Today’s game against Man United takes place after Wolves’ (Haaland 4, Gundogan, Grealish) 6-0 demolition of Man City, by which time our lead at the top will dwindle to just two points (although we’ll have one game in hand after our game).
It is a scenario we have faced more than once this season, but it will be a reminder that things can change very quickly in football and that there is still a long way to go this season. Of course there is nothing we can do with City, all we can control is our game and our performance, and today we face the only team that has beaten us far this season.
The loss at Old Trafford was an unfortunate touch, a sloppy touch and a VAR-influenced touch that disallowed an early Gabriel Martinelli goal for a Martin Odegaard ‘foul’ that they later admitted wasn’t enough for VAR intervention. Hopefully a measure of unfairness is part of our pre-game preparation, but today I am concerned about VAR. When you see the penalty Brighton missed yesterday, how can a football fan not have concerns about refereeing and decision-making standards? That was absolutely spot on, but Lee Mason just chose to ignore the obvious foul. How can that happen?
The news from the Arsenal team is that there is no news from the team, at least not according to Mikel Arteta in his pre-match press conference. You never know what can happen in training before a game, as Mohamed Elneny’s absence last week showed, but assuming none of that, it will be the same team that won the North London derby last week. . What can you say but ‘More of the same, please’?
Where we have a little extra today is on the bench, with the arrival of Leandro Trossard giving Mikel Arteta another experienced option for his three forwards. As we saw during the Newcastle game, that was something that could have gone a long way, and fingers crossed that the Belgian can make an impact similar to Freddie Ljungberg’s on his debut if called up against United today.
As for United, their improvement under Eric ten Hag is obvious. Having shaken off a self-absorbed, self-absorbed individualist, he is beginning to create a real team at Old Trafford. A useful thing given soccer is a team game, and not one designed to facilitate the goal-scoring ambitions of a man whose Adam’s apple looks as if he’s swallowed a sharp flint and gotten stuck. They’re on a good run of form, and while I think they’re still far from the kind of United team we’ve come up against in the past, they’re definitely better than they were.
Today they will be without Casemiro, who decided to throw off today’s game by launching into a ridiculous challenge during their midweek game that could easily have been red. It’s been good for them, but as Mikel Arteta pointed out, they won the last game without him, so it’s up to us to make the most of his absence.
In terms of how they might reshape their midfield, McFred’s combination seems the most obvious for an away game. Cristian Eriksen in midfield against this Arsenal team would be a bit of a risk, so expect McTominay to leave one against one of our key players early on. That could set the tone for how the game is going. If the ref is strong enough to deal with that, great. If not, he worries me how they will be allowed to kick us with impunity and then one of our players gets booked for the first foul on him (probably Saka).
Mikel Arteta says:
I think the history and the matchups and the way those two clubs have competed tells you everything you need to know before the game. It’s a big game in the league, in the country, in the whole world and we have to prepare for that. The table says what it says this season at the moment, but our main focus is to be ready for a big game.
United also played in the middle of the week, so we may have some physical advantage, especially in the second half. Fingers crossed at home, with a red hot atmosphere, and an early season result to correct, we have what it takes to extend our lead at the top again to five points.
For more on the game, we have our preview podcast on Patreon. As always, we’ll have live blog coverage of the game and all post-game material on Arseblog News.
See you later for all that, and come on, reds!
