Good morning from London.
We’re in Premier League action this evening, taking on bottom of the table Wolves. It’s a game we’ll be expected to win, it’s a game we should win, but you can be sure Mikel Arteta will be taking nothing for granted in terms of how he prepares his team. Speaking at his press conference yesterday, he said:
In any Premier League match and especially against a team that is fighting against results, I know the manager really well and how he’s going to push and get the players ready. From our side, we’re going to go full gas from the beginning and we know what we have to do.
Despite the best, and by best I mean absolute worst, efforts of the insufferable bloke from Sky, the manager wasn’t really giving anything away when it came to player availability. We’ll have to wait and see on William Saliba, Jurrien Timber, Declan Rice, and Leandro Trossard. It sounds as if they’re not far away, but perhaps the form of today’s opposition might allow to him to minimise any risk.
I wonder if, after playing 90 minutes in Belgium in midweek, Martin Zubimendi might be earmarked for some rest today, and if Timber is back at the heart of the defence, Declan Rice could slot in there, or there might be more minutes for Christian Norgaard in his more natural position. Further forward, is today a chance to deploy Eberechi Eze and Martin Odegaard together? It’s something Arteta tried when we played West Ham back in early October, but it was cut short by injury to the captain. He clearly wanted to see how it would work, and it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s the case again today.
Up front, you could probably make a reasonable argument for Noni Madueke to keep his place after two goals in midweek. This might be about the last real chance to give Bukayo Saka a rest, but that’s really not something the manager is inclined to do generally. Perhaps the double from Madueke in the Champions League gives him that confidence, and on the other side, if there is no Trossard, then it will be Gabriel Martinelli who keeps his place.
Up top, I expect to see Viktor Gyokeres, on whom the manager was quite interesting his press conference. Supportive, of course, backing his player publicly, but also saying:
Probably the thing that’s going to unlock him is goals. He’s so used to that that I think he needs that for himself, for his confidence. At the end, we’re going to judge his performances based on that as well. That’s logical. But for the rest, I think he’s in a really good place. I think physically he’s in a good place and now he needs to start to convert the chances that he’s getting.
We had a little chat about this on the preview podcast, because the wording is a little vague. Whatever you think about Gyokeres, I don’t think you can say he’s missing a load of presentable chances. There’s a wider discussion to be had about why he isn’t getting as many goal scoring opportunities as you’d like, but he’s not fluffing his lines in front of goal week after week. But, does Arteta mean chances as in opportunities to play? It’s hard to know, but what is for sure is that a goal or two today for the Swedish international would be both very useful for him and the team.
When he signed, these are the kinds of games you imagined him making the most of, but if he doesn’t, Gabriel Jesus is waiting in the wings for his chance. Ideally that bit of direct competition, which Gyokeres hasn’t really had since he joined, provides that bit extra that sees him ‘unlock’, as Arteta put it.
Wolves form this season has been terrible, so the expectation is that Arsenal ought to win this at a canter. All I’d say is that if you don’t work hard enough or play well enough in this league, you won’t get the right result. As I said though, I think Arteta will have his players well-focused, and hopefully by 10pm (due to mad kick off time on a Saturday), we’ll have three points secured. And with others playing tomorrow, it just puts a little pressure on them to respond.
Right, I’ll leave it there. See some of you later, I hope, and to tide you over until 8pm, we have our regular preview podcast on Patreon.
For now, have a good one, and come on you reds!
