It’s nonetheless early days for Arsenal clearly by way of how they will deal with out the injured Bukayo Saka.
They bought themselves off to a profitable begin with out that talismanic winger, albeit in fairly unconvincing style as they edged previous Ipswich 1-0 on the Emirates. You’d counsel, nonetheless, that the 2 very tough trying away video games at Brentford and Brighton will give us a clearer indication of how they are going to cope with out the England worldwide.
No matter occurs although, I actually do really feel they must do all they’ll within the January switch window to bolster what now seems like a fairly threadbare assault.
Sure, January is a notoriously troublesome window to do first rate enterprise in, but it surely’s not inconceivable and I might hope that Arsenal have been working very onerous behind the scenes to try to establish a few alternatives that would give them the enhance they want.
I’m not essentially speaking a few large January transfer. These form of strikes might need to attend till the summer time. However there’s definitely scope for the membership to do one thing to fill the void that Saka’s absence will depart behind.
Arsenal curiosity in PL star CONFIRMED
Arsenal are all the time reluctant to do enterprise in January and the message heading into this window by way of conversations I’ve had has all the time been that the membership can be reactive, somewhat than proactive out there.
That’s comprehensible, however this does really feel like one thing that they must react to. Dropping Saka for round ten weeks is a hammer blow. It’s so simple as that.
I don’t suppose anybody who is available in needs to be a like-for-like substitute. They only want an alternative choice who can play within the frontline and may contribute objectives and assists.
I’m a giant fan of Matheus Cunha and Arsenal’s curiosity in him does make lots of sense. I do perceive, nonetheless, it could be very troublesome to lure him away from Wolves in the course of the season when they’re battling relegation.
Arda Guler on mortgage from Actual Madrid would even be an fascinating brief time period transfer. We’ve seen Arsenal have some success with a deal like that previously. Simply consider Martin Odegaard for instance.
Guler is younger, however he has proven he can carry out on the largest stage and has the expertise to make a distinction within the closing third.
So there may very well be choices on the market for Arsenal, it’s as much as them to go on the market and discover them.
I believed Gabriel Martinelli did OK taking part in on the best in opposition to Ipswich. There have been some good moments and I believe it could be unfair to write down him off as an choice on that aspect after only one begin.
He’s going to take a while to get used to taking part in in that function and his team-mates are going to must take a while getting used to somebody apart from Saka occupying these positions.
Arsenal are going to be totally different with out Saka. Mikel Arteta has already mentioned that. They’ll’t simply proceed taking part in the identical method with another person taking part in in his function and anticipate issues to be precisely the identical.
Martinelli had a number of good moments in opposition to Ipswich. He whipped in a few good crosses, together with one which performed an element within the purpose.
I need to see him doing extra of that. Simply shifting the ball onto his proper foot and getting it into the hazard space earlier than the defence is about. The actual fact he can do this, somewhat than slicing inside on his stronger foot like he does over on the left needs to be a profit for Arsenal.
He clearly must work on being extra of a menace himself although. He didn’t have a shot in opposition to Ipswich and that’s not ok. He should be a menace, like Saka all the time is.
As we watch for the window to open, I nonetheless suppose Martinelli is Arsenal’s best choice on the best. Ethan Nwaneri is one other and is a extra of a like-for-like substitute given the way in which he performs and the way in which he likes to chop inside onto left.
It might be good to see him get a go over there in some unspecified time in the future, however I really feel it’s a must to stick to Martinelli for now and provides him an opportunity to get used to that function himself.
It’s powerful to have a look at Liverpool proper now and see them slipping up.
There’s nonetheless such a protracted method to go and no-one is aware of higher than Arsenal how troublesome it’s to maintain up such a powerful tempo for the size of a whole season.
However they simply look so robust and are clearly taking part in with a lot confidence proper now. It’s very troublesome to see the place any extended slip up is coming from.
In Mo Salah they’ve the very best participant on this planet in the mean time and he’s proving the distinction week in, week out.
The numbers he’s producing are unimaginable and when you may have gamers like Cody Gakpo, Luiz Diaz and Jota backing him up it’s simply a humiliation of riches for Arne Slot.
Perhaps the contract points with Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk will begin to have a destructive affect on Liverpool, however proper now that does really feel a bit like rival groups clutching at straws.
Simply have a look at the West Ham sport. Earlier than that everybody was speaking about Trent and the rumours he had already instructed Liverpool he can be leaving for Madrid.
Did that trigger a distraction? No, he performed, performed nicely, Liverpool scored 5 and he bagged certainly one of them himself.
So I don’t actually see it making a lot of a distinction. If Arsenal or anybody else are going to claw again Liverpool, they will must do it by doing issues proper themselves, somewhat than counting on some form of implosion amongst the squad at Anfield.
What has gone unsuitable at Tottenham? I imply, that’s a query that somebody might spend years finding out and nonetheless not provide you with an appropriate reply.
To be sincere I’m unsure a lot has truly gone unsuitable with them this season. They’re simply Tottenham. That is what they do.
I imply, is anybody actually stunned by their struggles this season? I can’t think about they’re.
They’ve some good gamers, they play some good soccer and on their day they’ll beat anybody. They only appear like a cup staff to me beneath Ange Postecoglou.
It’d lastly win them a trophy. They’re within the semi-final of the League Cup in any case and you’d suppose they need to go far within the Europa League, however I can’t see them competing for the league until Postecoglou modifications his methods a bit.
They’re simply too open and are far too straightforward to choose off.
They’ve had plenty of accidents this season and that does must be taken under consideration, but it surely’s not like they’re watertight once they have Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven match is it? They nonetheless concede far too many objectives.
It will likely be fascinating to see if Daniel Levy sticks with Postecoglou. You simply by no means know what he’s going to do.
I suppose when folks ask what’s unsuitable with Spurs, then Levy has to come back into the dialog.
What number of managers has he employed who’ve failed? The one actual success story was Mauricio Pochettino and Levy booted him out quickly after he had taken the membership to a Champions League closing as a result of he felt he might get higher.
That didn’t pan out very nicely did it…
