It’s nonetheless early days for Arsenal clearly by way of how they’re going to deal without the injured Bukayo Saka.
They received themselves off to a successful begin with out that talismanic winger, albeit in fairly unconvincing vogue as they edged previous Ipswich 1-0 on the Emirates. You’d recommend, nonetheless, that the 2 very tough trying away video games at Brentford and Brighton will give us a clearer indication of how they may cope with out the England worldwide.
No matter occurs although, I actually do really feel they must do all they will within the January switch window to bolster what now appears to be like like a fairly threadbare assault.
Sure, January is a notoriously tough window to do respectable enterprise in, nevertheless it’s not unimaginable and I’d hope that Arsenal have been working very laborious behind the scenes to attempt to establish a few alternatives that would give them the enhance they want.
I’m not essentially speaking a few huge January transfer. These kind of strikes may need to attend till the summer time. However there may be definitely scope for the membership to do one thing to fill the void that Saka’s absence will go away behind.
Arsenal interest in PL star CONFIRMED
Arsenal are all the time reluctant to do enterprise in January and the message heading into this window by way of conversations I’ve had has all the time been that the membership can be reactive, relatively than proactive out there.
That’s comprehensible, however this does really feel like one thing that they must react to. Dropping Saka for round ten weeks is a hammer blow. It’s so simple as that.
I don’t suppose anybody who is available in needs to be a like-for-like substitute. They only want an alternative choice who can play within the frontline and might contribute objectives and assists.
I’m a giant fan of Matheus Cunha and Arsenal’s interest in him does make numerous sense. I do perceive, nonetheless, it might be very tough to lure him away from Wolves in the course of the season when they’re battling relegation.
Arda Guler on mortgage from Actual Madrid would even be an attention-grabbing quick time period transfer. We’ve seen Arsenal have some success with a deal like that previously. Simply consider Martin Odegaard for instance.
Guler is younger, however he has proven he can carry out on the largest stage and has the expertise to make a distinction within the remaining third.
So there may very well be choices on the market for Arsenal, it’s as much as them to go on the market and discover them.
I believed Gabriel Martinelli did OK taking part in on the correct towards Ipswich. There have been some good moments and I feel it might be unfair to put in writing him off as an possibility on that aspect after only one begin.
He’s going to take a while to get used to taking part in in that position and his team-mates are going to must take a while getting used to somebody apart from Saka occupying these positions.
Arsenal are going to be totally different with out Saka. Mikel Arteta has already mentioned that. They’ll’t simply proceed taking part in the identical method with another person taking part in in his position and count on issues to be precisely the identical.
Martinelli had a number of good moments towards Ipswich. He whipped in a few good crosses, together with one which performed a component within the objective.
I need to see him doing extra of that. Simply transferring the ball onto his proper foot and getting it into the hazard space earlier than the defence is about. The actual fact he can try this, relatively than reducing inside on his stronger foot like he does over on the left ought to be a profit for Arsenal.
He clearly must work on being extra of a menace himself although. He didn’t have a shot towards Ipswich and that’s not adequate. He should be a menace, like Saka all the time is.
As we anticipate the window to open, I nonetheless suppose Martinelli is Arsenal’s most suitable choice on the correct. Ethan Nwaneri is one other and is a extra of a like-for-like substitute given the best way he performs and the best way he likes to chop inside onto left.
It might be good to see him get a go over there sooner or later, however I really feel it’s a must to stick to Martinelli for now and provides him an opportunity to get used to that position himself.
It’s powerful to take a look at Liverpool proper now and see them slipping up.
There may be nonetheless such an extended method to go and no-one is aware of higher than Arsenal how tough it’s to maintain up such a formidable tempo for the size of a complete season.
However they simply look so sturdy and are clearly taking part in with a lot confidence proper now. It’s very tough to see the place any extended slip up is coming from.
In Mo Salah they’ve one of the best participant on this planet in the intervening time and he’s proving the distinction week in, week out.
The numbers he’s producing are unbelievable and when you may have gamers like Cody Gakpo, Luiz Diaz and Jota backing him up it’s simply a humiliation of riches for Arne Slot.
Perhaps the contract points with Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk will begin to have a unfavorable impression on Liverpool, however proper now that does really feel a bit like rival groups clutching at straws.
Simply take a look at the West Ham recreation. Earlier than that everybody was speaking about Trent and the rumours he had already informed Liverpool he can be leaving for Madrid.
Did that trigger a distraction? No, he performed, performed nicely, Liverpool scored 5 and he bagged one among them himself.
So I don’t actually see it making a lot of a distinction. If Arsenal or anybody else are going to claw again Liverpool, they’re going to must do it by doing issues proper themselves, relatively than counting on some kind of implosion amongst the squad at Anfield.
What has gone flawed at Tottenham? I imply, that’s a query that somebody might spend years finding out and nonetheless not provide you with an acceptable reply.
To be sincere I’m undecided a lot has really gone flawed with them this season. They’re simply Tottenham. That is what they do.
I imply, is anybody actually shocked by their struggles this season? I can’t think about they’re.
They’ve some good gamers, they play some good soccer and on their day they will beat anybody. They only seem like a cup group to me underneath Ange Postecoglou.
It’d lastly win them a trophy. They’re within the semi-final of the League Cup in any case and you’d suppose they need to go far within the Europa League, however I can’t see them competing for the league until Postecoglou adjustments his methods a bit.
They’re simply too open and are far too straightforward to select off.
They’ve had a number of accidents this season and that does must be taken into consideration, nevertheless it’s not like they’re watertight once they have Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven match is it? They nonetheless concede far too many objectives.
Will probably be attention-grabbing to see if Daniel Levy sticks with Postecoglou. You simply by no means know what he’s going to do.
I suppose when individuals ask what’s flawed with Spurs, then Levy has to come back into the dialog.
What number of managers has he employed who’ve failed? The one actual success story was Mauricio Pochettino and Levy booted him out quickly after he had taken the membership to a Champions League remaining as a result of he felt he might get higher.
That didn’t pan out very nicely did it…
