For long term readers of the blog, you will know how much I hate international breaks. Especially these early season ones where we seem to play 3 or 4 domestic games and then stop for 2 weeks. But this time round, the break has come at a good time for The Arsenal.
We have started the season in scintillating fashion. Level on points with top of the league, beaten both Manchester clubs and unbeaten.
With Chelsea up next, the 2-week break will be a chance for some of Mikel Arteta’s walking wounded to get back to 100%.
Bukayo Saka was reportedly touch and go whether he would make the bench for Manchester City. In the end Arteta opted to leave him out. And, despite Gareth Southgate’s best efforts, he now has 2-weeks of rest and rehabilitation.
Coming off the bench against Manchester City were Thomas Partey and Gabriel Martinelli. Both had a positive impact on the game.
Martinelli, having missed 3 weeks of football, has been left out of the Brazil squad. This gives our fitness staff 2 weeks to get him fully fit and ready to start against Chelsea.
Whilst Martinelli has been left out, Thomas Partey has been called up to the Ghana squad. This is a little surprising considering last Saturday was the first time he had kicked a ball in anger in 6 weeks.
However, getting some game time might be a positive for Partey who sometimes takes a while to get going again following injury. He is one of those that needs 2 or 3 first team games before he hits his top form.
These non-comptitive games will give Partey some minutes ahead of the Chelsea game. Partey and Rice is the midfield I expect us to go for in the tougher away games.
William Saliba has been in fine form this season, and has been an ever present in both the Premier League and Champions League. He has yet to miss a minute in either competition. Saliba’s only break came in the League Cup.
Arsenal have reportedly been managing a “chronic toe injury“. Whilst it is certainly not an injury that would stop him playing, it is something that needs rest to be fully heeled. The club will be hoping that they can use the 2 weeks break to repair the damage.
The international week will also see fringe players such as Jakub Kiwior, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Mohamed Elneny get game time. This will be important in keeping them match sharp ahead of the winter period.
Whilst the break is frustrating from my point of view in terms of getting to go to games, I think this one could hugely benefit the fitness of the team. And hopefully we benefit from a fitter Martinelli and Partey against Chelsea, as well as the return of Saka.
Keenos
Over the weekend we created a collection for Arsenal's Declan Rice…
Beach towel, shin pads, bottle opener and a mug! Artwork by the brilliant @CarlBourkeArt
What was the point in Bukayo Saka making the trip from London to Burton-on-Trent to be assessed by the England medical staff and then sent straight back home.
Does Gareth Southgate really think that Mikel Arteta would leave out his best player for the most important game of the season if he was not injured? It shows a complete like of trust from the England manager.
Southgate should have accepted Arteta and Arsenal’s instruction that Saka was injured and just said “no worries, see you at the next one B”.
It is not like we have essential games coming up where Southgate could be thinking “the situation could change in a week”.
England firstly play Australia in a pointless friendly. That is followed up by a home game against Italy in Euro 2024 qualifying.
With 13 points from the first 5 games, England have 3 more games left to play. The top 2 qualify for Euro 2024. We basically need 3 points from 3 games to qualify.
With Italy, Ukraine and Macedonia all to still play each other, the most points 3rd place can get is 17. that will be if Ukraine or Macedonia win all 3 of their remaining games, and Italy (who have played a game less), win 3 out of their final 4.
With a +14 goal difference, 12 better than any other team in the group, you can not see a situation where England get 17 points and finish 3rd.
Considering we still have Macedonia (a) and Malta (h) to play, we could easily lose against Italy and still qualify with a game to spare.
I do feel for Saka.
Some Arsenal fans are saying “Saka should have refused to go”. But he loves his country and is also a respectful, obedient young man. We do not want him to grow that ego where he begins to pick and choose when he plays for club and country. And as we have said before, top players play every game they are fit for.
Likewise, Arsenal should not be pulling players out of international duty unless they actually are injured.
Many players, like Saka, love playing for their country. Teams forcing players to miss games for no real reason can quickly lead to a deterioration of relations between those individuals and managers.
It is very easy for fans to call for players to not go when they are representing a country different to their own. Would they be as happy if Delhi told the Indian Cricket Team that they were unable to pick Virat Kohli?
Saka will now get a two week break. He will spend much of it at London Colney getting some rehab, ensuring that he is completely free from his injury. Ready for that Chelsea game. And then we go again…
Keenos
Over the weekend we created a collection for Arsenal's Declan Rice…
Beach towel, shin pads, bottle opener and a mug! Artwork by the brilliant @CarlBourkeArt
Premier League Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU Sunday, 8th October 2023. Kick-off time: 4.30pm
(4-3-3) David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Declan Rice; Gabriel Jesus, Eddie Nketiah, Leandro Trossard.
Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Thomas Partey, Emile Smith-Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli, Jakob Kiwior, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Fábio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, Kai Havertz.
Scorers: Gabriel Martinelli (86 mins) Yellow Cards: Jorginho, Gabriel Jesus Arsenal Possession Percentage: 51%
Referee: Michael Oliver Assistant Referees: Stuart Burt, Lee Betts Fourth Official: Tim Robinson VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR John Brooks; AVAR Darren Cann
Attendance: 60,233
Unfortunately Bukayo Saka is not playing today after limping off during the Champions League defeat by Lens last Tuesday, and Gabriel Martinelli is expected to miss a sixth successive game because of a hamstring issue (editors note: we write these match reports prior to and during the game so that they tell the story of the day!), although he appears to be fit enough to take his place on the substitute’s bench. With the apparent absence of Rodri, John Stones and Kevin De Bruyne, this could be a very good opportunity to grab three points from the Premiership champions today.
If you missed them earlier this week, we still have some sets of our custom Arsenal 'bruised banana' shin pads available!
The match kicked off in a cracking Sunday afternoon atmosphere here in North London. William Saliba won an aerial challenge with Erling Haaland within the first two minutes, so obviously this duel between these two players will be a feature of the game.
Declan Rice headed the ball off the line and Nathan Aké’s follow up shot went way over David Raya’s crossbar and into the crowd. We won our first corner of the match after ten minutes and Martin Ødegaard’s delivery was not handled convincingly by Phil Foden but eventually the visitors’ defence cleared the ball.
Jorginho was booked for a frustrating tackle on Phil Foden, and as the match was starting to settle down, both evenly matched teams were looking for chinks in each other’s respective armour, which is only to be expected. However, after some quick passing by the visitors as they were atempting find an opening in our defence, Ruben Dias played the ball forward, looking for Phil Foden, but Jorginho read the danger extremely well.
After just eighteen minutes, we were extremely lucky not to concede a goal when we were closed down as we attempted to play out from the back and as the ball was played back to a nervous David Raya, who took far too long to clear the ball, and unbelievably his kick was blocked by Julian Alvarez; the ball was deflected into the side netting but it could very easily have gone into our open goal.
Bernardo Silva hacked down Eddie Nketiah as he attempted to get forward and he was quite rightly booked for his troubles.
David Raya was looking very nervous today as he hit a pass straight to opposition players on the edge of our penalty area, but the visitors could not capitalise on his error, thankfully.
A great chance to score the opening goal from Eddie Nketiah as he was just inside the opponents’ penalty area which went wide of Ederson’s post, and after a nasty challenge by Mateo Kovacic on our captain which was checked by VAR and he was awarded a yellow card by referee Michael Oliver, when many in the stadium felt that it was a red card.
After a foul on Gabriel Jesus which led to a free kick which was taken by Martin Ødegaard that was easily plucked out of the air by Ederson, Erling Haaland held the ball up and brought Julian Alvarez into play, but thankfully his a shot flew high over the crossbar from just outside the penalty area.
Mateo Kovacic caught Declan Rice on the ankle, which was a nasty foul; it was definitely a second yellow but the referee waved away our protests.
There were some very strong tackles flying in from both sides, and the game was starting to look very spikey indeed.
With five minutes of the first half remaining, Phil Foden sent Josko Gvardiol away down the left wing and he whipped in a ball that David Raya just about got his fingertips to, doing just enough to ensure Erling Haaland was unable to reach it thankfully. Very few opportunities to score occurred in injury time, so both sides went into the break goalless.
Gabriel Martinelli replaced Leandro Trossard at the beginning of the second half, and as we kicked off, we were all hoping that we can get three points from this encounter. Gabriel Martinelli put a fantastic ball into the penalty area from the left wing, but a leaping Eddie Nketiah was unable to reach it.
David Raya just cleared the ball away in time as Julian Alvarez put him under pressure in the early minutes of the second half. A couple of minutes later, Eddie Nketiah won a corner as his cross deflected behind Ederson’s goal. The resulting corner kick into the penalty area was cleared as far as Martin Ødegaard, whose strong shot flew over the crossbar.
Gabriel Martinelli gathered the ball up on the left-hand side, but his strong shot was too close to Ederson, and the City goalie saved it easily.
Eddie Nketiah was picked out inside the penalty area by a high pass, but Ruben Dias prevented him from turning in on the City goal and after Rico Lewis got the ball into the back of our net (which was cancelled out for a foul), we started to dig in and look for opportunities to score the opening goal of the game.
Some really good build up play by our boys ended with Gabriel Jesus sneaking past Phil Foden on the right but his cross just could not beat Nathan Aké sadly. We were subsequently awarded a corner, which ended up with Oleksandr Zinchenko whacking a superb effort over the crossbar as the ball was half cleared to him.
After Matheus Nunes tried to close down David Raya which led to a corner that went nowhere, a long-range shot from our captain flew over the bar. Kai Havertz, Thomas Partey and Takehiro Tomiyasu replaced Jorginho, Eddie Nketiah and Oleksandr Zinchenko with fifteen mintues of the game remaining in order to bring fresh legs into the fray.
Declan Rice superbly robbed Matheus Nunes of the ball in a dangerous position on the edge of our penalty area, and a few minutes later we had a shout for a penalty turned down as Gabriel Jesus was clearly brought down in the City six-yard box.
With just four minutes of the match remaining, we finally broke the deadlock when Takehiro Tomiyasu headed the ball down into the path of Gabriel Martinelli, whose right-footed shot flew into the City net, off the head of Nathan Aké that caught Ederson wrong-footed.
The goal gave us a massive confidence boost and we were pushing hard for a second goal. In the four minutes’ injury time, Gabriel Jesus received a pointless yellow card for a confrontation with Ederson, but despite some heavy tackling from boith sides, we ran out one-nil victors here tonight.
What a match! So tight at times, so dogged.
Declan Rice, William Saliba and Gabriel Martinelli were outstanding today, and although David Raya was nervous, even hesitant at times, we were well organised and incredibly resilient in defence, keeping Erling Haaland at bay, and in the end, all of our hard work was rewarded with the winning goal, albeit with it coming through a deflection off Nathan Aké.
We are now equal points at the top of the Premiership with our “friends” from N17, and after the international break of next weekend, we have a small matter of a London derby with Chelsea over in SW6. Well done chaps!
Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, 21st October at 5.30pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Steve
Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 