With an enticing run of fixtures coming up and the captain back to his best, an enjoyable autumn seems on the cards
And … breathe. As Bukayo Saka shot low, hard and ultimately through Kostas Tzolakis in the Olympiakos goal to complete an occasionally uncomfortable 2-0 win, the noise from the home crowd was more a weary, sofa-flopping sigh than a roar of triumph, with the sense, finally, of a midweek putting-to-bed.
This was a game Arsenal always looked like they were winning, despite seeming to realise this a little too early in the piece against eager and purposeful opponents. Nobody attracts the stern and unforgiving eye quite like this Arsenal team, for whom squad depth, the unforgivable act of acquiring a potentially title‑winning team, is the latest crime on the rap sheet.
But sometimes you really do just need to get the job done. Even at kick-off the Emirates Stadium felt like a workaday place, an extension of the rush hour high street just beyond the hard white lights, London urgency, nine to five football, a necessary task as we head now toward that part of the year when the lights come on at four and the season really starts to shift gears.
Victory aside, two interesting things happened here for Arsenal. Martin Ødegaard played 90 minutes. And Victor Gyökeres also played 90 minutes. They did so in differing ways. Ødegaard was brilliant, even in the period when Arsenal were not, and this is important: 84 touches, four shots, an assist, a reel of delightful passes, nudges, prompts. He really is a lovely player to watch when he performs like this, part feather-footed artist, part furiously unforgiving press-machine, veering about like a drop of water in a pan of hot oil.
