Morning.
It’s quite difficult to preview a game that ultimately is more or less meaningless for both sides. Nevertheless, I do think there are some interesting elements to today’s proceedings. Liverpool might well be ‘on the beach’, but the beach is a fun place to be, and at home in front of their own fans, they’ll be out to have a good time. There’s no pressure, the title is won, they can just enjoy themselves.
Psychologically, I also think it would be useful for Arsenal to get something from this game. When Mikel Arteta talks about learning and improving, your mind obviously goes to next season, but I think he’ll want to see some kind of reaction from his players today after what was clearly a big disappointment to them, and him. Show some kind of response, show a bit of character/mettle, however you want to put it. The last thing he will accept is a performance where his team goes through the motions.
Yes, it’s really hard to give it everything when you’ve suffered a midweek exit from the only competition that might have brought tangible success this season, but whether it’s pride, the shirt, or just a desire to beat Liverpool at Anfield after so many years without doing that, he’ll want to see that effort. Which is why, bar any physical issues with one or two players, I think we’ll see a pretty strong starting line-up today.
I can’t even begin to predict how this one will go. It could be a non-event, it could be a lunatic game because of all the factors I mentioned. It’d be nice to just win again though, so if the lads could manage that, I’d appreciate it.
As for all the furore about the guard of honour stuff, honestly, who cares? Liverpool are worthy champions, uphold the tradition that we would expect if the situation were reversed, and then just go about the rest of our business. Sometimes the terminally online stuff seeps into things too deeply. If your worldview is being informed or affected by children and idiots whose only form of communication around football is Twitter bantz, then I suggest deleting that app and letting your brain come back to life.
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Elsewhere, we’ve all known for some time about the likelihood of Martin Zubimendi signing for Arsenal this summer, and a further story emerged this week. It got a full ‘Here we go’ from Johnny Transfers, and anyone who missed the story earlier is now aware that we are likely to sign Martin Zubimendi from Real Sociedad to bolster the midfield. I like him, he’s a good player, and I’m curious what the plan is.
I’ve written recently about our need to do things a little differently next season, to tweak the way we play – not just with new players, but tactically too. He will bring some interesting qualities to the team, and hopefully a fresh impetus in an area of the pitch where I think we’re just a little slow at times. His use of the ball is, for example, different than Thomas Partey, and if we’re signing a player for that amount of money, the plan is for him to be a starter, so that suggests Mikel Arteta has some ideas about this already.
There’s further reporting on our desire to sign goalkeeper Joan Garcia from Espanyol, with some disquiet about the price. I understand that, but first let’s see what the deal is if and when it happens, and let’s not overlook the fact we do need a back-up goalkeeper/competition for David Raya. You could make a very good argument that player shouldn’t cost €25m, but he’s young and potentially someone who could make that outlay look very good value in terms of years of service.
What I would say is this: Arsenal know where the priority is this summer when it comes to the transfer market. If we get to the end of August and the message is ‘We couldn’t buy a striker because we spent all the money on a moderately priced goalkeeper’, then I’ll be handing out the pitchforks and flaming torches myself, but I just can’t imagine that’s how it will play out. The summer is going to be long and testing, I think, so I can’t lose my mind in May over a transfer that hasn’t even happened yet.
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Right, I’ll leave it there for now. As always, we’ll have a live blog for you later, and all the post-match stuff on Arseblog News. There’s a preview podcast on Patreon too. For now, enjoy your Sunday.
