Morning all.
We’re back! After three long weeks of an Interlull coupled with sitting on that defeat to Brighton, Arsenal are in action again today with a 12.30 home game against Leeds. Without taking anything for granted, it’s a relatively kind way to get going again, but obviously we’ll have to be a lot, lot better than we were in our last outing.
The team news is relatively promising. Despite the fact Christos Tzolis is going to miss a few weeks with a hamstring strain, the expectation is that Declan Rice will be available after sitting out England’s games in the break, so that’s good. The manager was a bit guarded about Kai Havertz and Ezri Konsa but they could well be in the mix, and the pre-Interlull injuries for Ben White, Cristhian Mosquera and Piero Hincapie have cleared up so they’re all available for selection today.
With Tzolis out, it seems like that Eberechi Eze will get the nod on the left, and it’s an opportunity for him to remind everyone of his talent. He hasn’t started a league game yet this season, and while I don’t necessarily think this is 100% his best position, he’s more than capable of making an impact. I would really like to see him do that today. First because the team would benefit, but he also feels like someone whose confidence could do with that kind of boost.
Speaking of which, Viktor Gyokeres comes into this one off the back of a very good goalscoring run for Sweden. Four games, four goals. He too is another one whose season hasn’t got going get, no starts in the Premier League (just 29 minutes of playing time), and no goals in his five appearances across all competitions. However, this feels like the right time for Mikel Arteta to try kickstart his season, regardless of his preference or pecking order. It’s up to the player himself to deliver, of course, but he’s someone we’re going to need over the course of this campaign, and there are moments when as a manager you need to recognise the time is right to give a player an opportunity. Today feels exactly like that for Gyokeres, and like Eze I hope he can produce if he is given the chance today.
I think we’ll probably also see the Rice, Bruno Guimaraes, Martin Odegaard midfield again, as Arteta looks to build the relationships between the new signing and the other two. It wasn’t really there against Brighton, but then it’s fair to say not much was anywhere else either. The Brazilian has the ability to crack a game open as we saw against Sunderland, as as much as I’m a fan of Myles Lewis-Skelly, goalscoring is not something he has in his locker yet. Against a team that will essentially play with a back five today, and with Arsenal likely to play a lot of the game trying to pick a way through, Guimaraes feels like the right option.
Leeds are no pushover though, they’re unbeaten so far in the league, and they’ve become a difficult side to beat since Daniel Farke changed the formation last season. But the onus is on Arsenal to produce a performance, to bounce back from the dismal showing at Brighton. Arteta says:
“The pain is still there in the tummy, and tomorrow we certainly have to play with that because it was a lesson for us.
“There was a lot to learn from that game, when you don’t hit certain basics in a football match, especially against a really good side, you become almost unrecognisable, and it can happen. But it’s been more about learning from who we are and how thin the line is, from being exceptional to becoming very average, and that’s a reality.”
This is a team that has developed an ability to react well to disappointment and defeat, and hopefully that’s exactly what we see today. The appetite for some Arsenal again is huge after a long break, and some stuff that has made us all ask questions of football and what we have experienced over the last few years. But hopefully the team can remind us of what’s good about the game, why we love it so much, and invest so much in it. Over to you lads.
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As expected, when asked about the Man City stuff, Mikel Arteta essentially said nothing. It was curious that his statement about awaiting the process and the appeal was basically the same thing Andoni Iraola said in his press conference, and while I understand it from their perspective, we don’t have to beat around the bush. They were found guilty on 114 of 115 charges – that particular process if finished. This is a different one, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if there is more to say after the appeal is done and the sanctions handed down.
Elsewhere, I don’t necessarily recommend it per se, but if you can stomach it, Enzo Maresca’s press conference was a masterclass of feeble wretchedness. Repeating over and over how he trusted the club because he knows the people, toeing the party line. On the one hand, you could ask ‘What else can he say?’ as manager of Man City, but one reporter towards the end absolutely skewered with him with a brilliant question. She simply asked if he’d read the Premier League findings document, in which the evidence is laid out in black and white.
Again, he said he trusted the club, then spluttered something about how he was only focused on football because he ‘doesn’t understand many things about things’. If your average man or woman on the street can read these documents and understand very well what that club have done, for the manager to sit there in a press conference and make out that he’s just a simple football man for whom this stuff is too complex was absolutely pathetic. He ought to be embarrassed, but I suppose he’s too well paid to worry about how he comes across. Suffice to say though, his credibility is at zero, and it’s one of those that will haunt him for the rest of his career.
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Right, I’ll leave it there for this morning. As ever, we’ll bring you live blog coverage of the game later, as well all the post-game stuff on Arseblog News like the match report, player ratings, manager reaction, quotes round-up and more. There’s also a preview podcast on Patreon if you need something to listen to ahead of kick off. Don’t forget the updated Arseblog apps also have a cool new matchday centre, full of stats, alerts, and much more.
Catch you later for the game.