A routine win for the Gunners saw them earn three points at the Emirates Stadium for the first time this season in a 2-0 victory over Stoke City.
Arsenal controlled the quiet Potters side who never really turned up for the majority of the game, which is reflected by the scoreline.
What did we learn from the first home victory of the season?
Too many chances are going to waste
Starting with a rare, poor point from Saturday’s game, the fact Arsenal just aren’t taking advantage of the many opportunities they’re creating.
Realistically, the Gunners could have been two or three nil up within the first 10 minutes, after hitting the post twice and Theo Walcott firing wide from close range.
Arsenal have created the most chances in the league so far this season, and during the game, had a total of 29 shots, with only 12 hitting the target.
On the day it didn’t really matter that Arsenal let them chances go to waste, because they ended up winning 2-0 fairly comfortably, but on another day, against another team, it could have cost them the three points.
Deadlock broken
Finally, in Arsenal’s third home game of the season, they’ve scored their first goals at the Emirates Stadium.
It was the Gunners’ makeshift striker Theo Walcott who scored, having netted twice for England during the international break after a sticky run of form previously, before Olivier Giroud doubled the home side’s lead with a header five minutes from time.
Usually known for being a very tough team to break down at home, Arsenal have been weak in north London thus far, hopefully though, now the first couple of goals have come, it will continue and the Gunners will get back to their winning ways at the Emirates.
Theo the Striker?
Is Theo Walcott Arsenal’s new first team forward? It certainly looks that way after Wenger failed to spend any of the apparent £200 million the club had to spend during the summer on a striker, only slightly dipping into the money for goalkeeper Petr Cech.
The Englishman started up top again for Arsenal after starting in the same position against Newcastle before the international break.
He has now scored his first goal of the season, with a neat finish against Stoke and Wenger, who put all his confidence in the longest-serving Arsenal player to do a good job up front, will certainly hope that he can continue scoring as Arsenal face their first Champions League game of the campaign against Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday.
The Gabriel and Koscielny partnership looks promising
Once again the Brazilian and Frenchman paired up in the absence of vice skipper Per Mertesacker, and they put in yet another solid performance.
So, could this be a new partnership after keeping another clean sheet?
Some will hope so, as they were very convincing during Saturday’s encounter with Stoke. They both put in good performances, in the air, on the ball and off the ball.
Stoke have a lot of talent going forward, with Marko Arnautovic, Mame Biram Diouf, Xherdan Shaqiri starting and Bojan coming on off the bench, but the fresh Arsenal duo kept them out all game long.
Koscielny especially had a good game, the 30-year-old stood out well and above the rest at the back, which is a great thing to see for the fans and especially Wenger.
Arsenal’s fight for the title has strengthened
The Gunners move second in the table for the time being, five points behind Manchester City who got away with a 1-0 win away from home at Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace with a 90th minute winner.
Despite a lot of people saying Arsenal have had a poor start to the season, it actually hasn’t been that bad, it could have been worse, for example Chelsea, who currently sit in the bottom five of the table after a 3-1 loss to Everton, another great result for Arsenal, have a huge hill to climb to mount their own title challenge.
Arsenal have picked up ten points from five games, which doesn’t look great admittedly, but they are second in the table which does look good, so it can’t be that bad.
