It is also rather possible that Kai Havertz could be on the beach, and if all goes according to plan, come on for the last 20 minutes. Eberechi Eze would also value a bit of time on the pitch, although he will also be looking forward to having a couple of games in the next round of the Carabao Cup, which is indeed not that far away.
With Arsenal being bottom of the injury table, we can expect stories to start emerging of other clubs seeking to buy up “disgruntled” Arsenal players who are not getting games, on the cheap – but it is worth remembering that such nonsense is merely created by agents as a way of justifying their existence, and snapped up by editors as a way of filling some column inches.
Mind you, it would be nice if some of the media did some investigative make-believe into how Arsenal have managed to have so few injuries at the moment. Some secret foruma? A deal with PGMO? There must be something they can make up. Although maybe I have been holding the injury table upside down.
Meanwhiile The BBC have an interesting report saying that, “Arne Slot’s side are nine games unbeaten now, so their recent results have been all right on paper. It’s their performances that are the problem, though. When you see them with your own eyes, they are miles off where they were when they won the title last season and are nowhere near where Arsenal are at now either.”
The Corporation go for a 2-0 victory to Arsenal. The Standard do however, give us an Arsenal line-up to contemplate
Raya;
Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie;
Zubimendi, Rice, Odegaard;
Saka, Gyokeres, Trossard
The Metro go with exactly the same group of men, although with very slight positional differences in the midfield, which of course we often see during the course of the game anyway, so that doesn’t really make too much difference.
And then again, Sports Mole comes in with exactly the same players, although once again with a bit of a shuffle in positioning across each line.
So with nothing much to add on that issue, here is a league table as it stands this afternoon…