Morning all.
Mikel Arteta holds his pre-game press conference this afternoon at 1pm, and will undoubtedly face questions about the fallout from the Palace game, and the two big injuries that Arsenal have suffered this week. Following the announcement that Kieran Tierney’s season was over, the club provided an update on Thomas Partey yesterday which was a bit more vague as to whether we’ll see him again between now and May 22nd.
It read:
Our No. 5 was substituted during Monday night’s game against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park after aggravating his right thigh. Thomas has since received further assessments, and a subsequent scan has shown muscle damage to his right thigh.
We will continue to assess Thomas in the coming weeks, during which time he will also receive further specialist consultations. Everyone will be working hard to get Thomas back on the pitch as soon as possible.
I suppose on the one hand it’s good that he hasn’t categorically been ruled out completely, but I do find the lack of a time-frame a bit worrying. Perhaps they just don’t know or can’t tell at this point. As I mentioned yesterday, in his first season a similar thigh injury kept him out for four games, then he came back (perhaps too quickly), and then missed ten more games on top of that. With just nine left to play, it’s got to be touch and go with regards his participation.
The part of me that fears the worst thinks they might already have a fair idea, but for the sake of morale they don’t want to announce two season-enders in one week. Maybe that’s the glass being half-empty, or completely empty, but it’s hard to stop your brain going there – especially as Partey has been so important since the turn of the year (even if, like almost everyone else, he was below par on Monday).
And that’s kind of the thing about this Arsenal team this season. It does things to my head that I have to try and counteract. For example, when it’s good and we win games I see a bright, shiny future with sunshine and green fields and flowers and birds singing, and all the good things that lay waiting for us as this group of young players grows and develops together. When we don’t win, when something like Crystal Palace happens, it’s so easy to fall down a rabbit hole of dismay, where the rabbits that live in this dank, dark warren are evil little bastards who are out to sabotage our entire season, taunting us with their gnarly teeth in scenes like the Watership Down movie which, let’s remember, was for kids despite how horrific it was.
The logical, sensible part of me knows that it’s never as good as that or never as bad as that, and I can re-calibrate after the fact, but it’s that initial emotional response I’m referring to. I guess in part it’s because right now the stakes are high and there’s an opportunity ahead of us that is still very much in our hands. It’s just that our hands have been covered in some kind of slimy, grimy goo and it’s going to be much more difficult to hang onto it.
Nevertheless, when it comes to the emotional response of the team to the result at Selhurst Park, and the injuries, I don’t worry about that. Obviously they will miss the two players mentioned above, but I don’t know if footballers themselves feel quite the same way about injuries and absences as fans do. They know they still have a job to do, some will see it as an opportunity, and I’m quite sure that Mikel Arteta and his coaching staff will make sure that they put the Palace game into a little box and have them 100% focused for Brighton tomorrow.
He never once this season let them get carried away with a win, always reminding them via his press conferences, pre and post-game, that we were very much in one game at a time territory. Congratulations, you won, great stuff, enjoy it in the moment, but don’t get carried away. It’s got to be the same for this recent defeat. That wasn’t good enough, let’s do better, but don’t dwell on it the negativity.
We’ve been dealing with pressure for weeks now. In fact, we’ve been dealing with pressure all season, because you can’t start a campaign the way we did without that being ever-present, so I don’t think it will be an over-bearing factor now. Let’s see what he has to say when he meets the press later on though.
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A quick note of congratulations to my podcast chums at Arsenal Vision who smashed through their £50,000 fundraising goal for the Arsenal Foundation yesterday. Amazing work, and incredible generosity and support from the Arsenal online community who are the absolute best. Incredible stuff all round.
You can still make a donation, and if you do so before Monday, you’re entered into a draw to win a place in a VIP box for the final game of the season against Everton. Even though you’d have to watch the game with the lads and me, it’s still something worth going for. You can donate here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/avpgives
Later on, we’ll have our Premier League preview podcast on Patreon, and remember that this month Arseblog is donating every single penny from Patreon to Unicef to help children around the world impacted by conflict and war. So, if you sign up, you get instant access to all the content, as well as helping a really great cause – patreon.com/arseblog
That podcast will be out for you later this afternoon. This morning, there’s a brand new Arsecast chatting to Charles Watts about KT, Partey, Nuno, Sambi, Lacazette, and lots more. All the links you need to listen/subscribe are below, enjoy the show and we’ll have al the presser updates on Arseblog News later.
