Claudius Our second most productive player this season. Marty has had a poor league campaign but only Gyökeres is ahead on goals and G+A across all comps. That's despite a much more limited role for Marty this year. He's earned those wages.
I think people fundamentally have to recognise two things, because if not they're not going to get any pleasure out of watching Arsenal:
1) Arteta's system is rigid and players have to make sacrifices in order to play in it, but it has brought us a sum that is greater than its individual parts so far, which is the exact opposite of Liverpool and City whose fortunes are contingent on one or two individuals.
2) Margins are small in football, and the closer to the top you are the smaller they get. It's easy to switch one or two parts in a functioning team that has gelled. It's harder to switch seven or eight, and that difference will amount to the 15% that either win or lose you a game sometimes.
On a separate note, Gyökeres is now statistically the most successful striker to have played for Arsenal for the past 7 years (which include Arteta's entire tenure at the club). Again, not the narrative you really hear too often. People focus too much on what doesn't work and fail to recognise what does. Look at how completely different our game was after the substitutions yesterday, when we had a top class forward making top class decisions up front. It had a positive impact on both Marty and, more importantly, Havertz, who I wish we had left on the pitch for the full 90.
