Everyone’s tomorrow.
We are back! After three long weeks of defeats to Interlull and Brighton, Arsenal are back in action today with a 12.30 home game against Leeds. It’s a relatively benign way to start again without taking anything for granted, but obviously we need to be much, much better than we were last time out.
Team news is relatively promising. Although Christos Tzolis will miss a couple of weeks with a muscle strain, Declan Rice is expected to be available after leaving the England games at half-time, which is good. The manager was a little cautious about Kai Havertz and Ezri Konsa, but they could be in the mix well, and Ben White, Cristhian Mosquera and Piero Hincapie have cleared pre-Interlull injuries so they are all available for selection today.
With Tzolis sidelined, Eberechi Eze looks set to nod on the left and this is an opportunity to remind everyone of his talent. He’s yet to start a league game this season and while I don’t 100% think it’s his best position, he’s more than capable of making an impact. I would love for him to do it today. First of all, because the team will benefit, but he also feels like he can do it with this kind of boost in confidence.
Speaking of which, Viktor Gyökeres comes into this game after a very good scoring run for Sweden. Four games, four goals. He is another player who has not finished the season, making no starts in the Premier League (just 29 minutes of playing time) and failing to score in five matches in all competitions. However, this feels like the right time to start Mikel Arteta’s season, regardless of his selection or booking. Of course it’s up to the player to deliver that, but he’s someone we’re going to need over the course of this campaign and there are times when, as a manager, you have to recognize that the time is right to give a player an opportunity. That’s exactly how it feels for Gyokeres today, and like Eze, I hope he can produce today if given the chance.
I think we’ll probably see Rice, Bruno Guimaraes, Martin Odegaard in the midfield as well, as Arteta tries to build links between the new signing and the other two. It wasn’t really there against Brighton, but it’s fair to say there wasn’t much elsewhere. The Brazilian clearly has the ability to break the game open against Sunderland, and as much as I’m a fan of Myles Lewis-Skelly, goalscoring isn’t something he has in the cupboard yet. Against a team that will essentially play with a back five today, and with Arsenal likely to play most of the game trying to pick a way, Guimaraes feels like the right choice.
Leeds are no pushovers, they are unbeaten in the league so far and have become a tough side to beat since Daniel Farke changed the set-up last season. But it will be up to Arsenal to put in a performance to bounce back from a disappointing display at Brighton. Arteta says:
“The pain is still in his stomach and tomorrow we definitely have to play with it because it was a lesson for us.
“There was a lot to learn from that game, when you don’t hit certain fundamentals in a football match, especially against a really good side, you’re almost unrecognizable and that can happen. But it was about learning who we are and how thin the line is, being average rather than exceptional, and that’s the reality.”
This is a team that has developed the ability to respond well to disappointment and defeat, and hopefully that’s what we see today. After a long hiatus, the appetite for some Arsenal is back and some things have made us all question football and what we’ve been through in the last few years. But I hope the team can remind us what makes the game so good, why we love it so much and are so invested in it. Over to you guys.
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As expected, when asked about Man City products, Mikel Arteta didn’t really say anything. It was interesting that his statement about the process and pending appeal is basically what Andoni Iraola said at the press conference, and while I understand that from their point of view, we don’t need to beat around the bush. They have been found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges – if this special trial is completed. It’s different, but I think once the appeal is filed and the sanctions are imposed, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Elsewhere, I don’t necessarily recommend it, but if you can stomach it, Enzo Maresca’s press conference was a masterclass in sleazy pity. He repeatedly repeats how he trusts the club because he knows the people, and follows the party line. On the one hand, “What else can he say?” you may ask. As the manager of Man City, but towards the end a reporter completely baffled him with a brilliant question. He simply asked him if he would read the Premier League results document, which contained the evidence in black and white.
He said he still had faith in the club, then said something about how he was only focusing on football because he ‘didn’t understand much about things’. If the average man or woman in the street could read these documents and understand very well what that club was doing, it was pathetic for the manager to sit in a press conference and say he was just a simple football man. She should be embarrassed, but I guess she’s too well paid to worry about how she comes across. Suffice it to say, his credibility is zero and it’s one that will haunt him for the rest of his career.
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All right, I’ll leave it for the morning. As always, we’ll be bringing you live blog coverage of the game later on, as well as match coverage, player ratings, manager reaction, a roundup of quotes and more on Arseblog News. as we will provide all the information after the game. There’s also an initial podcast on Patreon if you need something to listen to before you get started. Don’t forget that the updated Arseblog apps have a beautiful new game center full of stats, alerts and more.
Catch you later for the game.