Good morning, a very quick one for you today.
There’s a Mikel Arteta press conference later today, in which the big issue might well be the fitness of Gabriel ahead of our game against Newcastle on Sunday. He seemed to struggle his way through the second half of the Chelsea game, and afterwards the manager said he was a bit of a doubt for the weekend. So, let’s keep fingers crossed on that one.
If he is fit, I suspect Arteta will stick with the double-lefty partnership with him and Jakub Kiwior who started in the Premier League for the first time on Tuesday night. I thought he looked quite composed, very good on the ball without being too adventurous, but it’s hard to be too definitive about him because the sample size is so small and Chelsea were just so atrocious.
The official site has a video where the cameras are trained on him for the duration of the game, and I watched this yesterday. I don’t know if it’s just the camera angle, but I was struck by the quickness of his reactions and reading of the game. Again, it could be that the quality of the opposition was a factor, but it will be interesting to see how this player develops in the months ahead.
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Even though there’s still a lot to play for this season, the closer you get to the summer the rumours start to emerge. With midfield a key area for at least one arrival, we’ve been linked with Declan Rice and Moises Caicedo. Yesterday, a player we had our eye on January – Real Sociedad’s Martin Zubimendi – was again touted as potential target. He didn’t want to leave them in January, and he’s helped them reach fourth place thus far.
It’s very easy to speculate this one into something substantial. He shares the same birthplace as Arteta (San Sebastian), and you could easily picture our manager moulding the career of a fellow home-town boy. Whether he’s the one we go for remains to be seen, but at this early stage, you have to at least like the fact we appear to have a number of really good options at our disposal. Right now, I think my money would be on Rice as the main arrival, but let’s see.
We have all summer for the transfer stuff anyway.
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In the Premier League last night, Man Utd were beaten 1-0 by Brighton, some small revenge for the FA Cup semi-final a couple of weeks ago. Quite what Luke Shaw was thinking is beyond me – even VAR and this current crop of officials couldn’t find that handball a difficult one to make a judgement on. Alexis Mac Allister whacked home the penalty, Brighton climbed into the top 6, and United – as unlikely as it was anyway – can no longer finish above us so Gary Neville can stick it. Again. I’d like to send him and Antony to a desert island where they could just annoy each other until they split into Lord of the Flies style camps. Watch out, Piggy, but they are also both Piggy. Maybe we could stream it live.
Obviously Brighton going above that lot down the road is objectively hilarious. When you consider how they spent much of the season in the top four, only to slowly implode to become the shuddering mess they are right now, it’s very, very, very funny indeed. But, I mention Brighton because they’re up next after the Newcastle game. I would really like to see them qualify for Europe, because they play excellent football with a bravery and commitment to their style that deserves reward.
Just not against us, please. Have an off day. Then take out that frustration on Newcastle, who they play afterwards, and then Man City in the final week of the season. A Wele hat-trick as Lewis Dunk kicks Haaland’s balls off, gimme gimme gimme. I’m not asking for much, just a little Brighton intervention.
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Ok, I’m gonna leave it there for this morning. We do have a brand new Arsecast for you, chatting about the mad things football clubs do, the messes at Chelsea and Leeds, some Arsenal stuff around some of the young players who might depart this summer, and more with James Benge from CBS Sports.
All the links you need to listen are below, or it’s in all the usual podcast places. Join us for a Preview Podcast on Patreon later. For now, have a good one.
