Morning all.
It’s another tricky away trip today, as we face Brighton just three days after beating Brentford. Today’s opposition have had a couple of extra days to rest and prepare for this one, so that’s another challenging aspect of this encounter.
In terms of the team, we’re without Jurrien Timber who picked up a suspension on Wednesday, so the obvious pick to replace him is Thomas Partey. I don’t think there’s any other solution really. I can’t see Mikel Arteta playing a left-footer on the right, and with Declan Rice and Jorginho available to come into midfield, he’ll go with the player who has filled in there plenty of times this season.
I do think that has a knock-on effect on our right hand side, but it’s the absence of Bukayo Saka that will impact that the most. Ethan Nwaneri was very good there against Brentford and could be called up on again, but in his press conference yesterday, the manager made it clear he’s going to have to rotate with some frequency during this hectic month:
There’s not one player that’s going to play nine games in a row in that position, it’s impossible. So, when we look at that and we look at the opposition as well, especially the way they defend, the way they occupy spaces, one day a natural or inverted footed, would be more useful.
With Kai Havertz back from illness for today’s game, there is scope for Mikel Arteta to do something a bit different with his forward line. Perhaps shifting Gabriel Martinelli over to the right with Leandro Trossard on the left? That said, with his current form, you probably want to keep Gabriel Jesus in the team too. What I would say is that with a cup semi-final on Tuesday, and so many games in January, there are going to be some team selections that look a bit odd, and I do wonder if today might be one of those.
In midfield, assuming fitness isn’t an issue, I think we’ll see Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard and Mikel Merino (about whom I wrote yesterday), with the manager backing the summer signing to deliver more:
We expected a very fast integration because he’s played in the league, he’s such an intelligent and experienced player and he fits very well. He had an injury and another little niggle, and he had no pre-season because he played for Spain as well and it took him just a while to start to get set, but now you can see the impact he has in the team, his intelligence and the goal threat that he offers to the team. Then, more and more will come because he’s a natural leader as well. As he grows in the role, I think we’ll see much more from him.
It’d be a good game too for the captain to provide some end product. I don’t think he’s been quite right of late, perhaps that ankle is still an issue after the injury and the recent arrival to the household might be playing a part, but he’s been a little less impactful than you would expect. It feels like he could benefit from a goal and/or an assist (or two, three – I’m not greedy).
I’m also curious to see how we approach this game. Against Brighton last season we played a very brave/risky game, pressing them high up the pitch which left some space in midfield, but it worked out well with a 3-0 win. Whether Arteta sees that as the way to go against this current iteration of Brighton remains to be seen though. They have plenty of attacking talent to be wary of if we give them too much room.
Finally, I think there ought to be a bit of ‘extra’ for our players going into this one after what happened in the home game. The Rice red card was a genuine disgrace, and I think it cost us two points that day. The Brighton manager’s comments afterwards were very annoying too (although I think that comes very naturally to him), so if there’s some additional motivation because of what happened back in September, let’s lean into that. Every little counts etc etc. A Rice winner would be a bit of justice.
Right, I’m gonna leave it there for now. We have a preview podcast available right now on Patreon. Join us later for live blog coverage, plus you’ll get the match report, goal clips, reaction, player ratings and much more over on Arseblog News.
Until then!
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