Good morning from Islington, it’s the day of the North London derby.
Mikel Arteta did not reveal anything about the availability of players about whom there is a question mark after Interlull. Thomas Partey, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Kieran Tierney, Takehiro Tomiyasu, when asked about them, said:
They are part of the team.
I’ve checked the training footage, none of it is there, but I’m assuming this is Arteta’s doing – he just doesn’t want to reveal anything to the opposition, and the true degree of fitness of these players will be known at 11.30am when word of the game drops. equipment. I hope everyone is available.
If they are, I guess the manager has a couple of decisions to make, and who plays left-back could be very important today. I think Zinchenko is a better player technically than Tierney, and operating in that hybrid insider role could add a lot to the way we play the game today. One way to avoid opposition dangers is to have the ball as much as possible. I do wonder if Tierney could be the best for today though, because there will be times when the Sp*rs win and look to unleash their strikers, this is what they are good at, and the Scotsman is the best defender.
Like much of today, it’s about finding that balance. We’re home, the crowd will be antsy, and the onus to go and win the game will fall on us. Except it suits them to the ground. They’ll be happy enough to stay organized and compact, then look to transition when it breaks down, drawing on the strengths of their forward three. There has certainly been a lot of talk in training camp about this, the players won’t ignore it and I’m sure it will have played a part in the preparations.
What happened in the last derby isn’t necessarily relevant to this one, but I hope it still bothers me internally. Maybe our approach should have been different that day, a bit more conservative, but the end of last season was painful and while the motivation for this season is to do better overall, some revenge today would be very welcome.
The back four from last season instead were Cedric, Rob Holding, Gabriel and an unfit Tomiyasu at left back. Today’s is likely to be much, much stronger. If Thomas Partey is available, he would replace Mohamed Elneny in that lineup, while Gabriel Jesus up front adds another dimension to our attack, and that’s not a criticism of Eddie Nketiah, who did quite well at the end of last season.
This is definitely a different Arsenal in terms of the line-up, assuming we’re not beset by fitness issues, and I think it’s a different Arsenal in terms of confidence, belief and the way we play. These games are so difficult to predict, as always, the first goal is very important, and although we can all recognize the strengths of the opposition, if we can play the way we are capable of, I think this is a game that we can win.
Arteta says of the game at White Hart Lane last May:
It is a different context. We went into that game with a lot of different circumstances in terms of players that were available to play that game and what happened during the game. You take the lesson, learn from it and move on.
And there were lessons to learn. Some of them we have tackled on the transfer market, but some can only be tackled on the pitch today. Hopefully we can do that, because this is probably our biggest test so far this season, and with Liverpool next weekend, it would be a huge confidence boost if we got all three points.
Okay, 12:30 start. I need coffee and some breakfast. See some of you before/after the game, I hope. There’s a preview podcast below if you have time this morning as well.
Come on Reds!
