Morning all.
Not a lot occurring in Arsenal phrases this morning. I suppose the factor we’re ready on this week is the seriousness of Jurrien Timber’s damage. Fingers crossed it’s not too dangerous, nevertheless it by no means seems to be good when a participant goes down out of the blue with no person round him. It’d be merciless if he picked up an damage on his residence debut that saved him out, however soccer may be precisely that at instances. Let’s see.
His departure on Saturday meant taking part in time for Takehiro Tomiyasu, a participant I feel might be actually necessary for us this season. He can actually play in any place throughout the back-line, and he offers us actual defensive depth. I do know his season was lower quick final time with that knee damage, nevertheless it’s price noting he had made 31 appearances in all competitions at that time, so the notion that he wasn’t concerned that a lot isn’t actually the case.
Left-back stays such an attention-grabbing space. We now have Oleksandr Zinchenko again in full coaching however nonetheless a bit of manner from match match. When he returns, how does that affect the workforce? With Thomas Partey doing an analogous job from right-back in opposition to Nottingham Forest, it’d imply a extra conventional midfield function for him … if he’s chosen – or probably a deeper function for Declan Rice with Kai Havertz forward of him.
As I wrote yesterday, I needed we’d stepped on the fuel a bit extra within the second half and scored one other aim to offer us a extra snug lead, however you possibly can perceive how early season you’re nonetheless constructing health – to not point out we had three new gamers on the pitch (two after Timber went off). It should take time for a few of the relationships to develop and to seek out the sort of fluency we noticed final season.
Going again to left-back, what now for Kieran Tierney? From sure starter, to bench possibility, to not even being within the squad. It’s a troublesome scenario for him, and whereas any potential damage to Timber would possibly change the plans a bit of bit within the short-term, the longer-term implications of the way in which this squad has been constructed don’t augur properly. There are arguably 4 gamers forward of him in Mikel Arteta’s thoughts (Zinchenko, Timber, Tomiyasu and Jakub Kiwior), and fifth alternative left-back isn’t a place a participant of his high quality can permit himself to be in.
However the place to? The a lot talked about transfer to Newcastle didn’t materialise, and the mortgage supply from Actual Sociedad doesn’t appear to be going anyplace. I’m fairly shocked there hasn’t been extra Premier League curiosity in him, you possibly can make the case for him at fairly a number of groups in order we head into the ultimate couple of weeks of the window, his folks – and Arsenal – should be busy as a result of with out a transfer, he’s barely going to play this season.
Amusingly, as I’ve written this, there’s been an replace from a Newcastle based mostly journalist saying they need both Tierney or Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella on mortgage. FFP issues are cited as the explanation why the richest membership on the planet can’t pay a switch charge, and whereas that is perhaps true, I’m a bit of not sure as to how that may be the case when Chelsea are about to spend a British switch report charge – once more! – and have been throwing cash round like lunatics for the reason that arrival of Todd Boehly.
The article suggests an analogous sort of deal to the one we’re about to do for David Raya, the place a mortgage this season may then defer an precise cost for 12 months, which sounds a bit extra acceptable. However it might should be an obligation greater than an possibility, and given Newcastle’s huge assets the charge ought to 100% mirror that. In a 12 months’s time after they have introduced a brand new sponsorship take care of a PIF owned firm that specialises in ‘progressive blue-sky pondering merchandise’ that gained’t hit the market till 2029, they will fork up.
Proper, I’m gonna go away it there for this morning.
James and I are recording the Arsecast Further at the moment, however not till late afternoon. Maintain a watch out for the decision for questions on Twitter @gunnerblog and @arseblog on Twitter with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or in case you’re on Arseblog Member on Patreon, go away your query within the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.
For now, have an excellent one.
