Arsenal reminded of true title race strength with Bukayo Saka ruled out for months | OneFootball

A dominant display fully deserved the win against an Ipswich side set up to defend

Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal will be a “different” team without Bukayo Saka, but some things never change.

Without their talisman Saka against Ipswich, the Gunners served up a reminder of how defensive steel could be their biggest weapon in this title race.

Arsenal were only 1-0 winners, however they were utterly dominant and finished the game with 68 per cent possession.

Ipswich had three shots all night, none of them on target, as Arsenal kept their seventh clean sheet in the Premier League this season.

No side has managed more than that, while no one has conceded fewer goals than the 16 Arsenal have.

A seventh clean sheet of the season

Arsenal FC via Getty Images

“It’s always important,” said Arteta afterwards. “Even with Bukayo we weren’t guaranteed to score three or four goals.

“We never rely on individuals scoring 25 or 30 goals and we have still managed to be competitive. We’re going to manage to do that.”

It will take Arsenal time to find a solution to life without Saka, who Arteta confirmed on Friday night is expected to be out for more than two months after having surgery on his hamstring.

The solution against Ipswich, as it was when Saka limped off at Crystal Palace last week, was to move Gabriel Martinelli to the right.

The Brazilian had the odd bright moment. It was his ball to the back post that found Leandro Trossard, who beat his man and picked out Kai Havertz to score the game’s only goal.

But it was hardly the performance that left you thinking Arsenal’s search for a Saka replacement is over.

Arsenal FC via Getty Images

“Gabi needs people around him,” said Arteta. “He needs to be always in the last line when the ball is on his side.

“He needs to have people close to him and relationships there because he’s very intuitive. If you isolate him too much he’s going to suffer, especially playing with his natural foot on the right. That’s the things that we can evolve and improve.”

The return of Raheem Sterling, whose knee injury is not as bad as first feared, will give Arteta another option.

The January transfer window also opens next week and, certainly in the eyes of the supporters who left Emirates Stadium on Friday night, the solution to replacing Saka lies there.

January is a notoriously difficult to market to navigate, however, and even so Arsenal have plenty of games before they can get someone in, beginning with a trip to Brentford on New Year’s Day.

Who Arteta plays on the right for that game remains to be seen, but he can at least rely upon a stetted defence to give him the base to build off.

At a time when the fixtures come thick and fast, Arsenal’s defence may give them the time to make sure they make the right call in replacing Saka.