It’s morning everyone.
Another tricky away game today. This is because they face Brighton just three days after beating Brentford. This is another challenging aspect of this encounter as today’s opposition had a few days to rest and prepare for this match.
Team-wise, with the absence of suspended Jurrien Timber on Wednesday, the obvious replacement for him is Thomas Partey. Actually, I don’t think there is any other solution. With Mikel Arteta nowhere to be seen playing left-footed on the right, and with Declan Rice and Jorginho available to slot into midfield, he will likely go with the player who has filled that position a lot this season.
I think it will have a knock-on effect on our right-hand side, but the biggest impact will be the absence of Bukayo Saka. Ethan Nwaneri performed very well against Brentford and could have been called up again, but in yesterday’s press conference the manager made it clear that he will need to be rotated frequently during this busy month.
No player has played in that position for nine consecutive games. That’s impossible. So when we look at that and look at the opposition as well, especially the way they defend, the way they occupy space, at some point the natural foot or the inverted foot will be more useful.
With Kai Havertz returning from illness for today’s game, there is room for Mikel Arteta to do something different with his forward line. Perhaps move Gabriel Martinelli to the right with Leandro Trossard on the left? That said, given his current form, they would probably want to keep Gabriel Jesus in the team as well. What I’m trying to say is that with the cup semi-finals on Tuesday and so many games in January, there will be some team selections that seem a bit odd. I wonder if today will be one of those days.
In midfield, assuming fitness isn’t an issue, we’ll see Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard and Mikel Merino (who we wrote about yesterday), with the manager likely backing summer signings to provide more.
We expected a very quick integration because he played in the league. He is a very intelligent and experienced player and fits very well. He’s had injuries and other little problems and he’s also played in Spain, so there’s been no pre-season and it’s taken him a while to start preparing, but now you can see the impact he has on the team. The intelligence and targeting threat he brings to the team. Then, more and more people will come because that person is also a natural leader. I think we’ll be seeing more from him as he takes on the role.
It would also be a good game for the captain to deliver the final product. I don’t think he was right as of late. Perhaps his ankle is still an issue after the injury and his recent arrival home may have played a part, but he’s had a little less impact than you’d expect. I think he could benefit from a goal and/or an assist (or two or three – I’m not greedy).
I’m curious how we approach this game. Against Brighton last season we played a very brave and dangerous performance, pressing them high up with a bit of space left in midfield, but it paid off in a 3-0 win. However, it is yet to be seen whether Arteta will see this as a way to counter Brighton’s current iteration. They have a lot of attacking talent that we have to watch out for if we give them too much space.
Lastly, after what happened in the home game, I think our players should have a little ‘extra’ going into this game. The Rice red card was a real disgrace and I think we lost two points that day. The Brighton manager’s subsequent comments were also very irritating (although I think it’s very natural for him), so if there’s any extra motivation given what happened last September, let’s count on that. All the little calculations etc. A Rice winner would be a bit of justice.
Okay, I’ll leave it there for now. A preview podcast is currently available on Patreon. Later you can join in on the live blog coverage and get match reports, goal clips, reactions, player reviews and more from Arseblog News.
Until then!
