It’s PSV tonight in the Europa League, in a match that could more or less secure first place in the group for Arsenal if the result is ours.
A victory would leave us with 12 points and PSV with 7, with only 2 games to go. That would allow the Dutch to get ahead of us, but a draw in the second leg next week would be enough. As we know, group winners avoid an additional round of games in the knockout stage, and given how tight this season’s schedule is already, you can understand why we’d want to avoid that.
That’s why I suspect Mikel Arteta will pick a pretty strong side tonight. I think there will be some changes, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka starting tonight to give us some quality and experience in the middle of the park. If we had Bukayo Saka, Ben White and William Saliba starting against Bodo/Glimt, it’s not out of the question that we’d see some of them again tonight.
The decision to go strong could also be based on the fact that there is mid-week action in the Premier League. Leeds had a completely free week before we played them; Southampton played Bournemouth last night so that could be another consideration when the manager picks his team for tonight.
As always, he didn’t reveal anything in his press conference when asked if he would pick his strongest XI, saying:
We will make that decision tomorrow.
However, he was more forthcoming about leading the pack:
Really important. In Europe when you have the opportunity to take advantage of it you have to do it. It is always very unpredictable what can happen in the next game. You have to go and we know the level of the other teams as well. What I can say watching PSV and what they are doing nationally and internationally, it will be a really difficult game.
Arteta will no doubt have seen PSV defeat FC Zurich twice, and she comes to this one full of confidence to score goals after a 6-1 win over FC Utrecht in the Eredivisie. All of that will contribute to what I think will be a strong side tonight. If I had to guess, I’d say: Turner, Tomiyasu, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney, Partey, Xhaka, Vieira, Martinelli, Saka, Nketiah.
Taking three points tonight might leave us in a better position to rotate for the second game, but with our home game against FC Zurich three days before an away game at Chelsea, being able to play whatever team we wanted in that after. having secured first place. in the group would be ideal. So let’s hope we get the job done tonight.
Kick-off is early, by the way: 18:00 local time, and as always we’ll have live blog coverage for you, as well as all the post-game stuff on Arseblog News.
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I brought up the Premier League action last night and watched half of Man Utd’s 2-0 win over Sp*rs, while playing Fallout 4 on Playstation. I think that’s the only way I can tolerate their football, which is, from any reasonable point of view, excruciating to put up with. I look forward to the op-eds and hot shots this morning suggesting that after United had 28 shots to Sp*rs’ 9, they were actually very lucky to win the game.
It’s always good when they lose, and the downside is that United won, but sometimes you have to take some cloud to get the upside. It looks like there could also be some Ronaldo histrionics in the works, which would be nice, nice, a lot of fun, and with Chelsea drawing 0-0 with Brentford, it was a good night from Arsenal’s perspective.
And speaking of good nights, Arsenal Women certainly enjoyed one of those with an incredible 5-1 away win over Champions League holders Lyon. The goals came from Beth Mead and Caitlin Foord, who scored two each, and one from Frida Maanum. What a result!
Tim was there last night, and you’ll find all the post-game quotes and analysis in the dedicated Arsenal Women section on Arseblog News.
Well, that’s all for this morning. See you later for the game, and we’ll have an Arsecast for you tomorrow at noon, recording sometime in the morning because the game takes place tonight.
Have a good.
