Mikel Arteta will have spent more arduous Easter Sundays attempting to hunt hidden chocolate eggs.
Aside from a few minutes of brief concern for Bukayo Saka’s raked achilles – an incident for which Leif Davis received his very early marching orders – this was as undemanding an afternoon as theArsenalmanager could ever have envisaged as he navigates a path to the more important matter of a Champions League semi-final with Paris Saint-Germain later this month. The Spaniard will put his players through tougher training sessions ahead of that showdown than the exertions required of them at Portman Road.
The upshot of this extraordinary facile 4-0 win was that Liverpool are notPremier Leaguechampions; not yet anyway. They will be – of that there is only mathematical, but virtually no practical, doubt. For now, though, the title remains open for a little while longer.
Similarly,Ipswich Townare not yet relegated, but – as acknowledged by Kieran McKenna prior to kick-off – their football will be played in the Championship next season. Even if they win all five of their remaining fixtures, they would still almost certainly go down due to their awful goal difference.
If this match marked the reading of their last rites in the top flight, McKenna’s side appeared to hear them in a stupor. By the time Davis was shown a straight red card for a tackle that possessed an abundant capacity to injure but no hope of winning the ball, his side were already two goals down and staring at a task that appeared borderline impossible. Davis’ dismissal with almost an hour remaining confirmed as much.
Arsenal’s dominance was abundant from the first whistle to the last, despite rarely breaking into a sweat. If the aim for the remainder of the domestic campaign is to maintain momentum for European endeavours without undue risk of fatigue, downing an already sinking Ipswich ship was the ideal task.
With the match ceasing to exist as anything even resembling a contest following Davis’ departure, the opening 32 minutes can be taken as their own entity – a period in which Arsenal walked and sometimes jogged their way into a two-goal lead.
Both followed a similar script, produced by Saka’s pace and skill down a right flank that Arsenal appeared to target from the outset.
The first saw his cutback flick via Martin Ødegaard’s toe to Leandro Trossard who, loitering near the penalty spot, prodded past Alex Palmer while falling backwards. When Saka repeated the trick soon after, Mikel Merino’s faint back-heel sent the ball towards Gabriel Martinelli, who was able to tap into an empty net at the far post.
That Saka was not credited with either assist does nothing to deny his role as creator of both.
The England forward instantly became the home fans’ primary target following Davis’ sending off, although they would have been hard-pressed to argue against the decision with the benefit of replays.
They did, at least, gain a modicum of perverse pleasure from Saka’s inability to add his name to the scoresheet. Three times in less than 10 minutes before half-time, Saka had sight of goal only to put efforts wide of the upright.
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The absence of any jeopardy allowed Arteta to rotate his troops after the break, with Saka, Merino, Declan Rice and Gabriel Martinelli all able to put their feet up early.
With more than one eye on the upcoming PSG encounters – the first of which Thomas Partey is suspended for – Arteta had decided to use this as a practice for his likely set-up, deploying Rice in a deeper No 6 role and pulling Merino back into his more familiar midfield position. Aside from a couple of early skirmishes, where he stood up resolutely to the tricky figure of Julio Enciso, Rice may as well have not been there for all that he was troubled.
From the ninth to the 56th minute, Ipswich did not even muster a shot, McKenna forced to revert to a 5-3-1 formation in the second half in a bid to prevent the floodgates from opening.
It had some success, although Arsenal – exhibiting their set-piece prowess – added two more from short corners.
First, Trossard strolled unaccompanied to the edge of the six-yard box, before swivelling on the ball and drilling low past Palmer. Then, Ethan Nwaneri cut inside and saw his shot take multiple deflections on its way into the net. It was nothing that their dominance did not deserve, and Arteta’s side are now unbeaten in 11 matches across all competitions.
Conversely, Ipswich fans have endured seven successive home defeats, the club’s longest ever losing run at Portman Road. The Championship should bring some solace on that front.