Hello. Let me give you a quick recap of Saturday’s news.
Mikel Arteta didn’t reveal anything about Martin Odegaard’s injury in his press conference. I didn’t expect him to go into detail, but he said:
We need to do some more tests so we’ll see what happens next day or afternoon and see how severe the injury is and how soon he can come back. He’s very positive about everything. Martin knows. He wants to be there every day but we’ll have to wait and see.
In some ways it almost sounds encouraging, but I don’t think there’s a realistic chance of seeing him on Sunday or in the near future. He was similarly ambivalent about Riccardo Calafio.
This is something we’ll have to wait another day or two for.
I think he is much more likely to be involved than Odegaard, but we’ll have to wait and see. The good news is that Gabriel Jesus was training.
Gabby was there, he’s training tomorrow and if all goes well he’ll be ready to be selected for this team, which is great news for us.
So, we go into tomorrow’s game without two big players in the middle of the pitch, but we look to have plenty of firepower to choose from. Even with Kai Havertz redeployed into midfield, we still have Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli, Leandro Trossard and Raheem Sterling to choose from, who will cause problems for the opposition.
Arteta spoke about Sterling and, as a manager who is often principled when talking about individuals, he offered his full support to the former Liverpool and Manchester City player.
I see his hunger. He is a player who wants to play every minute of every game and when he doesn’t he is not happy. He loves football and he loves playing football every day and I see that. His commitment, the level of energy he brings to the team and the quality of it is a big help. You can feel it in the players when he comes through the door. We are better with him. He will make us better.
When I first called him, I knew within 10 seconds that I had to get him right away. He really wanted it.
I thought that aspect was quite interesting. The manager basically said he wasn’t sure about a player who was approaching his 30s and whether he had the motivation to live, train and play to the standard he expected. He obviously knows him very well from their previous time together and has credited Sterling with helping him put up outstanding numbers for City. Arteta has made it clear that it’s all down to the player and his quality, so hopefully we’ll see more of that over the coming season. How long has it been since he scored his debut goal? I’d like to see one of those. If the universe has been spinning around us with injuries over the last few weeks, it’d be nice to get a little bit of a bounce-back.
Okay, there’s not much else going on, but if you haven’t checked out Arsecast yet, there’s a wonderfully curated feature on the new book ‘Black Arsenal’, beyond the Arsenal chat. Tayo Popoola talks to Ezra Collective drummer Femi Koleoso, photographer Eddie Otchere and Amy Lawrence about their contributions and some of the themes covered in the book itself. You can find all the links you need below.
After that, if you’d like to hear me and Lewis explain the various different midfield permutations for tomorrow’s game, the preview podcast is available now on Patreon. Have a great Saturday, everyone.
