Morning all, a quick Saturday round-up for you.
After yesterday’s focus on Kai Havertz’s knee, Mikel Arteta was asked about it in his press conference yesterday, with James quizzing him on the situation. As you’d expect, he talked about being cautious with a player who has been out for the best part of a year (with two distinct injuries, to be clear), and with both Gabriel Jesus and Viktor Gyokeres available again, there’s no need to rush him.
Game states may play a part with how much we see him, with Arteta said:
We have to be very smart in the manner that we manage that load, the minutes, and I am sure that in the next few weeks, he is going to play in minutes. I cannot tell you which competition because that will depend as well on the game context, and it is a context that is positive to throw him in or not, with his qualities.
But, all going well, the plan is to have him firing on all cylinders for the final part of the campaign:
After a long-term injury it is not only the period that you come in, it is what happens in the next six to eight weeks, and we want to maintain that and manage that really well so that we can creep it up, as you said, when all the big, big games are coming up and we have to make sure that everybody is in the right mind and physically at the highest level.
There was also some stuff about Viktor Gyokeres, with Arteta outlining why they chose him over Benjamin Sesko in the summer, and then asked to give his assessment of the player, which drew this response:
It’s very early to assess. Let’s assess at the end of the season, and sometimes even that is a very short sample. [We need to] understand as well the league that we are competing [in] and what is happening with the [number] nines across the league, as well as the manner that the game is changing. So there are a lot of factors there to bear in [mind] and count to assess the player, and then we’re going to assess the player not only with one of the aspects of the game but in many aspects of the game.
It is a bit mad that for all the big money/high profile summer striker signings, every one of them is being outshone (to varying degrees) by a bloke at Brentford everyone had forgotten about. Igor Thiago basically missed all of last season with a knee injury, but has 17 goals in all competitions, 16 of which came in the Premier League. He’s the second top scorer just behind Erling Haaland. Meanwhile, Hugo Ekitikes is best of the ‘big money’ lads with 8, while Gyokeres and Sesko have 9 between them (5 and 4 respectively). I remember going into the opening game of the season, the narrative was all about the two strikers, who would come out on top etc, but in truth both have struggled to make the kind of impact that either club would have liked.
No doubt we’ll get a re-run of that head to head in the build-up tomorrow, but both sides possess a lot of threat in other areas too, so it’s not just about the battle of the 9s. More on that game in Sunday’s preview blog.
Meanwhile, in looking up stats on the Premier League website, it’s sort of remarkable that Arsenal, 7 points clear at the top at the time of writing (until City absolutely batter Wolves today, and there’s no chance they won’t win that one), don’t have a single player on the first page of the goals/assists ‘charts’.
My other thought was, who the hell is Quilindschy Hartman? Seriously though, it’s a strange quirk of our season that we’re doing so well, without anyone really delivering big numbers. I’ve said before I think that’s almost a point of encouragement, because if someone does start racking them up in either category, we’ll be even more effective, so fingers crossed that’s the case.
It’s also quite odd that almost 6 months into the season, only two strikers in the entire league have hit double figures in terms of goals scored. Perhaps it speaks to a lack of quality up front across the Premier League, greater focus on goalscoring wide players, a more collective approach across all teams, or something else entirely. I’m not sure, but I feel generally speaking like those numbers are low for the leading scorers. Let’s hope our number 9, whoever it is tomorrow, can start to make some inroads into that.
Righto, I think I’ll leave it there for now. If you need something to listen to, we have our preview podcast available now on Patreon, and I’ll be back here tomorrow with a written preview of the game too.
Have a great Saturday folks.
