Photo from Freepik.
Morning all.
I checked out our fixture schedule for January and it’s hectic..
1st – Brentford (A)
4th – Brighton (A)
7th/8th – Newcastle (H) League Cup (TBC)
12th – Man Utd (H) FA Cup
15th – Totts (H)
18th – Aston Villa (H)
22nd – Dinamo Zagreb (H)
25th – Wolves (A)
28th – Girona (A)
That’s a game every three days, bonkers really but I guess that’s why football clubs have a squad of 25. Will Mikel Arteta continue with rotating his players when a place in the League Cup final is on offer? Will he risk getting knocked out of the FA Cup in the first round? I’m pretty sure he won’t, just as there’s little chance of him risking a place in the Champions League knockout stage. I think it’s fair to suggest we can expect to see rotation but perhaps not big numbers in any one game.
Anyway, before we worry about January, we have two December fixtures left to play. Crystal Palace today and then Ipswich at The Emirates on the 27th.
Unlike Wednesday’s fixture against Crystal Palace, today’s league fixture is at Selhurst Park. Apart from changes in personnel, certainly for Arsenal, I think the game will play out in a similar fashion to the midweek cup fixture. Hopefully the end result will be the same though with all three points going to the away side.
Mikel Arteta confirmed yesterday that Declan Rice and Riccardo Calafiori are fit to play and Oleksandr Zinchenko could be in the squad. There’s no return yet for Ben White or Takehiro Tomiyasu.
Crystal Palace will be without Eberechi Eze, who injured his hip in midweek whileMatheus Franca and Adam Wharton are ruled out too. Poor oldDaniel Munoz, who was banned for the cup game, is banned for this one too having accumulated five yellow cards in the Premier League.
Mikel Arteta:
Obviously, we played recently and analysed them, so we don’t have to do that too much, I’m sure that both teams will adjust a few things and probably change some personnel as well. Apart from that, the difficulty of the game remains the same – we know what it’s like to go to Selhurst Park and we have prepared for that.
Palace’s last home game was against Manchester City which ended 2-2. Palace went ahead twice but salvaged a draw halfway through the second half. As expected, City enjoyed lots of possession as I think Mikel Arteta’s team will today but we just have to better them at both ends of the pitch. City and Palace I mean.
If Riccardo Calafiori is 100%, I’d imagine he’ll start at left back meaning Jurrien Timber will slot into right back. Our two big strong centrals should be back together again giving us a really strong back five. Even if Myles Lewis-Skelly starts, we’re still very strong at the back. Options in midfield are strong too with Thomas Partey, Declan Rice, Mikel Merino and Jorginho all available. Thankfully, there should be no reason to see Thomas Partey at right back.
The conundrum for Mikel Arteta is who as well as Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka, plays in attack. Does he take a chance on Gabriel Jesus after his midweek burst of form, or does he go back to Kai Havertz? I’m pretty sure Gabriel Martinelli will start ahead of Leandro Trossard.
Whoever plays, just get the three points and move on..
Catch up in the comments…