Morning all.
It’s one other difficult away journey right this moment, as we face Brighton simply three days after beating Brentford. At present’s opposition have had a few additional days to relaxation and put together for this one, in order that’s one other difficult facet of this encounter.
When it comes to the staff, we’re with out Jurrien Timber who picked up a suspension on Wednesday, so the apparent choose to switch him is Thomas Partey. I don’t suppose there’s another resolution actually. I can’t see Mikel Arteta taking part in a left-footer on the fitting, and with Declan Rice and Jorginho accessible to return into midfield, he’ll go together with the participant who has crammed in there loads of occasions this season.
I do suppose that has a knock-on impact on our proper hand facet, nevertheless it’s the absence of Bukayo Saka that may influence that essentially the most. Ethan Nwaneri was excellent there towards Brentford and could possibly be referred to as up on once more, however in his press convention yesterday, the supervisor made it clear he’s going to need to rotate with some frequency throughout this hectic month:
There’s not one participant that’s going to play 9 video games in a row in that place, it’s inconceivable. So, after we take a look at that and we take a look at the opposition as properly, particularly the best way they defend, the best way they occupy areas, someday a pure or inverted footed, could be extra helpful.
With Kai Havertz again from sickness for right this moment’s recreation, there’s scope for Mikel Arteta to do one thing a bit completely different together with his ahead line. Maybe shifting Gabriel Martinelli over to the fitting with Leandro Trossard on the left? That mentioned, together with his present kind, you most likely wish to preserve Gabriel Jesus within the staff too. What I might say is that with a cup semi-final on Tuesday, and so many video games in January, there are going to be some staff alternatives that look a bit odd, and I do marvel if right this moment could be a type of.
In midfield, assuming health isn’t a problem, I feel we’ll see Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard and Mikel Merino (about whom I wrote yesterday), with the supervisor backing the summer season signing to ship extra:
We anticipated a really quick integration as a result of he’s performed within the league, he’s such an clever and skilled participant and he matches very properly. He had an harm and one other little niggle, and he had no pre-season as a result of he performed for Spain as properly and it took him only a whereas to begin to get set, however now you possibly can see the influence he has within the staff, his intelligence and the objective menace that he affords to the staff. Then, increasingly more will come as a result of he’s a pure chief as properly. As he grows within the function, I feel we’ll see way more from him.
It’d be a great recreation too for the captain to offer some finish product. I don’t suppose he’s been fairly proper of late, maybe that ankle continues to be a problem after the harm and the current arrival to the family could be taking part in an element, however he’s been rather less impactful than you’d count on. It seems like he may benefit from a objective and/or an help (or two, three – I’m not grasping).
I’m additionally curious to see how we method this recreation. In opposition to Brighton final season we performed a really courageous/dangerous recreation, urgent them excessive up the pitch which left some area in midfield, nevertheless it labored out properly with a 3-0 win. Whether or not Arteta sees that as the best way to go towards this present iteration of Brighton stays to be seen although. They’ve loads of attacking expertise to be cautious of if we give them an excessive amount of room.
Lastly, I feel there must be a little bit of ‘additional’ for our gamers going into this one after what occurred within the residence recreation. The Rice purple card was a real shame, and I feel it value us two factors that day. The Brighton supervisor’s feedback afterwards had been very annoying too (though I feel that comes very naturally to him), so if there’s some further motivation due to what occurred again in September, let’s lean into that. Each little counts and many others and many others. A Rice winner could be a little bit of justice.
Proper, I’m gonna go away it there for now. We’ve got a preview podcast accessible proper now on Patreon. Be a part of us later for reside weblog protection, plus you’ll get the match report, objective clips, response, participant scores and way more over on Arseblog Information.
Till then!
