Good Sunday, everyone! It’s been an international break, that rarely comes with positive news. So I’d like to share some accumulated thoughts.
As many Arsenal supported, I am growing onto the Sterling’s presence in the team. My main worry was that he’s no longer motivated to fight for points in trophies, but then I bumped into his first interview. I thought that those videos are choreographed to the second, but there was a ray of positivity and happiness coming from Raheem, when talking about joining Arsenal. He’s not obliged to that, as he’s not obliged to say that he wants to be a part of togetherness with the team. It’s a clear hit at Chelsea and makes me think he has something to prove here.
I am not dreaming of unicorns and rainbows and imagining him scoring a CL quarterfinal winner, or 90th minute stunner at Etihad, but he could be the one to convert couple of season draws into victories.
Champions League squad
Presence of Tierney in the CL squad solidified a point of having too many defenders. That could force the usage of one of them in a very thin midfield, after long-term Merino’s and short-term Rice’s absence. The obvious candidate is ZInchenko, who has played most of his non-English career in exactly left-8 spot. While I believe he could fill in there with some level of success, Arteta has never tried that even in an easy fixture. It also doesn’t help that he lost the starting position in the national team, and is more used as a universal sub.
His passing can surely help opening up defences. However, I think that the concern both Pep and Arteta share – is that he’s sometimes too slow in decision making. In central position the opponent pressure is bigger and comes from several sides and one mistake could be an equivalent of 0.5 xG and cost the team very dearly.
Injury ghost is flying around
While it’s been good news that tough nut Odegaard has overcome his knock and has already featured in a Nations League game in the middle of Asia, in the actual Europe Calafiori has twisted his ankle and is already sent back to London. This is quite disturbing, since frankly Calafiori looks as the most exciting option on the left side and I believe his presence could be crucial in the upcoming match at Toilet bowl. While Timber looks quite solid defensively, he’s far from impressive in ball progression. His movement so far is modest and passing is risk-averse. Against a team with a deep block it certainly won’t be enough.
Ok, folks, it was a short one today, see you on the Spurs preview.