Four in 10 days
Mikel Arteta needs to use his squad with Arsenal about to have a lot of defending to do
Last week I had a look at Ben White’s ever-evolving role and ever-evolving ability over on arseblog and later this week I’ll hopefully have something here looking ahead to the Manchester City game.
For now, here’s this a look ahead to the next few weeks in general …
Anyone else feel sick?
With the international break winding down, the prospect of four games in 10 days is looming and we still don’t really have know how much Mikel Arteta trusts his squad players, or how much he can trust them, as we approach a run of games which surely leaves him with no choice but to use every player available to him.
But we seriously have no idea whether the Arsenal manager will allow himself to. One: because he doesn’t rotate that often. Two: because the players he might rotate into the side have not regularly been available.
And as we approach four games (three uniquely challenging for reasons I’ll get onto shortly) in a span of just ten days, it’s hard to shake the idea that Arsenal will surely not get away with just playing the same players in all of them. As of now, even with everyone available there are probably eight of the 10 outfield starting positions taken up, at least in big games. Those eight will be occupied by William Saliba, Gabriel, Ben White, Declan Rice, Martin Ødegaard, Kai Havertz (either in midfield or up front), Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli. Maybe Martinelli is a little less certain than the others, but I wouldn’t say so.
Then there are squad players we’ve seen a lot of lately — Jorginho (who can’t be far from that first group), Jakub Kiwior, Leandro Trossard — and a three-man group of others — Eddie Nketiah, whose two leagues starts since the start of November have both ended in defeat, Reiss Nelson and Mohamed Elneny.
Everyone else is a question mark because of their fitness and it is that group of players Arsenal desperately need over the next couple of months, sure, but especially the next two weeks.
Because this run is going to require a mammoth effort and even if some of the eight guaranteed starters can play almost all of the minutes coming up, they won’t all be able to, Jorginho isn’t likely to, and then Arsenal will be leaning heavily on the availability and the readiness of Takehiro Tomiyasu, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Thomas Partey and Gabriel Jesus.
The readiness is a big question for Arteta because, in the case of Emile Smith Rowe in particular this season, he has held back using players who have returned from injury. Smith Rowe has made 15 of the last 16 matchday squads but just one start in that spell and one other appearance that saw him come on before the 75th minute just once, and has been an unused sub on seven occasions.
Likewise, Fabio Vieira has made the bench for the last six games after returning from injury but has played just one half of football, and that came with Arsenal already 5-0 up at Sheffield United.
In defence, at least one of Tomiyasu and Zinchenko (who has not particularly impressed in recent substitute appearances — there is some logic to Arteta slowly bleeding recently-injured players back in) will have to stay fit to give any form of reprieve to any of the recent first choice back four of White, Saliba, Gabriel, Kiwior.
In midfield, Jorginho will not be able to contribute over the 90 minutes in four games in 10 days. Especially with the particular four games (more shortly, I promise) Arsenal have. The Italian has been brilliant of late but with large gaps between games and even then has hasn’t been playing from start to finish.
He did start four in 11 days back in October-November but the team looked very sluggish against West Ham and a touch sluggish against Newcastle before battering inferior opposition in Sevilla and Burnley. Jorginho has played 90 minutes just five times all season and recently, against Brentford and Porto, his run in the team seemed to catch up with him a bit before he was subbed as Arsenal looked for a late goal.
A recent Thomas Partey cameo against Sheffield United (there really is a trend here) did not inspire to believe he is ready to deputise, not to mention he has not started a game since August, so Arsenal will need to roll out Havertz in midfield and/or Zinchenko inverting from left-back at some point.
But without Gabriel Jesus fully fit, Havertz is also the striker and there is little chance to give Bukayo Saka (who has pulled out of the England squad or Gabriel Martinelli (or Leandro Trossard, if Martinelli remains injured) any time off their feet.
Now more than ever, Mikel Arteta is going to need his squad players fit. And Arsenal are going to need Mikel Arteta to lean on his available squad players. And those squad players are going to have to hit the ground running. Especially as — I did say we’d get their eventually — three of these four games are going to demand Arsenal do a lot of work without the ball. A lot more than they are used to.
Sunday 31 March: Man City (A)
Wednesday 3 April: Luton (H)
Saturday 6 April: Brighton (A)
Tuesday 9 April: Bayern Munich (H)
The odd one out is Luton at home next Wednesday, a few days after visiting Manchester City. But it also isn’t an option to rotate the majority of the team for that one game. Other than that, there will be plenty of chasing to do against Manchester City, Brighton and Bayern Munich. These will be really intense games. The Manchester City one goes without saying but against Brighton and Bayern, Arsenal are likely to be playing without the ball as much as against any other non-City opponent this season.
Man City (1st), Brighton (6th), and Bayern (5th) all feature in the top six in Europe’s top five leagues for possession, passes per game and pass completion. Arsenal don’t.
Bayern (1st) and City (3rd) are two of the four teams with more shots per game than Arsenal in domestic league matches this season. Brighton have out-possessed Arsenal in each of the last three meetings between the sides. The Seagulls — who have lost just two of their last 22 Premier League home games, by the way — actually account for three of the 13 times Arsenal have been out-possessed in a Premier League game since the start of last season, with Manchester City accounting for a further two.
Now this doesn’t have to be a bad thing — it could actually suit a side that has been drilled not to give anything away and succeeded in doing so in the biggest games this season — but it does mean there will be a lot of hard yards to cover in games played at a higher intensity than usual with more at stake than usual. You can’t rely on 11 players in a four-games-in-ten-days period that like that. And asking players to come in and be fully in-tune with their defensive responsibilities is a huge ask.
If Arsenal’s ambition to win trophies this season is going to survive this 10-day spell, Mikel Arteta will have to use his squad and he will have to be rewarded with contributions from at least some of the players — Tomiyasu, Partey, Vieira, Nelson, Smith Rowe — who have so far this season contributed far too little.