72 Comments

I am not panicking. If Nwaneri's number is up - well and good. He's old enough and equally talented peers his age or younger are playing.

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New post:

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Sep 9·edited Sep 9

I am fuming at this Martin Odegaard injury. We already are without Rice and Merino and now this. All because of a fucking meaningless international break.

Now though, I would play

Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber, Partey, Jorginho, Saka, Sterling, Havertz, Martinelli.

Either a 442 or Havertz in the hole type of game is what will cut through spurs. They don't handle pace in behind well.

Go long to Havertz to knock it down or cut through them to get Saka, Sterling and Martinelli in behind. Partey and Jorginho are capable of getting people through.

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It might be time to do what I've been wanting to see for a while.

Saka at AM with Sterling the obvious choice for RW.

Could be a very strong lineup to be honest.

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I’ve always thought Saka would end up as a No8 or more of an inverted wide forward later in his career.

He played as a left 8 against City once, and was the best player on the pitch as a teenager.

Unless Arteta is going to throw Nwaneri into big games.

Saka replacing Ødegaard, and Sterling on the right, might be the ticket.

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Really cannot stand these asinine international matches.

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Sep 9·edited Sep 9

Raphael Honigstein

Martin Odegaard subbed off with an ankle injury… didn’t look good at all.

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Incredible idea to loan out Fabio. Just superb. Incredible.

Who the actual fuck expected that Ode will go through another season with zero injuries?!

I'm speechless.

Our squad would have been complete with Fabio. Ode out, Fabio in, no issues.

But now? We gonna be playing what?

A three of Jorginho, Partey, Rice, Havertz for 8 games in a row? Instead of having our best CF we'll have to move him out of his best position (he's versatile like that, no doubt) but why though?

The logic is - 2 similar players for a position - Ode and Fabio. Now instead of Fabio we have Nwaneri.

Do we think Arteta will play Nwaneri from the get go? No chance.

We'll have to:

- put a lot of minutes on Partey and we know how that goes

- move Havertz from his best position

- play without a creative midfielder

- have a weaker CF

- have to readjust our whole team

We're in September. We've barely played any games and the cyclone of games is about to begin.

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Fabio Vieira is shit. I wouldn't have wanted him to start a fucking NLD anyway. I wouldn't throw in Ethan either.

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Looks a really nasty injury as well.

Video on Arseblog:

https://arseblog.news/2024/09/odegaard-suffers-ankle-injury-on-international-duty/

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Sep 9·edited Sep 9

Fkin hell...

Merino out, Odegaard out and that's two of the most robust guys out there.

If Odegaard is out for up to 1-2 months (numbers out of my ass) we're in an injury crisis and the season has just started. I'm not blaming anything else but us loaning Fabio.

Literally 2 AMs at the club and we loaned the 2nd. Then we've got a kid that I feel like Arteta will not play in an important game unless things get very, very dire (I agree with that).

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Bar injuries

Martinelli Trossard Saka

Haverts Partey Ode

Timber Gabriel Saliba White

Raya

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Party just completed 90 minutes with Ghana without an injury.

That's his second 90 minutes in 4 days for the Black Stars, additional to the minutes at Arsenal.

If he makes it to the next match after Spurs unscathed, then a miracle would have just happened.

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If Calafiori is fit after the ridiculous and pointless Nations Cup fiasco, then I’d use him alongside Partey as the 6 double pivot. Timber at LB. I’d prefer Zinchenko as a left 8 rather than 6 if the game opens up later

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Think Timber in Cm and Calafiori at LB is more likely but I don't suspect Arteta will do either.

Partey at the base and Havertz playing LCM is odds on I'd reckon.

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Even though we see a lot of positional flexibility from Tets, like Kai as striker, Trossard fluent between the front 3, Tomi fluent across the back 4, there are some iterations that we as the fan base keep calling for, which he just doesn’t do.

Key amongst those are, Zinchenko in the left 6, martinelli as striker or RW, and probably going forward, Timber in MF.

What’s the consensus on why this is. Zinchenko has played the MF role for both club and country, and Martinelli seems just so ideally suited for runs behind through the middle …..

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Always take anything Arteta says in his press conferences with a large pinch of salt..

It’s usually smoke + mirrors.

But he was asked about Zinchenko in midfield, and pretty much poured cold water on it.. But didn’t rule out Timber in midfield.

Martinelli has played on the right a few times, just not very often.

My take on it is that Arteta likes to use established relationships on the pitch, and patterns of play.

When he was asked why Timber played centre back, and White stayed at right back in pre-season..

He said something along the lines of.. Because he wanted to make one change, and not 2.

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Sep 9·edited Sep 9

HandofOzil

🚨 Gabriel Jesus is expected to be fit for the upcoming North London Derby.

Tomiyasu has also made excellent progress in his recovery programme.

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ITK that's been delivering inside information more reliable than almost anyone.

Great news to have the pair back. Hopefully they stay healthy for more than 4 games.

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I won’t believe it till Arteta confirms it in in press conference.

I haven’t seen either of them train in the club videos

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Tomi hasn’t had a pre-season, once he’s back in training, it’ll probably be 3-4 weeks to get him up to speed.

Think it’ll be Trossard or Jesus at No9.

Moving Havertz is far from ideal, but with Rice + Merino out..

Our midfield options are severely limited, I’m not convinced Arteta wants a midfield trio that doesn’t contain at least one of Rice, Merino, or Havertz.

We’d be far too lightweight, would be really surprised if we went with a Partey, Jorginho, Ødegaard midfield, particularly away in a NLD.

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I hope Arteta creates a Xhaka-like role for Zinchenko.

His defensive liabilities make his left back future unlikely, more so when we have califiori, Tomiyasu, Tierney and Kiwior available.

Zinchenko needs to be pushed up field to use his passing-through-lines abilities.

Start him in the #8 role, next to Califiori/Timber in the NLD. Let Partey stay back to take care of their pace upfront. I would start Martinelli too.

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Alright Pedro 🙋‍♂️….I was on my holiday in the South West of France when I first read you and your Dad’s blog all those years ago. Same years later when we signed Ożil ….now I’m in Puglia…in a thunderstorm!! So I’d like to wish you a belated ‘congratulations’ and a very,very big thank you for keeping us all with something sensible to read.

You’ve been through some stuff over the years haven’t you?!…and shared a lot of your experiences and thoughts with your readers-us! Keep on doing what you do mate👏🏻👏🏻

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I just saw the table for the nations league

With England in the second division, it means we’re a whole league below mighty European football powerhouse countries Kosovo, Bosnia and Israel

Hope one day we can reach the same heights as those teams, but unlikely unless we can hire pep to replace Carsley

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“With England in the second division, it means we’re a whole league below mighty European football powerhouse countries Kosovo, Bosnia and Israel”

I know right, make it make sense.

Is the proper football back yet?

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Congrats Pete, to having honed LeGrove to success!

Wish you many happy returns!

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