“Unbelievable, eh?”.
That was Mikel Arteta’s reaction upon hearing his Arsenal side’s 4-0 win against Ipswich Town on Sunday was the first time since November that Ben White, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard had started the same Premier League game.
The Arsenal manager had waited 161 days to give the trio their fourth league start together this season, and what followed at Portman Road served as a reminder of their collective importance.
With just two matches in the nine days before their Champions League semi-final first leg at home against Paris Saint-Germain next Tuesday, mass rotation was not necessary. Instead, the meeting with relegation all-but-certainties Ipswich gave Arteta an opportunity to rediscover a key element of his team’s recent successes and deploy other players differently to mix up how Arsenal attacked.
Within minutes of the opening kick-off, Leandro Trossard was leaving his centre-forward berth to aid Saka on the right, with Mikel Merino pushing up from midfield — a precursor of the fluidity that would grace much of Arsenal’s performance.
“We have to adapt and put players in positions and in situations that can be very difficult to control for the position and they can create threat,” Arteta said afterwards of the way his starters hurt Ipswich.
Saka and Odegaard had started in both legs as Arsenal beat holders Real Madrid home and away in the Champions League quarter-finals over the previous two midweeks, but yesterday felt like the time for them to blow away any cobwebs surrounding their combination play following the England winger’s recent return from a three-month absence with a hamstring injury.
Shortly after Trossard’s initial roam to the right, Saka was found out there on his own by an Oleksandr Zinchenko switch of play. He drove up to the Ipswich box, exchanged passes with his captain Odegaard, then cut the ball back into Trossard’s path. The Belgium international took a touch rather than trying to finish first time, which allowed an Ipswich defender to block his shot.
Soon, it was White finding Saka from a run in off the touchline before the latter passed directly to Merino on the edge of the box.
Arsenal didn’t score on either occasion, but the blueprint for the two first-half goals they would go on to score was there.
A similar move between Saka and Odegaard freed up Trossard to make it 1-0, before he then pulled wide to supply Saka, who found Merino centrally, in the build-up to Gabriel Martinelli’s goal to double the lead.
By the time Leif Davis was sent off on the half-hour for a dangerous foul from behind on Saka, who Arteta said was sore but did not suffer any serious damage, the winger had created a game-high three chances.
At that point, White also completed more passes into the final third (four) than any player on the pitch; at half-time, Saka had created five chances, White had completed six passes into the final third and Odegaard had 32 successful passes in the opposition half (all ranking first in the game). The latter ended the game having created five chances and looked more like his usual self.
Midfielders to make 70+ accurate passes ending in the final third in a PL game since 2016/17:
◎ 75 – Mesut Özil vs. WBA◎ 72 – Mesut Özil vs. Swansea ◎ 72 – Jorginho vs. Newcastle ◎ 70 – Cesc Fabregas vs. Huddersfield
◉ 70 – Martin Ødegaard vs. Ipswich
There seems to… pic.twitter.com/OMXChnW27a
— Squawka (@Squawka) April 20, 2025
A key aspect of the relationship between Saka, Odegaard and White, which has hardly been seen this season, is the overlapping runs made by the latter.
He attempted these several times at Portman Road, but that aspect of their combination play might need the rescheduled home match against Crystal Palace on Wednesday to reconfigure. Even if that part of White’s game hasn’t yet reconnected with those of Saka and Odegaard, his presence helped both of them flourish on Sunday.
At times this season, Arsenal’s play has felt rigid. Albeit against an Ipswich side who look primed to go straight back down following the back-to-back promotions which took them from third-tier League One to the top flight, the attacking presence of White opened up the pitch.
On one occasion, all that Arsenal needed was two passes between him and Saka to find Martinelli over on the left wing — a stark contrast to the pace of some of their attacks when both England internationals were out injured earlier this season.
Arteta said he was “very happy for Ben, because he’s missed a lot of football. He’s been so consistent and regular in the last few seasons with us, and this season, for different reasons, he hasn’t been able to play that many minutes. Today he played a really good game, (I’m) so very happy because he’s got a lot of quality, he brings something else to that unit and it was good to finally see them”.
White and Odegaard both played the full game, and combined with Ethan Nwaneri too, after he came on during the changes that saw Saka depart just before the hour. Before the teenager’s eventual goal in the 88th minute, there was a nice piece of interplay between the new right-sided trio that ended in him having a shot blocked.
Trossard’s presence on the right helped create overloads there and, paired with Merino’s forward runs, gave a potential glimpse of how Arteta could set up against PSG in that first leg without the suspended Thomas Partey.
“He (Trossard) is certainly ready to play in any position,” added Arteta. “We have to make certain adjustments, not because of PSG but because of the situation we had with Thomas and a few other players, but that’s good because the team shows adaptability, versatility for certain players to play in different positions and that’s very much needed, especially when we have the numbers that we have at the moment.”
There was more of that versatility in the latter stages on Sunday, as Zinchenko and substitute Myles Lewis-Skelly both ended the game playing in midfield with Kieran Tierney, another to come off the bench, at left-back.
Zinchenko has been used more in midfield in recent weeks, but the majority of Lewis-Skelly’s exposure this season has been at left-back. Asked whether the 18-year-old could be an option in midfield against PSG ahead of the Ipswich game, Arteta said that it would depend on availability. So, Rice at the base with Merino and Trossard having dual roles seems more realistic.
Either way, the manager will be pleased to have seen this fluid, multi-dimensional performance from a team reinvigorated by one of their key components.
(Top photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
