Photo from Unsplash
Morning guys.
Arsenal’s Champions League fixtures are tough.
Real Madrid (H)
Bayern Munich (A)
Borussia Dortmund (H)
Real Betis (A)
Lille (H)
Napoli (A)
Sabah (H)
Slavia Prague (A)
Once we get Mourniho’s lot and Bayern out of the way, things look a little easier but even then, no club can be taken lightly. Either side of the Real tie we’re at home against Chelsea and then we travel to Sunderland. The away game against Bayern is sandwiched between a home fixture against Leeds Utd and an away match against Nottingham Forest.
I find it quite staggering that no club has been interested in signing 26 year old Reiss Nelson for a fee. West Ham were reported to be keen on signing him but a deal never materialised but I strongly suspect that now he’s a free agent, he’ll have no problem finding a new club. He might not be up to Mikel Arteta’s standards but mid to low table Premier League clubs could soon snap him up. I hope so for his sake. It’s hard to believe he’s been at Arsenal for 18 years until yesterday when the player and club agreed to end his contract.
We’re down to five days now. Five days of waiting to see if the sulky Alvarez can agree to join Arsenal. From the outside it seems this is the player Arteta is desperate to sign. The all singing and dancing 26 year old who is reportedly desperate to switch Spanish clubs.
Obviously Arteta wouldn’t talk about him during his pre Aston Villa pre Aston Villa press conference and rightly so but he did waffle on about other things. Ezri Konsa will be in the squad for Monday night’s game and Bruno Guimaraes could be too. William Saliba and Jurrien Timber remain absent of course.
When asked about Gabriel Jesus not being in training he said something about having personal issues. Something similar was behind Gabriel Martinelli leaving the session early too. I hung on to every word, honest! Tactics, exposure and something about fitness was the reason he gave for not switching Kai Havertz for Viktor Gyokeres against Coventry. I’d be more concerned about Havertz fitness if he’s to be our main striker this season, not Gyokeres’. No news about Ethan Nwaneri he said and I personally hope it stays that way because in a long and hard season coupled with our history of injuries, we will probably need him.
The last thing he said related to our forwards and signings:
I think it’s a natural reaction [to look for new signings] because we always want more, it looks like, if we sign somebody else. But we already have a lot of great players here in the building. We’re always looking to strengthen and be better and have qualities that we don’t have in the squad. But the main aim, as I said, is to focus on the ones that we have, they are so good.
Lastly, Alvarez hasn’t turned up for training with Real Madrid for a third day running. Now where are those grapes which need crushing….
Catch up in the comments.