It’s Brentford away at midday, and the corresponding game last season was detrimental to Arsenal, even if there was some context. With Chelsea and Man City dueling, this was the time when points were a real expectation, but a combination of Covid absences, injuries, sketchy transfer deals and a home team determined to mark a special occasion saw us fall to a 2-0. overcome.
It’s not exactly the same this time. Mikel Arteta says that things are different:
“Obviously, the context has changed, the environment has changed and we have to keep it, as it is, for a long time.”
While his counterpart, Thomas Frank, has been impressed with what he has seen from Arsenal this season:
“It was one thing to beat them a year ago. For me now, after Manchester City, they are the best performing team in the Premier League.
“I told the players today that we will need to be able to suffer and defend very well.”
As always, Mikel Arteta revealed little in terms of fitness issues when he met the press on Friday. There were reports from Ukraine that Olkesandr Zinchenko had contracted a calf strain and would be staying in London during Interlull because of it, but when asked, Arteta said:
Again we have to wait until tomorrow to make that decision, where I was at the time and what we’ve decided to do for the international week doesn’t mean we’re going to say the same thing for the weekend, so that’s something we’ll do. address tomorrow.
How much of that is genuinely wait and see rather than giving the opposition more information than the manager wants… well, we’ll wait and see when the team news comes around 11am Thomas Partey is back in training, for which he could return to the squad if he is deemed fit enough, and if he does, I guess it opens the door for him to play in both of Ghana’s internationals over the break.
There is no Emile Smith Rowe, as was discussed yesterday, so the front four are unlikely to change, and the only other decision the manager has to make is whether or not to change anything at the back. Arteta has declared Ben White fit, although I hear he has been dealing with some discrete issues that could have played a role in Gareth Southgate’s decision to leave him out of the England squad.
Takehiro Tomiyasu is pressing to start and reclaim his place at right back, more than a capable substitute you would say, and perhaps when facing a side that offer a real threat from set pieces, his presence could well come in handy. However, whoever you choose, I’m very comfortable with what we have behind us, although with only two clean sheets from our seven games this season so far, today would be a good day to add another.
Last season, the losses came in a bunch, and this is one of the aspects that we need to improve this time. It’s been a strange time with the postponements, but last time we lost at Old Trafford and we need to show that we can respond. With two weeks between our last Premier League game and this one, we should be fresh and ready, full of energy and ready to consign last season’s game here to history.
Yesterday’s results mean we have to win to get back above Man City, and I’m sure that will provide a bit more motivation. We had a bit of a stumble against Man Utd result-wise, but I thought we played great football that day, so let’s cross our fingers that we can find that rhythm again today and combine it with some final product. If we do that, we have a good chance of taking all three points.
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As always, we’ll provide you with live blog coverage of the game and have all the post-game stuff on Arseblog News.
See you soon for all that!
