Arsenal began their Premier League title defence on Friday night with a 3-0 victory over newly promoted Coventry City.
By Saturday afternoon, the opening weekend had apparently provided enough information to start assessing how difficult it might be for anybody to stop them.
Mikel Arteta’s side were comfortably superior at the Emirates, with Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard scoring as Coventry returned to the Premier League after 25 years away. Arsenal controlled the game throughout and became the first side since Opta began recording the data in 2007 to prevent an opponent from having either a touch in their box or making a tackle during the first half.
It was an impressive performance.
It was also Arsenal’s first league game.
That distinction became slightly less important on Soccer Saturday, where the strength of the champions’ squad quickly became the subject of discussion.
Paul Merson looked through Arsenal’s alternatives in defence and suggested their second-choice back four would all get into Manchester United’s team. He then moved on to the midfield options before reaching a straightforward conclusion.
“It’s scary!”
Elsewhere on Sky Sports, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink described Arsenal as “the team to beat”, while the broadcaster was already debating the Gunners’ chances of retaining the Premier League title less than 24 hours after their season had begun.
There are reasonable grounds for the enthusiasm.
Arsenal are the reigning champions, strengthened an already successful squad during the summer and had beaten Manchester City 3-0 in the Community Shield five days earlier. Even before the Coventry game, 25 of 28 BBC Sport pundits had predicted that Arteta’s side would retain their title.
Coventry therefore did not suddenly prove Arsenal were good.
They merely provided the first 90 minutes of league football in which everybody could begin becoming considerably more certain about it.
Arsenal have played one Premier League game.
The remaining 37 can now begin trying to change everyone’s mind.
