Training day: Havertz returns + Rice/Trossard take part

Morning all.

Arsenal held an open training session yesterday in front of a few thousands fans at the stadium, and there were a few interesting bits and pieces to take from it. Starting with the fact that Kai Havertz was back and took full part in the proceedings. With Newcastle visiting on Sunday, that’s a positive development, and perhaps he can play some part in that game.

There’s no chance he’ll start it, unless we have some kind of injury crisis, but a place on the bench doesn’t seem unrealistic, and having another forward option would be no bad thing. While I think everyone is looking at what Arsenal do in the market this summer, we have missed the German international who remains our top scorer this season with 15 goals in all competitions – despite the fact he hasn’t played since February 5th.

Coincidentally, his last appearance was against Newcastle, in the 2-0 EFL Cup semi-final defeat, so hopefully his return this weekend (if it happens) will help us get some revenge for that. I’ve seen quite a bit of ‘We need to replace Havertz’ chat since his injury, but if this season has taught us anything at all, it’s that we absolutely need to keep Havertz, then add to Havertz. It’s then going to be down to how Mikel Arteta manages what we hope will be a deeper pool of players next season, but there’s no question for me he’s still an important player for us.

Meanwhile, both Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard took part in the session too. The former didn’t make the squad for the trip to Liverpool, while the latter came off with what looked like a hamstring strain. Perhaps that was precautionary more than anything else, an experienced player who knows his body well and didn’t take any chances. Both of them would be very useful on Sunday so fingers crossed there.

Jurrien Timber didn’t take part at all, which suggests a long season might well have caught up with him. I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think when the planning was done the idea was for him to play the 4th most outfield minutes for Arsenal this season. Coming off the back of an ACL injury, I’m sure they’d have wanted to manage his playing time more sensibly, but with Ben White’s injury/surgery (and relatively slow recovery from it after he came back), there was a heavy burden on the Dutch international. Maybe we’ll see him in the last two games, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if his season was over.

His situation, and the way Ben White has also struggled this season, is why I think Arsenal will be in the market for a defender this summer too. I’ve already written about how much we’ve had to play William Saliba, and while on paper both White and Timber can fill the gap if you need to rest him, when one is out and the other is needed at right-back, you lack the depth to properly do that. In an ideal world, Takehiro Tomiyasu is the man to do that, but in his actual world he’s fighting against the kind of injury that could seriously curtail a player’s career. So, when it comes to recruitment, we’d be well-advised to look for someone who can add that kind of depth – particularly on the right side of the defence.

Perhaps that’s why we were reportedly interested in Bournemouth’s Dean Huijsen. He’s been impressive for them this season, and you can understand why he’d be on our radar with his ability to play on either side of central defence. However, the reporting is that Real Madrid are about to stump up the £50m release clause and bring him to the Bernabeu. On the one hand, that might mean a trip back to the drawing board for Andrea Berta and the recruitment team; on the other, it would probably go some way to quietening the noises around Saliba and Real Madrid this summer.

I don’t think it means their interest is ended. As they’ve shown with Trent Alexander-Arnold, they are prepared to do the groundwork and wait, but in a summer when I think convincing the Frenchman to commit to new terms is one of the most important things we have to do, it perhaps makes it just a little less complicated if they’ve spent their defensive money elsewhere.

Right, I will leave it there for this morning. All going well we’ll have an Arsecast for at some point today, so stand by for that. In the meantime, have a good Thursday.