It’s Champions League night baby, and we have absolutely nothing to worry about. We’re top of the group, sitting pretty like Christmas kings, so you’d think we’d, you know, just leave all our best players at home this evening....
It’s Champions League night baby, and we have absolutely nothing to worry about. We’re top of the group, sitting pretty like Christmas kings, so you’d think we’d, you know, just leave all our best players at home this evening.
Well, not quite.
Arteta is actually taking them to Holland. Saka, Kai, Jesus, Odegaard, Ben White… they’re all on the plane. I honestly don’t get it. You could say, ‘well, you’re not a professional coach’ and that’d be true. But I also don’t have a record of exhausting players and breaking them during crunch-time moments.
This was his explainer:
“I don’t know in another context what I would have done, but I also want everyone together with the mentality to win. I want to see that in their tummies tomorrow.
“The job technically is done, but the job is not completely done. It is our duty as representatives of Arsenal to win every game and to give a big performance against a team that is going to make things very difficult, as they have shown the past two years.”
This type of rah, rah commentary feels very dated in a sporting world dominated by data. I understand that a lot of management is about feel and emotion. But this is PSV in a dead game in a moment when we’ve struggled for bodies. The squad doesn’t need more unity, it needs less minutes on the pitch to heal and recover. Fatigue is cumulative, so the more miles we put in the engine now, the more pain we’ll feel later. I mean, I don’t even need to talk up ‘later’ because we’ve seen bodies dropping all season.
We earned the right to leave everyone at home and play the kids – and we’ve instead loaded them onto a plane, and we’ll no doubt see people playing.
Brighton are at home this week, they play Marseille with the chance of topping the group and avoiding an extra game against a Champions League third-placed team. It’s great to play them at home when they’ll be tired. I just don’t understand why we didn’t look at the knocks, tweaks, and injuries and totally derisk the evening.
This is the squad Arteta can pick from.
Ramsdale, Raya, Hein; Gabriel, Cedric, Kiwior, Saliba, White, Zinchenko; Elneny, Havertz, Jorginho, Odegaard, Rice, Smith Rowe; Jesus, Nelson, Nketiah, Saka and Trossard.
There should be opportunities to see some players we haven’t seen much of this season. Reiss Nelson needs to get some game time. I would love to see Kiwior at centre back with Reuell Walters at right back. Smith Rowe should get some minutes, but it’s probably too early for him to start. Eddie needs to be at 9 and I’ll take Big Mo and Jorginho in midfield all day long.
‘The personality he has, he trains with us like he trains with the Under 18s and I love that.
‘He’s got that thing between his teeth that he wants to show every single day how good he is. When you have someone like that, you have to give him hope as well.
‘I think it was a strong sign for him (making his Premier League debut) that this was his place to keep developing.’
The praise here is high. I’m cognisant that he’s only a baby, but the fact he’s even being talked about like this tells you how exciting the player is. It takes outrageous skill to make it at Arsenal these days. It’d be wonderful if he could edge his way into contention over the next 4 years.
So what are we looking for this evening? No injuries. Limited first-team players. A very safe trip back.
Join us for an OTW after the game.
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