Jorghino was awarded his first start for Arsenal while they were on the road at Everton, but it was a game that he would rather forget.
At Goodison Park, in the centre of the field, there was a really physical competition going on, and fans of Arsenal would have been very interested to watch how the Italian did in it. Both Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey were having a difficult time focusing on the game because of players like Amadou Onana, Idrissa Gueye, and Abdoulaye Doucoure.
Because of this, Arteta decided to replace Partey with Jorginho, despite the fact that the former Chelsea player did not get off to a very strong start in his new role. Arsenal fell behind after conceding a goal off of a corner kick less than a minute after he was brought on as a substitute.
James Tarkowski was able to provide his former manager at Burnley, Sean Dyche, with a dream start to his new job as manager of Everton after the ball looped over Jorginho and landed on the back of his head.
The Toffees were more than willing to sit back and soak up the pressure while trying to maintain their lead after falling behind, which spurred a shift of momentum after the loss of the lead. This, in turn, provided Arsenal with a greater opportunity to maintain control of the ball, particularly in the middle of the field.
The duties assigned to Jorginho were straightforward: maintain possession of the ball and move it forward into the path of the most creative players on the Arsenal squad, such as Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka.
He was successful in doing so on a number of occasions, and Jorginho cannot be held accountable for his new teammates’ inability to create opportunities and unlock the Everton lock since they were unable to do so.
It is a testament to how dominant Jorginho’s Everton opponents were that Odegaard was hauled off 10 minutes after the Italian was brought on, putting a halt to one avenue of improvement for the Gunners. Jorginho was brought on to replace Lucas Torreira.
Even though Xhaka attempted to save the ball with his hospital pass, Jorginho ended up losing possession of the ball in a potentially hazardous situation with seven minutes remaining. Fortunately for the Italian, Neal Maupay’s shot was weak and went straight into Aaron Ramsdale’s hands rather than the back of the net. This prevented the goal from being scored.
In the end, it would be unfair to place the responsibility for what is only Arsenal’s second loss in the league this season on their rookie, even though things don’t appear to be going too well from Jorginho’s point of view from an optics standpoint.
As the Gunners’ title aspirations take a rare hit, Arteta, the Arsenal fans, and Jorginho himself will be hoping for significantly better in the weeks to follow.