Morning all.
Well, the Carabao Cup final will be between Liverpool and Newcastle, after the Mugsmashers hammered Sp*rs at Anfield last night. I have to admit, that does just add a bit to my sense of regret that we fluffed our lines so badly in our semi-finals. Not because I think it would have been easy or anything like that, but a repeat of the 1987 Littlewoods Cup Final (as it was called back then), would have been kinda fun.
I know who Liverpool’s Ian Rush would be, but it’s hard to pick who might have been our Charlie Nicholas and Perry Groves. Oh well, water under the bridge now, and may the best team win while also picking up a load of hamstring strains and may the not best team who obviously lose also endure a plethora of suspensions and minor organ failures. The true spirit of the game we all love.
Meanwhile, Arsenal have jetted off to Dubai for a mid-season break, and you can understand why it might be needed. We played 11 games in 34 days, a schedule made more hectic by our progression to the EFL Cup semi-final, and the players have given a lot. We know the squad is short, we know the club decided against giving the players any help via the transfer market (for reasons that have been outlined elsewhere – whether you agree or not is another matter), and a chance decompress and recharge the batteries is hopefully going to be very useful.
That said, I think there needs to be some reflection as to why we have the chance to do this: it’s because we made a mess of another cup tie. Beaten by 10 man Man Utd on penalties in the FA Cup opened up this window to go get some Vitamin-D, and that’s not something that should be seen as a positive – even if we can all see there might be benefits to it. There is probably a wider discussion to be had at some point about Mikel Arteta’s record in the cups which, in comparison to the progress we’ve made in the Premier League, doesn’t hold up as well.
Perhaps, if you’re not being overly-cynical, you might suggest that prioritising the league has made the cups feel a bit less important, or even subconsciously taking some focus away from them when those games are played. What I would say though is that as a manager he has been very clear about his standards, about how Arsenal is a club that needs to win every game in every competition, so I don’t think it’s a case he’s taken them lightly, per se. The question then is: ‘Have we built the kind of squad that can properly compete across four competitions?’ I think the answer to that is no, and that’s something that Arteta, the owners, and the football executives at the club need to pay close attention to. I applaud the ambition, I have issues with the execution.
On the plus side, we saw some pictures of the players heading to Dubai, and Ben White and Bukayo Saka were on the plane. I think the former is pretty close to a very welcome return, while we might have to wait a bit longer for the latter. My guess – and it is only that – is that the target for Saka is after the March Interlull, giving him as much time as possible to recover and rehab from his hamstring surgery.
The fact that he’s away on the trip augurs well for his recovery though, and hopefully we can see him back in the red and white soon. How much we then have to manage him is another question, because he’s not going to be able to come back and play to the same schedule he did season after season. This, for me, is another key aspect of what the transfer windows need to be about.
Add quality, of course, but ensure that the players you have are not worn down with the burden of playing every minute of every game. We spoke about this a bit on the Arsecast yesterday, in relation to Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard in particular. Two players for whom we have no natural replacements in the squad right now – especially if Ethan Nwaneri is forging a path on the right hand side in the Saka role. I hope when it comes to this summer that proper consideration is given to that aspect of our squad building.
Of course the best players play most often, but having nothing to ease the demands on them is not good enough either. Even the other night against Newcastle, the game was over as soon as Raya gave away that second goal. Did Havertz need to run himself further into the ground for another 30 minutes + added time? Of course not, but he had to because we have nobody else to play there. That’s not looking after your players as well as you can.
The other small positive from the plane pictures was Gabriel Martinelli making his way on board. I can only assume the scan results weren’t too bad, and hopefully his hamstring strain responds well to the sunshine out there. The last thing we need is another player absent through injury.
Right, I’ll leave it there for this morning. We’ve got an Arsenal-free weekend ahead of us. Maybe we all need a break too. Let’s see how it goes.
Till tomorrow.
