According to Simon Collings of The Evening Standard, Eddie Nketiah was absent from Arsenal’s training session this afternoon and faces a late fitness test to decide whether he can feature against Sevilla tomorrow night.
News of a knock for the England international comes hours after Mikel Arteta ruled Gabriel Jesus out of the game. The Brazil international continues to nurse a hamstring injury and appears no closer to a return despite being selected by his country for two upcoming World Cup qualifiers.
Leandro Trossard and Kai Havertz are options to lead the line but we’re starting to look very short of options in attack.
Nketiah facing late fitness test for tomorrow, nursing a knock from the last game.
— Simon Collings (@sr_collings) November 7, 2023
Martin Odegaard is also the subject of an international call-up but Norway manager Stale Solbakken doesn’t rate his chances of being able to call on the Arsenal captain next week.
“We are worried about Martin. He is very doubtful,” Solbaken told TV2.
“He has an injury that is persistent. We’ll have to see what happens this week. He will be examined even more, then we will see what it brings in terms of matches and playing time.”
Arteta said this morning that he was “uncertain” if Odegaard would be available and the fact the 24-year-old subsequently missed training underlines there’s an ongoing issue.
Emile Smith Rowe, Thomas Partey and Jurrien Timber are Arsenal’s other absentees. John Cross writing for Mirror Football claimed last night that the England midfielder could be out for another month with a knee problem while the Ghanaian, struggling with another thigh issue, might not be fit until the end of the year.
At this point, we’re in eye-roll territory whenever there’s an update on Partey.
What do we do in training that everyone is carrying a knock or two?
It’s not just us, look at Newcastle, Man U, Liverpool. Most the clubs involved in Europe are picking up injuries. Except Citeh who have spunked all over FFP rules and stockpiled for more than a decade. Apologies for going off topic but not much mention of the 150 charges hanging over them for cheating. Perhaps the Sky and BT puppets have been instructed not to mention it- as we have seen with the attacks on Arteta, protect the product at all costs.
I don’t think they get these knock in training, i think it’s all knocks and tackles in competitive games they play that start to become uncomfortable after a bit. Our style of play begs for the tackles (not supporting bad tackles)
Who cares about injuries.
Just start with 9 men. Play a 5-1-3 in about 12 yards of the pitch starting at the halfway line.
We might get pumped 1-4 every week, even by really, really bad teams. But we’d be the darlings of the media and everyone would say how brave and wonderful we are. And that, guys, is the real trophy.
🙂 DVD soon i’m sure
After our defeat at Newcastle I needed something to cheer me up.
You could just guarantee Spurs to provide it.
They are and always will be, The Gift That Keeps On Giving.
The deluded cunts.
Newcastle was an added bonus yesterday
Give the media what they want….
Start Ramsdale …… up front, in for Nketiah 😉
I just watched the catch up of that game after Blogs assessment and it’s incredible. Spuds play well but had so many moments of madness and just gave it away. Chelsea were like an old drunk in a pub struggling to land punches on an opponent who has fallen asleep in his chair. There are no words to describe how bad they are.
After watching that my spirits are lifted.
Hear hear!
There’s the other matter of going 63 years without a League title, 40 years without a European trophy, 33 years without an FA Cup and 16 years without winning anything at all.
It’s a tall order.
Great post, 100% agree!
Mate…
Amazing, great job!
I really am getting the same feeling here for Partey as I did when Diaby was trying to come back…
Come off it, he only missed 5 PL games last season. Diaby never managed to play 5 in a season.
yeah this whole partey narrative is over the top, he’s unreliable but it’s not like he never plays for us.
also being put in at right-back I really don’t think was good for him.
Diaby injuries where just heartbreaking. Poor guy never got break.
Partey needs to be managed and I think will have him a lot more. He just not able to play week in week out.
He really needs to think about retiring for international football if he wants to maximise the end of his career!!
Relax. I’m not comparing statistically, I mean the same feeling of sympathy for the player, that he wants to be playing but can’t. But if you want to look at statistics, you’re Diaby numbers are WRONG.
Does this mean Mikel is forced to try somebody different upfront? Really? Finally? At last?
Hallefuckinglujah
This season Nketiah is with Saka the scorers with 5 goals. Three of these goals in the same game. How many goals Haaland scored was in the same game?
What’s your point?
My point is that Nketiah is doing OK.
My biggest problem of late is Mikel’s insistence on keeping a certain shape. I.e. Saka is pinned to one touchline and Martinelli to the other. It allows us to keep more control of the opposition because they are always stretched across the pitch. However, it also means there is a gulf in the middle where the CF gets lost. In World football Jesus is very rare as a CF who loves that scenario and has the attributes to come out and link up with LW, RW, L8, R8 etc. Nketiah is a different kind of player who needs more fluid… Read more »
Yeh i get your point Gunner1971, in recent games especially away from home, our 2 wide player’s have been nullified a bit by the double up on them, Ben, Zinny & Tomi have tried to support them on the overlap but either their drawback goes to opposition or is mis hit for back post, having said that Saka/Martinelli are quality players who scares the shit out of our opposition, yes we should of at least come home with a point at Newcastle but we haven’t really hit top form yet this season and haven’t been outplayed apart from some of… Read more »
Partey
I’d like to see this as an opportunity to at least give some academy prospects some bench time and maybe limited minutes toward the end of game depending on how its going.
Some real talents coming through in Cozier-Duberry, MLS and Reuell Walters.
The ghost of Amaury Bischoff
We always hear about the super competitive training sessions and I understand what Arteta is trying to do. However, when we are in a busy period, maybe a lighter touch would help.
I think Nketiah got that during the closing stages of the game. At one time you could see him lying on the penalty spot as we built an attack or what seemed like a knockabout the 18 yard box and he was struggling to get up. Jesus too in the match and to be fair to ESR and Partey they could easily pick them up from bedsheets
A blessing in disguise.
Partey will be fit just in time to go to ACON and then return injured. In January, we need to buy a midfielder and striker who can actually score rather than just make “good runs.”
This really pisses me off about Partey too. He’s rarely injured for international breaks and often comes back from them boloxed.
Remember that thing called a transfer window last summer? Remember everybody agreeing that we needed a striker? Remember we didn’t buy one?
Who would you have gone for? Who would you go for in Jan?
Kudus, without a doubt.
This Jan, no idea, but let’s be honest, there are better strikers than Eddie out there. Even some competition would help. He plays every game and has literally no threat of losing his place.
Ronaldo obviously!
Giroud!
I’d genuinely take Giroud if we were in a position to get him. He’s still quality.
He just scored the winner against PSG!
Should never have sold him.
Ivan Toney is the obvious answer – I’m not a fan, but it’s a relatively simple get if we’re still in with a shout of the league at that point.
I said we should have kept Balogun AND Eddie. I said we could – and should – have given Flo assurances that he would get plenty of opportunities for first team action, given we (were)competing in four competitions. He could have cut his teeth in the Premiership coming off the bench and his loan experience would have stood him in good stead to start this evening. We should have learned by now that the way teams are gratuitously given free license to kick our lads up in the air, that the injuries were almost guaranteed to pile up. And hey… Read more »
When it rains it pours. Would love to see Trossard at striker to finally get to play with Martinelli this year.
Me too but Sevilla are a bunch of orchs. Does Trossard have the physicslity to handle them when they start kicking him?
“He has an injury that is persistent. We’ll have to see what happens this week. He will be examined even more, then we will see what it brings in terms of matches and playing time.”
Just keep examining him over and over until you get the result you want. Like reloading your RPG save.
I really don’t like the word “persistent” in relation to injuries, not one bit. Least of all in relation to our captain.
Please not Havertz, please.
Better chance of calling up a hungry youngster looking for a chance.
One thing I haven’t seen mentioned in regard to Partey’s injury is that even if he gets fit by year end, we’ll only have him for about 2 weeks before he has to jet off to AFCON with Ghana on 13th January for up to another month. And who knows if he stays fit after that. We need to find a way to be successful and basically not even include him in our plans at this point. Anything we get is more of a bonus than something we can rely on.
Should’ve sold him in the summer, he’s never going to be fit and now apparently he wants to leave. Good riddance, take what we can get and replace him with someone younger and fitter.
Not ideal 😕
Personally, I’d give Havertz a run up there. He’s basically useless in midfield and whatever Arteta saw to make him think he could do a job there clearly doesn’t exist.
However, I’ve watched him pretty closely in the past few games and I reckon he’s more of a Giroud type, and with appropriate mobility around him I think he could be useful.
Still think we should have signed mbuemo over the summer…
Putting all other considerations aside, Brentford would not have sold him in light of Toney’s ban.
I thought the suggestion was that Partey would not play for us until next year as he’s at AFCON when he comes back…?
Midfield is looking lighter than the forward line without Partey and Odegaard. Rice is great at a lot of things but we do miss parteys creativity and dribbling to unlock defences and open up the space for the 8s to drive into. Zinchenko called him the most underrated midfielder in the world, and I’d have to agree, it’s no coincidence that we’ve lost our fluidity in build up without him in the team
Tod must have told Kronke, give me 65mil for Hervertz and I will give you 30mil back on this side of the border. Just get one of your company’s to invoice one of my company’s for “consulting fees” and we are sorted.
For me, this is the only logical reason for the transfer. Kronke is always looking to get money out of the club and Tod wants to get money into his club so it is a no-brainer.
I know he’s not an immediate solution, but has anyone else noticed how well Mika Biereth is playing on loan at Motherwell? He seems to have a lot to offer.
Always liked him, he’s doing really well and I’m hoping he gets a chance. Already better than Eddie.
Partey’s been a disappointment of a signing for us, what’s more annoying is it has nothing to do with the quality of play (in fact he’s play is a major quality advantage in our gameplay) but his ‘horribly poor fitness level since his acquisition is beyond comprehension and acceptability. Truly saddening.