Good morning from Dublin.
I flew back from Bilbao late afternoon yesterday, which meant I did have time to stroll about the city again and have a few more nibbles. I’m not saying all food should come on sticks and a piece of bread, but I like it when it does. I ran into some Arsenal fans about the town and the airport too, including one of the press pack (no names, just in case), who missed his flight to another Spanish city to connect to London, so had to grab another flight to a European city much further from home to eventually get back. He had a long day ahead of him!
It felt like so many people I met had made a massive commitment in terms of travel, I almost felt bad about my 90 minute direct flight to Ireland. Almost. I have a lot of room in my heart, but getting back in a hassle-free way was very welcome.
I know I touched on it yesterday, but I did want to talk a bit more about Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli after their contributions on Tuesday evening. In terms of the former, I had a couple of conversations with people on BlueSky who thought we should have been open to taking the money that was supposedly on offer from Turkey before the end of their transfer window – something I was firmly opposed to, as you can see from my reply.
Football is all about opinions, and it’s not to call anyone out specifically (hence not including the other people in this!), but in the last two games a player who has been a bit peripheral in the opening weeks of the season has popped up with two assists and a goal. Things change so quickly in terms of how fans perceive a player and his usefulness to a team, and it’s almost always tied to end product. For me, there was no good case to take any money for Trossard who, while potentially someone we could sell and whose age range makes you consider it if the money is right, adds real depth to this squad. Look at his numbers, especially what he can do off the bench, and it seemed mad to me that anyone would want cash in the bank rather than that. Not least because it would have come at a time when we had no way of replacing him due to the Turkish window closing after everyone else’s.
As for Martinelli, I completely understood all the talk of an upgrade, and that was something I was open to all summer. I don’t think criticism of his performances in pre-season were invalid at all, but there is a way to acknowledge a player is below his best without completely writing him off. The idea that he was a busted flush never made sense to me. A player lacking in form and confidence? Absolutely. A player who hasn’t quite developed into the one we thought he might become? I can see that. But someone who was so bad we should just get rid? No chance.
As I said in yesterday’s blog, there aren’t many players in our current squad who can score that goal. Maybe you could look at Noni Madueke as someone whose pace could get him in behind in a situation like that, but that’s it. Over the course of this summer Mikel Arteta and Arsenal have built a big squad with huge depth, but also one with a lot of variation in terms of what they bring to the team, especially in forward areas. Viktor Gyokeres and Kai Havertz aren’t the same centre-forward by any means. Madueke plays on the right in a really different way from Bukayo Saka.
And the same goes for Martinelli. He’s always been distinct from Trossard, who you could see as a bit more aligned with Eberechi Eze in terms of their technical ability and how they play from the left. Whereas the Brazilian has a direct pace that, as we saw against Athletic Club on Tuesday night, can be a really important factor, particularly in European away games. Who knows what the longer-term future holds, but right now I’m really pleased for both those players, and I’m really pleased we have both those players at our disposal. The season is long. We can see already that we’re going to need almost everyone we have as the games mount, the players get battered and bruised from one encounter to the next, and the manager is required to rotate to keep things fresh.
I think the biggest indicator of how valuable these guys are is the reaction of their teammates to their contributions the other night. Look at Calafiori after the first goal. Martinelli in particular, who seems a bit more sensitive than someone like Trossard and has probably been a bit down about his lack of involvement. The players know we need these guys, and the fact they were so keen to recognise those contributions tells you a lot.
Right, I’m gonna leave it there for now. We’ll have an Arsecast for you in a little while, so stand by for that. Until then, have a good one.
