, crucially, has stayed fit so far.

Martin Odegaard has enjoyed a superb start to the season

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The other standout performers have been Martin Odegaard, who has already bettered last season's goal tally and on the whole has looked close to his best.

Kai Havertz, has led the line well, though perhaps needs an asterisk of his own for that showing against Brighton, while Myles Lewis-Skelly has taken his chances in midfield.

Which players have struggled?

Everyone against Brighton, if that much was still not clear.

The more flat performances have otherwise come from those on the fringes of the team.

It looks like his opportunities will almost exclusively come on the left wing this season and he has not yet regularly produced in that role for Arsenal.

Mixed bag: Eberechi Eze

PA

Viktor Gyokeres started against Napoli and Ipswich and managed a single shot across two matches Arsenal dominated.

He is sorely lacking in confidence and has looked a long way off the pace when he has been on the pitch.

Of Arsenal's regular starters, Christos Tzolis has not really kicked on from the form he showed in the first couple of weeks of the season.

Particularly away from home, the winger has become isolated and the matches have passed him by too easily.

How are the summer signings faring?

A mixed bag.

Bruno Guimaraes has had the start to his Arsenal career disrupted by a couple of minor injuries.

That stunning strike against Sunderland looked like being the lift-off moment, but he struggled badly in the defeat to Brighton.

Guimaraes has added a more penetrative edge to Arsenal's build-up play. However, in matches where the Gunners are pressed high and it becomes more transitional, he can look sluggish.

Ezri Konsa has proved to be very smart business. That signing looked crucial in the summer with William Saliba out, but it has become even more so with Cristhian Mosquera missing the last five matches.

Ezri Konsa has made a promising start to his career

Konsa has slotted in alongside Gabriel and looked comfortable immediately. Against Napoli, he was one of the best players on the pitch.

Tzolis, as mentioned above, has not been as consistently threatening as Arsenal would like from a first-choice winger.

However, that should be more of a statement on the summer recruitment than on Tzolis himself.

What has the manager got right and wrong?

One of the familiar criticisms of Arteta is that he does not make use of his squad often enough.

That has not been the case this season. He rotated against Napoli and then made wholesale changes in the Carabao Cup.

After a disrupted summer, in which many of the squad returned late from the World Cup, Arteta has done a superb job of getting them up to speed so quickly.

The defeat to Brighton was the one match where he could have done more.

Arteta said he felt something was wrong from the first throw-in, making his decision not to make any half-time changes an even more bizarre one.

By the time he finally did act, it was 3-0 and game over.

Revised end-of-season finish prediction

Nothing has changed on that front.

One disastrous performance against an excellent Brighton side does not change the fact that Arsenal are well capable of defending their title.

You would expect the defensive solidity to return and Brighton are perhaps the best pressing team in the league. Against other sides, Arsenal will be more composed.

The success, or otherwise, of the season will come down to Arsenal's attack. Whether key players stay fit and how efficient they are in the final third.