If there’s good Interlull news this morning it’s that almost all our players away on international duty play tonight, and thus have plenty of time to get back and prepare for the weekend’s football.
The bad news is that our most important player so far this season, Alexis Sanchez, doesn’t play until tomorrow night when Chile face Uruguay. However, while it’s not good from a fatigue/scheduling point of view, at least he doesn’t run the risk of rabies or having a limb chewed off by Luis Suarez because the Barcelona man is not in the squad and has returned to Spain.
Update: It seems that Chile game is midnight GMT so technically tomorrow but not the far side of tomorrow, so that’s good. Cheers @LittleDutchVA
The fact that our game against United isn’t until 5.30 on Saturday perhaps allows for some more recovery time, but if the manager has been reluctant in the past to use players who have been away in South America and beyond during Interlulls, the last time Alexis was in Chile and returned home after everyone else he started the following weekend against Hull. Not only that, he opened the scoring with a cracking goal before it all went a bit wrong and we scraped a draw through Danny Welbeck in injury time.
Not that he was in any way to blame for that, it was our defensive shortcomings that cost us points, but the team as a whole just didn’t do it in the second half. There was no spark, no sign that we might get something from the game until very late on, and perhaps there was an element of tiredness. Let’s face it, when we’ve played well this season, Alexis has played well. When he’s been quiet the effect on the team has been noticeable.
Now, as I’ve said before that’s an issue for the rest of the team, they have to help him out. Looking for him to do all the work is wrong and it’s time some of the other attacking/creative players had more of an impact. The return of Theo Walcott is an interesting one though. Unless Alexis is absolutely knackered he’s got to start on Saturday. I think leaving him on the bench for the North London derby was one of the manager’s biggest mistakes this season, and if United saw an Arsenal XI without Alexis in it they’d take encouragement from that, no question.
However, having Theo on the bench gives us a genuine option if he does tire. Maybe he might be put on to augment the attack rather than replace Alexis, but he’s got pace and, having spent lots of time in the gym over the last few months, a bit more power too. With Giroud hopefully in the squad too we’ll be looking for our attacking options to make up for the dearth of defensive ones. Anyway, that’s making the assumption that Theo isn’t cut in two by Charlie Adam tonight (regardless of the fact he might not be in the Scotland squad I still don’t rule out the chance of him making a horrendous challenge), and Alexis comes through Chile’s game unscathed.
Meanwhile, Aaron Ramsey says he’s not 100% fit yet and that some of the criticism of him in recent weeks has been ‘unfair’. Speaking after Wales draw with Belgium, he said:
I’ve had a few injuries this season and I’m just getting back. To be honest, I’m still not 100 per cent physically there. It does take a bit out of me. It will take me a few more games to be back to my best. I’m not worried. Certain criticism from people is unfair.
I think it’s easier than ever to dismiss criticism as ‘unfair’ because there’s such a tendency these days to go overboard and into the realms of hyperbole. It works both ways in fairness: a few good games a player is the best ever, a few bad ones and he’s useless. All the same, I don’t think it would do him any harm to pay attention to some of what’s been said, particularly the message that came from his manager on more than one occasion.
Keeping thing simple will go a long way to ironing out the flaws in his game right now and the thing with Ramsey is, as we discussed on this week’s Arsecast Extra, is that when things go wrong for him they tend to go wrong on a spectacular level. Your average player will misplace the odd pass, when Ramsey does it he shanks it out for a corner to the opposition. Anyone can over-hit a pass, Aaron clubs them into next week.
I suspect that Arsene Wenger will want to play both Ramsey and Wilshere against United on Saturday. It something he’s been keen to do whenever he’s had the chance this season but injury and illness have prevented that becoming a regular thing. They haven’t yet formed what you would call an effective partnership, and to this point questions remain over their compatibility, but it would be nice if they could dovetail properly this weekend.
Right, fingers crossed for no injuries later on. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the Arsecast Extra yet you’ll find it right here. More from me tomorrow.
