Mikel Arteta says Gabriel Martinelli will be available for Sunday’s match against Brighton.
The Brazil international fell ill after the defeat to Aston Villa last weekend and subsequently sat out Tuesday’s Champions League draw with PSV Eindhoven. Thankfully, he’s recovered.
“Martinelli is feeling good,” said the boss in his pre-game press conference.
Elsewhere, the boss says the news on Mo Elneny’s hamstring injury is positive. The Egypt international went down after an hour of Tuesday’s match and was replaced by Martin Odegaard. While he’s set to miss the next game, he’ll be back soon.
“Mo had to be subbed because he felt something in his hamstring,” reported the Spaniard.
“We did a scan and it doesn’t look too serious so he’s going to be with us I think very soon which is good news as well.”
In total, the Gunners have five players sidelined. In addition to Elneny, Thomas Partey, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Jurrien Timber and Fabio Vieira continue to spend their days in the treatment room and gym.
Completely OT, but wanted to ask if anyone here noticed Dale Johnson’s regular VAR review article (for ESPN) on Twitter – and especially what do you make of it.
As inconsistent as the VAR process itself. Dale is clearly well versed in the procedures and laws but his interpretation and views of incidents are at times as dubious and contentious as the VAR decisions (or lack thereof) themselves.
You mean, generally? Yes, I am. I’m conflicted over it. Some context 1) I’m a general sports fan, so fairly familiar with how video review is applied in other sports and 2) an attorney by trade, so intimately familiar with standards of review (e.g. clear and obvious) and how that impacts application. Initially, I thought it was a useful, more objective way to view the issues and considerations in the processes and decisions. Admittedly, perhaps colored by my passion for the Gunners, there seems to be increasing efforts to justify the decisions of the referees, rather than explain. His bias… Read more »
I usually read it. Has seemed to me in recent weeks to be borderline anti-Arsenal. Anything that’s a grey area, he’s definitively saying was correctly ruled against Arsenal.
My impression too
Of course I’m completely unbiased 😊
Thanks for the replies! I came to similar conclusions but I’m aware I can’t wipe off my Arsenal bias so I wanted to see how others feel (even though we’re all biased here in the end).
Thankfully for mo and the side he’s not that injured, because we will need him (up until afcon) for some midfield rotation. Hopefully edu and crew are looking at another midfielder in january though, because we need at least one now and at least one more over the summer.
Love Martinelli. But concerned about having such a small Goal Keeper protecting our Goal.
But here is an idea… against Liverpool have Chido Obi-Martin on the bench after all he has already scored 10 against their U16s .He is 6 foot 2. In tennis no one blinks an eye when a up coming Kid plays!
Why don’t we simply make our Goal smaller so it is the appropriate size for our Goal Keeper
Proportionate goals will rejuvenate the career of santi
Because in the second half we’d have a small keeper in a big goal again, and they would have a normal size keeper in a small goal.
Love your thinking! 😂
In what universe would we ever throw a kid into that environment?