Grind it out at Goodison + Arteta on Gabriel ‘fights’

Morning all.

A quick Everton preview for you this morning as we have early kick-off at Goodison Park to contend with. Obviously we’ll be without Gabriel (more on him anon), so I think Jakub Kiwior will slot in alongside William Saliba at the heart of the defence. There is some potential good news with Mikel Arteta revealing both Jurrien Timber and Ben White have a chance to be involved:

We’re going to have to decide this evening or tomorrow very early in the morning which players we can play and for how long especially.

That didn’t just apply to the right-backs, by the way, so I think we’ll see a few changes to the side, particularly with what’s coming up on Tuesday. For example, I suspect we might put in a more experienced left-back in the team today, whether that’s Kieran Tierney or Oleksandr Zinchenko, we’ll have to wait and see. It wouldn’t even massively surprise me to see the latter used in midfield today.

Does someone like Jorginho get a run out to keep other midfield legs fresh? Arteta was asked about this game and the one against Real Madrid, and played it with a straight bat as you’d expect:

The biggest game for us is Everton, and the best way to prepare for Real Madrid is to do what we have to do to beat Everton. Because this is football, it’s an emotional game and you have to continuously do what you have to do, and you cannot be thinking ahead – the competition, the level, how the teams are prepared, is too big to think that way. You cannot allow yourself to think that way.

Which I think we all understand on a surface level, but there’s an admirable mindset and then there’s reality, and I think there’s likely to be some balance between them. Some of our recent games have been a bit of a grind, and I don’t expect today to be any different. In fact, it might be the grindiest of them all. Early kick off, away from home, injuries aplenty, fitness issues, a shuffled side, our last game at Goodison Park, Everton being a tough side to break down – if I was a betting man I wouldn’t put money on this one being pretty.

I could be wrong, of course, football can always surprise you, but I suspect if we come away with three points today we will have scrapped it out, probably by a fine margin. Which will be fine, all I want is a zero injury afternoon and the win. It’s not a lot to ask for, it? We’ve been through enough – let us just have something [relatively] nice before we turn our attention to Real Madrid.

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So, back to Gabriel and Arteta was really interesting in the embargoed section of the press conference speaking about injuries, player welfare, and the ‘massive fights‘ he had with the Brazilian when he picked up a hamstring strain earlier in the season. Within days, he was saying he felt fine and wanted to play, something the manager and the medical staff had  to resist.

But I do think it’s an element of this that isn’t really discussed when we try and understand why players get injured. Are they overplayed? Is the training pitch too hard? Is the game too intense these days? Are their boots the problem? Is it conditioning or periodisation or any of these other things we hear about? As I’ve said often this week, if it was a simple thing, we could fix it. It’s likely a combination of all of those things and more, and in this case the more is player input.

Ultimately it’s down to the medical staff and the manager to make the final decision, but when one of your best players tells you he’s fine, he’s not feeling anything, and insists he’s ready to play, that has to come into your decision making process. Players want to play, and part of the job is to protect them, but no player is ever 100% fit either, so that balance can be hard to find.

Anyway, I thought it was an interesting aspect of this topic that is rarely discussed, and you can see the clip in the YouTube link below – it’s worth sticking with it to the end.

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Ok, let’s leave it there for now. If you want something to listen to in the meantime, we have a big Everton preview podcast over on Patreon, chatting about the game from an Arsenal perspective as usual, but I’m also joined by lifelong Everton fan Roger Bennett from Men in Blazers to chat about this being the last season at Goodison Park, his memories of the stadium, his thoughts on the club’s ownership, David Moyes, Mikel Arteta and lots more.

Sign up at patreon.com/arseblog and don’t forget every penny from Patreon this month goes to help good causes.

So, let’s leave it there for now. Join us later for live blog coverage, plus you’ll get the match report, goal clips, reaction, player ratings and much more over on Arseblog News.

Come on you reds!