Now and then: how Arsenal have progressed to where they are now
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By Tony Attwood
Fewer than 7,000 spectators turned up to watch this week’s women’s fixture of Tottenham Hotspur game against Arsenal. It seems interest in the women’s game in north east London is fading fast.
And I say that since it is just a week since Arsenal welcomed 56,537 fans to the Emirates for the game against Chelsea. Of course, part of the reason must have been that the Tottenham match was moved to the Brisbane Road ground, which only holds just over 9000 spectators. Making that move was pretty silly, but then again, it was Tottenham. But it is not even the fact that they have a poor team that can be used (actually, they don’t) it is, well, I don’t know. Just insulting I suppose.
Normally, when a club does something odd-looking, such as this move, one says, “But I am sure they know what they are doing,” but I don’t think that applies in this case.
Meanwhile, we have the reality of injuries for the men’s team, where is has been revealed by the fact that Gabriel Magalhães will apparently be out of action for quite a while following his injury in an international. If only all the league clubs got together and said that as a League they agreed that all the salary of players who get injured on international “duty” (which of course it isn’t – it’s voluntary self-aggrandisement) will not be paid by their club until they are fit again, then maybe we could deal with this utterly unnecessary menace.
And of course the importance of Gabriel is revealed by one simple fact – he has played every single minute of every league game this season and is a key reason why the club is breaking all the defensive records of the Premier League – or at least Arsenal have been.
Arsenal’s lowest-ever number of goals conceded in the Premier League was 17 in 1998/9 closely followed by 18 in 1990/91. This season, Arsenal have conceded five. If the current rate continued, then Arsenal would most likely end the season with once more 17 or 18 conceded. But to achieve that, we need the defenders fit, not defenders going across the world and getting injured. As I have suggested before, it really is time for the league clubs to stand up against the crazy demands of countries, for the game in which he was injured was not even a competitive match.
So it looks like we might use either Cristhian Mosquera or Piero Hincapié. But meanwhile, we now hear that Riccardo Calafiori has withdrawn from the Italy team although at the moment we don’t actually know what the problems are.
And of cours,e we can throw into this the fact that no one is talking about when Martin Ødegaard can start full training, let alone when he can play again. And yet despite this Ødegaard went to Norway rather than stay in London and have further treatment with Arsenal’s medical team. It was pointless of course – the Norway manager said their own medical report confirmed “he is some distance away” from being able to play for either his country or his club. But really, changing one’s medical team part way through a period of treatment is never a clever idea.
So what was the point of his travelling? We are not told.
Which now brings us back to the possible returnees: Gabriel Martinelli and Viktor Gyökeres. Either of these players might be able to make the team against Tottenham. Reports suggest that Kai Havertz and Noni Madueke could make the bench. As Artet said, “We need to get players back because we are missing seven players in the front line for the last two months.”
Arsenal have one of the smallest squads in the PRemier League (only Everton, Fulham and Aston Villa have smaller groups) and while of course it is true that top players won’t put up with simply being back-ups it does suggest that maybe we do need a few more players who are NOT internationals, given that the ones we have got insist on rushing across the world to play for their countries whenever the call comes.
So looking forward, if we possibly can, Manchester City are away to Newcastle on Saturday evening, and Arsenal are at home to Tottenham on Sunday at 4.30. And the one positive note at this stage in the previewing of that game is that while Arsenal are fourth in the injury table with seven players out, valiantly leading the way is Tottenham Hotspur who somehow seem to have an astonishing 12 players unavailable at the moment through injury.
Still I suppose they know what they are doing.
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Now and then: how Arsenal have progressed to where they are now
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