In the cold light of the next day, last night’s 2-0 win against Olympiacos felt like a routine Champions League three-pointer against an opponent from a – with all due respect – inferior league, that shouldn’t really warrant too much thinking about. Indeed, Arsenal dominated the first half and probably should have put the game to bed in a characteristically controlled performance against a side who have won at ours on the last three occasions in the Champions league I believe.

But there’s a little more nuance to last night’s performance because, give Olympiacos their dues, they came and I was quite impressed with them by the time the final whistle had gone. Perhaps more so in the second half than the first, but they didn’t come to sit in and just play low block football against us; they pressed, they harried, they put our back line under a little more pressure on the ball and I thought in the second half in particular it was Olympiacos who made us feel a little more hurried than most of us in the ground thought we would be.

Arteta had rung the changes to the side and that meant in came White, Lewis-Skelly, Merino, Martinelli and a return for the captain Odegaard and we pretty much dominated the first half in its entirety. Martinelli really should have put us one up within two minutes, but he had a touch of the ’50p heads’ with his finish and the chance went begging. It was frustrating but given we got that chance so early I was pretty confident at that early point in the game.

And we pretty much bossed the first half I thought. There was one superb save that came from David Raya and you have to say with that one tip over the bar he earned his clean sheet bonus. It was good movement at the back post, Ben White as on heels a bit, but no harm, no foul.

What wasn’t foul was Martin Odegaard. He was by far the best player on that pitch in the first half. He dropped deep to collect from Raya, he popped up on the right hand side in his usual ‘right pod’ position, but he was all over the pitch pressing, harrying and generally dictating all of his plays. His ball in behind to set Gyokeres in for Martinelli’s goal was sumptuous. Not too hard, not too weak, it was perfect and Big Vik did his part to wrestle control and although he was unlucky to have his shot hit the post, the gamble of Martinelli was enough to tap in and put us one up. It was the kind of positioning and anticipation from Martinelli that you see when he’s on form and full of confidence. This Arsenal team needs goals spread around it and Martinelli already has three goals and one assist to his name this season. That’s the output we need and if he’s targeting 20 goals and assists this season, then he’s certainly on track to do it already.

I also thought it was interesting to see how the team changed too. You can see that the team has been given the instruction to go longer and looking for Gyokeres’ runs in behind because we went in behind a number of times. Raya was happy to go long and have him wrestle his centre half and as this Arsenal team starts to learn about the runs he makes, he’s going to create more chances. I thought he had a good game; he was strong, he was an outlet, he ran the channels and he is a machine when it comes to his sprinting both forwards and backwards. Towards the end of the game – I think we might have been two up – Olympiacos caught us in transition on our left hand side and Gyokeres sprinted about 40 yards to cover ground. Arteta will love that and with him getting lots of game time with Havertz out, it feels like we’re starting to see a shift in the teams understanding of his runs too. I just hope – and have a feeling – that he is going to start racking up some goals soon if they keep trying these kinds of balls in behind. We’ve missed that central running presence for years, but the team are starting to look for it, Odegaard – easily the man of the match – is looking for it. He is going to get chances.

There was one blot on the copy book that Odegaard had on a night that was definitely his, which was that miss towards the latter stages of the game. I’m not quite sure how he missed that from inside the six yard box, but he did and the ball spewed out for a corner. But there was ‘no harm, no foul’ as yet another sub delivered for Arteta in the latter stages of the game. Step forward end-product-merchant Bukayo Saka. I thought it was really interesting that he got his goal from a switch of position with Eze. Bez hardly had a kick in the game but by switching with Saka it caused a momentary lapse of concentration for the full backs and when the ball floated across to Saka on an unusual right hand side, he needed no invitation to have a shot. There’s probably a fair few question marks you could label at the ‘keeper there, as the ball went through his legs, but you buy a ticket….etc etc….

And so the final stages were relatively comfortable. Arsenal do the job on an evening in which City slipped up away from home and a match week in which Liverpool lost and the Scum drew. The name of the game for this format is a bit of a race to 15/16 points in my opinion, so by making it two from two Arsenal have done all they can do at this stage. Next up is Atletico Madrid at home in a few weeks and if we can get over the line on that one – which will by far be the trickiest of opponents so far – then we’ll be well on the way to that coveted automatic qualification in the top eight.

And on that note I shall bid you adieu and be back tomorrow as we start to look at West Ham at home on Saturday.