It’s a busy day of Premier League motion, however all eyes might be on the Emirates this afternoon as we tackle Leicester at 4.30.
My sense is that final night time’s win for Man Utd might be the perfect outcome for us, even should you may make the case {that a} draw would have seen either side drop factors. We have now these video games in hand on them and, in fact, it’s all the time good to see Sp*rs lose. It does imply United are above us within the desk proper now, however perhaps that’s not a nasty factor for our gamers to see as they give the impression of being to concentrate on the job in hand in the present day.
There don’t look like any important points with accidents or absences. Mikel Arteta mainly stated Emile Smith Rowe might be again within the squad in the present day, whereas the one different drawback we have now is with Takehiro Tomiyasu. It looks as if warning is the order of the day, with the supervisor saying:
He had an damage, he made a rapid restoration, we performed him … perhaps too shortly, I don’t know. He had a recurring damage there and he felt it once more someday when he was again in coaching.
It’s a disappointment as a result of he’s been actually constant, he performed a whole lot of minutes … high quality minutes, and he made an excellent contribution to the crew. Now he must be constantly coaching for a interval so we will minimise the danger of getting a recurring damage in the identical muscle as a result of that might be one thing to fret about.
It means Cedric will proceed at proper again, and he’s carried out wonderful of late, however hopefully Tomi will get better shortly. There are some huge video games developing that I believe he’s higher suited to so fingers crossed on that.
So, the one choice Arteta has to make is whether or not Smith Rowe comes straight again into the crew, and given Gabriel Martinelli scored one in every of our three very good objectives final week, I believe he’ll hold his place on the left hand facet. It’s additionally good, if Smith Rowe is on the bench, that we have now our main scorer in reserve if we want him, to not point out a participant who has been capable of come on in its place and rating this season. With Pepe and Nketiah, that might give us three attacking choices of various levels.
We should always know effectively sufficient what Leicester are about, not fairly as constant as final season or the season earlier than the place they fell out of the highest 4 proper on the finish of the season. However clearly the actual fact they have been doing the enterprise at that finish of the desk for the final couple of years tells you they’re to not be taken with no consideration due to their league place for the time being.
The absence of Jamie Vardy in the present day is welcome due to how usually he’s precipitated us issues prior to now, however they nonetheless have loads of expertise and a few harmful gamers. They could effectively have checked out Arsenal and our defensive lapses in latest video games, and seen the place they could harm us. Fortunately we’ve been capable of take most factors regardless of these errors, however we will’t hold anticipating to do this within the Premier League, so I’m hoping for a lot better defensive safety in the present day.
Past that, what else can we are saying about this crew and what it must do? Week on week we’re extra assured of what they’re able to, and because the season progresses and the strain begins to construct, it turns into as a lot about how we deal with that side of it – the expectation and the necessity to win video games. In that sense, it’s very like final week when fixtures went our method and we needed to beat Watford, which we did. This week, United have despatched a reminder that they’re nonetheless scrapping away for high 4, and we have now to cope with that in addition to Leicester this afternoon.
Hopefully although, a house recreation, an incredible environment contained in the stadium, and a crew that’s rising in confidence and momentum will convey us the appropriate outcome and throw the gauntlet again in direction of United and many others.
As ever we’ll have reside weblog protection, plus all of the post-match stuff on Arseblog Information. There’s additionally a preview podcast over on Patreon proper now.
Let’s depart it there, catch you later for the sport.
