Good morning everyone, happy Friday, and for the first time in what seems like an era, we had something from Arsenal yesterday.
We beat Lyon 3-0 in Dubai, and while these games are glorious friendlies, that doesn’t mean they’re not important as we’re basically kicking off our second pre-season. It’s the same as the games we play in the summer in terms of preparation, fitness and everything else. This time I could even argue that these have an advantage because we’re dealing with a scenario, a mid-season World Cup/Interlull, that no one has faced before in regards to player conditioning etc.
For someone like Eddie Nketiah, who will have to shoulder a significant part of the burden of Gabriel Jesus’ absence, they carry even more weight. Obviously it’s what he does in the Premier League that counts, but if he can build some confidence, get some playing time and score some goals, he could well be useful. I think he played pretty well yesterday, part of his link game was very solid and he scored a good goal.
Another player who could well be important when football returns is Fabio Vieira. We don’t yet know when Emile Smith Rowe will be ready to play again, although Arteta said ‘hopefully in the next few weeks’ when asked about him yesterday; while Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka could be out until the end of the World Cup. The manager has suggested that the former Porto player be more influential in the second half of the season after he missed pre-season 1 through injury.
We’ve already seen glimpses of what he can do, and his goal yesterday is the sort of thing we’d all love to see a few more times in the Premier League. It was a great finish, but also an encouraging one that came at the end of a skillful and effective build-up game from Arsenal. Lyon really didn’t measure up, and you have to take that into account to a certain extent, but I think the manager will be quite pleased with his team’s performance, especially considering the number of ‘first-choice’ players that they were absent.
There were a number of changes in the second half, as Arsenal’s youthful double-gun army took to the pitch. They held their own quite well against a much more experienced Lyon XI, which by then included former gunner The Jeff, and in the end, despite our 3-0 win, there was a penalty shootout to play for a bonus point. It was probably the worst penalty shootout I’ve ever seen, culminating in a Lyon lad attempting a Panenka but instead it tickled him with a pathetic shot…it wasn’t even a shot…you can’t call it that …to the arms. Karl Hein who saved four of Lyon’s penalties.
Then AC Milan on Tuesday, and maybe we can see the return of some of the World Cup players. I already mentioned Smith Rowe, and he’s obviously not going to be pushed, while the other notable absentee was Oleksandr Zinchenko, who wasn’t even on the bench. A little worrisome given his injury record this season, but let’s see how he plays out next week.
Subsequently, Arteta was typically vague about Gabriel Jesus, saying that at this point they don’t know the timeline for his return. I suspect they know a lot more than they’re saying publicly, and perhaps that’s not the worst thing in the world with January just around the corner. If everyone knows their main striker is out until March, for example, it has an impact on the price they might pay for a player who could help ease that burden.
And about the depth of the squad, he said:
We have players, we have a lot of Academy players. Do we have the players who can give us the performances and consistency we need to maintain and improve from where we are?
As it stands, we only have one recognized striker in Eddie Nketiah. I know opinions about him vary but putting that aside I don’t think it’s realistic to expect a player to play in every game when we have the Premier League, FA Cup and hopefully Europa League rounds to contend with. . . There are some internal solutions. Gabriel Martinelli centre-back, and don’t write off Arteta’s flirtation with Emile Smith Rowe as a false 9 posed as a possibility, but I don’t think many people would argue against recruiting in January being an absolute requirement to help continue this solid season. so far and to give us the depth needed to sustain a title challenge.
Speaking of which, those themes come up in the new Arsecast, as I speak with Lewis Ambrose about the state of the team, the next window, and much more. All the links you need are below. Listen happy.
