The new age of Mikel Arteta ...Middle East

Arsenal 3-0 Fulham (Gyokeres 9’, 45+4, Saka 40’)

EMIRATES – When Sir Alex Ferguson used to say goal difference was worth a point in itself, he was talking less about the tallies on the board and more about approach. Between 17 March and 2 May, Arsenal had not scored more than once in a game. That seemed unlikely to change without a more concerted effort to take risks.

Mikel Arteta left it until the last month of the season for one of his biggest – and the rewards proved greater than the jeopardy. Martin Zubimendi had played over 4,000 minutes, more than any outfield player, before he was replaced against Fulham by Myles Lewis-Skelly, making his first start in midfield.

The number is extraordinary for two reasons: Zubimendi’s longevity in the side and the fact Arteta has waited so long for an experiment that totally shifted the dynamic.

Picture an alternative reality for the opening goal. Declan Rice plays the set piece to Ben White; White shifts it back to Rice; it ends up with Lewis-Skelly, arms outstretched. Then back to White, who has not fully retreated, and Arsenal fall into a familiar pattern.

That is, of course, not how it happened. The moment Lewis-Skelly received the ball, Bukayo Saka was forward to cut inside and out, leaving Raul Jimenez in a heap on the floor as Viktor Gyokeres finished the move.

But the whole exchange revealed as much about Arteta, who is usually inclined to rotate through injury rather than by inclination. Eberechi’s Eze resurgence would never have happened had Martin Odegaard stayed fit. Dropping Zubimendi was instructive not just because it came at a crunch moment; Arteta just does not do things like this at moments like this.

At the final whistle there was a surge towards the North Bank, the manager’s fists swirling in the air. When his caution and reserve filter down to the players, the scrutiny is all his.

There are two obvious caveats. This was a victory that owed much to Saka’s fitness. It was aided by Fulham having almost nothing to play for and even less idea about whether Marco Silva will take the short trip up the river to Chelsea.

The Lewis-Skelly trick was double-sided. On the ball he was a roaring success. He proved a far greater protector than a half-exhausted Zubimendi, shrugging off Sasa Lukic and Harrison Reed. He completed 97 per cent of his passes – four of them into the final third. Off the ball, the need to overlap with Riccardo Calafiori sometimes meant being pulled out too far.

It is no exaggeration to say that Arsenal were not going to become champions in three weeks’ time without uncovering a new dimension. Zubimendi arrived after the hour mark to replace Rice. With the game dead, it would be unfair to attribute the drop in intensity to that substitution.

Zubimendi is always competent and provided a useful decoy dropping in alongside William Saliba in possession. There was, nevertheless, a marked shift in creativity.

If Manchester City do end up winning it, there is every chance this will be a title lost in the shadowy crevices of the bench. Christian Norgaard and Lewis-Skelly have been used so sparingly – two starts between them, both for the latter – but Lewis-Skelly’s trajectory is particularly fascinating.

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Last summer, you would have been hard pushed to see how he would not go to the World Cup with England – he is now behind Nico O’Reilly, Lewis Hall, Luke Shaw and maybe even Djed Spence in the running.

At least the road back to becoming an Arsenal regular looks a little shorter.

Arteta had every justification for leaving this particular renaissance until so late in the season. There are questions to mull over consistency, maturity and managing the workload of both Rice and Zubimendi alongside him. The sheer magnificence of Saka, and one of Gyokeres’ best games in an Arsenal shirt, told their own story. Arteta can tell his too – that he set the tone from the beginning and showed Arsenal are capable of when they collectively take the handbrake off.

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