Good morning.
Very quick Friday blog. Mikel Arteta held a press conference this morning ahead of tomorrow’s game against Bournemouth. Expect a number of health/injury concerns to be on fans’ minds. No doubt he will be reluctant to give away too much information, but the agenda is as follows:
- Bukayo Saka – After suffering a hamstring problem while playing for England.
- Gabriel Martinelli – Calf problem during Brazil expedition
- ben white – I have knees, but I think I can walk the dog without too much fuss.
- Kai Havertz – Knees, didn’t leave with Germany
- Jurien Wood – Knee, ‘managed’ according to Arteta
- Oleksandr Zinchenko – The calf has not participated in the team since August 31st.
- Takehiro Tomiyasu – There are rumors of problems, but nothing confirmed.
- Martin Odegaard – Probably a general update
There are a few training photos on the official site, but none of them provide any insight into the fitness or availability of the players listed above. So let’s take a look at what he says at the press conference and see what it says.
I loved the interview with Riccardo Calafiori on the BBC (many of you, like me, will need a VPN if you don’t live in the UK), but he talked about learning English and his goal celebration against Man City. He ran to the touchline, jumped into Mikel Arteta’s arms and pointed energetically at someone. However, he did not point to a specific person as he explained as follows.
I don’t know, it wasn’t me who ran to Arteta, it was someone else. And I kept pointing like this, but I don’t know who I would swear to. I felt empty.
I relish the idea of him creating a virtual ‘enemy’ to pick off after scoring one of our goals of the season so far. I hope to see more in the coming weeks and months. Calafiori knocks one over and during the celebration goes crazy for the unseen man or woman.
Meanwhile, Jack Wilshere looks set to leave Arsenal to take up a first team coaching role at Norwich City. There is a vacancy following the departure of one of the first team coaches, and there are also links to Arsenal as the club’s former loan manager Ben Knapper is at Carrow Road as Norwich’s sporting director. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but it’s also quite normal for young coaches to move around as their careers progress.
I remember Freddie Ljungberg starting coaching the Arsenal U15 team (including one Bukayo Saka) before leaving for Wolfsburg with former academy head Andries Jonker. He returned to Arsenal to coach the U23s, serving a very brief spell as interim manager between Unai Emery’s departure and Mikel Arteta’s arrival. He remained part of the current manager’s set-up until the end of the season, but has since focused more on media work than coaching.
Anyway, Jack seems to have ambitions to become a director. He has been linked with jobs at the Colorado Rapids and Aberdeen, so more senior experience will be important for his development. We wish him the best of luck and it will be interesting to see who fills his shoes with the U18s.
I mentioned Walking the Dog with Ben White above, and he did an interview with goalie-turned-podcaster Ben Foster, which I haven’t had time to watch in full yet, but so far it looks pretty interesting. As we all know, there are dogs that make everything better. Unless you’re a squirrel. You can check it out on YouTube here.
And for your listening pleasure this morning we have a new Arsecast chat with The Different Knock’s Alex Moneypenny about Gabriels Jesus and Martinelli, Mikel Merino, fullbacks and more. You can check it out below.
We’ll have all the press coverage on Arseblog News shortly, and a Bournemouth preview podcast on Patreon later this afternoon. Until then.
