Mat Ryan has returned to full training which suggests he could be in line to make his Arsenal debut tomorrow at Aston Villa.
The January loan recruit from Brighton has been sidelined for a week or so with a hip problem but could now step ahead of Alex Runarsson to fill the void left by Bernd Leno after his mad volleyball stunt at Molineux.
We can only assume the German, banned for one game, didn’t fancy a 90-minute blow-by-blow comparison with Emi Martinez who has thrived at Villa Park since moving there from the Emirates in the summer.
Obviously, if Ryan is picked, his performance will be analysed closely. At least with 121 Premier League appearances to his name he knows exactly what it takes to cope at the highest level.
Earlier this week, Runarsson was left out of Arsenal’s squad for the Europa League for the rest of the season. The Iceland international, suffering the same fate that befell Sokratis and Mesut Ozil, couldn’t be included due to an imbalance between homegrown and non-homegrown players.
Good news. Runarsson’s very limited outings inspire no confidence at all as far as I’m concerned. He needs more game time but nowhere near the PL or EL any time soon.
Great minds…
Quite. It’s not being unfair or nasty to Mr R, it’s that he’s obviously not up to the job. He may become so, one day, who knows – but that day won’t dawn for a good while yet I suspect.
Assuming that Ryan is fit, it will be good to see what he can do. There’s evidence of that of course, and those who know about him – which I don’t really – seem to be confident so that’s good enough for me.
You never liked him Biggles. I remember him doing his first press conference, before he handled a ball (giggity) and you said he was overconfident.
We really don’t have a large enough sample size to make any statements about the poor lad. Unless you attend training sessions, you don’t really have any clue about his ability.
Simple minds
Good to hear. Hope he starts tomorrow. Runarsson doesn’t yet fill me with confidence.
Hooray. Good news.
I don’t have a lot of faith in Runarsson, but on the other hand, Ryan’s last game was on Dec 13th. Hopefully, he is still sharp and ready to play. Given how awful we were against Villa last time, I can only hope for a better performance this time. This will not be an easy game, especially if we decide to play them with 10 or 9 men.
Best of luck to whoever starts in goal on Saturday, they will have my full support.
Martinez was very poor in his last game and looks a little like he’s been on the Hazard diet.
Strikers should have a little extra motivation playing against an ole buddy.
Despite being happy with the news, we need to be cautious about rushing player back from injury which has always ended in more severe injuries.
Good luck to the lads tomorrow….
We are rooting from all over the world for the Gunners because we are the gargantuan
Will Ryan be tasked with saving our privates?
I expect come summer, we will need to firm up a decision at the back.
Frankly I’d keep a good eye on Aaron Ramsdale at Sheffield.
Good thing is Leno is only suspended for one match. (ditto to a lesser extent Luiz) Mari looks close to ready but should think Holding- Gabriel will be the obvious. Probably go with Ryan if fully fit. Villa game is critical 6 pointer to cut deficit to them. They have several games in hand advantage. Other goal may be to claw back on Spurts. Not much to crow about doing that but maybe a ‘small’ victory for this poor season if we can nick ahead of them given their current bad form. but we need to get our own proverbial… Read more »
Thanks be to jaaaaaaaysus
Hope it is not Jesus of Man City’s persuasion?
This is the time we hope Martinez has a horror game like the time he played for Arsenal against QPR, but we still went on to win 7-5 with Chamakh running riot
call me crazy but I actually do see quite a bit of potential in Runarsson