Arsenal Prepares for Sunderland as Arteta Responds to Criticism
Arsenal head to Sunderland on Saturday night with the early-season mood bordering on ominous. Three wins from three in the Premier League, an impressive dismantling of Chelsea thrown in, and a Champions League campaign already up and running after Martin Odegaard’s decisive strike in midweek.
The football is flowing. The noise around the club is anything but quiet.
Next up is a reunion of sorts: Granit Xhaka’s Sunderland, sitting on four points from four games, trying to halt a side that has opened the campaign like a team intent on a title fight rather than just a top-four scrap.
Off the pitch, though, the aftershocks of the transfer window are still rumbling. Mikel Arteta is fielding more questions about those who have left than those who are winning games for him now.
Saka under the microscope
Bukayo Saka is usually the player Arsenal fans rally around. For Jermaine Pennant, he’s the one who needs to be held to a higher bar.
The former Gunners winger has branded Saka overrated, arguing that the England star’s numbers don’t match the hype that places him among the world’s elite wide players.
“If you start touting players as world-class, one of the best wingers in the world or the best winger in the Premier League, then you've got to be in those numbers. I would say it's non-negotiable,” Pennant told GOAL.
He pointed straight at the standard-setter.
“If you look at Mohamed Salah, he did it for nine years straight. In the bracket of goal contributions, it's plus 20.”
That’s the level Pennant believes Saka hasn’t consistently hit.
“I think he does get away with a bit of murder at times, the numbers and his stats,” he said. “He can put in some absolutely stellar performances but if you look deep and you start digging deep and you look at his stats, compared to top wingers around the globe and who played in the Premier League as well, they fall quite short.”
It’s a harsh verdict on a player central to Arsenal’s rise under Arteta, but it underlines the pressure that comes with being talked about as “world-class” in a team now judged on title credentials, not just progress.
Arteta embraces the ‘bad cop’ role
While Saka deals with outside criticism, Arteta has been busy answering for relationships that have already ended.
Gabriel Jesus’ move to Barcelona has not slipped quietly into the background. The Brazilian claimed in an interview with SportyTV that “out of nowhere they put me to train apart from the group” and that “nobody told me nothing.”
Arteta pushed back, making it clear he is prepared to be painted as the villain if that’s what the job demands.
“Very surprised [to hear], to be fair, especially because with Gabi [Jesus]. I had an individual talk in the dressing room,” he said when quizzed on the comments. “I don't know what words were said, [but] it's fine. The words that we used were all about gratitude.
“I don't know, it's OK. Sometimes I understand that when you have to deliver bad news, or news that people don't expect, somebody has to be the bad cop. If I have to be, I have to be and I understand.”
The Arsenal manager pointed to Leandro Trossard’s behaviour as a counter-example. The Belgian, sold to Besiktas in July, was in the stands to watch the win over Chelsea, something Arteta used as proof that bonds at the club often outlast contracts.
The questions didn’t stop there. Ian Wright recently admitted he felt “uncomfortable” about what he saw as a lack of dialogue around Gabriel Martinelli’s move to Al Hilal in the Saudi Pro League earlier this month. Arteta again stood his ground, insisting conversations had taken place and that departures are rarely clean, painless breaks.
So Arsenal travel to Sunderland with a perfect league record, a Champions League win in the bank, and a manager unafraid to play “bad cop” when careers move on.
If this is how they look in September, what happens when the stakes rise and the season really starts to bite?
