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A makeshift cast of understudies for both Arsenal and Monaco tonight?

Suburban Gooners Logo Suburban Gooners Logo Happy Champions League match day folks!

I’m super excited for this one. Do you know why?

Because I’m going tonight AND I used to play in defence for my Uni team, so I might get a place on the bench!! After all, with the amount of defenders we seemingly have on the treatment table right now, anybody with any kind of footballing CV might be called upon at this rate.

There was an open training session yesterday and unless Arteta’s new ‘dark arts’ tactic is to have most of his team stay indoors whilst the cameras are out there, leaving Doris the Tea Lady to strap on some boots to knock the ball around with the Under-18s, we’ve got ourselves into yet another injury crisis.

Calafiori – nowehere to be seen.

Gabriel – nope.

Zinchenko – nah-uh.

Timber – nein.

Partey – Niet.

Still, at least we still have *checks notes* Kieran Tierney? Well he’s not going to play, is he?

Well, if you listen to Arteta’s comments yesterday, maybe he will, because he’s confirmed he’s fit and ready to play. With Josh Nicholls also out, Arteta doesn’t even have the kids to through in there at the back.

I’m being a little flippant, I’m being a little tongue-in-cheek, but this is mad how many players we seem to have had drop this season. This BBC article highlights that we’re worse off than a lot of the teams towards the top of the league but stories like that offer little consolation in a season in which City have been stuttering and most of the other traditional ‘bigger’ clubs are also flailing around a little bit. We’ve been keeping the lights on by winning a fair few games, but Liverpool’s season has meant a lot of us are left feeling a little more melancholy than you’d have thought we would be, as I mentioned yesterday.

What I will say about Arteta and his press conference is that he has no time for making excuses. He was asked a couple of times about it but he batted it away, preferring to remark on how pleased he’s been by the response of his team in the wake of these challenges. The weird thing about what’s happening right now, however, is that most of the noise is actually around our problems in open play and our problems in scoring goals. The latter part of the point is ironic because we’ve actually bagged 29 this season, which is joint with Liverpool on 29. Sure, we’ve relied on set pieces, but to say we have a goalscoring problem is missing the glaring stats telling us all otherwise.

Tonight we may well need those set pieces again, but we might also get some opportunities in behind if Monaco attempt the aggressive pressing that they’ve been known for under their current boss Adi Hütter. I’ve been doing a bit of reading on him and Monaco and he does like a higher press. But it’s a press that is in compact shape, tucking in his full backs and wide midfielders, so I suspect their game plan for tonight – if similar to how they play in Ligue Un, will be to concede the wide spaces and hope that they can congest the middle of the park when we have the ball and have them penned in. They play in compact lines apparently, so the emphasis on getting Odegard in those pockets of space might be something we pay particular attention too, but I wonder if we might see him push even further wide with Saka to drive at their narrow line up?

Monaco want the middle of the pitch so I’d be interested to see how much of it we give them. With Partey not training tomorrow and doubts of Timber, I’m not really sure how we might line up to be honest. The front line kind of picks itself with Havertz up top and Saka on the right with Odegaard nearby. You’d expect Merino will be given the nod if Partey isn’t 100% and then you’re looking at Rice in at six, but it could be a toss of a coin between Trossard and Martinelli. Perhaps this is a small space game and therefore the Belgian would be better off?

But the real head scratcher is in defence. Once you get past Raya and Saliba I am struggling, I have to say. Arteta said yesterday that the players not in the session were doubts for tonight, so if all of the above mentioned players are out, the back four could genuinely look like:

Saliba

Rice

Kiwior

Tierney

I’m probably going worst case scenario here, but if we have all of the above players out, then Rice in at centre half, Saliba at right back, Kiwior left centre half and KT in at left back might be our only options. Myles Lewis Skelly could play at right back perhaps? He’s been injured too. If he wasn’t around tomorrow and you have to go with the above bulleted list, you’re bringing Jorginho in to midfield and we would have nine players who could play in midfield out I think it is (including Tomiyasu and White)?

Crazy.

And yet the expectation will remain that we have to win tonight. I spoke yesterday of us not wanting to take it to the last game and so this evening we need to see The Arsenal in the ascendency. We need to dominate the game and on our own patch we need to move ourselves in to a commanding position in this stupid-ass league format. It’s time to put the early Champions League stutterings to bed and go do the business, lads. Monaco have a few players out with a couple of defensive suspensions being served, so we have to be ready to capitalise. They also have Flo Balogun out, Zakaria missing, Diatta and Diop – so they’ll be missing a fair few as it is. Which only heightens the hope that we will be able to cope with Monaco. We have to.

Back tomorrow with some post-match vibes and hopefully in a more cheerful mood than this morning. Have a good one.

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Gooner born in 1982 from Harlow, Essex, now living in Uxbridge. I say what I see - frequently wrong, but hey, it's just an opinion piece, right? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.