After seven years out of European club football's most prestigious competition, the Gunners marked their game back in the Champions League with a dominant 4-0 win over PSV Eindhoven. As a result, many of the Emirates faithful are growng in confidence ahead of Sunday's showdown with local rivals Tottenham.
Mikel Arteta's men welcome their arch enemies to the red side of north London for their first meeting of the campaign. The tie is set up to be an interesting one, with both Arsenal and Spurs boasting an equal record of four wins and one draw from their opening five games.
With that in mind, here are all of the talking points surrounding the Gunners for Saturday, September 23.
Odegaard set to stay
Martin Odegaard has signed a five-year deal with the Gunners
Martin Odegaard has signed a five-year deal with the Gunners
Martin Odegaard has commited his long-term future to Arsenal and put pen to paper on a new five-year deal, which will see him become the club's highest earner. Once the new contract had been officially announced, the Norway international explained how delighted he was to be extending his Gunners stay.
"People want to be here as part of the project. What we’re doing is really special and the players see what the manager wants to do and how the club is progressing, the connection we now have with the fans. I think it’s a no-brainer for the players to be part of that. With so many hungry young players, it’s a great place to be.
"Even though we’re a young team, you can see the quality, the responsibility the players take. Experience is not just about age. It’s also about what you’ve done. I think the young players we have already have a lot of experience.
"All the players want the same thing, they want to stay for a long time and really fight for the club and win things together. It shows the family feeling we have."Mikel Arteta has insisted that Aaron Ramsdale has reacted well to losing his place for the last two Gunners games. The England international watched both the wins over Everton and PSV from the bench.
Instead, between the sticks was summer signing David Raya. On loan from Brentford, it is widely expected that the deal will become a permanent one in the summer - which could spell bad news for Ramsdale.
However, Arteta told the media: "He’s been very supportive around the place and that’s what I expect because when you’re playing there’s someone else who’s not and he’s been very good." The Arsenal boss was also asked whether he himself was comfortable with making such a difficult call.
"Comfortable? Maybe I look it," he quipped. "It’s one of the hardest things. Players feel happy and valued when they play and when they don’t it’s hard. Everybody understands that it’s a team sport but we have seen how important the finishes are and everybody has a part to play in the season."
Despite Arteta's comments on Ramsdale's reaction, some feel the goalkeeper is now better off elsewhere instead of sharing minutes with Raya. One of those who feels that way is talkSPORT pundit Gabriel Agbonlahor.
Amid links to Arsenal's London rivals Chelsea, the former Aston Villa striker claimed: "Ramsdale will be in the horrors now, the Euros are coming he’s thinking to himself I’ve just played for England I’ve got a chance now. Now he probably won’t even get on the plane.
"Dean Henderson left Manchester United and has gone to Crystal Palace and he’s got a task to get Sam Johnstone out of the side. He has to go and play somewhere, it’s as simple as that.
"We said it about [Kalvin] Phillips and [Harry] Maguire and these players but I mean Ramsdale, you’d be devastated. He got his team into the Champions League he played a big part of it but football is heartless."
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