Morning all.

Ouch! That’s Maldini Kacurri challenging Raheem Sterling in training. No holding back eh but I’m sure no one was harmed whilst taking this photo. Lol

Still no sign of Ben White in the training photographs, nor Oleksandr Zinchenko or Jurrien Timber. The pictures on Arsenal.com are from Thursday’s training session so there’s still a chance one or both of White and Timber could be in the squad for tomorrow’s fixture against Southampton.

After tomorrow’s game, we have another international break and I hope a few players pull out of their respective international squads. Other clubs do it so why don’t we? Same goes for the November international break too. I know Thomas Partey has had his critics this season but on nights like Tuesday showed, he can still be brilliant. If he breaks down as many of us are probably believing is when rather than if, he’ll be a big miss. He could certainly do without the four extra fixtures Ghana will expect from him. I know it’s no different for all the Arsenal players who go off to play for their country but our midfielder is fragile. Takehiro Tomiyasu and Oleksandr Zinchenko are also frail so won’t be away with their respective countries, not even Tomiyasu who has returned to Arsenal training.

Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel, William Saliba, Kai Havertz and Jakub Kiwior have already been called up by their respective country managers and the Spain squad, which is to be announced today, is highly likely to include both Mikel Merino and David Raya. I’m sure Riccardo Calafiori will be away with Italy too.

Mikel Arteta has been nominated for Premier League Manager of the Month for September which comes as no great surprise really. A win against Totts, a dogged and determined defensive second half defensive performance at The Etihad to take a point whilst playing with ten men and then a late late show against Leicester City to secure maximum points. Yes, September was good for Arteta and Arsenal.

Also nominated for September awards is Gabriel for Player of the Month and Riccardo Calafiori for Goal of the Month after his stunning strike against Man City. Gabriel has just been a rock at the back for Arsenal and he scored to fantastic headers against Totts and City too.

Tomorrow we face Southampton, one of two clubs with just one point on the board so far this season, the other being Wolves which is a bit of a surprise. On the road, Southampton have been beaten by Brentford 3-1, Bournemouth 3-1 and Newcastle Utd 1-0. Southampton’s defence has been awful. They play out from the back but badly, often causing problems for themselves.

Manager Russell Martin said in his pre match conference that he and his players have an idea of how they can try and hurt Arsenal. But he is expecting his team to have moments when they will have to dig in, defend properly and be resilient. If Arsenal are firing on all cylinders, I suspect his team will need to show such qualities for a large percentage of the game.

Last weekend at Bournemouth, Southampton were 3-0 before halftime!

On paper, this is one of the fixtures which one might expect Mikel Arteta to be tempted to rotate one or two of his players but I’m not sure he will. In defence, he might have to if White and Timber are ruled out. I’m sure we’ll find out more later today when Arteta holds his press conference.

Catch up later…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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