It’s our first European game of the season as we face FC Zurich in the late afternoon.
Mikel Arteta reportedly brought a strong team to Switzerland, but that’s not unexpected. It’s not like we have a massive squad or collection of promising young players to claim their place at the moment, and I feel like the manager will take the group stage more seriously than some people would like. Arteta says:
Unfortunately, we don’t have that many players available, with injuries we’ve picked up in the last two weeks. This is a competition that we want to take very seriously, against a rival that is going to make life difficult for us. We want to start the competition the right way and keep our momentum going.
I expect some changes tonight though, as we use this game to get minutes for some players who haven’t played much this season, and take the load off some who have played a lot so far and need to be as fresh as possible for Everton on Sunday. Some of the potential changes are obvious, Matt Turner, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Rob Holding, Kieran Tierney, Fabio Vieira and Eddie Nketiah will be itching to get started.
How we place ourselves in the starting XI remains to be seen. We are without Emile Smith Rowe and Cedric (who would have started differently), and Thomas Partey. So trying to guess the team is a bit difficult. With Cedric fit to start at right back, you could have played Rob Holding and Takehiro Tomiyasu at center half (Tomi plays center left for Japan), so your four defenders are sorted. Does Tomiyasu play at right back now and keep one of William Saliba and Gabriel?
Similarly, the midfield needs someone. If Albert Sambi Lokonga starts and Fabio Vieira replaces Martin Odegaard (which seems sensible given the blow he has carried since the match against Villa), who is the third man? It can only be Granit Xhaka, I suppose, and the manager will rely on his experience in that position. I know Oleksandr Zinchenko is an option, but like the captain he has some injury problems and you don’t want to lose an important player in a Europa League group stage match.
If we assume Eddie Nketiah replaces Gabriel Jesus, and Marquinhos comes into the team for his debut to give Bukayo Saka a break, what happens to the left side then? Gabriel Martinelli has played almost every minute of every game so far, and ideally he should be given a break. I don’t know if there’s a young man ready to go in, so do you play Martinelli for an hour and then bring Jesus or Saka? It’s easy to see why Arteta wanted another winger before the end of the window and, despite my misgivings about his decision to stay and fight for a place, there could well be a few minutes for Reiss Nelson when he gets fit, simply because we the necessary depth is missing.
For tonight, though, I’m more interested in seeing Vieira, who had a spirited few minutes at Old Trafford, and I think he’s been a bit of an underdog because he spent pre-season in the treatment room rather than on the pitch. The manager also sounds positive about him and says:
We were looking for players who could play three positions in the front line and attacking midfield positions. We were looking for very specific qualities in the market and when I saw it, I really liked what I saw. I was immediately convinced that he was a player who can help us go to the next level and that he had the right personality and character to play for our club.
I hope you’ll see a lot more of it in the weeks to come, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
As I write, I’m guessing there’s another permutation where Vieira could start on the right and Marquinhos on the left, but I’m not sure we’ll see it. Regardless, I’ll be keeping a close eye on the former Porto player later on, and we’ll keep our fingers crossed that we can get our European campaign off to a good start.
As always, we’ll have live blog coverage for you and all the usual bits on Arseblog News.
I’m going to leave it there for now. We have a preview podcast on Patreon, but there’s also a chat about signing Thomas Tuchel and curious comments from Bernd Leno. listen here
See you later for the game.
