Arsenal have confirmed that Gabriel Martinelli is fit to face Southampton tomorrow but Emile Smith Rowe and Bernd Leno are both doubts.
Mikel Arteta mentioned in the aftermath of Monday’s defeat that he wasn’t very positive about Martinelli’s prognosis after the attacker complained of a hamstring issue. Initially, he seemed to go down with cramp but he couldn’t continue and was replaced on 71 minutes by Eddie Nketiah.
Smith Rowe sat out the trip to Goodison Park having picked up a groin issue at Old Trafford. The England international is currently “being assessed” by the medical team which tends to indicate he’ll be out but we’ll keep our fingers crossed.
Leno’s injury, also a groin issue, was picked up in training this week and means Arthur Okonkwo could be the first choice backup to Aaron Ramsdale.
Elsewhere, Sead Kolasinac is on the mend after picking up an ankle injury in the last Interlull. He’s aiming to be in full training by January which might facilitate a loan move in the second half of the season. The Bosnian hasn’t played since coming on as a last-minute sub in the 2-0 win over Leicester in October.
No doubt we’ll get further details on the above when Mikel Arteta faces the media at 1.30pm.
What a shame. MA was hoping to deploy Leno as a false nine tomorrow to surprise the opposition and convince him to sign a new 5 year contract.
Hahaha, sad but probably true
Well played sire!
It doesn’t matter who is fit and who isn’t, this rookie manager is going to select a bizarre team, watch helpless while the team retreat into their shell after scoring a goal in their first meaningful attack in the sixtieth minute, and clap furiously in the last five minutes after he has sent on Rob Holding to try and bring back parity after we’ve conceded two rapid goals.
This should be Arteta’s last season as Arsenal manager no matter where we end.
Arsenal is going no where with him.
Top six this season and it would be reasonable to allow him a go at getting us into the top 4
City, Pool, Chelsea, W. Ham, United and Spurs will all finish above Arsenal. They all have proper managers.
The best Arteta can do is 7th and the new joke tournament.
Bit of a banana-skin of a fixture but at least it’s not in the North-West. Wouldn’t be surprised if we come away with a 1-0 but with some nervy moments especially when Walcott comes off the bench. I reckon we’ll see Auba back at #9. Southampton at home is as good a time as any to break a dry run of goals. It’s been almost 2 months – the Palace game – since Tierney and Auba played in the same team so that’s certainly an avenue we can use to create chances. Delighted for Kolasinac, his injury initially looked on… Read more »
Looking forward to Xhaka being his usually dominant, creative self, tomorrow
Fucking arteta accidentally stumbled on some form when he put lacazette on with auba whilst losing in a shit show against Palace and we suddenly looked good. He stuck with this for a few games and we looked really good, positivity rose among the players and fans and we climbed the table. THEN, for no apparent reason arteta switched back to the tried and failed, inconsistent earlier shape, dropped laca and shoe horned odegard and hey presto, we are back to being shit. Not only that but he fucks about with random substitutions and disrespects the hell out of players.… Read more »
ESR is central to the way we play.
I feel he was sorely missed at Everton.
If he is not fit to play tomorrow, we might struggle again with the low block Soton are likely to play.
No doubt he was, but if that is how inept our attacks look in his absence we got some SERIOUS problems.
I believe we do.
Scrolling through comment section of Arsenal fans of both reddit and youtube these last couple of days, really shows me how toxic this site has become. Seems everywhere but here the fans support the team that is currently going through a rough time. You might not think Arteta is the ideal manager for the club (i do too), but as of this point in time he is, and changing him for a better manager mid season is highly unlikely. Also were still only 15 games into the season. We can improve. Its not unrealistic for the form to change. Not… Read more »
I look at our back five and I see young players who look good enough to start for us for the next 5-8 years. I see Smith Rowe, Saka, and Odegaard as obviously good enough for a Champions League side. I see three unproven but real prospects in Martinelli, Lokonga, and Tavares. I expect many mistakes from this sort of team, and some of them will cost us games. But I am optimistic.
I think the issue is it’s not the youth that are letting this team down…again. We seemed to be heading in the right direction, then at a time with such a critical opportunity Arteta panicked and went 2020/21 Arteta – picked a bunch of his “reliable experienced” cohort, played slow rubbish tactics, and we put in two of the most pathetic performances of the season. Auba, Partey, Xhaka, Laca, (could chuck in Eddie whose past developing youth prospect too – and should be no part of our future now anyway) and our team selection (Elneny was a bad choice when… Read more »
What’s negative about wanting the best for your club?. Arteta isn’t good enough, we still have a chance of getting a good coach/manager same way Tottenham and Manure did. Stop all these excuses, the club got money…let them spend it. What I’ve come to realize on this forum is, we don’t want to hear the truth. We need a better manager, Odegaard playing in 10 but always shifting to the wings leaving the Centre empty and us susceptible to the counter. He and ESR as awful off the ball, no physical presence what so ever, then we have two snails… Read more »