Some random Arsenal thoughts:
I'm not sure they can rely on them every match, but its pretty fun to see Martinelli, Smith-Rowe, and Saka all on the pitch together and playing fluid exciting football. While I think the jury is still out on him a bit, I am really glad to see Smith-Rowe take his chance so far. We could have three top talents all come through together playing behind and around the striker, which is pretty amazing. You generally can't win with kids in football but you can put the right players around the kids, then it can work.
I really want to see a Partey-Ceballos central midfield in this setup. I don't think it was coincidence that Ceballos had his best game in a long while on Saturday when he actually had some more dynamic players in front of him who he could link up to and get on the same wavelength with. For example, he doesn't confidently make
this pass with Willian or Pepe at RW because neither of them are making the run. Add Partey, our best central midfielder in terms of passing and ball progression, into the mix as well and I think we could really go up a level.
Saka has been great on the right and helped bring balance to the team that we lacked with either Willian or Pepe. I think that is his long term future, especially with Martinelli seemingly best on the left (although he could be a striker in the long run). I don't see what the future is for Pepe, who Arteta clearly doesn't like. We should be looking to sell and recoup any value we can this summer, even if it means taking a big loss.
With the team looking more threatening in attack, Tierney bombing forward a lot on the left, and Saka and Smith-Rowe often combining well on the right, I hope that Arteta considers giving some more time to Maitland-Niles at RB rather than Bellerin. I can understand why he preferred Bellerin most of the fall - we were so dysfunctional offensively that it made sense to go with the better attacking option, since we were starved for goals. But Bellerin is a real liability defensively and I don't see him magically becoming a better player at 25 given the number of matches under his belt. AMN has some aspects of his game to iron out but he is an elite athlete who is much better in individual duels and would give a lot better cover to our RCB, which is a weak spot in general. Particularly against sides with very good, very quick LWs (which is most big clubs in the league) I would like to see more AMN. I may be reading too much into it, but I found it encouraging that Arteta used one of his subs on Saturday to give AMN some time there.
I'm not sure what to expect from the transfer market this January but my suspicion is that we won't do much, with adding another GK the most likely scenario. I think the team has five needs over the next couple windows. The big needs are an attacking midfielder that can credibly play the 10 role because Smith-Rowe can't play every match and is only 20 and shouldn't be expected to own the position completely, a top level central midfielder to partner Partey, and a top tier right sided CB who can be paired with Gabriel and relegate Holding to backup duty, which is probably a better fit for his talent level. The two smaller needs are a real left footed backup LB (assuming Kola is never coming back) and a competent backup GK. The most pressing needs right now are probably the 10 player and the backup GK, just because if either Smith-Rowe or Leno gets hurt we are in massive trouble. But I think it will be hard to sign the right 10 player in January at the right price, whereas it is much more likely to be financially and practically feasible to find a competent backup GK so that none of us ever have to see Runarsson again.
It's been a funny year. Results have been terrible but there is also a lot to be excited about given the development being shown by our younger players. We could be starting 6 out of 10 field players 23 and under if AMN takes the RB position from Bellerin, including a couple that look to have genuinely world class potential. And hopefully one or two more from a secondary group of young players (Nketiah, Nelson, Balogun, Willock, Saliba, Guendouzi) end up making it at Arsenal and panning out. That's a nice core to build around.