After a gruelling game against the defending Champions in the Premier League last weekend, Arsenal were tasked with a far simpler job on Wednesday night: taking on League One side Bolton Wanderers in the League Cup.
Now, the Lancashire outfit did score at the Emirates, but even with the eight changes Mikel Arteta made to his side, it was an easy day at the office for the North Londoners.
The likes of Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly rightfully stole the show and should make more first-team appearances as the season goes on, but there was another star making his full debut on the night who put in a good shift, Raheem Sterling.
Yes, the former Manchester City ace finally got his chance to start for the Gunners, and the manager will have been pleased with what he saw, yet even so, for the game against Leicester City this weekend, he should be dropped back to the bench.
Why Sterling should be dropped
Okay, so the first thing to clear up is that, as we mentioned above, Sterling was reasonably impressive against Bolton on Wednesday night.
The international veteran provided the pass for Nwaneri’s first goal and scored one himself in the second half, which is a commendable return on a full debut.
The 29-year-old certainly impressed football.london’s chief Arsenal writer, Kaya Kaynak, who gave him an 8/10 on the night, writing that once he got going, he was a ‘real threat’ down that left-hand side.
However, as effective as he was when he got up to speed, the nature of the game means that unless he scored a hat-trick and picked up a hat-trick of assists, it’s just not enough to force his way into the starting lineup for a Premier League game.
Moreover, with an avalanche of games in the next few months, Arteta will need a fit and firing squad, full of quality players who can step in for games that might not be deemed too important, like Wednesday night.
Now, should Sterling continue his impressive form in his ensuing appearances off the bench, then the calls to start him in the league may begin to grow, but at the moment, it would be premature, and the player who should start on the weekend was one of Arsenal’s best against City.
Why Gabriel Martinelli should start
Yes, despite his goal and assist against Bolton, Sterling should make way for Gabriel Martinelli to come back into the team tomorrow afternoon.
Now, nobody can deny that it has been a tough start to the campaign for the former Ituano gem, but his performance against City on Sunday evening was exemplary and showed that there is still an immensely useful player there and one Arteta should persevere with for a bit longer.
In the first half, the Brazilian dynamo demonstrated that he can still be an attacking threat with the right supporting cast behind him, as it was his run and pass that allowed Riccardo Calafiori to score his wonder goal, and towards the end of the first 45, he was getting some real joy down the flank.
However, in the second half, the “sensational” 23-year-old, as dubbed by U23 scout Antonio Mango, really stood out as a selfless and incredibly hard-working team player.
Thanks to him being that bit faster than Bukayo Saka, the manager opted to keep him on the pitch following Leandro Trossard’s red card to act as an outlet for the side, and while he did do that at times, his desire to defend, put himself in the way and run himself into the ground stood out.
2019/20
26
10
4
0.53
2020/21
22
2
2
0.18
2021/22
36
6
7
0.36
2022/23
46
15
6
0.45
2023/24
44
8
5
0.29
2024/25
7
0
1
0.14
Moreover, with a run of slightly easier league games to come in the next month or so, Arteta should give him a chance to rediscover his goalscoring form, as if he can get back to the sort of numbers he was producing in the 22/23 campaign when he scored 15 goals and provided six assists, then Arsenal will have a seriously dangerous attacker on their hands once again.
Ultimately, Sterling did well on Wednesday night, but given the level of opposition and the fact that Martinelli was massively important to the draw against City, the former should make way for the latter tomorrow afternoon.
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