Saturday round-up: Positive Jesus, Arteta on Rice

Morning.

A quick Saturday round-up for you. Obviously we’ll keep the Chelsea preview till tomorrow, but Mikel Arteta sounded a fairly positive note on the injury front in his press conference yesterday. It remains to be seen whether we’ll have Leandro Trossard after he went off in midweek, or indeed Viktor Gyokeres and/or Kai Havertz, but trying to read between the lines – as much as that’s possible – I suspect we’ll see one of them at least.

He also spoke about Gabriel Jesus who got minutes under his belt in a behind closed doors game against Watford in midweek. Again, after so long out, there’s no question of rushing him back, but the manager said it was ‘very positive’, and that can only be a good thing with so many games on the schedule. It’s gone a little under the radar due to the high profile nature of the fixtures we’ve played since the Interlull, but there are three games in a week now, with Chelsea on Sunday, Brentford on Wednesday, and a trip to Aston Villa on Saturday.

That’s tough, and we cannot get through these games without effective rotation of the squad. Even if someone like Jesus can do 20 minutes in one of these games, it’ll help ease the burden on those who have played a lot. It could well be a big week in the Premier League with so many points to play for in such a short period of time, and I’m sure the manager has a plan for how to keep things fresh without losing the cohesion needed to produce effective performances.

I’ve talked a bit about Declan Rice in the last few days and some of the comments he made after the Bayern Munich win. He told CBS Sports he was enjoying the current schedule, playing every three or four days because he was able to find a good rhythm. Winning legs are not tired legs, but I do wonder if the manager will be tempted to give him a midweek rest. With Christian Norgaard ready to play against his old club, and the Villa game on paper a more difficult one, it must be something he’s giving some consideration too.

Then it’s about that balance between rest and interrupting the rhythm he’s currently in. Will Mikel Arteta think about how he kept Viktor Gyokeres on the bench for a midweek fixture only for him to get an injury in the next game should have been fully ‘rested’ for? Is that even connected, or just coincidence? I guess we’ll find out in due course. The manager was asked about Rice’s impact this season, at a time when he is probably playing the best football of his career, which is quite a high bar to be fair.

He responded to a question about if this was what he had envisaged from the player signed for £105m two years ago, and said:

Probably yes. But now being with him every single day and understanding and connecting with him in the way that I’ve done, we’re going to get more. Because he wants more, he’s going to get more. The team knows him better, his role is growing around the team, the impact that he has on the team is huge and we’ll find ways to make him even better.

It feels almost greedy to ask for more from Rice, but if it’s there I’ll gladly take it. He also spoke about him as part of the leadership group, which is a fairly obvious thing when you consider his character and the kind of person he is:

He’s in the leadership group, which is very important as well and it’s a real presence and sometimes you don’t need to just wear the armband to feel really connected, really powerful and really important in the team.

Martin Odegaard is the captain, there’s no need to change that. When he’s not there, Bukayo Saka wears the armband. Rice took it briefly on Wednesday night when Saka went off, then passed it onto Odegaard when he came on. I don’t think Declan Rice needs to any kind of title to be a leader at Arsenal, he just is one. For me it’s too reductive to say he should be captain, it doesn’t make anything better if you do that, especially given the context of taking it away from someone else, and we ought to just be happy that this a team with strong characters and leaders from front to back. Gabriel, Saliba, Saka, Rice, Odegaard, and a supporting cast that won’t be shy about making themselves known.

Right, I’m gonna leave it there for this morning. If you need something to listen to, our preview podcast is on Patreon now, and I’ll be back here tomorrow with a full preview of our trip to Stamford Bridge.

Have a great Saturday.