Morning guys.
It’s been a perfect start to the season with three wins out of three for The Arsenal.
One game a week has meant rotation has been kind of irrelevant but that now changes as from tomorrow, Arsenal play four fixtures in a ten day period before an international break. Our October fixtures are just as busy with five match in a fourteen day period but that’s the name of the game for a club involved in European football and the League Cup.
William Saliba is in the Champions League squads so he must be expected to return this year. Jurrien Timber and Cristhian Mosquera are expected to return imminently and despite not getting minutes on Sunday, Bruno Guimaraes was on the bench so he must be good to go.
Arsenal’s Achilles heel over the years has been injuries, we all know that. Without them I think Mikel Arteta would have at least one more Premier League trophy to his name. We cannot rewrite history but we can learn from it. Rotation is key and when one looks at our squad, it should be the easiest of seasons for Arteta to keep his players as fit as possible so that come May, they are not running on empty. There is strength and depth in every department. One might look at our left side and see a weakness but Ebe Eze and Noni Madueke should be enough to fill the void when Christos Tzolis needs resting. Plus we have Max Dowman waiting in the wings too. Literally. Our defence and midfield is as strong as it’s been for years and it will only get stronger when William Saliba returns.
Our bench is full of what I’d call first team players. There is no weakness, well, I’m not convinced by our backup keepers, certainly not Kepa but as far as outfield players go, changes are unlikely to mean weakness. I know Victor Gyokeres seems to be Mr Marmite these days but I think he looked rusty on Sunday but once he hits his rhythm, I’m sure he’ll start scoring goals. I hope so anyway because Kai Havertz cannot play every game even if Arteta wants him too. If he’s to be Arsenal’s main man up front this season, Arteta cannot afford to run him into the ground before Christmas. Same goes for Martin Odegaard, Ben White and Bukayo Saka who all missed chunks of last season through injury. Riccardo Calafiori is another player who has had more than his fair share of injuries.
In my mere humble opinion, rotation needs to begin tomorrow. Piero Hincapie, Eze, Madueke, Mikel Merino, Guimaraes, Gyokeres and Martin Zubimendi all need more minutes under their belt. Not for one minute am I suggesting so many changes at one time but should the game allow it, why not get the subs on earlier than the 60 minute mark, especially those who have not played much football in the last three weeks. Keeping the squad fit, and I mean match fit, will make the next eight months a lot easier to get through than if players are rusty from lack of minutes, or knackered because they’ve played too many.
Catch up in the comments.
Potter, my friend in Catalonia doesn’t even celebrate Spain’s footballing success. “We are Catalan” she and her family once said when Spain won the Euros (I think it was)
Brilliant Cicero. That’s made me chuckle.
Morning guys.
New post up.
Now there’s a man who most certaintly deserves the accolade of “The Great”.
I’m sure your Dad was a fine fellow, too, Cicero.
As a young boy my father was known has Alfred-The-Grate as each morning he had to clear the ashes from the kitchen stove. 😉
Yes, Potter. “Greatness” is a term that can only narrowly be applied to SB. A bit like Herod.
Gabriel Jesus claims Arteta let him train with the squad preseason then out of no ware Arteta told him he was not allowed to train with the squad and has to train on his own, if true and this keeps up Arteta man management skills could be called question again, could find player unrest again
Afternoon Rico and all. I hope I am wrong, but it seems that Arteta is freezing Gyokeres out as he convinced, we were going to get Alverez. now we may have another Ozil – Aubameyang situation on his hand, as I said I hope I am wrong
The great Santiago Bernabeu is a moot point following his distaste for Catalonia and Catalans after he fought with Franco as they sacked Barcelona .
He is recorded as saying that he hated the Catalan people and there are many stories in the area that accuse him of many things including shooting civilians on the roads to France as they tried to escape from the Franco forces.
I stayed near Barcelona in 1967 and 1968 doing summer work and the way that Manchester United’s beating of Real Madrid was celebrated was incredible..
We talk about the hatred between us and Tottenham but it pales into insignificance to the hatred in Catalonia.
Thanks Rico. A sumptuous ten days in front of us.
Cicero, I can only imagine that the “unicorn” analogy has more to do with the rareness of said mythical creature, rather than the less salubrious definition used on dating ap’s.
Nice memories, Potter. It is only grainy videos that have allowed me the privilege of experiencing that history. The team I played for in Moravia during the mid nineties all had pet names for each other drawn from that famous Real Madrid team. If we won a game our after match song was “Santiago, Santiago, Santiago…TULA (slang for let’s go)” An allusion to the great Santiago Bernabeu.
Yes, like you I see Johan C in the top five footballers of all time. You prob’s have read that he described Bergkamp as the greatest ever Dutch player. Hard to argue with that, tho’ I’d place him second to JC and perhaps alongside Marco VB.
Agree re Brighton, they pushed Chelsea hard losing 4-3 in the end I think.
Yeah I tend to agree with Potter and with Cicero, Arteta’s need to win our opening game in the CL will probably dictate his team selection, so maybe a couple of changes to start with and plenty of substitutions is the name of the game…
The League Cup game in a weeks time will be interesting because Ipswich will go full gas and full strength, especially at home. I get a feeling that that is where we’ll see Jurrien Timber start for the first time this season. Brighton (a) after the visit to Anglia has banana skin written all over it. 😬
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2026/09/05/chelsea-and-arsenal-are-tearing-up-the-guardiola-gospel/
And isn’t it refreshing…
Morning Cicero, thank you.
Arteta can still rotate without “weakening” the team though.
I like that description of Calafiori..
Good morning Rico, Kev, Potter.
As Potter says, Arteta will not want to start the CL campaign by dropping points in the first game, so a strong starting eleven with changes as the game progresses.
A nice article in this morning’s Telegraph, Calafiori is our unicorn player (not sure what that is 😉), but he is given the freedom to roam around the pitch and is likely to pop up anywhere causing havoc among the opposing defenders. He is never shy of having a pop either at goal. For the first time since his arrival he seems to be fully fit and raring to go.
Nice post Rico, thanks ***** again👌
As would I Kev re your changes.
Morning to you both, all. Thanks Kev.
The key imo is resting players when they are fit rather than when they are knackered..
McTominey is out and that’s a major plus…
He will want to win this and I expect the same team to start with changes when the circumstances allow.
Napoli have not started particularly well , played 3 lost two won 1 scored 5 let in 5. We should have too much for them and if we can get 2 or more up by half time , the substitutions can happen.
Raya, White, Hincapie, Konsa, Gabriel, MLS, Zubimendi, Merino or Bruno, Madueke, Gyokeres, Eze should have enough to get a result and we’d have the big guns on the bench to come on in case.
Of course if we’re comfortable Mikel could bring on Max, Marli or if they’re fit Mosquera or/and Timber.
Good post Rico, yes rotation is key and the influence of the new medical team, we have Sunderland this weekend and that’ll be a bear pit so keeping our guys fresh for that necessitates Arteta rotating tomorrow evening. I’d rest Calafiori, Saka, Havertz, Odegaard, Tzolis and Rice, but that’s me…