Ipswich 0-4 Arsenal: A comfortable win in second gear

Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video

After the drama of the Champions League, it felt like Arsenal needed something a little more routine when we faced Ipswich yesterday, and for various reasons that’s what we got.

The first reason is that even when it was 11 v 11, we were on top and in control of the game. It was quite interesting to see Ipswich start with quite a high press but within minutes our domination of possession saw them pushed back to sit deeper with lots of men behind the ball. The gulf in quality and confidence was obvious. We had just beaten Real Madrid twice, Ipswich have been staring down the barrel of relegation for months now.

9 minutes in and we’d had 95% possession, which told you the story. The opening goal came in the 14th minute. Technically the assist went to Martin Odegaard as his was the last touch before the goal was scored, but morally it should be Bukayo Saka’s. He had combined well with the captain in the build-up, and his right footed cross brushed Odegaard’s boot before Leandro Trossard applied the finish to make it 1-0.

The second goal came from a superb first touch from Trossard, taking down William Saliba’s lofted pass just inside the Ipswich half. He played it to Saka who drove down the line and into the box, his right footed cross was brilliantly flicked to the back post by Mikel Merino and Gabriel Martinelli was there to apply the finish. His 50th Arsenal goal, and it was 2-0.

It’s interesting to note that in the build-up to the goal, Leif Davis left a bit on Trossard after the ball had gone, suggesting he was feeling the frustration of Arsenal’s dominance. So, it’s not much of a surprise that it bubbled over in the incident which saw him sent off. It’s a nasty, unnecessary, and dangerous challenge from behind, and he can have no complaints at all about the red card.

I’ve had my criticisms of some officiating decisions this season (not just in Arsenal games) which has seen those kind of dangerous challenges not properly punished, but Chris Kavanagh got it right and Ipswich were justifiably down to 10 men. It was obviously a very sore one for Saka, but his response was typical of him. Get up, go again, try and hurt the opposition with the ball.

He curled a shot just wide just after the game restarted and then contrived to miss two chances you would back him to score. It was obviously entertaining for the home fans who made him the villain of their player’s aggression, but on another day they’d have been 4-0 down at the break and it wouldn’t have been so funny. They were lucky Saka’s finishing was below par, perhaps in part because he had studs down the back of his Achilles just a few minutes earlier?

Either way, the second period was almost exactly what the doctor ordered with a game against Crystal Palace coming up on Wednesday. Ipswich knew they had no chance of getting anything, so sat back and defended deep. Arsenal were comfortable and never needed to get out of second gear. The manager made changes, Declan Rice got an assist for Trossard’s second, which allowed him to make more changes with Wednesday (and beyond) in mind.

Odegaard hit the inside of the post with a shot from distance, Nathan Butler-Oyedeji came on and with his only touch of the ball forced the keeper into a good save with a shot that had to be tipped over, and the fourth goal arrived via Ethan Nwaneri and a couple of deflections before it hit the back of the net. It gave the scoreline the kind of gloss it probably deserved, and there was no question who merited the points on the day.

Afterwards, Mikel Arteta said:

We’re really happy with the performance. I think the first 35 minutes is one of the best 35 minutes we’ve played this season, at the back of the game in Madrid, and we scored two goals – we could have scored three or four to be fair. We really dominated the game, very high intensity and understanding what we had to do today to win here. When they got the red card, the context of the game changed and we were in control, scored another two goals and made certain rotations. So overall a very positive afternoon.

It might have just been a question of rotation and fatigue levels after Madrid, but as we think about the first leg against PSG without the suspended Thomas Partey, Arteta picking the midfield trio of Rice, Merino and Odegaard with Trossard as the ‘9’ felt deliberate. We’ll probably see a couple of changes for the midweek game too, but even taking into account the opposition, it worked very well.

I think Rice is more than capable of holding his own against PSG in that deeper role, while Merino’s attacking instincts are sharp and his movement in and around the box is very clever. Perhaps more seasoned watchers of him during his time at Real Sociedad can tell me whether this has always been a feature of his game or something that has gone up a level because he’s been asked to play a different role for us this season, but I feel like he could be a player to watch in the two semi-finals. Statistically he’s more or less on a par with his goal contribution output for his last two seasons in Spain, but because of injuries with us he’s played fewer minutes, so let’s see how it all ends up at the end of the campaign.

In the end, a game we were expected to win and we did that comfortably, and beyond the sore Achilles for Saka – which was reportedly ‘fine’) afterwards – there were no apparent issues with injuries, which is the big worry going into every game at this point. Job done, thank you very much.

Right, I’m gonna leave it there for now, but as ever we’ll have an Arsecast Extra for you today. We’ve already put out the call for questions on BlueSky @gunnerblog.bsky.social and @arseblog.com with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.

The pod should be out mid-morning, and later this afternoon we’ll have an episode of The 30 on Patreon, recapping all the weekend’s Premier League action.

Until then, have a good one.