Morning.
Let’s start with the Carabao Cup semi-final draw which took place after Sp*rs nearly did something hilarious last night against Man Utd. We avoid them, but will play Newcastle over two legs. We’re home first in the week beginning January 6th, and then away on February 3rd/4th.
These are going to be the ‘Why didn’t we buy Alexander Isak?!’ semis, or the ‘We can’t spend that much on a guy who is injured that often to add to our collection of other injured guys!’ semis. It also throws up the possibility of a North London derby final which would obviously be glorious if it went our way but unbearable if it didn’t. They have Liverpool in the other tie, and if they do what they did last night again, I think the aggregate score could be in triple figures for the Mugsmashers.
It’s also just worth looking at our schedule in January, because after the game against Ipswich on December 27th, it gets very busy. Look at this:
Jan 1st: Brentford (A)
Jan 4th: Brighton (A)
Jan 7th: Newcastle (H) Carabao Cup likely date
Jan 12th: Man Utd (H) FA Cup
Jan 15th: Sp*rs (H)
Jan 18th: Aston Villa (H)
Jan 22nd: Dinamo Zagreb (H)
Jan 25th: Wolves (A)
Jan 28th: Girona (A)
It’s nine games in 28 days, which is really going to test us, and it’s why I really didn’t understand how vociferous some of the reaction was when our team sheet came out for the Crystal Palace game on Wednesday. Could Mikel Arteta have picked a stronger side? Of course, but when you look at the schedule, any chance to give some of our most important players a rest has to be taken. Beyond that though, he had to give minutes to players who will be necessary during this run.
There’s just no way we’re going to get through that kind of schedule with 13/14 guys playing all the minutes. There are going to be games when we’ll need the likes of Gabriel Jesus, Jorginho, Ethan Nwaneri, Raheem Sterling, Jakub Kiwior, maybe even Kieran Tierney given how injury prone a couple of our left-back options are (and I know, he’s had his own issues in the past but he’s available now and that gives him a chance).
Speaking of Tierney, I thought the timing of David Ornstein’s exclusive about his future was a bit odd. He’d just played his first game for us in a long time, done pretty well, and immediately we’re told Arsenal aren’t going to renew his contract and he’ll leave by the summer at the latest. I don’t think any of that is a surprise, by the way. Arsenal shouldn’t be extending his deal, it’s time for him to go elsewhere, but it just felt strange timing.
Whether it came from the Tierney side, looking to alert people to his availability – potentially in January – I don’t know, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. There’s talk of a return to Celtic, again no surprise, but even with the emergence of Myles Lewis-Skelly, I wonder if he might be kept around to provide depth. I really like Riccardo Calafiori, but his availability is an issue so far, while Oleksandr Zinchenko can go from fit to injured in the blink of an eye. He’s currently on his 8th injury absence since joining in 2022, making it a grand total of 264 days missed (via TransferMarkt).
It did not seem at all likely to me that Tierney would play for Arsenal again, and without that big injury in the summer he’d most likely be somewhere else at this point. But football is a weird industry. Mad stuff happens, even fleetingly, and when you look back on it you wonder how, but it’s just part and parcel of the game. Who knows if he might pop up with an important cross or even a goal at some point, I’d love to see it, because that would be a far better way for his Arsenal career to wind down than an inauspicious transfer having not played for us for a year. Let’s see what happens.
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Right, I’ll leave it there for now, but just wanted to confirm that after selling our Goodly Morning mugs and generating over €4000 in revenue, we’ve rounded it up to €5000 and donated all the proceeds to charity. James picked CHaL (Children’s Hospices across London), and I went for Oscar’s Kids – both of whom do incredible work for sick kids and their families.
Thank you to everyone who supported and bought a mug. And particularly at this time of year, if you’re in a position to give a bit to your preferred charity/good cause, please do. The world is tough and cruel, for all kinds of reasons, so it’s incumbent on those of us who can give a bit back to do just that.
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We’ll have our Crystal Palace preview podcast on Patreon a bit later, and we’ll bring you all the stories from Mikel Arteta’s press conference on Arseblog News this afternoon.
Until then.
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