Morning, an early one today. Early like St Totteringham’s Day, am I right? A small thing to enjoy to kick us off this morning.
Unfortunately though, we have to start with bad news, and that’s Gabriel Magalhaes. I wasn’t at all hopeful about his chances of facing Real Madrid after doing his hamstring against Fulham, but I wasn’t necessarily expecting it to be a season-ender. Sadly, that’s what is is. Arsenal reported yesterday he requires surgery, and that’s the last we’ll see of the Brazilian for this campaign.
There’s no way to sugarcoat this, it’s a huge blow, his partnership with William Saliba is as good as it gets, and our chances of winning games – domestically and in Europe – are diminished because of this. It doesn’t make things impossible, just more difficult. As I wrote yesterday, injuries happen for various reasons, and I’m not informed enough or qualified enough to say Gabriel’s was definitely because of one thing or another thing or something else entirely.
I do think there is a serious need for some internal questions about why we’ve had three players suffer hamstring strains that require surgery. Some will say that Bukayo Saka, Gabriel and Kai Havertz play almost all the minutes, therefore it’s a question of load, and they might well be right. There is a common thread there. Then again, Reiss Nelson – whose minutes are well, well below those three – suffered the same injury while on loan at Fulham, so I don’t think there’s any hard and fast rule here. Maybe Nelson is the outlier, but we have others in the squad who play just as much as those three who haven’t been struck down by the hamstring curse (*touch wood etc*).
I’m sure when this season is over, there will be that investigation because it’s just not sustainable. Until then though, we’re on tenterhooks with regards Jurrien Timber and Ben White, because their availability would certainly offset Gabriel’s absence to a degree. We’ll wait and see what Mikel Arteta says at his pre-Everton press conference later today, so keep fingers crossed for those two. And obviously we wish Gabriel a quick and uncomplicated recovery – which, sadly, is a line I’ve had to write far too often this season.
Meanwhile, after links to Sporting Lisbon’s Viktor Gyokeres were made public on the same day that Andrea Berta was named the club’s Sporting Director, it’s interesting to see stories about our interest in a summer move for Athletic Bilbao’s Nico Williams. Some of the reports suggest the Italian has met the player’s agent, and with Arsenal looking to bolster the forward line this summer, he’s a name that would get some people excited.
Is it coincidence that the new man’s name is strongly linked with both these players? Perhaps not, but while the Gyokeres stuff might be reflective of his personal preferences after Arsenal have been a bit lukewarm on the Swedish international in the past, Williams is a different situation. This is a player that Mikel Arteta is well known to have strong admiration for, someone whose name was mentioned in a serious way last summer and even in January, so maybe this is a concerted push with manager and Sporting Director both on the same page. Berta’s English isn’t great yet, but he and Arteta can certainly communicate in Spanish.
There’s a release clause for Williams, but also a fairly substantial wage demand too. But, if you want to sign top attacking talent, you don’t expect anything else. There will be wages freed up with players like Thomas Partey and Jorginho almost certainly departing (and Partey is on BIG money), while other potential departures could free up more from the wage bill to accommodate big summer arrivals. One to keep an eye on for sure, and while I think he’s still got room to develop, at 22 he’d be a very exciting addition – especially with a new centre-forward in the mix too.
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Finally for today, as is now tradition, we’re donating 100% of our Patreon revenue in April to charity. There are so many great causes at local, national and international level these days, so rather than just one large donation to one organisation, we thought we’d split it up this year and help four good causes – some close to home, others to help those afar.
The ones we’ve chosen will help people in North London, here in Ireland, and around the world, and they are:
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From yesterday, we have an episode of The 30, rounding up all the week’s Premier League action, and later we’ll have our Everton preview podcast. Not only will we look at it from an Arsenal perspective, but I’ll be joined by Rog from Men in Blazers to chat about Everton’s last season at Goodison Park and lots more. For a full view of what you get from our Patreon – see the membership page.
Right, we’ll have all the press conference stories for you later on this afternoon on Arseblog News. Let’s hope there’s a little bit of positive news in there too as we come to terms with Gabriel’s absence.
For now, have a good one.
