Couple of observations from today (and Arteta’s first games in general). He likes to build up with a diamond structure as seen today and vs Everton with Xhaka dropping to the left and Ceballos as the pivot:

Often when Luiz moved out to the left Xhaka would drop to make a diamond with Martinez at the base, mostly but not exclusively from goal kicks

Kolasinac often had more space to move into the left back slot because Tierney was playing very aggressively high up early in the build-up offering an outlet and occupying the left flank in attack, much more attacking position than AMN which gave us a sort of back 4+1 at times

What strikes me the most about Arteta’s Arsenal so far is the flexibility of the team’s shape on the one hand (Tierney operating super high up in attack, but defending in the back five; Saka playing as an 8 but drifting out to the flanks) but also a real consistency about shape

and structure. In the first shots I used, you’ve got Luiz and Mustafi as a pair behind a pivot of Ceballos/Xhaka. Today we had those two CBs + Kolasinac with Xhaka a lone DM in front. But the players moved into the same shape in the build-up despite different setup/personnel

I don’t really watch other teams much or pay a lot of attention when I do so this may be pretty standard stuff but I like how Arteta has organised us, there seems to be a lot of logic to it and I think he’s getting as much out of his squad as he can

Also we’ve seen Guendouzi and Ceballos used as 8s a fair bit this season (don’t even mention Torreira) so it was great to see Saka and Willock interpret those roles in a much more attacking way. Thought Arteta would continue leaning on Ozil but seems to be looking to the future

Here's another to emphasise just how high Tierney pushed from goal kicks especially