Morning all.
It’s one other tough away journey immediately, as we face Brighton simply three days after beating Brentford. Immediately’s opposition have had a few further days to relaxation and put together for this one, in order that’s one other difficult side of this encounter.
When it comes to the crew, we’re with out Jurrien Timber who picked up a suspension on Wednesday, so the apparent choose to interchange him is Thomas Partey. I don’t assume there’s every other resolution actually. I can’t see Mikel Arteta enjoying a left-footer on the best, and with Declan Rice and Jorginho accessible to return into midfield, he’ll go along with the participant who has crammed in there loads of instances this season.
I do assume that has a knock-on impact on our proper hand facet, however it’s the absence of Bukayo Saka that may impression that probably the most. Ethan Nwaneri was superb there in opposition to Brentford and may very well be referred to as up on once more, however in his press convention yesterday, the supervisor made it clear he’s going to should rotate with some frequency throughout this hectic month:
There’s not one participant that’s going to play 9 video games in a row in that place, it’s unattainable. So, once we have a look at that and we have a look at the opposition as nicely, particularly the best way they defend, the best way they occupy areas, in the future a pure or inverted footed, could be extra helpful.
With Kai Havertz again from sickness for immediately’s recreation, there’s scope for Mikel Arteta to do one thing a bit totally different together with his ahead line. Maybe shifting Gabriel Martinelli over to the best with Leandro Trossard on the left? That stated, together with his present kind, you in all probability need to hold Gabriel Jesus within the crew too. What I might say is that with a cup semi-final on Tuesday, and so many video games in January, there are going to be some crew picks that look a bit odd, and I do marvel if immediately is likely to be a kind of.
In midfield, assuming health isn’t a problem, I feel we’ll see Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard and Mikel Merino (about whom I wrote yesterday), with the supervisor backing the summer time signing to ship extra:
We anticipated a really quick integration as a result of he’s performed within the league, he’s such an clever and skilled participant and he matches very nicely. He had an harm and one other little niggle, and he had no pre-season as a result of he performed for Spain as nicely and it took him only a whereas to begin to get set, however now you possibly can see the impression he has within the crew, his intelligence and the aim menace that he affords to the crew. Then, increasingly will come as a result of he’s a pure chief as nicely. As he grows within the function, I feel we’ll see way more from him.
It’d be a great recreation too for the captain to offer some finish product. I don’t assume he’s been fairly proper of late, maybe that ankle remains to be a problem after the harm and the current arrival to the family is likely to be enjoying an element, however he’s been rather less impactful than you’ll count on. It looks like he may benefit from a aim and/or an help (or two, three – I’m not grasping).
I’m additionally curious to see how we strategy this recreation. In opposition to Brighton final season we performed a really courageous/dangerous recreation, urgent them excessive up the pitch which left some house in midfield, however it labored out nicely with a 3-0 win. Whether or not Arteta sees that as the best way to go in opposition to this present iteration of Brighton stays to be seen although. They’ve loads of attacking expertise to be cautious of if we give them an excessive amount of room.
Lastly, I feel there should be a little bit of ‘further’ for our gamers going into this one after what occurred within the house recreation. The Rice purple card was a real shame, and I feel it value us two factors that day. The Brighton supervisor’s feedback afterwards had been very annoying too (though I feel that comes very naturally to him), so if there’s some further motivation due to what occurred again in September, let’s lean into that. Each little counts and so forth and so forth. A Rice winner could be a little bit of justice.
Proper, I’m gonna depart it there for now. We have now a preview podcast available right now on Patreon. Be a part of us later for live blog coverage, plus you’ll get the match report, aim clips, response, participant scores and way more over on Arseblog News.
Till then!
