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Arsenal’s makeshift attacking options must do the business in Prague

Suburban Gooners Logo Suburban Gooners Logo Morning campers, hope you’re all well on this here Champions League match day, in which a visit to Prague is on the cards for the team for one of the earlier kick offs today.

Firstly, we have to ponder who on earth is now going to be playing up front, after Big Vik succumbed to muscular injury, in which Arteta would not be drawn on how long he is out for. I think, given our luck both last season and this season, we could probably be forgiven for thinking the worst and whilst we have a hurdle to overcome this evening, I’m wondering when we are going catch a frigging break on injuries, because as Arteta pointed out in his press conference also talking about when we play Crystal Palace over the Christmas period, we now have a vast array of attacking players out injured as it stands in this point in time.

No Gyokeres.

No Kai.

No Gabriel Jesus.

No Madueke.

No Martinelli.

No Odegaard.

It’s honestly ridiculous that we have a situation where we stockpiled ourselves to guard against injury, yet we STILL find ourselves possibly calling on makeshift starting front lines as we enter into November. The footballing gods are really doing their best to test us and what’s also annoying is that in about a month’s time, you just know we’ll have everyone back fit and we’ll be wondering how we are going to spread the game time out.

Fingers crossed it’s just this game and then potentially Sunderland away next weekend, which is looking all the more trickier with Gyokeres possibly missing from that too.

As for tonight, it’ll be Slavia Prague who we need to work out how to overcome, with Arteta admitting how they haven’t lost at home in an age. They’re sitting top of their domestic league as a result of form like that, but their Champions League form tells a different story, with a draw at home to Bodo/Glimt and an away point at Atalanta, whilst being roundly beaten in Milan to Inter on match week two of the Champions League. I haven’t watched the highlights of the games, but I did check out the formations and how they set up against each of their Champions League opponents and I certainly found it interesting, because they’ve never played the same formation twice in the admittedly small sample size that I’ve looked at. Google had them lining up in a 3-5-2 against Bodo, a 4-5-1 against Inter and a 4-3-3 against Atalanta. Now, whether that means they’ll be looking to flip to something different or not tonight remains to be seen, but it does mean that there might be some thinking to do for Arteta. Equally, perhaps there is little thinking to do at all, because whilst on paper formations can look quite different when handed in to the UEFA officials, the spaces that players occupy can quite often be very similar whether you’re in a 4-5-1 or a 4-3-3, so I might be talking a load of old b*llocks here.

What Arsenal need to do is ensure that we control possession and ensure that we are not transitioned on. The good thing about Champions League games is that teams are used to winning and being the dominant forces in their respective leagues, so they don’t usually turn up to a game of football thinking about camping in their own half. Sometimes that’s how the game can play out, but it doesn’t usually work out like that. So I don’t think we’ll see Slavia Prague low block the crap out of us this evening. I do think they will try to open up space a bit and if that happens, then we need to be able to capitalise.

What Arteta does in the front three will be the biggest question mark I think. With all of the above mentioned players out, I think it limits our options significantly, plus the absence of Zubimendi means that we’ll see rotation further back on the field and as a result, I think this team might have more than a whiff of the Carabao Cup side from last week. I think he’ll start Raya in goal, I suspect one of Gabriel or Saliba will come in and one will drop to the bench, then I wonder if he’ll think about rotating one of our full backs? I suspect we might see Norgaard but because of that I think that despite the fact Rice is on a yellow and that could be dangerous if he picks one up for when we play Bayern after the international break, I think Arteta will get him on the pitch, along with Eze too. Then across the front three I think he goes with the same three that ended the game on Saturday. So it’ll be Trossard, Merino and Saka in attack. And that attack needs to be able to deliver more of a threat than the second half against Burnley for sure. Some of that might have been game state and us happy to pick up the three points by shutting down any kind of football match against the clarets, but tonight we need to see more.

It does mean, I think, that we will have to see a different style too from our attack, because whereas we’ve been learning to play to Gyokeres’ strengths and his running of the channels and balls in behind, Merino just won’t do that tonight if he starts. He will drop in and connect with fellow midfielders, he will be an aerial threat into the box, but he isn’t going to put in the kinds of yards that Big Vik does. So creativity of approach might need to see Trossard and/or Saka make more central runs if Merino is dropping in at times. The good news is that I think both of those players are capable of that and Trossard in particular has been in good form, so that’s a positive for sure.

It’s three wins out of three and zero goals conceded in the Champions League as we stand, with the opportunity to set a new club record (I think) with another shut out this evening. That’s amazing, but it’s up the other end of the pitch that the focus needs to be and if we get that right, then I think we’re getting close to the point where automatic qualification for the next round is within our grasp. I’ve said previously that 15/16 points probably does it and a win tonight takes us to 12. That would be massive in the context of our season, because given there are eight games you have to play in this blasted big league format, if you win your next two (which includes that win against Bayern) then you could find yourself able to rotate for the final two games at least, at a time in which the season because very congested indeed.

That’s permutations for another day, but for today it is just about finding a way to win away from home to keep our momentum. Let’s hope the boys can do it.

Catch you all tomorrow for a post match review.

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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.