Morning.
It’s a big one today as Man City come to town. Mikel Arteta has some decisions to make with regards his team selection today, some of which revolve around injury and availability. I think the back four more or less picks itself, but if William Saliba is fit, I’d pick him ahead of Cristhian Mosquera. Don’t get me wrong, if he’s not 100% and the summer signing is asked to continue in the side I’d be pretty comfortable with that, but for a game like this against opposition like this, I’d go with the Frenchman if he’s fit.
In midfield the question is about whether Martin Odegaard is ready to play after suffering a recurrence of his shoulder injury last weekend. Again, if he is, he plays, but if not will it Ethan Nwaneri – who replaced him against Nottingham Forest – or Mikel Merino? Arteta will probably be accused of being overly-cautious if he goes with the latter, and again my personal preference would be for Nwaneri, but I think that’s the choice he’ll make. Merino is not necessarily creative, but nor he is a ‘DM’ as some people want to categorise him. In a game that might be really tight, where set-pieces could be decisive, his prowess there (along with his experience) probably gets him the nod.
An option we discussed on our preview podcast was Declan Rice shifting over into the Odegaard position, and playing Eberechi Eze on the other side of midfield rather than out wide. He’s more than capable, he’s certainly most effective from central areas, and it would allow the manager to reward someone like Leandro Trossard with a start after his impact from the bench in the next two games. It might also be a way to get Gabriel Martinelli into the team, City played Abdukodir Khusanov at right-back in the last two games, and an out position centre-half might be viewed as a weakness worth trying to exploit. If the manager wants us to be a bit less predictable, that’s certainly one way of doing it.
The rest seems obvious, with Noni Madueke and Viktor Gyokeres in the front three. The former has been effective without statistical end product, and the Swede’s goals have all come at home so far this season. Today would be a great day for Madueke to open his account, or make an assist or two, while you hope Big Vik can continue his scoring exploits at the Emirates.
As for City, they’re certainly different than before. Whether that means they’re better remains to be seen. I guess it makes them a bit more unpredictable, Arteta has been quite good at second-guessing Pep in recent years, but the profile of signings they’ve made in the last two windows have felt very un-Guardiola. I think they’re going to be more direct, so ensuring we’re switched on in moments of transition feels very important. Regardless of any changes though, I’m too scarred by recent history to expect anything less than them being very, very good and for this game not to be a real challenge.
Arteta says recent performances against Man City provide the confidence that we can do it again:
Obviously winning those matches creates that conviction that you can go and win the game. but not just against them, against any opposition. And that’s the feeling that I have now with the team and the players individually. that we go to Sunday and we are there to win the game, that’s it.
Games against Man City are always tough. There’s the recent history, the Arteta/Guardiola stuff which still gets brought up, and the simple fact we’re talking about two very good teams. We found a way to win in midweek with players coming off the bench to contribute in a really positive way, but I feel like if we’re going to take three points today a lot will depend on the performance of the starting XI. Just a gut feeling, but let’s see what we can produce. Defensively we’ve been excellent this season, if that continues again today then let’s hope the players further forward can do the business.
Right, I’ll leave it there. As ever, we’ll have live blog coverage for you, and you can find all the post-game stuff on Arseblog News.
Come on you reds!
