Happy Friday Gooners! It’s nearly match day again with Arsenal returning to Premier League action tomorrow night under the lights at The Emirates ahead of an unprecedented week off, so it’s vital to take maximum points tomorrow night so go into this mini-break in the best possible position. Arsenal continued their impressive European run with another win and another clean sheet away to Club Brugge in 3-0 win with a much rotated team that has raised a number of questions.
The problem right now
The win against Club Brugge showed Arsenal’s impressive strength in depth as a much changed team ran out relatively comfortable winners, yet it wasn’t a great night for all of those players brought in for the tie. Viktor Gyokeres put in a, let’s say underwhelming, if not slightly concerning, performance against the Belgian team in his first start since his return from injury. That key point – his first start since his injury – cannot be overlooked as some players do take a while to find their groove after a spell out of the team however, what didn’t help Gyokeres’ situation was the performance of newly emerged rival, Gabriel Jesus. Jesus has been out for nearly 12 months yet he showed more invention and drive in his 30 minute cameo than Gyokeres provided in the whole hour he was on the pitch. For me, it’s far too early to start drawing broad conclusions about Gyokeres’ future at Arsenal, as it’s still really early days for him and he’s had a rough go of it to a certain point, with no pre-season and no rotation option available to provide respite, so he was pretty much chucked into the deep end from the get-go.
The interesting question for me is, where does he sit RIGHT NOW in the Arsenal striker pecking order? Kai Havertz should be back in the next week or so, Mikel Merino has proved to be more than just a stand-in option in the past month or so and now Jesus has also been thrown into the mix. Based on performances from Wednesday alone, you would say Gabriel Jesus has done enough to start against Wolves. On the other hand, he’s only just returned from a long term injury so should probably be eased back into it a bit more. For what it’s worth, I really think that Gyokeres will start against Wolves, given the circumstances and Merino also probably due a rest. One thing is for certain though, if he doesn’t show something by the 60 minute mark, I think he’ll be subbed and then all bets are off as to what happens going forward. It could be a long way back for the Swede if he loses his place right before Havertz comes back. Let’s see how that one plays out.
The problem that is looming over the horizon
Bukayo Saka is Arsenal’s best attacking player for me. That goes for midfield and attack, as if you start getting the defence and goalkeeper involved, it definitely becomes more of a debate. Going forward, that’s not open for debate for me, he’s the main man. That said, I can see a potential scenario where his position, not his place but his position, will come under threat and it might happen sooner than you think.
Noni Madueke is still inconsistent. That’s another non-debatable for me, at least in terms of output anyway. That said, he has a very high ceiling and proved in Belgium what he can do and if he is able to produce performances like that on a consistent basis, I can see a future where Madueke takes that right wing spot, as I’ve not seen anything to suggest he’s anywhere near as effective from the left. That raises the question as to where Bukayo Saka would fit into the team. For me, I’d like to see him down the left wing as we seem to have been unable to find a long term solution to what is becoming a problem solution and I think Saka is good enough to be able to influence the game just as much from the opposite side. That’s where he came into the Arsenal team, albeit further back in the left back position, but he still showed then, as young player just coming into the team, that he could be a real threat from that side. Having said all of that, I think it will be a little while before we see Madueke performing to the level that he did on Wednesday on a consistent basis so nothing will change in the short term, but it’s another one to keep an eye on.
The most Arsenal thing that has ever happened
Quick injury round up to finish this post. Going by Mikel Arteta’s comments in his press conference on Friday, I’d expect Leandro Trossard, Declan Rice, Jurrien Timber and William Saliba to return to the Arsenal squad for the visit of Wolves, which is a massive boost. If any of the aforementioned players do not make the Wolves game, they are an absolute certainty to make it back in time for the Everton game the following Sunday, along with the returning Riccardo Calafiori, who is suspended for this weekend.
Barring any further injuries (he types awkward with all his fingers crossed!!), that would leave just Gabriel, Kai Havertz, Cristhian Mosquera and Max Dowman on the treatment table. It’s still not great, but that would be a brilliant position to be in going into the Christmas period, considering everything that has happened so far this season.
For Gabriel, I’ve been looking at that Everton game for a while now and hoping he’s back for that one, as that would be a massive boost, as the Toffees are likely to be quite physical and we all know Big Gabby loves a bit of that!! Failing that, it sounds like he should be back for the League Cup Quarter Final game against Crystal Palace a few days later or the League game at home to Brighton on 27th December at the latest. Not bad. Similar story for Kai Havertz who I’m expecting to see pictures of him in training any day now. What a boost that will be! We’ve missed him.
Mosquera will likely be out until the New Year which is a shame, but if Saliba and Gabriel return, we can hopefully do without the Spaniard until then without too much issue, especially as Gabriel and Saliba should be relatively rested going into the busy period coming up.
This brings me onto the title of this section of today’s blog post in what was the most Arsenal thing to ever happen in the history of the sport!! Arsenal recently arranged a behind closed doors friendly against Manchester United to help ease one of their long term injured players back to match fitness(Gabriel Jesus), in what was a fairly standard move for a club with a long term injured player returning. Arsenal also used the opportunity to give some game time to some academy players and a couple of first team players who haven’t seen many minutes lately, such as Ethan Nwaneri and Max Dowman. Again, fairly standard move.
The big that isn’t really the norm, concerns the news came out earlier this week relating to 15 year old wonderkid Max Dowman, picked up an ankle injury during the game, that will rule him out for 2 months. This is a bitter blow for the young man, especially with Cup games coming up, where he was more likely to feature. As sad at that news is, the wider question is, how on earth does this keep happening?!?! I swear, only Arsenal could deliberately arrange a game to help out an injured player only for another player to get injured. You couldn’t make it up. You really couldn’t.