It’s a busy day of Premier League motion, however all eyes will probably be on the Emirates this afternoon as we tackle Leicester at 4.30.
My sense is that final night time’s win for Man Utd might be the perfect outcome for us, even in case you might make the case {that a} draw would have seen either side drop factors. Now we have these video games in hand on them and, in fact, it’s at all times good to see Sp*rs lose. It does imply United are above us within the desk proper now, however perhaps that’s not a nasty factor for our gamers to see as they give the impression of being to give attention to the job in hand right now.
There don’t look like any vital points with accidents or absences. Mikel Arteta mainly mentioned Emile Smith Rowe will probably be again within the squad right now, whereas the one different drawback we’ve got is with Takehiro Tomiyasu. It looks as if warning is the order of the day, with the supervisor saying:
He had an damage, he made a fast restoration, we performed him … perhaps too rapidly, I don’t know. He had a recurring damage there and he felt it once more sooner or later when he was again in coaching.
It’s a disappointment as a result of he’s been actually constant, he performed a variety of minutes … high quality minutes, and he made a superb contribution to the group. Now he must be persistently coaching for a interval so we will minimise the danger of getting a recurring damage in the identical muscle as a result of that may be one thing to fret about.
It means Cedric will proceed at proper again, and he’s performed positive of late, however hopefully Tomi will get better rapidly. There are some huge video games developing that I believe he’s higher suited to so fingers crossed on that.
So, the one determination Arteta has to make is whether or not Smith Rowe comes straight again into the group, and given Gabriel Martinelli scored certainly one of our three very good objectives final week, I believe he’ll maintain his place on the left hand aspect. It’s additionally good, if Smith Rowe is on the bench, that we’ve got our main scorer in reserve if we want him, to not point out a participant who has been capable of come on in its place and rating this season. With Pepe and Nketiah, that may give us three attacking choices of various levels.
We must always know effectively sufficient what Leicester are about, not fairly as constant as final season or the season earlier than the place they fell out of the highest 4 proper on the finish of the season. However clearly the very fact they had been doing the enterprise at that finish of the desk for the final couple of years tells you they’re to not be taken with no consideration due to their league place in the meanwhile.
The absence of Jamie Vardy right now is welcome due to how typically he’s brought about us issues prior to now, however they nonetheless have loads of expertise and a few harmful gamers. They might effectively have checked out Arsenal and our defensive lapses in latest video games, and seen the place they could damage us. Fortunately we’ve been capable of take most factors regardless of these errors, however we will’t maintain anticipating to try this within the Premier League, so I’m hoping for a lot higher defensive safety right now.
Past that, what else can we are saying about this group and what it must do? Week on week we’re extra assured of what they’re able to, and because the season progresses and the strain begins to construct, it turns into as a lot about how we deal with that side of it – the expectation and the necessity to win video games. In that sense, it’s very similar to final week when fixtures went our method and we needed to beat Watford, which we did. This week, United have despatched a reminder that they’re nonetheless scrapping away for high 4, and we’ve got to cope with that in addition to Leicester this afternoon.
Hopefully although, a house recreation, a fantastic ambiance contained in the stadium, and a group that’s rising in confidence and momentum will carry us the best outcome and throw the gauntlet again in direction of United and so forth.
As ever we’ll have live blog coverage, plus all of the post-match stuff on Arseblog News. There’s additionally a preview podcast over on Patreon proper now.
Let’s go away it there, catch you later for the sport.
