Good day.
It’s been a particularly quiet week all things considered. It’s not unusual for a bit of silence after losing a game, but given the context of this season, it’s a bit surprising all the same.
There was Premier League action last night, with Leeds and Man Utd drawing 2-2. A good result for us, even if Leeds were 2-0 up on one point. It whispers, but it seems United are on the right track with Erik ten Hag. They have developed a habit of winning and when you look at the table, even with the games in hand, you can’t tell that the title is just a two-horse race, even if two of the horses are a little ahead.
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Oleksandr Zinchenko has been named Player of the Month for January, an award that cannot be argued with. The Ukraine international was sensational in the win over Man Utd in particular, and it seems pretty obvious now that he’s the first choice in the ‘left-back’ position.
Inevitably, that will lead to speculation about Kieran Tierney and his future. If we know anything about him, it will be that this is hurting him. He wants to play every minute and now he himself spends more time on the bench than he would like. Come summer, if things don’t change, you can imagine there will be a conversation between him and the coach, and as much as he is a competitor, I don’t think he’s willing to spend another season in the same situation.
The fact is that, in all competitions, Tierney has more minutes to his credit than Zinchenko (1142 to 1090). However, the difference in the Premier League is obvious, where there are 998 to 460 in favor of the former Manchester City player. What we have now is fantastic depth. Zinchenko has had some injury problems and we’ve had a high-class option when he’s not available. If he were to get injured again, he would have few concerns about KT, even if there are obvious stylistic differences between the two.
It’s also fair to point out that Tierney has struggled with injuries nearly every season, and we’ve yet to see him struggle this time around: load sharing should be seen as beneficial in that regard. And things can change in football quite quickly. A player can take a hit, lose form, the team’s form can change, and with a lot of football to play this season, this situation could look quite different a couple of months from now.
However, my gut feeling is that Zinchenko’s preference, plus the fact that there have been times this season when Mikel Arteta has preferred Takehiro Tomiyasu at left-back, even when Tierney is on form, suggests that this is something that It will come at the end of the year. season. So the question is, how do we ensure that we continue to have that impressive depth at a key position? It’s great to have two quality players for each position, but quality players always want to play and two on one etc.
That is perhaps a discussion for another day.
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Gabriel Jesus is back in London after some time in Brazil, and there’s excitement about that because Everton was a game where we really missed his quality. Since his injury, we have played six Premier League games, winning four, drawing one and losing one. We’ve managed pretty well, but the sooner I get back, the better.
Unfortunately, I don’t think a return is necessarily imminent. We may be in for a pleasant surprise, we know Arteta likes to keep as much injury news under wraps as possible, but from what little we do know, it looks like he still has a good chunk of rehab to do with him. Let’s hope it won’t be too long before we see him back, because as we get closer and closer to May, the more impactful his return could be as we continue to fight for the first title since 2004.
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Finally, congratulations to Arsenal Women who are through to the Conti Cup final, thanks to a 1-0 win over Manchester City last night. You will find the reaction on Arseblog News.
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Right, that’s all for now. More from me tomorrow, including a new Arsecast.
