Well, stage one complete. Two things happened here. First, Arsenal won this game as comfortably as any in the last two seasons. This was like watching a team in demo mode, just trying out the new software, revving the throttle in neutral. And second, Martin \u00d8degaard played, once again, a little bit more like the half-remembered Martin \u00d8degaard: 75 minutes, 72 touches, 55 short, clipped little passes. And this is significant.<\/p>\n
In the absence of a headline attacking signing, attention has fixed on \u00d8degaard and the chance he can become himself again after the injury-addled figure of last season. At his best he is just such a constant ferret, a press machine, master of space and of the nudged pass, the look of a thrusting young corporate actuary and the feet of a cage-ball urchin.<\/p>\n
\u00d8degaard\u2019s goal here was the obvious headline moment, Arsenal\u2019s third on 48 minutes. In the moment of execution it felt like a fun and slightly silly thing, the kind of goal Prince Edward might have scored in It\u2019s A Knockout in 1981, set up by Brian Blessed, Emu in goal. But the move to get there was the real deal.<\/p>\n
The Norwegian made it in the way he likes to make things, driving the move from just behind the attacking line, twitching the threads. There was a nice delayed pass to Ben White, a drift into space. The finish was comical. \u00d8degaard sometimes has a strange way of shooting, sidling up to the ball, his foot connecting at an odd angle, a kind of power-stub. Here he miskicked in front of goal, but still sent the ball floating weirdly to the left of Carl Rushworth, who clawed at it helplessly, like a cat flapping its paw at a shadow on the wall.<\/p>\n
Myles Lewis-Skelly impressed again in midfield. Photograph: Marc Atkins\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u00d8degaard laughed as he wheeled away. But the celebration was real. This was his first goal at the Emirates since last December. And either side there were signs of something else too, a reawakening of the link-up with Bukayo Saka. Just before half-time they pinged the ball between each other six or seven times, eventually finding space for Declan Rice to shoot just wide. This was like old times. Here they are, the guys, with something between them that is genuinely rare in elite teams: a sense of play, invention, pleasure in the connection.<\/p>\n
North London had been agreeably crisp and even a little chilly at kick-off. As a contest, Arsenal-Coventry has Classic Barclays energy: Darren Huckerby running the channels, your TV screen making whooshing noises, Richard Keys with a filthy late-August tan, lemon-yellow blazer sleeves hitched up.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Every weekday<\/p>\n Sign up to Football Daily<\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Frank Lampard and Mikel Arteta were up on their feet from the start in identical outfits \u2013 black slacks, black knitted mock-turtleneck, white soled black trainers \u2013 like the advance party for an executive ninja golf day. And the opening goal on 15 minutes was a high-end three-beat move.<\/p>\n First, Christos Tzolis block-tackled the ball back off Milan van Ewijk by the right touchline, then fed it to Riccardo Calafiori. His pass across the front of the penalty area was pinged hard and low through a narrow arc to Kai Havertz. The finish was luxurious, a first-time left-foot volley so relaxed you half-expected to look down and notice Havertz was playing in a pair of tailored leather parlour slippers.<\/p>\n It was 2-0 soon afterwards, as Coventry found themselves overwhelmed, up against something quicker, slicker and more smoothly geared than many of these players will have ever come up against. This was a good Rice moment, his forward run the catalyst. But it was also an \u00d8degaard moment, a quick little nudged pass making the space for the shift wide and the killer cross. This is what \u00d8degaard does best, the pass that makes the pass, the smoothing agent, footballing WD-40.<\/p>\n Equally important, perhaps, Myles Lewis-Skelly was also excellent here, tigerish and always involved, barely misplacing a pass. And yes, he was excellent against the champions of the Championship, but he was also excellent in his last game, against the champions of Europe<\/a>. Who knows, maybe he\u2019s just a really good midfielder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019re back, baby. Welcome to the content zone. And yes, we did actually go away for a bit.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-821760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782463269_82_500.jpg\")
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