Hello from Dublin, it’s Andrew M here again.
First up, big thanks to Andrew A, Lewis, and Tim for keeping things ticking here on the blog. Arseblog was basically my main connection to Arsenal while I was away. I tried to stay ‘offline’ as much as possible, with only brief checks here and there of other outlets, so the daily round-up was very useful.
I arrived back home yesterday and spent the day in a jet-lagged daze. It felt as if I had been away for a very long time, and I think I’m still finding my bearings a bit. As ever it was great to meet so many Arsenal fans across the US, and interesting to see how the team’s preparations were coming along.
Obviously you can’t learn too much from the earliest part of pre-season, particularly when there are so many senior players absent, but that also did provide an opportunity for some of younger players to make a mark. The lads have mentioned them in their blogs while I was away, but Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly were very impressive, and look closest to giving Mikel Arteta some thinking to do with regards their involvement in the season ahead.
I also thought Ayden Heaven stood out playing at centre-half, and I was most impressed by his reaction to the goal we conceded against Man Utd. It’s clear that he can play, but that he also has the kind of personality that could give him a chance. At the moment though, with Gabriel, Jakub Kiwior, Takehiro Tomiyasu, and new boy Riccardo Calafiori ahead of him in the pecking order, his chances of first team football seem a bit slim, so it’s about continuing his development and working hard to make the kind of progress required.
This week should tell us a bit more about where we are, with our final two pre-season fixtures. First, Bayer Leverkusen (with former Gunner Granit Xhaka) are in town for a game on Wednesday, before Lyon (with former Gunners Alexandre Lacazette and Ainsley Maitland-Niles), rock up for a Sunday kickabout. After that, it’s Wolves on the opening day, so these two games are pretty important in terms of our preparations.
The squad has been bolstered by the returns of William Saliba, David Raya, Aaron Ramsdale, Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka, but it remains to be seen how much they’ll be involved after their extended holidays. No doubt we’ll hear from Mikel Arteta ahead of each game, but I suspect they might be earmarked for Sunday action rather than Wednesday. Then again, it wouldn’t surprise me too much if they got minutes against the Bundesliga champions.
As for further arrivals, the chat seems to be that Mikel Merino will be a midfield addition, but beyond that it seems to be quiet. I guess a bit depends on the market itself, and what happens with Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah. Both have been strongly linked with moves elsewhere, and should both of them depart, there’s no doubt in my mind that we’ll bring in some kind of forward. Striker? Winger? Some kind of hybrid? Your guess is as good as mine but you can’t allow two forwards to go and not sign anyone, so let’s see how things go over the next few weeks.
In pre-season, we’ve seen Fabio Vieira play on the right of the front three a couple of times, but despite a nice finish against Bournemouth, I don’t necessarily find him a particularly convincing option there. The long-standing discussion about how we procure or provide back-up for Bukayo Saka might be one we hear plenty of before the end of the transfer window, and I think in the short-term, the best option we have is Gabriel Jesus – who has looked sharp in pre-season.
That then requires Kai Havertz to play as your striker, so that in turn opens up discussions about midfield. Could it be a case that Declan Rice and Mikel Merino are the 6/8 combo? I have some worries about the physical limitations of our current options at 6 (not Rice), and adding another 6’2 guy into the team (Merino) seems like a very Arteta thing to do. Our set-piece coach will certainly thank him for it, at least. As I said, that’s why I think this week could be very interesting when it comes to seeing what way the manager is thinking about his team for next season, and whether any kind of tactical tweak is on the cards.
Right, I’m gonna leave it there for now. It’s nice to be back and I’m looking forward to settling back into a work-routine. The high jinks were fun, but the serious business begins again very soon.
We’ll have an Arsecast Extra for you later this afternoon because James is still in the US. Keep an eye out for the call for questions on Twitter @gunnerblog and @arseblog on Twitter with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.
Pod should be out by 4pm or thereabouts. For now, have a good one.
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