I wasn’t prepared for it. I landed in England, no shower, no sleep… straight into a full-blown battle over the merits of Viktor Gyökeres with my Arsenal family. A fierce ambush. The passion is great with this man. But the fact that the battle is raging tells you everything you need to know about how this summer signing has gone so far.
This won’t be a full blog debate about the Swedish striker, but you’d be hard-pressed to deny that he’s on the struggle bus, trying to push a lot of weight up a very steep mountain.
It’s also hard for the fan base he has to rationalize what’s happening here.
If the anger is that he is not played at the back as much, then you can simply point out that we are dealing with deep blocks most of the time.
If it’s upset that players aren’t picking his runs, then you should probably go a step deeper and ask why world-class players are missing runs. I’m pretty sure it’s not because they can’t see them.
This Arsenal attacking unit is currently one of the best we have seen under Arteta.
- It can and will go over the top…
It can find the back post in open play…
It can be cute in the penalty area…
It finds progress with cuts…
We are set-piece masters…
There are no real weaknesses in our attack, other than the fact that we don’t have Haaland… or a mini-Haaland.
At some point you have to ask yourself:
Is this blog post going to be all about Big Vik, even though I say it isn’t?
If you play for a team at the top of the Premier League and at the top of the Champions League and you don’t score goals… You be the problem?
Now I win here in all situations. If Big Vik flops, I look like a visionary. If he scores 16 goals from now until the end of the season, we will probably win the league, and only the sick of Le Grove will convince me to do that. Then I take away their rights to comment and send a message that on this blog… I’m always right.
Average banter aside, I’m worried about the Swede. This weekend’s Everton game represents one of the last chances he has to prove that Gabi Jesus, Mikel Merino and Kai Havertz will not replace him in that striking position.
I do LOVE that last paragraph because it shows how far we have progressed in terms of depth. We actually have four options at the #9 position, all somewhat clunky and below elite need, but they are options nonetheless.
Kai Havertz: Power, pace, aerial threat, OOP monster.
Mikel Merino: Great finisher, aerial beast, great player.
Night Jesus: Genius in a small space, can create chances for himself, defender magnet.
Viktor Gyökeres: OOP beast, super finisher (I think).
If you could put together the best parts of Kai and the best parts of Viktor, you would have one of the best attackers in the world. But unfortunately, this kind of technology is NOT out of the testing phase yet, so we will have to provision it all the way into the future.
Just a few more little things to clean up.
Man City showed Arteta the way last night with a heavily changed starting XI for their quarter-final at Brentford. They won the match, changed seven players and left the team with only one injury: Oscar Bobb. That’s the kind of no-drama night I’d like to see for Arsenal. A cup final would be nice, but if we use serious players for this, for me we will suffer more damage, and that is simply not worth it in a very important season.
Arsenal are currently on the cusp of something truly great: a fully fit squad. We really can’t see Arteta using that as a signal to erase it with a bunch of silly ‘I had no choice’ starting XIs.
I really enjoyed this article written by Howden Insurance Group The Athletics. It is a very detailed analysis of the impact of injuries on clubs across Europe.
Key points for me were that the number of injuries has decreased by 25% since 2021-2022, but the severity of injuries has actually increased by 30% (longer). This line really sums up the crux of the problem:
‘This increase in severity is consistent with shorter recovery periods, cumulative fatigue and the increasing density and order of elite competition for a selection of teams’
Yes, that quote from Dr. Robin Thorpe struck deep and sums up where Arsenal have been and possibly still are. We only recently entered the chat with a deep team and are in a lot of pain related to cumulative fatigue. The really worrying trend this season is that we’ve seen Arteta get a bigger squad, but similar issues are happening… and certainly more cases of training-related issues (Big Vik / Saliba / Gabi before he left).
This part was also interesting:
Young people under the age of 21 have proven to be particularly vulnerable to injuries. Increased minutes for youngsters has been an upward trend in recent seasons, and they have the highest injury severity of any age group, highlighting the challenges in making the physical leap from academy level.
I was told that Arsenal have done a lot of work over the last eight years to build the robustness of their academy prospects, starting from the age of eleven to twelve, giving them tailor-made programs to ensure they were robust and strong enough by the time they were ready for the big time. The proof is in the pudding with players like Saka, MLS and Ethan just sliding in and taking care of it. Even Max, who is currently injured, seems to have no problem making the step up.
The graph above shows how Arsenal were beaten by the injury gods last season. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Arteta’s only weakness is as a manager at the moment. And if he doesn’t get to grips with it, he won’t win the big trophies he wants, get the most out of Arsenal’s investment, or cement his legend status at the club he loves.
What I like at the moment is that the issue is now part of the wider conversation with Arsenal fans. People don’t like hearing about it before bad things happen, but when the consequences invariably happen in an unnecessary way… like they did with Ben White… no one curses luck, they curse the manager who made the choice.
Yet it seems some of the pressure he is receiving is starting to sink in… Arsenal’s players were given time off this week to get some rest. That’s important. I was really hoping we wouldn’t see any training ground photos this week and so far they have been few and far between.
This Everton game will be quite big this weekend. It will be a more luxurious Wolves plan. David Moyes will suffocate, try to get in on the counter, and I suspect he will try to bully our backline, which has looked much weaker of late. Hincapié just isn’t Big Gabi and the rest of the league knows this.
I’ll talk more about how I think it will turn out once I see the presses. Until then, have a nice old day. X
Podcast
THE DUGOUT | WRITER, DIRECTOR, ACTOR, ED KEAR (FREE ADVERTISING)
Host Jacob Hawley is joined by actor and comedian Ed Kear for a debut performance on the pod. The pair dissect a frustrating but crucial win against Wolves, the strange feeling of being five points ahead without fully clicking, and why this season feels different to previous title runs.
#GYOK #DOCK