Mikel Arteta pulled no punches last night when discussing the fitness issues he’s having to contend with when it comes to picking his teams.
The manager was heavily criticised for making so many changes for the 1-0 defeat to Southampton last Saturday, but made it clear many of those decisions were forced on him due to players being unfit.
Both Thomas Partey and Emile Smith Rowe had to come off in the 3-1 victory, having played their part in the win, and it seems as if the medical staff are doing their best to deal with a range of aches, strains and niggles which are impacting team selection.
“From Saturday, just to make it clear, we had five players who were not available to play,” said Arteta.
“We made seven changes and five of them were because they were not ready to play the game. KT was one of them and Thomas was another, and you could see today that he could not last for 60 minutes, so we have to manage those players, to protect them.
“Sometimes they are not fit but I cannot explain every single day how every player is feeling.”
The Spaniard admitted Partey was ‘struggling’ when he came off, and is hopeful he can recover in time for United on Saturday.
As for Tierney, it didn’t sound overly promising when Arteta was asked about his availability for the weekend.
“I don’t know,” he said.
“He wasn’t available against Southampton in the FA Cup, he was injured. He’s still injured today. Let’s see how he progresses for the game against Man United.”
Let’s keep fingers crossed. There might well be a boost though, as Arsenal are expected to announce the loan signing of Martin Odegaard today.
On his arrival, Arteta said, “I think we are pretty close but it’s not finalised, as I understand.
“I haven’t talked to Edu or the club in the last few hours but we are very positive that we can finalise the deal.”
Whether he’ll be ready to play a part against United remains to be seen, but between now and the end of the season he’ll add some depth to a key area of the pitch.
If ESR needs a bit more time to rest, I’d much rather Odegaard with 3 training sessions than Willian gets the nod at CAM.
Odegaard somehow looks the perfect signing. Does help us keep our funds safe for transfer window in the summer. And if he plays well gives us an option to close deal with real madrid for him. Just we have to be careful with the weight of expectations on him, he is a talent for sure and might be very eager to get on the field but he hasn’t played since june so fingers crøssed.
Since June? He was playing throughout November till his injury and then made the bench a few times and got a few minutes against Celta Vigo at the beginning of January.
Fake news!
I’m curious what takes so long to finalise it, if it’s being reported (by reliable sources) that it’s a done deal already a couple days ago. It looks as if we’re so slow in announcing players compared to others, might be a bit becuase I follow Arsenal’s news daily of course but still it looks to take longer compared to other clubs.
Getting the lettering right on the kits, it’s a challenge here.
Think its more to do with a PR thing. Everyone loves the deadline day transfers. But i hope it is not and it is announced today.
Mat Ryan says hi..
Probably wasn’t finalised till yesterday (Sky report the medical was Monday I believe) and they didn’t want to announce on a match day.
Today is the day, probably…
They do love a ‘Welcome to Arsenal video’ on Arsenal.Com. With Covid-19 protocols may be slowing down logistics of getting that done.
It was a really smart decision to take of Partey. Looked like cramp. Please let it only be cramp. His abilities have transformed this team, particularly the higher tempo he allows us to play, the space he creates for others (particularly Xhaka), his ability to destroy other team’s press, and the quickness of his recoveries on the very rare times he loses possession is quality. He truly is a complete midfielder. World class. We need him fit so bad. Tierney too.
Partey really does make other players around him better. I have been very much a big critic of Xhaka, still will be in the future but yesterday he played well and it is maybe because he had Partey next to him. Even Elneny looked good in the Man utd game when he was partnering Partey. Hope we do our transfer business soon and not wait till the end because of the PR.
The sooner Arteta has players at his disposal the better…the next run of fixtures are a tough one.
Arteta has also adjusted our style of play. Partey allows the tempo to be much higher because he can turn guys on the ball and he is just so quick at moving the ball. His awareness of where his teammates are at all times is astounding. Arteta is directing a lot more possession through him and down the right channel, which stops us being so predictable and “Xhaka-heavy” in possession. I actually see Xhaka as a more effective player the less heavily he is involved. It means teams can’t overload on him, press him and force him onto his right,… Read more »
Fingers crossed.
Don’t really understand why people were upset about rotation, players can’t play every minute of every game that’s what you have a squad for. Same people would be crying if someone like smith Rowe played in the cup and picked up a serious injury.
Yeah, and it showed with Southhampton. While they were still very good (I think the results flattered us just a little – perhaps a 1-goal margin was more fitting the game flow), they did lack a little sharpness in their end product and their press waned as the game went on as their players looked to tire a little. IMO we simply had to prioritise this over the FA Cup.
Rotation is necessary. We’ve seen Tierney play the full cup match against Newcastle and has been missed ever since. The only cup we should be prioritizing is the Europa League as the only viable route into Champions League. Domestic cup runs are nice, but with the need rotate, and the lack of rotation players that make a difference (Willian), bringing players in like Odegaard will be important for ensuring the rotation, whilst minimizing our dip in quality when such crucial players don’t play.
I’m not convinced we have a squad good enough to sustain consistency. Take out Saka, Tierney, Partey, Smith-Rowe, Leno And what’s behind it, isn’t currently at a high enough level. Hopefully Odegaard can offer us something, and remain fit. Seems like a catch 22 though If he does badly? Our chances of success diminishes If he does well? We’re a finishing school for Real Madrid, pumping his value, or putting him in the shop window for a club with greater resources We’ve put ourselves in a position, where we need him to do a good job, but not a great… Read more »
There is no team in the EPL, maybe except City, that you’d take out 5 key first team players and they won’t struggle.
We have seen Liverpool struggle, all thanks to key players missing.
Take out five key players from any Premier team’s first eleven and watch them suffer (those Lilywhite f***s had to bring on Son and Kane against WYCOMBE). We need Odegaard to do A Job – great or otherwise – to save ESR’s occasionally wobbly legs and spare the rest of us the indignity of watching Willian shuffle on to the pitch.
As for loans, that’s what we hope to do with our nearly-men. Asking and answering why we haven’t, least not often, would, I’m sure, fill a dozen more comment sections.
As Arsenal fans we’re likely biased but is it just me thinking it’s not easy for us to get a penalty? To me it looked like Lacazette was brought down yesterday in a way that would be a foul anywhere else on the pitch. The game goes on, there’s a single replay, the commentators are done with it immediately.
Other weeks, we get forensic insights into minimal contacts. I don’t think there’s any conspiracy or agenda, but the approach seems different.
TBF it would have been a soft one. If that was given against us we would have been fuming (that said they seem to be given against us more than they are for us). The one on Pepe though, if he doesn’t score there it has to be a penalty and arguably a red card. Credit Pepe for going on with it and banging it in. As blogs said, if he doesn’t score though I’m sure Kevin [not our] Friend would have let it play on and VAR mysteriously not used.
I got the sense that Soton had a brief to deliberately injure our players.
Talking up the injury doubts before huge game is football management 101
They’ll play on Saturday. Bring it on, COYG
We haven’t had any recent COVID scares at the club and therefore haven’t had to reschedule any matches. Of course I don’t want anyone at risk of being ill, but match cancellations have let other teams avoid fatigue-related injuries.
Potentially but the games still have to be played at some point and if they’re in Europe, or domestic cups they’ll have a huge fixture pile up at some point
Just a small thing, but I really like how Arteta references Edu by name in his interviews. I know he also says generic things like ‘the club’ but he also specifically says Edu — it’s a very small thing, but I like to think it’s a sign that the two of them have a very good working relationship and are open to being transparent about what each other is responsible for.
As for the delay. For all I know it could be a problem with Visa’s Non EU Norwegian coming to another non EU country Via an EU country.