Morning.
This is the worst day of the Interlull, when all the international football is done, but there’s no news yet because they’re still trying to figure out how everyone is after their travels. The official site posted a training video, from which I have three takeaways.
1 – I hope Gabriel Jesus finds the net with the same frequency in real games. His last Premier League goal came against this weekend’s opposition, Nottingham Forest, back in January. He has now gone 19 games in this competition without finding the back of the net, and I’m sure he’ll be looking to avoid rounding that up to 20.
His previous longest barren streak for Arsenal was 8 games, but that included a few before the World Cup in 2022, and then a few after he returned following a three month absence. I went back to have a look at his Man City stats, and while he was never super-prolific, he never had a run anything close to this. Only in his first injury hit season with Man City did he bag fewer than 10 goals in all competitions, but even then he got 7 in just 10 Premier League appearances, with 4 assists in those games too.
Which is to say, while I share many concerns about him and the impact that knee injury has had, I still think he is capable of better than we’ve seen from him. Yes, his appearances have been more sporadic, with lots of fleeting cameos, but right now he’s going through an unprecedented goalscoring funk, and he needs to get himself out of it asap. Arsenal need him to rediscover some form. A goal this weekend would do very nicely.
2 – Kieran Tierney is back in training, and wearing warm clothing. Normally, when everyone else is in their long-leggings and gloves and hats, he’s out there in a pair of Speedos, having just taken a plunge in an ice bath before going out to train. Maybe his time in San Sebastian has altered his ability to deal with cold weather, or maybe he’s just being really sensible. This is the first time he’s been seen since picking up a hamstring injury playing for Scotland in June, so he’s going to have to protect those muscles a bit more than he did in the past.
It means we have another left-back though, and the manager must be delighted with that. He loves a left-back. When he hangs up his stocking this festive season, he will run down excitedly to the fireplace on Christmas day, clattering his kids out of the way (has to win his duels), hoping that Santa has brought him the one thing he really, really, really wants. Another left-back. Or a €30m goalkeeper we can’t really afford.
Anyway, here’s a little Interlull game for you, perhaps you can answer in the Arses. With everyone fit, what is your left back pecking order? Choosing from:
3 – The training session was absolutely full of kids. Which is great for them, but as we wait for news on senior players, it’s notable how few there were involved. I know lots are away, and it might just be as simple as Mikel Arteta insisting nothing is given away before our game against Forest on Saturday. On the next pitch, perhaps the likes of Calafiori, Tomiyasu, Rice, Saka and others were cavorting around with gay abandon. Let’s hope so anyway.
And to finish today, let’s cast our eyes to January (I know, I know), and there are some not altogether convincing links to a loan move for Real Madrid’s Turkish international Arda Guler. He’s not happy because he’s not playing much, and there are shades of the Martin Odegaard situation in the reporting after we first brought him in as a loan signing in January 2021. I wouldn’t put a great deal of stock in this, but when you consider what Arsenal might do when the transfer window opens, a loan move like this seems more likely to me than splashing the cash in a month when the best players – the ones you really want – aren’t readily available without paying well over the odds.
Finally for this morning, Tim has a preview of the Champions League tie against Juventus this evening, a win tonight would likely see us through to the quarter-finals. Fingers crossed.
Right, I’ll leave it there for now, back tomorrow with more here, and a brand new Arsecast.
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