Morning.
We’re in Champions League action this evening, with the second leg of our Round of 16 tie against Bayer Leverkusen poised at 1-1 after last week’s trip to Germany. In terms of the team news, Jurrien Timber has been ruled out after his withdrawal in the first half against Everton on Saturday, Martin Odegaard remains absent, but Leandro Trossard was back in training after missing out at the weekend.
My guess is that it will be Cristhian Mosquera at right-back this evening after he came on for Timber. I was a bit surprised it wasn’t Ben White, but clearly there’s been a bit of a shift in the pecking order there which can only be about fitness. I don’t think there’s any way Mikel Arteta doubts the quality of White, a player who has given him and the club so much since his arrival from Brighton, so if there are doubts they have to be aligned with the injury issues he’s had in recent times.
We might also see Piero Hincapie return against his parent club, but if Riccardo Calafiori kept his place after a good performance, and an incredible block, I wouldn’t have any issues with that. Midfield more or less picks itself, we’re going to ask Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi to carry a pretty heavy load between now and the end of the season, and I thought we got an interesting performance from Eberechi Eze against Everton. It was his fine pass that led to the penalty incident that should have been given for the foul on Kai Havertz, and he had 7 shots, much more involved than in some games and that’s promising for me.
Up front, I have a feeling the manager will want Kai Havertz in that role at Wembley, so will likely go with Viktor Gyokeres tonight. We need more from Bukayo Saka on the right, and hopefully a big European night is an occasion he can rise to, and if Trossard is fit enough, I think his technical ability might get him the nod ahead of both Gabriel Martinelli and Noni Madueke, but we’ll wait and see.
The way Bayer Leverkusen approached this game at home, setting up far more like a Premier League team when out of position, was interesting, and I expect something very similar this evening. They’ll have that line of five defenders across the back, telling Arsenal ‘Come break us down if you can’, and look to use the space that will exist if we have a lot of the ball in their half. A bit cat and mouse, the onus is on us at home to exert control and take the game to them, but it does come with an element of risk.
Speaking about what his team needs to do, Arteta said:
When you come to this stage in the competition you really have to elevate your game to a different level, collective and individually, for sure. Tomorrow is one of those nights when we’re going to need the best from all of us in a really consistent way throughout the game to be through. So we know what we have to do, and in front of our crowd, with our people, putting all the energy in the world again, hopefully we are going to do it.
It was interesting that in his press conference yesterday, the manager was very businesslike. It’s not that he didn’t want to talk about what happened against Everton, but for him it was a case of that job being done, and time to focus on the next one. Nevertheless, he did admit that for the players and the fans, there’s room to use the energy and emotion that game generated:
When you have that momentum, maintain it and improve it. The fact that you go from competition to competition, you have to use it. The best way to understand and to recognise how powerful it is. When you’re in that stadium with that atmosphere, you just have the sense that it’s going to happen. We have plenty of examples throughout the last few years that when we created that at the Emirates, we make it very central for us and very, very difficult for the opponent.
It’s a bit like a lightning strike though, almost impossible to replicate, but if the team and the fans are energised by the way that game against Everton played out, then it has to be something we can use to improve on what was a relatively indifferent performance in the first leg. Fingers crossed.
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There were, as you’d expect, a lot of questions about Max Dowman. To be fair to Arteta, he dealt with them very well, but at some point he needed to try and draw a line under it a bit. Asked about how he protects him from the spotlight after his record breaking contribution in such dramatic fashion, he replied:
I need your help with that guys! Because if we’re saying that and I have 15 questions on Max it doesn’t really help. If we just bring the temperature down and understand what is the best thing for this boy at his age. He’s doing something phenomenal, we all know that. Let’s keep it down a little bit and respect his nature to do what he has to do, which I’m sure is going to be something really good.
I think those questions are normal, to be fair, because you don’t get many 16 year olds doing what Dowman did. There was already hype and expectation around him. Remember at Anfield back in August the manager threw him on against Liverpool ahead of Leandro Trossard and Ethan Nwaneri when he was still only 15, so this isn’t just a media construct. It’s been simmering for a while, it came to the boil on against Everton and it’s tied completely to his talent and potential. Obviously Saturday was the day he was well and truly catapulted into the general footballing consciousness.
At the same time though, I understand the desire to protect him. He’s still literally a child, and there is a responsibility to help him develop as a player and a young man while living in the white-hot spotlight of the Premier League and the media landscape that surrounds it. It’s not easy, it’s not going to be easy, particularly as I expect him to play more between now and May, but hopefully between manager, club, the senior players who can offer advice and guidance, and his family around him, we’ll find the right balance.
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Right, I’ll leave it there for now. Remember, you can follow the game later on the live blog, and we’ll have all the post-match stuff on Arseblog News too. Until then, have a good one folks, and thanks very much for all the feedback on yesterday’s Arsecast Extra intro (which is below if you haven’t had a chance to listen yet).
