Good morning.
It’s a trip to Burnley today, the first of three away games before the next Interlull. In terms of team news, William Saliba is a doubt after he came off at half-time against Crystal Palace, and Gabriel Martinelli will miss this one after picking up what looked like a groin strain in the same game.
At the back, you’d imagine Cristhian Mosquera will deputise for Saliba if he doesn’t make it, and I think we’ll see returns to the starting XI for Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori. Ahead of them, Martin Zubimendi is suspended for the trip to Slavia Prague in midweek so he’ll start, and I think it’ll be Declan Rice and Eberechi Eze in midfield with him. Up front, the injuries mean that trio picks itself with Leandro Trossard on the left, Bukayo Saka on the right, and Viktor Gyokeres central.
On today’s game and the opposition, Mikel Arteta said:
Every game brings different challenges, sometimes we have to be very patient, some other times we have to have a different approach. The game against Burnley is going to be really tough. They are extremely well-coached, I know Scott really well and what he’s done with the club and with this team, it’s formidable. When you look at all the games that I see, five of the last games that they played, a very, very tough team to beat.
What did I say yesterday?! Burnley have won two in a row, and you have to respect every team in the Premier League, especially away from home, but this is the kind of game Arsenal in this form should be looking to dominate. They don’t really play a very expansive game, so they’ll sit deep and look to make life difficult for us. That has often been our kryptonite, but you just feel like this season we’re better able to deal with it.
Hopefully we can find a way through early, because that tends to make games open up a bit. The last thing we need is to be at 70′ with the score 0-0. With all the injuries, there’s not a great deal on the bench from an attacking perspective, although players like Ethan Nwaneri and Mikel Merino can add a different kind of threat. There’s a bit of an onus on the starting XI to do the job, but I think there’s enough quality there to do that.
With Liverpool not playing until later on, and Man City tomorrow, there’s a chance too to just apply a little pressure on them, so fingers crossed.
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Just a quick update on the live blog, we won’t have it again today as we continue to try and make the new version more stable. Behind the scenes here at Arseblog we’ve had a big week on the technical front, with a lot going under the hood that nobody really sees. Tom has done amazing work to move everything to new servers etc, so we are doing our best. All going well it’ll be back for the Champions League game in midweek.
As ever though, you can find all the post-game stuff, report, player ratings etc on Arseblog News.
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Elsewhere, Mikel Arteta was asked about the fixture pile-up that surrounds our Carabao Cup tie against Crystal Palace. They face four games in eight days, which is both absurd and unfair. I’ve heard whispers from their end that Christmas Eve has been mooted as a possible date, although the manager seemed to play that down in his press conference yesterday.
With regards the decision, he said:
Every decision that we make in terms of a fixture has to be guided by two main things, I think: players’ welfare and then supporters. That’s it, and the rest has to come very, very far away from that, and we should never forget that principle. That’s the only thing I will say.
It’s a lovely soundbite, and I wish it were true, but we know that the people that run football don’t care at all about player welfare. They barely even pay lip service to it anymore. And fans know that despite what anyone says about their importance, decisions are made time and time again which do not have their best interests at heart. This is above Mikel Arteta, by the way, I’m not blaming him at all for this, but we are where we are now because there is already too much football, and the very simple solution for fixture congestion is to play less.
A show of hands who thinks that’s going to happen? Zero hands. There you go. Anyway, hopefully they can find a way to slot this game in which makes it fair for Palace because as it stands it’s absolutely not. And it’s an issue that fans should stand together on. When it was put to Arteta that it would be easy to view this as a ‘Crystal Palace problem’, he said:
I don’t think that’s fair because obviously we have other competitions as well. We knew at the start of the season the competitions that this club is playing in and I don’t think that would be fair on Palace. We have to try to accommodate in the best possible way for everybody.
The expansion of the Champions League, which was only done to have more games to generate more money, is one reason why this is an issue. UEFA decided it, and that’s that. Player welfare? Pfffff. Supporters? Give me a break. Talk of strike action by players was played down by Arteta, but high profile footballers have been talking about it more and more, and unless the powers that be do something about it, what other option is there?
The final thing to say is that more football does not improve the game – it generally means lower quality football. You can’t ask players to play as much as this, and for it not to impact their ability to produce the kind of football we all want to see. Premier League, Champions League, two cup competitions (one with an unnecessary two-legged semi-final), internationals, international friendlies, pre-season ‘tournaments’. It never stops, but something needs to give.
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Finally for today, sad news that former Willie Young passed away yesterday. He was part of my Arsenal childhood, playing in that famous 1979 FA Cup final, as well as producing a tackle which changed the laws of the game in the 1980 FA Cup final too. Condolences to his family, and friends, and may he rest in peace.
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Right, that’s it for this morning, enjoy your Saturday and here’s to the right result at Turf Moor.
