Good morning.
A really fast Friday weblog. Mikel Arteta meets the press this morning forward of our recreation towards Bournemouth tomorrow, with a lot of health/harm points on the minds of followers. Unquestionably he will probably be reticent to offer an excessive amount of info away, however on the agenda:
Bukayo Saka – after his hamstring concern for England
Gabriel Martinelli – calf drawback whereas away with Brazil
Ben White – knee, however appears to be okay to stroll canines with out a lot fuss
Kai Havertz – knee, didn’t go away with Germany
Jurrien Timber – knee, being ‘managed’ in line with Arteta
Oleksandr Zinchenko – calf, hasn’t been in a squad since August thirty first
Takehiro Tomiyasu – rumours of an issue, however nothing confirmed
Martin Odegaard – normal replace maybe
There are some coaching pics on the official web site, however none of them give us any perception into the health or availability of any of the gamers listed above. So, let’s see what he says in his press convention and take it from there.
I preferred this interview with Riccardo Calafiori on the BBC (lots of you, like me, will want a VPN for those who’re not in Britain), however he talked about studying English and his purpose celebration towards Man Metropolis. He ran to the touchline, jumped into Mikel Arteta’s arms, whereas vigorously pointing at somebody. Besides, he wasn’t pointing at anybody specifically, as he defined:
I don’t know, it’s not myself who run to Arteta, it was one other individual, I don’t know. And I used to be saved doing this pointing however I don’t know to who, I swear. I used to be like clean.
I take pleasure in the concept he simply made up an imaginary ‘enemy’ to pick after he scored one in every of our targets of the season to date. Let’s hope we see extra of these within the weeks and months forward. Calafiori banging one in, then going loopy on the invisible man or girl throughout his celebrations.
In the meantime, Jack Wilshere appears set to depart Arsenal to take up a primary staff teaching function at Norwich Metropolis. There’s a emptiness there after one in every of their first staff coaches left, and there’s additionally an Arsenal connection because the membership’s former mortgage supervisor Ben Knapper is in situ at Carrow Street as Norwich’s Sporting Director. Perhaps that’s only a coincidence, however it’s additionally fairly regular for younger coaches to maneuver round as they construct their careers.
I keep in mind Freddie Ljungberg started teaching Arsenal U15s (together with one Bukayo Saka), earlier than leaving for Wolfsburg with former Academy head Andries Jonker. He returned to Arsenal to educate the U23s, then had a really quick stint as interim supervisor within the interval between Unai Emery’s departure and Mikel Arteta’s arrival. He stayed as half of the present supervisor’s set-up till the tip of the season, however since then has targeted extra on media work than teaching.
Anyway, it appears like Jack has ambitions to be a head coach. He was linked with jobs at Colorado Rapids and Aberdeen, so extra senior expertise will probably be essential for his improvement. Good luck to him as and when it occurs, and it’ll be fascinating to see who will get the nod to fill his footwear with the U18s.
I discussed Ben White and canine strolling above, he’s finished an interview with goalkeeper turned podcaster Ben Foster which I haven’t had time to completely watch but, however which appears fairly fascinating to date. It’s additionally acquired canines, which as everyone knows, makes every part higher. Except you’re a squirrel. You’ll be able to test it out on YouTube right here.
And in your listening pleasure this morning, I’ve a model new Arsecast chatting about Gabriels Jesus and Martinelli, Mikel Merino, full-backs, and much extra with Alex Moneypenny from The Completely different Knock. You’ll be able to test it out beneath.
We’ll have all of the press convention tales on Arseblog Information a bit of later, and a Bournemouth preview podcast on Patreon late this afternoon. Till then.
