Thursday was a tough game to watch. But we are through, top, whilst not adding too much game time to our first string.

Mikel Arteta has rotates his squad throughout the Europa League.

Whilst some have criticised him for playing – or bringing on – the likes of Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus and Thomas Partey, his philosophy has clearly been about “sharing the work load.”

He has used a core 5 players that started every game (Rob Holding, Fabio Vieira, Eddie Nketiahm Kieran Tierney & Albert Sambi Lokonga), but for the rest, the minutes have been shared:

Those players with a less explosive, better injury record played the most, whilst those who rely on pace (or have were being protected from injury), played least.

Throughout the Europa League, Arteta was criticised for his subs.

Taking Martinelli off for Saka, or Xhaka for Partey.

“Why is he risking senior players” those with very little football knowledge cried. To the rest of his it was clear and obvious.

Often, these subs happened in and around the 60 minute mark. He was clearly sharing the work load.

You would have Martinelli playing 60 minutes, then Saka come on for 30. Then the next game Saka would play the 60 minutes with Martinelli 30.

It was often the same with Xhaka and Odegaard. Whilst often Partey was bought on when we were losing control of the midfield and needed his quality and experience to see the game out.

It meant that he could rotate his first team without weakening the side on the pitch, and achieve out ultimate goal of topping the group.

It also has not affected our league form.

Yes, there was the draw to Southampton, but you will drop points away in the Premier League regardless of the team you put out mid-week (Manchester City dropped points to Aston Villa). It is unrealistic to expect your team to win 38 out of 38 games; although the way some fans go on, a “perfect season” seems to be their minimum requirement.

Post Europa League, we beat Brentford (A – 30), Liverpool (H – 3-2), Leeds United (A – 1-0) and Nottingham Forest (H – 5-0). The only dropped points being in that Southampton game (A – 1-1).

The league table since 16 September (1st game week after the 1st European games) shows how well Arteta has done marshalling his squad:

Since 16/09	Team	M	W	D	L	G	GA	PTS
1	Newcastle United	7	5	2	0	17	4	17
2	Arsenal	6	5	1	0	16	4	16
3	Manchester City	6	5	0	1	17	5	15
4	Tottenham	7	4	0	3	14	11	12
5	Chelsea	6	3	2	1	9	6	11
6	Manchester United	6	3	2	1	9	8	11
7	Fulham	7	3	2	2	13	13	11
8	Leicester	7	3	1	3	13	9	10
9	West Ham	7	3	1	3	8	5	10
10	Everton	7	3	1	3	7	6	10
11	Crystal Palace	6	3	1	2	6	7	10
12	Aston Villa	7	2	2	3	6	10	8
13	Liverpool	6	2	1	3	8	9	7

“Burnout FC” as some fans have labelled us have actually got through the difficult midweek – weekend period with more points per game than anyone else.

Newcastle, having played a game more and not had any midweek football, are the only side to have gained more points than us during the period.

Manchester City and Newcastle are the only sides to have scored more – unbelievable when our strikers have been “misfiring” according to the press. And no team has conceded less.

Experts predicted that during this tough period, Arsenal would implode and tumble down the table. But we have actually opened up the gap on Manchester City (1 point), Tottenham (4), Chelsea (5) and Manchester United (5). Whilst Liverpool have won 10 less points than us during the period.

Arteta has also spoken about needing to prepare for next season.

If we are in the Champions League, we will not be abkle to afford to rest players midweek; so it was important that our young players get used to playing twice a week.

It is clear that if we are in the Champions League, we will need further strengthening – the fall off from Gabriel Jesus to Eddie Nketiah, Saka / Martinelli to Nelson and Partey to Lokonga is too great. But this is not something new.

On a side note, I have not mentioned Rob Holding. He is 4th choice centre back and we do not have “Manchester City money” where we can have a £40million defender, being paid £100k a week, as 4th choice. He is still a solid option.

Edu knows what he is doing and, along with Arteta, will recognise where we need to increase the strength in depth ahead of 2023/24.

A cover striker for Jesus, another wide option and a defensive midfield option will be top of the list over the next two windows.

We go and get (for example), Ivan Toney, Mykhailo Mudryk and Danilo and we are then building that strength in depth needed to maintain this league form next season when we have Champions League football.

Top of the league, through top of our Europa League group, whilst rotating the minutes and doing a great job sharing the load.

If you are still questioning Arteta, his line up and his substitutions every weekend, then perhaps it is time to find a new hobby.

Chelsea tomorrow. Noon kick off so there is unlikely to be a blog (leaving at 8am to meet in Victoria for 10am).

UTA

Keenos

Arsenal (1) 1 FC Zürich (0) 0

Europa League, Group Stage Matchday 6 of 6

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Thursday, 3rd November 2022. Kick-off time: 8.00pm

(4-2-3-1) Aaron Ramsdale; Ben White, Rob Holding, Gabriel Magalhães, Kieran Tierney; Mohamed Elneny, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Reiss Nelson, Fabio Vieira, Eddie Nketiah; Gabriel Jesus (c).

Substitutes: Thomas Partey, Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard, Gabriel Martinelli, William Saliba, Cédric Soares, Takehiro Tomiyasu, (Marcus Vinicius Oliveira Alencar) Marquinhos, Karl Hein, Oleksandr Zinchenko, James Hillson, Matt Smith.

Scorers: Kieran Tierney (16 mins)

Yellow Cards: Gabriel

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 56%

Referee: Erik Lambrechts (Belgium)

Assistant Referees: Jo De Weirdt (Belgium), Rien Vanyzere (Belgium)

Fourth Official: Jasper Vergoote (Belgium)

UEFA Referee Observer: Dennis Higler (Netherlands)

VAR Team at UEFA HQ, Nyon, Switzerland: VAR Massimiliano Irrati (Italy); AVAR Hugh Dallas (Scotland) 

Attendance: circa 50,000

Whilst we are guaranteed a “top-two” finish in Group A of the Europa League, we really do need to beat FC Zürich tonight in order to give our considerable efforts in this year’s competition some real definition. Because the group winners will advance directly to the last sixteen of the competition (whilst the runners-up will play in the knockout round play-offs where they will face one of the teams dropping down from the Champions League having finished third in their respective CL groups), a victory tonight is paramount. Just to remind everyone that the Champions League “dropouts” in the play-offs are Ajax Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus, RB Salzburg, Sevilla, Shakhtar Donetsk and Sporting Lisbon, we desperately have to be utterly single-minded in our desire to win tonight to avoid any of that motley crew.

Our Swiss visitors kicked off proceedings, and in the first few minutes, with the smoke of flares drifiting across the pitch from the “away” end, FC Zürich showed some interesting play and proved that they were capable of good movement on (and off) the ball. We need to start imposing ourselves on this game, as in the early stages, the visitors are showing like they are certainly unafraid of coming at us as best as they can, which is worrying, to say the least. There was a bit of a hush in the stadium as the visitors got the first head to a corner and set up Aiyegun Tosin nicely in space for as shot on the turn, but fortunately he fired over and the linesman’s flag went up for offside; no doubt about it, FC Zürich have not come here to make the numbers up. However, on the sixteenth minute, after an excellent Gabriel Jesus chance which was blocked, Ben White overlapped on the right wing to cross the ball, Fabio Vieira saw his shot blocked but the ball fell to Kieran Tierney, who caught his shot perfectly, which flew into the bottom corner to open the scoring this evening. A lovely finish from our Scotland international full-back. We have now woken up and are keen to add to our tally, as Eddie Nketiah hit a perfect strike that Yanick Brecher in the FC Zürich goal saved. Since we scored the goal, we have been the dominant side, and there is a good feeling in the stadium again. The visitors had changed their formation to a more defensive one, as every time we move forward we look extremely dangerous indeed. On the half hour mark, Eddie Nketiah got in behind the FC Zürich defence; he felt a tug on his shirt that could easily result in a penalty, but to be fair to him, he stayed on his feet, set up Fabio Vieira for a shot which was blocked. Unfortunately, Gabriel Jesus was offside from the shot so when it came back again the linemsan’s flag went up. A minute or so later, Aaron Ramsdale was forced into a diving save from a Jonathan Okita shot which had the sting taken out of it by a deflection from Rob Holding. We got close to grabbing a second goal just after the fortieth minute when Eddie Nketiah got free of his marker to meet a corner and glance a header that looked destined for the net, and it would have been, had it not for a brilliant save from goalie Yanick Brecher. After yet another superb Kieran Tierney shot from outside the penalty area which was blocked, we continued to keep up the pressure on the visitors right until the half-time whistle rang out around the stadium

We kicked off the second half and within a minute of the restart, a right-footed shot from Gabriel Jesus on the left side of the six-yard box (following a set piece), caught the goalie and went off for an Arsenal corner, which subsequently went nowhere. Kieran Tierney won a free-kick after a FC Zürich player pulled his shirt so much, that it tore, and he had to have it replaced. So far in the second half, Arsenal were completely in control, and it seems a matter of time before they score a second goal (hopefully). We placed endless presure on the visitor’s goal, and just before the hour mark, Eddie Nketiah had a great chance to score, but his left-footed shot from the left side of the box was blocked. Mikel Arteta had enough, and shortly afterwards Mohamed Elneny and Gabriel Jesus (who passed the captain’s armband to Rob Holding) were substituted for Thomas Partey and Bukayo Saka in an effort to grab more goals tonight. Almost immediately after the introduction of the new players, Thomas Partey showed his class when he started spraying balls around, and although the final piece in the jigsaw did not come together this time when Fabio Vieira blasted the ball over the bar, the movement was still very good. On the sixty-seventh minute, a chill went over the stadium when Adrian Guerrero scored for the visitors, but thankfully some of his team-mates were in an offside position when he hit the ball, so the goal was cancelled out. Bukayo Saka looked as if he was going to score, but sadly he took the ball too fall and it ran off for a goal-kick. Martin Ødegaard and Takehiro Tomiyasu replaced Ben White and Fabio Vieira with seventeen minutes of the game remaining, and still we came forward looking for that elusive goal. Reiss Nelson tried a through ball, but Eddie Nketiah was caught offside, and the match started to lose its flow and rhythm as the game wore on, and with nine minutes of the game remaining, Bohdan Viunnyk whacked a ball from just outside the penalty area and his effort flew just wide of goal, with Aaron Ramsdale at full stretch. FC Zürich kept coming forward, and it was in one of those attacks that Takehiro Tomiyasu was injured, and as he could not continue, our substitute was substituted by Cédric Soares with three minutes of actual time remaining. In the five minutes injury time period, Eddie Nketiah was unlucky in not hitting the target with a glancing header, and as Kieran Tierney re-entered the pitch following treatment, Aaron Ramsdale made a match-winning save at the feet of Adrian Guerrero. Gabriel received a yellow card for a silly incident, and as we entered the sixth minute (?) of injury time, a last-ditch effort by FC Zürich flew over the Arsenal bar, just as referee Erik Lambrechts finally called proceedings to a halt.

Despite a dominant first half, we were unable to score more goals, and as such, it led to some extremely nervous moments throughout the second half, and we managed to show mental and physical toughness to get through this extremely demanding test of character. But despite all this and more, at the end of the day, we won, courtesy of an excellent Kieran Tierney goal, and being top of Group A we are straight into the final sixteen knockout round early next year. And for that, we can all breath a collective sigh of relief.

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 Sunday, 6th November at 12.00pm (noon) (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

Morning all.

Tonight is an annoyingly tricky game. Like a fly that will not go through the open window and continues to buzz around at 2am in the morning.

It all could have been put to bed last week, but Arsenal’s defeat to PSV in Eindhoven means we go into game week 6 of the Europa League needin a win to top the table.

For those who have been living under a rock for the last month or so, the Europa League schedule has changed making it more important than ever to finish top.

Those that win their group go stragith into the last 16, and can ignore European football until March.

Finish 2nd and you go into a play-off against a Champions League 3rd place team. Those games take place in February.

With the likes of Barcelona, Juventus, Sevilla, Ajax, Leverkusen and Sporting Lisbon, it is a tough double header we could do without.

The game against Zurich is even more annoying following their result last week.

They came from behind to beat Bodo/Glimt 2-1 in the 94th minute. The result means they no longer have nil poi and could finish 3rd in the group – and “win” a place in the Conference league.

So instead of us facing a bunch of limp fish with nothing to play for, we will be up against a highly motivated group of Swissmen looking to continue their European adventure.

Annoying.

Throughout the campaign, Mikel Arteta has played a 50/50 team – half first team and half second. The hope was by playing a stronger than normal side, we would have top spot secured ahead of the big game against Chelsea.

The goal was always to be able to rest as many players as possibile ahead of this Sunday’s trip to Stamford Bridge. But the defeat to PSV (and Zurich’s win) means that Arteta will have to play a stronger team than he wanted.

Will he role the dice, stick to his original plan, and play a full reserve side? Resting everyone for Chelsea and risking finishing 2nd? Or will he follow what he has done in the previous 5 games and play a 50/50?

My bet is the latter. He will play half first team, half second string, and hope to be in a position to take most of that first string off before 60 minutes.

Matt Turner missed then PSV game due to a groin injury. He was also not on the bench Sunday against Nottingham Forest.

I would expect Aaron Ramsdale to cintinue in goal – with the World Cup on the horizon, Arsenal will not want to aggrevate Turner’s injury if not 100% heeled.

Cedric Soares will be in line to start his first game of the season – the Portuguese full back came on for Takehiro Tomiyasu against Nottingham Forest.

In defence, Rob Holding will continue as an ever present. He will be partnered by William Saliba.

So far Saliba has started 2 Europa League games, Gabriel 3. Does not take a genius to work out it is Saliba’s turn.

At left back it will be Kieran Tierney.

Two more ever presents will start in midfield – Albert Sambi Lokonga and Fabio Vieira. The final midfield place is not as clear.

Granit Xhaka is suspended and Thomas Partey has yet to start a Europa League game. Mohamed Elneny is close to returning from injury, and Arsenal might use the game as a “friendly” for him as he continues his recovery.

I can definitely the Egyptian getting 45 minutes tonight’s, and then maybe 60 against Brighton in the League Cup next week.

Alex Zinchenko is also returning from injury.

Zinchenko was not fit to be on the bench against Forest, so I would be surprised if he is straight into the starting XI tonight. Expect a 20 minute cameo off the bench for the Ukranian.

Will Arteta go for Partey? Or will he start Martin Odegaard, leaving Lokonga deeper?

Alternatively he could look to the academy – both Bradley Ibrahim and Cătălin Cîrjan were on the bench against PSV.

I think he will opt to go with Odegaard, hope the game is dead and burried after an hour and then bring him off.

Up top, Arteta will not want to risk Gabriel Martinelli or Jesus, especially following Bukayo Saka’s knock.

Reiss Nelson will start following his brace against Forest, with Marquinhos on the other side. Eddie Nketiah down the middle.

If the game is tied up quickly, expect the likes of Tierney, Odegaard and Saliba to be substituted. Whoever also goes off between Vieira, Nelson and Marquinhos will also be a sign of who is in line to play ahead of Saka.

Predicted line-up:

Ramsdale
Cedric Saliba Holding Tierney
Lokonga
Vieira Odergaard
Marquinhos Nketiah Nelson

Keenos

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