Tag Archives: She Wore

Arsenal youngster set for summer exit

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Regular readers of this blog will know how much we support home grown youngsters.

It is always a delight to see a local lad get his chance and take it in an Arsenal shirt. Sadly for one reason or another, we have not produced enough young players over the last 20 years who have proved good enough for our team week in, week out.

Alex Iwobi, Jack Wilshere and Ashley Cole are the only academy graduates to have joined us at a young age to go on to make over 100 appearances since Ray Parlour in 1992 (note: Kieran Gibbs joined Arsenal at 15-years-old from Wimbledon).

All young lads coming through deserve extra support. They are often Arsenal boys living the dream.

But it is also important to know when a player is not going to make it. When it is time to cash in. Even if selling a home grown lad on the fringes of making it might by tinged with sadness.

Previously we discussed how Eddie Nketiah might be on borrowed to at Arsenal, but it is another Arsenal youngster who looks like he might be out of the door this summer.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles is 22. He has been in and around the first team for 6 seasons having made his debut at 17 years old in the Champions League back in 2014. In doing so he became the second youngest player to have represented Arsenal in the Champions League, behind Jack Wilshere.

He has gone on to make 91 appearances for Arsenal, but could have played his last game.

Maitland-Niles was an ever-present in Mikel Arteta’s first 6 games; with Hector Bellerin out injured he was called upon to play right back – the position he has played much of his Arsenal career.

He was on the bench against Chelsea, but has since not been in the match day squad for the last 4 games.

Maitland-Niles was left out of the squad for Saturday’s clash against West Ham despite Bellerin not being fully fit. Sokratis, a centre-back, chosen to play ahead of him at right-back.

In the past, Maitland-Niles has indicated that he would rather play in central midfield than at right back. However with Granit Xhaka, Lucas Torreira, Matteo Guendouzi, Dani Ceballos and Joe Willock ahead of him, his opportunities in the middle of the park have been limited.

David Ornstein recently commented on the situation on The Ornstein & Chapman Podcast.

“Mikel Arteta isn’t receptive to players indicating where they want to play, they would play where they are told to play for the good of the team… one of the suggestions I got is that he has been late for a couple of training sessions and certainly Arteta wouldn’t like that given the disciple and behaviour and respect culture is so important to him.”

The reported reluctance to play right back is in stark contract to Bukayo Saka who has excelled at left back in recent weeks – despite being a more attacking player.

In January Arsenal added Portuguese international Cedric Soares on loan. With his contract set to expire in the summer, he will likely join the club permanently providing experienced Premier League cover and competition to Bellerin.

Had Maitland-Niles got his head down, he would have had a career at Arsenal as a James Milner-esque utility man; proving cover at full back, on the wings and central midfield. This utility might have seen him break into England squads where he could cover numerous positions at international tournaments.

If it is true that Maitland-Niles has a desire to play in central midfield, he will have to leave Arsenal to get it, and get himself a move to someone lower in the league.

It will be sad to lose the English – in the same way it was tough to let Iwobi go. But if these players have desires to play regularly, or in certain positions, and they are deemed not good enough to do that an Arsenal shirt; the club should not stand in their way.

Maitland-Niles will end up at someone like West Ham or Everton, where he will prove whether he is good enough to be a Premier League midfielder.

What is clear is his Maitland-Niles’ at Arsenal is coming to an end.

Keenos

Man City v Arsenal postponed: Could coronavirus end the season?

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So we wake up this morning with the news that Arsenal fixture tonight against Manchester City has been postponed following Olympiakos’s owner Evangelos Marinakis testing positive for coronavirus.

One it comes to Covid-19, I am very much in the camp of the response being a little bit OTT, however it is a deadly disease and health advice should be followed.

It is the correct decision for Arsenal to isolate all players who came in to contact with Marinakis following the defeat to the Greek side nearly 2 weeks ago. This ensures all players can get tested and reduces the risk of the virus spreading.

The likelihood is all tests will come back as negative and the players will return to training on Friday ahead of the match against Brighton.

But what if one of the tests comes back positive? What implications could this have?

Whilst the Premier League has “banned shaking hands”, football is a contact sport and players are in “close contact” throughout a match. Everytime they mark someone at a corner, or go into a challenge, they would risk getting Covid-19 if the player they are challenging or marking is infected.

So were an Arsenal player to text positive, the result would be the whole London Colney side of the club would have to be put on isolation for 14 days after the last close contact. As players were training yesterday, the 14 days would include the games against Brighton and Sheffield United.

West Ham and Portsmouth would also need to self-isolate, following their fixtures against Arsenal in the last 14 days. For West Ham this would see their games against Wolves and Tottenham postponed.

And from there it snowballs.

We have already seen games in Italy suspended, whilst Spain and France have opted to play games behind closed doors. Ukraine and Poland have also taken the step to play games behind closed doors.

This is all to protect fans rather than players. What the Premier League is facing is a threat to players.

If players being to test positive, playing games behind closed doors will cease being an option. Instead we will see the FA follow Italy’s lead and suspend all games for at least 2 weeks.

This will create a huge fixture pile up, one which will not be easily resolved due to the European tournament this summer. There would be a high chance that the season would be unable to be completed.

In 1939 football was suspended due to World War 2. Blackpool sat top of the league. Just 3 games had been played. We are nearly 30 games in.

Were football to be suspended and the season cancelled, would anyone be named champions? Would they gift the title to Liverpool due to being so far ahead? What about promotion and relegation? European places? There would be a lot that would need to be worked out.

Hopefully it does not come to this, that every Arsenal player is back in training on Friday and our game against Brighton on Saturday goes ahead.

To have a 3pm Saturday away game is novelty this season.

Keenos

Progressive midfielder Arsenal’s number 1 target this summer

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Dani Ceballos might not be the answer, but he has shown how important it is that Arsenal sign a progressive passer in midfield in the summer.

Arsenal have struggled this season transitioning the ball from defence into attack. It results in too many sideways passes in both defence and midfield. A lot of possession but not much progression up the pitch.

We have lacked a central midfielder whose 1st thought is to move the ball forward, and the net result of this is less chances created.

Against Newcastle, we saw how playing a forward thinking central midfielder can transform us.

Dani Ceballos come in for Lucas Torreira.

It slightly weakened us defensively in the middle of the park, but we ended up winning 4-0 – our biggest Premier League win of the season.

During that victory, no player played more forward passes than Ceballos – 69. He went off after 82 minutes.

Ceballos also played more forward passes against Newcastle than any player in other game under Arteta – and more than any Arsenal player this year.

With Ceballos leading the way, it meant we were getting the ball forward to our forwards more. And in more advanced positions; something that we have missed for much of the season.

With Granit Xhaka, Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi, we are fairly well set for defensivly minded midfielders in the squad. This summer, instead of looking a defensive midfielders, we should look at someone who plays a little more progressive.

We need a midfielder who can do better at linking the defence to the rather someone who can break up play.

Someone who can take the ball off the defence, then follow his own passes through the midfield and into attack.

Take the ball off the defence, pass it forward. Receive it again at the half way line, pass it forward. Receive it once more on the edge of the box. Transitioning from defence to attack in  5 or 6 passes.

Think Cesc Fabregas, Santi Cazorla, Jack Wilshere or even Mikel Arteta himself.

Back in the late 00s / early 10s, that kind of central midfielder defined Arsenal. We perhaps had too many of them, and not enough midfielders who would do the donkey work, the break up play.

We had the likes of Matthieu Flamini and Francis Coquelin, but these were never really good enough.

Arsenal now have an abundance of “work horses” but other than Ceballos, we do not have anyone in midfield who can transition the ball from defence into attack.

Transitioning the ball from defence into attack is not just done with passing. It could also be done through a powerful runner, like Patrick Vieira or Yaya Toure.

Against West Ham, Dani Ceballos was not only impressive going forward, but also showed a defensive awareness to his game that we had not seen before.

As he returns to full fitness, maybe he is actually the progressive, forward thinking transitional midfielder we need. Perhaps we should be looking towards making his deal permanent.

With Torreira, Xhaka and Guendouzi in the squad, we have enough grit. This summer we need to add a bit more subtlety, whether that is Ceballos or someone else.

Football is so much about balance, and when Ceballos does not play, the ball does not get forward quick enough.

Hopefully with Arteta and Edu running the show, they recognise that the player we are missing is themselves.

Keenos