Morning all, and glad Friday to you.
It’s a quiet one, with preparations constructing for Sunday’s massive sport towards Man Metropolis. We had a troublesome run out on Tuesday, however have a few additional days to get better. I hoped they’d have a really tough sport towards Napoli however an early crimson card made it extra of a stroll than I’d have preferred. Ah nicely. At the least we’ve a pleasant pleasant bunch of officers for Sunday … oh.
Right here’s one thing we touched on within the Arsecast yesterday, and I realise it’s a small factor, nevertheless it does make me chortle/despair in one thing near equal measure. Like all of you, I’m certain, I’ve been actually impressed with Cristhian Mosquera over the past couple of weeks. His performances have been so assured and so promising. He seems like the true deal, and he’s a participant who has a really vibrant future forward of him.
However, it’s been three video games. A really small pattern dimension. For me, and I do know this would possibly sound loopy, however that’s not sufficient for me to – once more this would possibly sound like I’m a lunatic who has misplaced his tiny little thoughts – take into account promoting William Saliba to Actual Madrid. It’s completely sensible that the absence of the French worldwide hasn’t felt as damaging because it has prior to now, however I discover it mad/amusing that I see folks on-line speak about that state of affairs in a matter of truth means.
Let’s be as easy as we are able to right here: Mosquera is a tremendous prospect, I’m delighted we signed him at a discount worth, and I’m wanting ahead to watching him develop and get even higher at Arsenal. However Saliba is among the finest central defenders on this planet, his partnership with Gabriel is pretty much as good because it will get, and the prospect of dropping him to Actual Madrid, or anyplace else, just isn’t one thing I actually wish to take into account as we proceed our wrestle to show our general high quality into tangible success.
I get it, individuals are nervous concerning the contract state of affairs, and see Mosquera as a type of safety-net/comfort-blanket, however my ridiculous thought – in the event you’ll indulge me as soon as extra – is to maintain them each. I’m am imbecile, I do know! Take it to its illogical conclusion. You endure greater than as soon as as a result of an damage to Saliba is destabilising to your group, so that you herald a participant who prevents that however then you definitely promote Saliba: then what occurs when Mosquera is absent? Please folks, apply the Rob Holding Protocol to this.
I’ve seen comparable observations relating to Noni Madueke and Bukayo Saka. I imply, come on. I’ve been inspired by the brand new signing, and he brings completely different qualities to the correct hand facet, however he’s had 5 appearances with no aim or an help. Which isn’t to say a participant can solely be judged on these metrics, however even final season when he was impacted so closely by damage, there was no interval when Saka went greater than 5 video games with out scoring or making an help. The identical was true of the season earlier than that, and the final time it occurred was a run of video games between April twenty sixth and Could twentieth 2023.
So, benefit from the truth we’ve Madueke who’s doing nicely, and can hopefully add that finish product to his sport, however don’t let football-goldfish-memory make you overlook that Saka is a prime stage participant who scores and assists with a regularity that few others do. Once more, I do know it’s a small factor, however don’t overlook what we have already got as a result of some new gamers have achieved all proper within the opening weeks of the season.
Lastly for at present, I noticed the Arsenal group picture the opposite day and as Andrew Allen identified on the Arsecast a few weeks in the past, we’re Goatee FC. A lot chin fluff. I did surprise what it is likely to be like if our gamers had correct beards, like Captain Haddock. So I made our captain a beard out of the hair of our supervisor. I believe it really works very well, and would virtually definitely return Martin Odegaard to his most scintillating type. Certainly the addition of an in-house barber/grooming facility within the subsequent factor to present us that tiny share of marginal achieve.
Proper, I’ll go away it there for now. We’ll have updates from Mikel Arteta’s press convention a bit in a while over on Arseblog Information, and the Arsecast discussing the 2-0 win over Athletic Membership is beneath.
