Morning all.
Premier League clubs had to submit their 25 man squad details to he FA by 2pm yesterday. Having left Mesut Ozil and Sokratis of his Europa League squad, Mikel Arteta followed suit on the domestic front. Perhaps a cruel way to pretty much end a players career but both must have known the writing was on the wall during the summer. I’m sure they could have moved had they wanted to play the game, especially Ozil if reports at the time about offers from overseas clubs were true. They still could if a move to Qatar or the MLS appeals to either player as their transfer windows don’t close until October 25th and 29th respectively.
The League squad of 25 must include a minimum of eight homegrown players. Under 21 players don’t have to be listed.
The Premier League describes a homegrown player as someone a player who “irrespective of nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to the Football Association or the Welsh FA for a period of three seasons or 36 months prior to his 21st birthday”.
If a club doesn’t have enough homegrown players, which Arsenal do not, then they must reduce their squad to accommodate the amount of missing homegrown players, or fill the shortfall by naming an Under-21 player instead.
25 Man Squad, or rather 22…
Cedric Soares, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Hector Bellerin (homegrown), Willian, Dani Ceballos, Calum Chambers (homegrown), Gabriel, Mohamed Elneny, Rob Holding (homegrown), Sead Kolasinac, Alexandre Lacazette, Bernd Leno, Matt Macey (homegrown), Ainsley Maitland-Niles (homegrown), Pablo Mari, David Luiz, Shkodran Mustafi, Thomas Partey, Nicolas Pepe, Alex Runar Runarsson, Kieran Tierney, Granit Xhaka.
Mikel Arteta has a number of under 21 players to call upon, some of whom we’ve already seen in the first team. Gabriel Martinelli, Reiss Nelson, Bukayo Saka, Joe Willock, Eddie Nketiah and Emile Smith Rowe, although injuries have plagued the latter. He’s fit and training hard now though. William Saliba could yet feature in our League campaign too.
For now though, the focus for Arsenal switches to the Europa League Cup. The golden ticket to Champions League football next season. Even so, I think this is a real opportunity for Mikel Arteta to see what a few of the under 21’s can do. Perhaps Folarin Balogun, Miguel Azeez, or Ben Cottrell. All three are exciting young players who I think just need a lucky break. If Balogun features, he might commit his future to the club instead of his itchy feet or impatience getting the better of him and in any case, wouldn’t it be great to see him, or any of the younger players waltz into this Arsenal team and do something special? Something which perhaps might solve our midfield as far as creativity goes. If not immediately, then over the next few months and years.
See you in the comments guys.
Morning Rico, thanks for the post, with Leicester on the horizon it would make sense to rest a few of our 1st team, apparently Holding is out for 3 weeks so that’s brilliant news eh?
Leicester have a Europa home game tomorrow against a team I’ve never heard of but it’s still a game so I’d guess that the man with the million dollar railings will mix n match…
I’d imagine that Nketiah, Willock and Nelson will all start, maybe Smith Rowe although he’ll probably be on the bench?
Soares needs a game and Kolasinac and Niles, Runarsson should start in goal otherwise what was the point of signing him, but it wouldn’t shock me to see Leno start again.
How fit is Mustafi and Mari and would Arteta risk them, that’s the shame about Saliba?
Gabriel and Luiz will probably have to start with Kolasinac in a three.
Elneny and Ceballos in centre midfield to give the team some security with Tommo on the bench perhaps?
I’m not sure what level Rapid Vienna are at but we should be able to take the points as long as we aren’t complacent. With five subs available Arteta will have enough wiggle room to switch half of his starting XI so the room is there for him to bring players off early if the game is going well and possibly give a player or two their senior debut
Hi Rico
Felt Ozil decision correct one, but i think we were perhaps a bit harsh on Papa as i think he is a better defender than Mustafi and Luiz to be fair. He could have done a job for us while Holding is out.
Expect big things from Balogun, but lets se if he is picked and stays. As for Cottrell and Azeez, too early to say. Harry Clarke looks like a decent youngster
Onto Rapid Vienna, well, they are Championship level at best and we should turn them over, even with Elneny and Willock playing.
Morning Kev, I hope a few of the squad players get the chance tomorrow, especially the likes of Nelson because our homegrown list is getting shorter. Arsene Wenger were was heavily criticised for not giving more youth a chance. I’m not suggesting every young player should be played, that would be a foolish suggestion but is Pepe doing anything which Nelson hasn’t when played? I don’t think so.
Hi George.
Rapid Vienna are second in their league and seem to be scoring plenty of goals. They might just be a stronger opposition than perhaps we think.
I think Mustafi has improved under Mikel but then our defending in general has improved but perhaps Sokratis just doesn’t fit in to Mikel’s plans. It’s a shame he didn’t move on in the summer, for his sake.
I think Arteta will go strong tomorrow, Rapid Vienna are supposedly the strongest opposition in a weak group, so I guess this is our toughest fixture.Arteta will want to top the group,I reckon project youth will wait until the 5th/6th group games.Famous last words..
I still hope to see the likes of Nketiah,Willock,maybe Runarsson.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Leno start either although I’d quite like to see Macey get a game.
Cheers George, thanks for the heads up on Rapid Vienna, Harry Clarke is out on loan and made his debut yesterday from the subs bench for Oldham, incidentally Ballard came on as an early sub for Blackpool yesterday and was the man of the match for the Tangerines.
Hmm, seems that Rapid are a better side than I thought they were, I guess you just have to respect everyone when it come to Europe.
Have you read the Ozil statement yet Rico, it’s very well written and no doubt by his PR team and has many lines to read between.
Strong feeling that it’s all because of his stance on the Uyghur muslims and Chinese money . The last comment seems to support that.
I’ve not Kev, I’ll go and find it..
I wonder if Mesut would have pledged his future to Arsenal had the £350k a week not been on the table?
Hi Rico..nice one, btw! No Ceballos or Willian tomorrow – injured. Mustafi is back though!
Have to say I’m gutted about Mesut…I didn’t think his time with us would end this way!
Hi Sue, thanks.
It is sad but I can’t imagine that his omission was a shock to him. I’m sure he could have left for another club, despite his so called love for Arsenal. I suppose one could look at Emi Martinez who could so easily have stayed, probably earned more than Villa pay him, but he wanted to play.
Oh well, c’est la vie….
There’s only one thing I can say now – Come on Ajax!!! 😝
Amen to that Sue..
I saw Mustafi and Chambers joining in the training so they might both fit for tomorrow?
Reading, top of Championship, the pride of Berkshire and the Thames Valley. 🙂
I see that Ovie Ejarie plays for them, that name rang a bell so I Googled him and lo and behold he spent 9 years in our academy before joining Liverpool and they turned a £3m profit on him!
We really need to start taking players from other clubs again, I did read that we’re after some German kid whose contract at Bayern runs out next summer, it would be sweet revenge to nick one of theirs for sure, especially if he’s good.
Politics and sport should never mix.
Mustafi is Kev, ready for selection according to Arteta.
Didn’t we nick a few cheap/freebies this summer? Just not German. 😂
Good old Reading, long may it last.
New post up now