Morning and happy Friday!
The international break is over and proper football has returned. This one feels like it dragged on forever…
The good news from Arsenal’s point of view is that all of our players have returned unharmed – although Gabriel’s Jesus and Magalhaes, and Thomas Partey might be a little sleep deprived having represented their country at 1am Wednesday morning (GMT).
Those lads would not have made it home to London until late Wednesday evening, so they will have to quickly shake of any jet lag (which I do not think actually exists). I imagine yesterday would have been a day of medical work on the trio – ensuring they were rested and recuperated from the last 2-weeks.
That gives Mikel Arteta just today to work with his squad ahead of the Chelsea game.
Due to this, I expect him to keep with the tried and tested formation and tactics of the last 18 months:
Raya
White Saliba Gabriel Zinchenko
Rice
Saka Odegaard Havertz Martinelli
Jesus
With Martinelli likely to return to full fitness, it could be the first time this season (I think) that Arteta has had his strongest XI to pick from.
There are slight injury concerns are Bukayo Saka, who missed England duty. But when you consider he was touch and go in making that squad, you have to think the 2-week break has allowed him to fully recover.
If Saka is out, expect Leandro Trossard to start on the right.
Games like tomorrow would have been when Arteta would have considered playing Rice and Partey in midfield – with the Ghanian deeper and the Englishman in a more advanced 8.
Considering Partey’s travels and fitness issues, I think he will be on the bench.
As we said earlier in the week, this is a huge game. Arguably our toughest away day of the season so far.
7 points from 3 games against other supposed “big 6” teams all came from home. This is the first time we would have played a top team away. That is, of course, if you still consider Chelsea a top team.
We will be kicking off the game already knowing the results of our title contenders. It is so close at the top right now that we could be starting it top of the league or in 4th.
Buzzing for it.
On a side note, I hope FIFA and UEFA are taking note of the rugby and cricket World Cup’s going on at the moment.
I love my rugby and cricket. Will watch almost every game we play in both (by we, I mean England). But these tournaments drag on.
The Rugby World Cup is taking nearly 2 months to complete, with at one point England not having a game for around 14 days.
Meanwhile the cricket World Cup is already 2 weeks in having started on 5 October. It finishes in a month.
What makes football World Cup’s special is games come thick and fast. 2 or 3 games a day. And your side plays every 4 days. It is non-stop. 100mph.
Cricket and rugby have their elongated tournaments which just means they struggle to gather any sort of momentum.
With plans to expand the World Cup, and further plans to expand the Euro’s, this could see a 3 and 4-week tournament into 4 or 5-week tournaments. It will mean you see your team play less, more meaningless games amongst smaller nations, and it will lose some of its sparkle.
World Cups should not be “lets have as many teams as possible competing”. They should be “the best teams in the world competing”.
The longer a tournament is, the more itnerest will wain.
Enjoy your Friday.
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
Wouldn`t be surprised if Jorginho starts again tomorrow. I really rate the young Argy kid they`ve got in the middle of the park and I think Rice will be the one tasked with pressing him every time he shows for the ball. If we can keep him quiet and show the same levels of concentration as the City game, I think we`ll just edge it.
Chelsea/Arsenal is always a big game but tomorrow feels even bigger to me, if we can back up the win against City and get 3 points at SB then I think it will set us up for another title challenge. Still early days though and if you offered me a point now, I`d take it.
Up The Arse.
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