Morning all.
It’s Crystal Palace again today, this time away from home in the Premier League, and it will be interesting to see how Mikel Arteta reshapes his team for this one. Palace were more or less at full strength in midweek, whereas we made a host of changes. How much impact that has on them physically, we’ll have to wait and see, but Arsenal can call on players like Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel and Kai Havertz who weren’t starters on Wednesday, and some of whom didn’t play at all.
Rotation will be key during the upcoming period with 9 games in January, but I wonder if today there might be a decision or two based on form rather than fatigue. For example, it might be a stretch to say Gabriel Jesus is in good form, but there’s probably a good case to be made for allowing his midweek hat-trick inform team selection. He really turned it on against Palace on Wednesday, so why not give him a chance again from the start?
It’s not punishment or anything like for Havertz, it’s just recognising a moment: a player who has been low on confidence and output might really benefit from the manager very publicly acknowledging what he did in the previous game. And if it doesn’t work, you have a great option on the bench, and someone who can give you something very different stylistically too. There might even be a case to be made for starting Jesus and Havertz together. Neither Leandro Trossard or Gabriel Martinelli have been in top form of late, and we know the Brazilian can play in the wide positions, so let’s see.
Beyond that, the manager has options at left-back with both Riccardo Calafiori and Oleksandr Zinchenko likely to be available, so hopefully that means Jurrien Timber will start on the right (fitness permitting). I guess the ideal scenario is that we’re in a position later in the game where ‘resting’ him for the final 20/30 minutes is an option, without worrying too much about how the balance of the side is impacted by Thomas Partey being there.
After two successive draws, it’s really important we take all three points today. I think it will be slightly different from Wednesday, cup games have their own dynamic, and Palace at home will give it a real go, so perhaps that might leave us more space to operate in in their half. Then it’s up to us to create the chances, and to be clinical in front of goal in a way we haven’t been in the last two games. Fingers crossed.
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This week also saw the five year anniversary of Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal tenure. He said himself it seems to have gone by very quickly, and I can connect with that. I know there’s such focus on trophies and success, and I understand that completely. We all want to see Arsenal lift the title again, and a Champions League would obviously be amazing, but I do think it’s worth stepping back a bit and looking at where we are now compared to where we were when he came in.
The idea that we could close the gap on Man City and Liverpool seemed almost fanciful, but we did that. We came close to the title two seasons ago, and even closer last year. If there’s frustration, you have to acknowledge a very large part of that is because expectations have been raised and that’s down to the work Arteta and the club have done. We were a mess, an utter shambles, when he took over, and now we look at this as a team and club that *must* win the biggest trophies in football. Worth considering.
I also like the fact that he is aware we need to do more to fully capitalise on the foundations he has gone such a long way to create, saying:
We’ve built something together and so many people have contributed in a big way to achieve that and the fact that everybody is hungry and ambitious, but now we have to go to another level.
I have a lot to learn, a lot to improve and the best is yet to come.
Let’s hope so.
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Right, I’m gonna leave it there for now. We have a preview podcast available right now on Patreon. Join us later for live blog coverage, plus you’ll get the match report, goal clips, reaction, player ratings and much more over on Arseblog News.
Until then!