Mikel Arteta finally solves key problem he couldn't last season with £90m success

When Arsenal named their starting XI for Saturday's match against Nottingham Forest, there was one key talking point. Declan Rice was left out of the line-up after his exertions for England during the international break, and it's rare to see him miss out.

"The amount of games that we play in the next 21 days... It is finding that right balance by making sure everybody is connected," Mikel Arteta told TNT Sports when asked about his selection, with matches against Athletic Bilbao and Manchester City around the corner.

Arteta appears to want to avoid burnout in what he knows will be a long season. It was a test of how Arsenal will get on without Rice, though they'll likely hope he's available for their biggest matches.

A home game again was always going to be a likely contender for a game to shuffle the pack, and indeed Rice was left on the subs bench for this fixture last season as well. All three of the Gunners' former Real Sociedad midfielders started, with Martin Zubimendi and Mikel Merino joining captain Martin Odegaard, though the latter was forced off injured in the first half with Ethan Nwaneri stepping in.

Merino was coming in off the high of a brilliant hat-trick for Spain against Turkey, and the 29-year-old displayed the same willingness to get into scoring positions which saw Arteta use him as a makeshift No.9 last season. He saw an early effort saved well by Matz Sels after the ball didn't come down quickly enough for him, while a powerful effort from a half-cleared corner was blocked before it could cause Sels any problems.

Zubimendi appeared to take on the responsibility of creating further up the field - creating a chance for Ebere Eze with some buzzy movement and a tidy pass just before the half-hour mark. Minutes later, though, he also showed a very different side to his game.

The Spain international scored just nine times in more than 180 games for La Real, and none were as spectacular as his first for Arsenal. His volley might have looked less impressive on replay, with a slight deflection in turn upgrading Sels' task from 'difficult' to 'impossible', but it was some way to announce yourself.

He almost scored from range again before the break, but his dipping volley didn't quite drop quickly enough. Two long-range goals in a single half of football might still be Rice territory for now.

Arsenal doubled their lead early in the second half by bypassing the midfield altogether, Eze collecting a long ball from Riccardo Calafiori and rolling the ball across for Viktor Gyokeres to score.

When Rice came on for the final quarter of the game, it was an opportunity to push Merino forward once more. With the game more or less done and dusted by then, though, there wasn't a great deal to read into the closing stages - but there was still enough time for Zubimendi to head home his second of the game.

More important for Arteta was the recognition that this team can get results without Rice in their engine room - something he didn’t always seem to trust in last season. And any chance to keep the England star well-rested for those bigger games will be welcomed.

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