Given Arsenal don’t play until Monday evening at Selhurst Park, it’s a little early for definitive team news but Mikel Arteta did have a few bits and bobs to say about the state of his squad heading into the second game of the season.
After Oleksandr Zinchenko was spotted in training this week – the Ukraine international has missed much of pre-season with a calf problem he picked up in May – the boss had a positive update.
“Alex is doing really well,” he said. “He’s been training with us and hopefully, we’re going to have him available very soon.”
Aside from Jurrien Timber who is now sidelined for the long term after suffering an ACL injury on his Premier League debut, the only other player struggling for fitness is Gabriel Jesus.
Arteta confirmed the Brazil international continues to rehab after a minor procedure on the knee he damaged at the World Cup in December.
“Gabby is still not available and not fit, but the rest are good,” confirmed Arteta.
Presumably, if Zinchenko isn’t ready to start at Selhurst Park, the boss will turn to Takehiro Tomiyasu or Kieran Tierney at left-back.
I get the feeling Arteta would pull Gus Caesar out of retirement before he would start Tierney…
I think you may be right, unfortunately.
There’s no personal animosity there I assure you. Mikel knows how he wants to play and Tierney just doesn’t fit with that. Tierney is a very left foot dominant player who likes to play on the outside of the midfield. At the moment, the evolution of the position is that the LB is a highly technical, press resistant player who comes inside to combine with the midfield, like Zinchenko or Timber. Tierney might be able to do that if he’s not pressed, but that’s simply not his natural game. The second type of profile Arteta likes is basically a mobile… Read more »
Except Timber offers the option as an inverted right back so there was an option to let Tierney play the White role on the left. And he would do it very well. Unfortunately, Arteta only wants that on one side of the pitch which, when you think about it, isn’t exactly flexible. And he is more inclined to play the weaker defender on the left when he’s fit.