Morning all.
Will the minutes played in Qatar have a bearing on how the League title race plays out over the five months I wonder. The clubs, listed below are the ones expected to chasing down a top four/six place and the number of minutes their players played during the World Cup are alongside. It’s kind of misleading in a way because certain players could have played the bulk of the minutes, whilst others, like William Saliba for example, played just 27 of Arsenal’s 1700 in total.
Newcastle Utd – 394 minutes
Brighton – 1,542 minutes
Arsenal – 1,700 minutes
Liverpool -1,790 minutes
Chelsea – 3,303 minutes
Man Utd – 3,587 minutes
Tottenham – 3,600 minutes
Man City – 4,572 minutes
I think Man Utd, Totts and Chelsea picked up a World Cup injury each – Diogo Dalot, Richarlison and Cesar Azpilicueta respectively but I’m not sure any will have the kind of impact on their team as Arsenal losing Gabriel Jesus will have. Richarlison perhaps but he’s expected to return soon.
Takehiro Tomiyasu is reported to be injured, as is Reiss Nelson now and we’re yet to see Emile Smith Rowe return to training but as Mikel Arteta told afc.com, his return will be big. He talked about Gabriel Jesus too:
It’s a huge blow for us, obviously. He’s such an important player: he’s brought something very different to the team and it’s impossible to replace him. But we have other players, other alternatives and we’ll try to get that sorted. The transfer window is another option. I think [Jesus] is a unique player but Eddie [Nketiah] has incredible qualities as well for the way we want to play. We have other alternatives in that we can play Martinelli up front as well. We are currently a little bit short in terms of upfront positions but getting Emile [Smith Rowe] back is going to be a big one.
We are short, very short. If Mikel Arteta loses either Gabriel Martinelli or Bukayo Saka, we’ll be down to the bare bones of the squad as far as forwards go. Good job those youngsters enjoyed some minutes on the pitch and training with the senior players over the last few weeks because one just never knows if or when their services might be required. Tongue in cheek slightly of course.
Arsenal played another friendly fixture earlier today, against Championship club Luton Town. Here’s how Arsenal lined up with the substitutions in brackets.
Arsenal: Ramsdale (Turner), White (Sousa), Holding, Gabriel (Foran), Cedric, Partey (Lokonga), Xhaka (Elneny), Odegaard (Cozier-Duberry), Saka (Vieira), Martinelli (Marquinhos), Nketiah (Cirjan). Subs not used. Sajoe Jr.
The game ended 0-0. Goals for Arsenal have dried up in the last two games for Mikel Arteta’s team which is a slight concern. I’m sure though, once the season kicks off again and the seriousness returns, the Arsenal of pre World Cup will return. Perhaps Oleksandr Zinchenko, Emile Smith Rowe and Takehiro Tomiyasu will soon return too.
Finally, good luck to the women who’ve not long kicked off their match against Zurich. A win will ensure they finish top of the group in the Champions League, and good luck to Beth Mead too whose been nominated for the Sports Personality Of The Year Award which takes place in under an hour.
Catch up in the comments..
Evening rico, House. Interesting stats. Had hoped we had ESR and Zin firing by now! A bit worrying.
10.30pm tonight, Sky Sp PL ch402. Hour long interview with Arteta discussing the season so far. By Jamie Caragher!
Evening Andrew.
Women are winning 9-1 😀
Thanks re the Arteta interview. Carragher though Mikel??
Well done Beth Mead SPOTY for 2022…. 🏆
The women are doing it in the absence of Beth Mead and Viv Miedema, others are stepping up to the plate and doing so in style. The men must follow their example. Eddie Nketiah in particular has his chance now to show what he can do.
Congratulations to Beth Mead on winning SPOTY. A magnificent achievement.
Afternoon Rico and all, our nice would that be if our men’s team could win 9-1
Sounds like all our ladies’ team are having a great season, it says a lot when you can still win with your top 2 players out.
It will be interesting to see if we strengthen our men’s team and who Arteta goes after.
Morning Rico
Well done ‘Meado’. 9-1 is quite the scoreline in Zurich.
Roll on Monday. Can’t come quick enough. Any news on Tierney. Hope he’s not crocked again.
Congratulations to Beth Mead , now lets get back to the serious stuff.
No goals against Luton or Juventus , 2 goals against A.C Milan ,3 against Lyon , 2 against Watford admittedly no Martinelli or Saka and frequently a lot of our under 21’s but still 500 odd minutes for 7 goals .
All of which begs the questions as whether our striker situation is good enough to maintain our 5 point lead at the top and the 8 points to 4th place.
It goes without saying that Eddie cannot fit in and directly replace Jesus , he may have a similar work rate but not in the same areas . He is the the thing we bought Jeffers for , the fox in the box , not the all round worker and it would be wrong to think that he can be.
Nketiah will score goals if the ball is close to goal but he won’t chase back to win the ball and run at defences that will have to be someone else’s job but who ? Odegaard , Xhaka and Partey are not natural dribblers and pass rather than carry the ball . Smith – Rowe is not fit and we have to be aware that Saka and Martinelli will have to switch on again as will Saliba .
This was the season that we didn’t need the interruption and we were on a high that was carrying us through ,Now we have to start again and those points lead could easily disappear just as fast if the impetus is not immediately regained.
West Ham , Brighton and Newcastle in 8 days , Arteta has a job to do and it will need to be done quickly.
RIP George Cohen. England’s World Cup Winning fullback, he was awarded an MBE and died aged 83.
No many are left Cicero, Banks, Hurst, then I’m struggling to think of many others that aren’t with us anymore or are suffering health issues.
Clang!
Gordon Banks died, but Bobby Charlton is still alive but struggling with dementia, so Geoff Hurst is the only one left who could talk about 66 with any clarity.
Over half a century and I still have clear and vivid memories of that historical day.
Good night all.
Afternoon Rico and All
Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all.
Morning Geoff, all.
New post up.