We are hosting Newcastle at Emirates in our penultimate game of this season. Our Champions League run came to an end in semi-final against PSG, and we have to visit Southampton next Sunday. We still have not secured the Champions League spot for next season and need a point to do so, even with 5 teams qualifying for Champions League from UK. None of these 5 teams competing for the place play against each other except us and Newcastle, and it can get very exciting on the last day of the season.
Arsenal will be playing Newcastle and Southampton, Newcastle has us and Everton to play against, Chelsea will go against Forest in their only game left, Villa against a very poor Man Utd on the last day, and Man City has games against Bournemouth and Fulham. If we lose both of our games, we will have to pray to the gods for other teams to drop points. If we share points in even one of the two games left, we qualify because of the healthy GD we have. Not losing today will be the key for us.
It’s also important because we are facing Newcastle, who has beaten us when we visited St. James’ Park in November, who killed our Carabao Cup run by winning in both legs in the semi finals and there’s a rivalry growing between both the teams – even though we are on the receiving end so far. We have been kicked, elbowed, dominated in the mid field. We had no answers to their fast paced counter attacks and we couldn’t restrain Isak most of the time. Today’s game is not only important for our qualification but it will also dent their chances to make it to top 5. That would be some revenge.
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There are some injury concerns for today. Declan Rice missed the game against Liverpool because of a hip-injury. Martinelli and Trossard were not 100% while Timber also looked shaky. All 4 will be assessed before the game, and Havertz can make an entry too afte he trained with the team. I think it would be too early to gamble on him even if he is fit. Mikel needs to learn to rotate not only when it becomes a necessity! A little bit of confidence to the likes of Nwaneri and MLS could have saved the injuries of Odegaard and Calafiori earlier in the season.
I am expecting a back 4 of Timber/White (depending upon Timber’s availability), Kiwior, Saliba and MLS. A midfield of Odegaard, Partey and Rice/Merino depending upon Rice’s availability will do. Saka will keep his place but the LW and CF positions posses a problem. If both Marts and Trossard are not available and Merino needs to be shifted to midfield, we will be left only with Saka as the option for 3 positions. If Merino starts up top, Jorgi might get a start today and Nwaneri has to fill the LW position. I am not confident in Jorgi against a physical Newcastle side but we have run out of options.
Hopefully, all of them makes it today and we start the best players in each position.
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Couple of transfer news – Zubimendi is almost confirmed while we look forward to renew Thomas Partey’s contract for 2 years (or 1+1 years). It’s not that bad because we are not going to offer Partey a 10m/year contract when he is in his decline and we can afford to let him go. It also allows Zubimendi to integrate into the team and he can play the role of Jorginho. The second one, Nuno Tavares is a done deal because of the obligation in his loan contract and we will fetch 7.5m GBP from Lazio.
There’s still no concrete leaks or rumours about our CF pursuit while the usuals – Sesko, Gyokeres remains the options. It’s going to be a very long window for us Arsenal fans, because we have some problems on the pitch and we need to address it immediately to not finish another season as a runner up. We also need a CB and a Martinelli’s rotation if Trossard is allowed to leave. I’m guessing we will see some major change because the team that has got us to No #2 three consecutive times (lets just say we finish 2nd this season, best case scenario), is lacking that edge to win the title.
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Right, that’s all for today. Hope you are having a good weekend and hope it gets better when we beat Newcastle 3-0 today.
Cheers
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