Third time's the charm?
A look at the Arsenal squad with the new season just one week away
Well, hello there. I don’t know about anyone else but I certainly needed a break. The slog of the title race makes every game, and everything in between, exhausting. A day doesn’t go by where I don’t think about Arsenal but this summer I got to think about Arsenal without those thoughts carrying the enormous weight they carried from August to May last season, and the August to May before that too.
And beyond the club, I think I’ve needed a bit of a break from life more generally. Between the abhorrent riots in the UK, the non-stop drama around the US election, and the daily ups (and ups and ups) and downs of having a nine-month-old baby, the exhaustion just keeps on keeping on. The last bit is nice, the other two and all that surround them, the Germans call it Weltschmerz. World pain:
Pain, sadness, suffering from the world and its inadequacy with regard to one's own wishes and expectations characterise the basic emotional mood.
Come to think of it, it actually just sounds a bit like being in a title race where you’re allegedly the only side involved that has allegedly played by the alleged rules.
The Olympics (like the Euros before it) is only so good as a distraction. I’ll be avoiding Twitter from now on, I don’t want to give it (and thus the clown who owns it) any oxygen, any engagement, any eyeballs. I’ve had enough of turning a blind eye to its issues, you can see people being sucked into the hate that seems to fuel the place and, unfortunately, much of the real world outside it. There are other ways to stay informed and stay in touch with people. Stay safe, everyone. Look after your neighbours, stand up against hate and alongside those who are living in fear. Be nice.
More than ever, seeing as I won’t be there anymore, I appreciate anyone reading my rambling here, commenting, chatting, and sharing this newsletter with anyone you think might be interested. I’ll be trying out Threads and Bluesky more if you want to find me there.
Anyway, with the new season just around the corner it’s time to dive head first into club football again: it’s just a week until the new Premier League season begins and I can’t wait.
In the relative footballing no man’s land of the summer, there’s time to reflect on where the team can improve. Breaking down those mean mid-blocks feels like the obvious one, given the issues in the games against Porto, Aston Villa, Fulham, plus the away games against Bayern Munich and Newcastle. Those matches really did a number on 2023/24 in terms of either winning the league or making it to what was a weaker-than-usual the last four in the Champions League. And the main issue in all of them was a lack of goal threat.
So some magic in the final third wouldn’t go amiss. Despite links with Nico Williams it seems, with his heart set on eventually joining a broke Barcelona, he’ll be staying at Athletic Club for another season. If you can’t sign a player at that level, and without shifting more squad members out, it’s hard to justify dropping £50-60m on a player who can’t fight with Gabriel Martinelli or Kai Havertz for their place in the team. We need any incomings to come in at that level and that isn’t easy to find. As much as I’d love someone to come in, and would in particular be prioritising a winger who can play both sides, I do think there’s a certain amount of internal improvement we can hope for in the shape of in Gabriels Jesus and Martinelli, who scored a combined 10 Premier League goals last season. Jesus has looked sharp again pre-season and if surgery has finally helped him shake off his knee issues and we can get pre-2022 World Cup Gabriel Jesus back, I genuinely think we have one of the best centre-forwards in the world.
Still, we can’t exclusively be glass half full. Others may not offer the same output as before — God forbid issues with fitness or form hit Ødegaard or Saka, but these things are possible — and then we’ll really need the likes of the two Brazilians to step up and bridge the gap. A little more magic in that part of the pitch would almost perfect the squad but I think we can be very much close to ideal even if someone doesn’t arrive.
Things are looking similar in midfield. With Declan Rice excelling in that box-to-box ‘left eight’ role in the second half of the season, a partner who plays at the base of the midfield looked like the obvious midfield gap this summer … yet it seems we will sign Mikel Merino, who … plays in the box-to-box left eight role.
I still prefer the idea of Rice at the base of the midfield because I don’t think there’s a player on the planet better suited to screening the defence and cutting out counter-attacks. Playing him dead centre in midfield means he snuffs those attacks out wherever they are, whereas playing him as that ‘left eight’ does mean he can be a little too far (and a little too advanced) when teams steal the ball and break down the other side of the pitch. Rice right now needs to be more metronomic, or be paired with someone who is, as the deepest midfielder but I wonder how much he can learn from Jorginho before the Italian retires. Combine the two of them and you have Rodri with more legs.
As well as Jorginho, who can’t seem to play too many games back-to-back and will probably need his minutes managed, whatever’s left of Thomas Partey is the other option in that position, should Rice continue to play further forward. There are plenty of issues with that (none bigger than the fact many of us cannot stomach the sight of him in an Arsenal shirt given the off-field allegations he has faced) and the Ghanaian, as well as seemingly losing his ability to run, has made a nasty habit of getting caught in possession in a way that makes him feel like a risk whenever he is fit enough to play.
You wouldn’t rely on either player to stay fit, so the Merino deal really looks like a shift back to having Rice learn how to become the ultimate holding midfielder. Don’t forget, if he is in that position, Kai Havertz can come into midfield again too. I know that’s an issue for many fans but his last run of games there (with Trossard up front) brought a real goal glut for the team. I really wouldn’t be against seeing it again now that he’s settled at the club. Clean slate and all that.
Anyway, that’s two — at least to me — clear squad questions coming into the summer and … nothing has been done about them.
We did also enter the summer without a first choice left-back and have seemingly addressed that by signing a large, galloping, left-footed centre-back. I’m being a little unfair; Riccardo Calafiori has plenty of experience at left-back and looks a natural fit for being a mirror image of Ben White. Fitting, considering the two of them probably spend more time in front of the mirror than anyone else at the club.
The other issues, we’ll see what happens. Like I said, the Merino links suggest to me that Rice will play a lot more football at the base of the midfield again.
All of that, then, has the squad looking something like this right now:
This is, of course, assuming Merino is signed. The players in italics are used in more than one position. In total, including Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri, we’re left with 25 players for the first team without any further ins and outs. I’ve not even included Kieran Tierney.
From back to front:
We need at least one goalkeeper if/when Aaron Ramsdale is sold.
We can sell defenders - likely Kiwior and Tierney — without having to sign another. Zinchenko’s shirt number change suggests he’ll be around for at least another season. Maybe he’ll play plenty and Calafiori will be eased in?
Rice is a big question mark. Where does he play? If it’s at the base, that position is sorted. If it’s further forward … that position needs urgent attention next summer, or this summer if Edu can somehow sell what remains of Partey.
As things stand, there’s a real chance for Ethan Nwaneri to get serious minutes in place of either Ødegaard or Saka.
To me we still look a little top heavy in terms of numbers, I suspect we’d want to sell both Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah (who now seems to be off to Marseille on loan in a deal that becomes permanent) before bringing another player in.
When it comes to Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly, I’m excited by what they can do but I think there needs to be plenty of patience. Even if there are some early season minutes I wouldn’t necessarily expect things to continue that way, even though right now we do lack a little depth in precisely the positions you’d expect Nwaneri to play. He’s still a fair bit younger than Saka was when he broke into the side.
Any additional ins really depend on the outs from here. I’d love a few sales — Kiwior, Tierney, Partey, Nelson, Nketiah — to give us the money and the space in the squad for one or two high quality incomings, and I guess we’ll see if things move around in the last week or two of the window.
Even with work to be done to optimise things, it’s impossible not to feel good about the team and their chances once again. Jurriën Timber really is LikeANewsletter signing and oozes class wherever you put him, Calafiori and Merino (if he does arrive) add quality in a position of need (left-back) and quality and depth in a position of slightly less need (left eight) respectively. Calafiori looks like more of a risk taker, a player with enormous upside, and Merino I just don’t see having many bad games or ever giving you the feeling he could’ve done more. Gotta win those duels, right?
There are players we can get more out of than we saw in 2023/24 and this squad is still really young. Arsenal will continue to grow but will also continue to evolve, I’m sure of that.
We started last season with that lopsided back three and I really, really hope we see more tactical experimentation from Arteta again this time around now he has Timber back and another hybrid defender in Calafiori to play with. We forgot how young Arteta’s managerial career is: he’s still learning on the job, he’s learning the game, he’s learning about his players, about how to use the squad, about different types of matches and opponents and individual matchups. I can’t wait to see what he has learned over the summer and tries to implement this time around.
Those are my Arsenal thoughts for now. I have lots of thoughts about other clubs in the league too, but I think I might wrap them up in a separate newsletter a few days from now so there’s another look, a non-Arsenal one, at the season as it approaches.