Honestly, I couldn’t be more excited about this weekend. I’m staring at a very undesirable Chelsea starting 11, hoping that Burnley will deliver a big cold blow early in the first game of the day. Liverpool could have a tough afternoon against a Forest side who will look to frustrate. Then we have the big one… Man City vs Newcastle.
You just know that Eddie Howe will be absolutely blown away by Pep on a brutal afternoon that will show the world why you don’t let managers take over the transfer business at big clubs in 2025. Quite unbelievably, Carragher is taking the line of: “If Newcastle cannot match Howe’s ambition, he will move to a bigger club.” Come on people. Newcastle are a huge club and they just made Howe have a terrible summer with one of his family members by his side. £55 million pounds for Antony Elanga… incredible stuff, just incredible.
There’s a good chance that this weekend all our rivals will throw the teams they play against into turmoil and our lead at the top of the table won’t present any beauty contest. After twelve games it is exciting. It would never be anything other than. All Arsenal can do is get through this series of nightmare games and try to maintain a lead.
Momentum will be critical for a number of reasons. The most important one is that we need confidence in a team that is missing important talent. The biggest loss will be Gabriel Magalhães. He doesn’t get hurt often, but the manager has so much faith in his dick that he writes him off for a month. We’re still not entirely sure how the reconfiguration will go, but the feeling is that Mosquera will settle on the right and Saliba will fall on the left. That very much depends on whether Calafiori is deemed fit. If he’s out too, then we’ll have to go into an NLD with a mess of a back four.
My interest is in Hincapie. We spent a small fortune bringing him into the fold. He is primarily a left-sided centre-back, although he feels a little small for that role given Arteta’s penchant for giants. If he is passed over as cover for Big Gabi, it would indicate that he is actually more of a left back player moving forward. Arteta doesn’t like to disrupt multiple positions if he doesn’t have to… here’s the litmus test.
The front three feel like they are choosing themselves. Yes, we’ve seen Noni tweet to the effect of “I’m ready,” but it’s unlikely he’s ready enough to start an intense game. Gabriel Jesus is in and around the team, but will not start. Gabriel Martinelli has a chance, I think, because his injury wasn’t too bad. But I think I’ll settle for the idea that the most likely front three this week will be Trossard, who is in excellent form… Merino, who had a poor game at Sunderland but has goals in him… and Bukayo Saka, who scored a wonderful goal for England last week.
The midfield will, I hope, be Eze, Rice and Zubimendi. That is power, control and creativity. Odegaard will poke around the squad, but he’ll take his time baking the squad pie.
Spurs are winless in six games against Arsenal. I don’t like it when records turn out like this because this fixture tends to flatten out in unexpected ways. I’m mainly concerned about their away form this season. They have 13 points from 5 games on the road. At home they are in second place. Those records remind me a bit of when I was told that, at the start of Arteta’s tenure, Arsenal players didn’t like playing at home because the fans were mean to them. Thomas Frank is a very good manager, he is implementing deep cultural changes and is currently trying to make them more solid. Spurs fans don’t like that and the atmosphere at home is bad.
They also have problems with the team. We’ve seen some disdain towards Frank within the squad, very familiar if you’ve seen a team have to move from ‘do what you want’ tactics to something smarter.
Football flatters me to deceive a little. They were awful against Chelsea and barely registered a shot on target. Spurs are also in a situation a bit like Emery’s at the start: they score more goals than they should, and are very lucky with the ones they don’t concede. They would be 13th if xG were the law of the land. Arsenal are at the top of the table, both in the real league and in the league I use as a backup when I need a little copium.
The tactical story that I think will rumble through this game will be how energy levels are managed. Arsenal and Spurs have both not had time to prepare for this match. Both teams had players away last week. Both managers have players returning from injury.
Do you allow players to return from injury?
When do you turn them off?
How do you balance the short and long term?
Do you keep the powder dry on the bench?
Do you play for a point or do you go for the three points?
Lots of interesting questions in an afternoon bursting with emotion and temptations.
My guess is that Thomas Frank will take more risks with his starting lineup because he has so few players, and my feeling is that Arteta will look to pack his bench so he can chase late in the game if Thomas Frank’s center block from hell hasn’t been broken down.
Whatever happens, the most important thing for me is that we fly out of the traps without an international break hangover.
This is a week you’d like to get right…give the returning players a less stressful environment to return to. Place the fans back into the edge window. Start December with a goal, intention and achieving a BIG result.
Good intentions usually mean nothing in sports… so let’s just relax and see what happens.
Just a quick summary of a new book I’m going to review. Alex Fynn, who wrote a fantastic book called Arsenal: the making of a modern superclubis back again, with a new book about last season. I’m really enjoying it so far, so if you want some reading for December, or a gift for a loved one, check it out here.
We’re now entering one of the busier times of the window, so a quick press to sign up and become a MEMBER. As I wrote yesterday, Le Grove Media has delivered 266 written blogs and 246 podcasts for you this season. For the next six weeks we will basically be podcasting five times a week. If you want to do that with no paywalls, no ads, and no regrets about missing out on bonus content… and you want to be part of the Discord… sign up NOW at the link below and have a good time. CLICK THE SUB UP BUTTON FOR A VERY SPECIAL NOVEMBER OFFER before it expires. X
Podcast
BEFORE THE WHISTLE | SPURS (H) | MEMBERS
Pedro and Johnny team up for a fiery preview of the North London Derby, diving deep into Arsenal’s form, Spurs’ delusions and all the chaos that comes from the international break. The boys enter:
#DERBY #NORTH #LONDON