In the morning.
Finally, we can see some light at the end of the tunnel. Arsenal play again on Saturday and Mikel Arteta will be hoping his remaining players, who have international commitments, can play out their final games injury-free.
Martin Odegaard played the full 90 last night as Norway lost again to Portugal, leaving them bottom of the table. Arsenal’s captain had an assist on the night, but I think it’s fair to say Christopher Ajer’s strike was the scorer’s own work – watch here. However, Odegaard has four assists to his name in the four games Norway have played, and given his recent output for us this season has been all about goals, I hope this Interlull gets the creative juices flowing, so to speak.
Then there’s the question of whether or not there’s any injury from Bernardo Silva’s strike, but I’ll assume that playing 180 minutes for his country since then suggests he’s fine. Last night there was no extraordinary moment, the Portuguese midfielder, whose medals at Man City are now devalued by industrial fraud, only appeared as a late single and apparently had no time to get into the rhythm of the game. This is important, even if you want to kick someone in the rear as a cowardly little trick.
Elsewhere, Jurrien Timber was on the bench as the Netherlands beat Serbia 2-1. He has played in two of the four games this break, racking up 88 minutes of game time, hopefully useful. In an ideal world it’s managed intelligently, it’s absolutely essential to increase its load after such a long time, and I hope that’s what happened. But there’s a worry in the back of my mind that as he pushes himself, the injury he’s dealing with resurfaces. This isn’t based on any inside information, by the way, but until we see him win games under his belt, it’s hard to be confident even if things seem to be going in the right direction.
As for what the rest of the week has in store for Arsenal’s players, Riccardo Calafiori could then play for Italy against Turkey, while Victor Gyokerez will look to make it a full house in terms of goals against Sweden against Romania. He has scored in the previous three games this break and will look to make it four out of four. The England and Spain boys will also be in action tomorrow, after which they will return home and preparations for Leeds can begin in earnest.
Apart from the away players, we will wait to see if there are any positive updates on the fitness of players like Ben White, Cristhian Mosquera and Piero Hincapie who stayed at home. With all the football we have to play and the aforementioned concern about the Timbers, it would be very helpful to have the top two back in contention and available. I really feel the injury gods are on our side when it comes to the right back position.
When White is suitable, Wood is not and vice versa, and this means that they often go beyond their fitness limits. The best way to keep them both in shape is to make sure we manage their minutes properly. I still think rotation is an issue for this manager, and not just because of injury. He tends to stick with what he’s working on, and while we can probably all understand that, I feel like he needs to be a little more flexible with some of his team choices.
I guess that’s easier said than done behind the keyboard. My work, for example, is about ideas. His job is to win football matches, which is more important. Will those of us looking to use him throughout the depth of his lineup often allow you to not be as strong as you could be without certain players? It’s pretty easy to criticize team selection after the fact. He had to do it. He had to do it.
Still, it’s not like he has a bench full of sticks. These are high-quality international players assembled at a more or less large cost, and between our two upcoming Premier League games we have a decent rotation-worthy Champions League game, let’s see.
All right, I’ll leave it for the morning. We recorded the Arsecast Extra yesterday, so if you haven’t had a chance to tune in yet, start your week off with some sound. Until tomorrow.