Morning all.
It’s Champions League action tonight as we take on Lens. Arsenal’s flight to France yesterday was delayed due to inclement weather, so we didn’t get a full press conference with Mikel Arteta. However, there were some pre-game comments, and some information on a couple of players.
After taking a kick late in the win over Bournemouth, it was good to see Bukayo Saka out on the training pitch, all smiles – and hopefully that alleviates some worries. On him, the manager said:
He’s fine. He’s much better. It was a big knock but he has recovered well and trained with us today.
The other news was the return of Thomas Partey who hasn’t played since the 2-2 draw with Fulham on August 26th. With Man City on the horizon, it’s a timely return for the midfielder, and Arteta is hoping to give him some minutes if possible:
His progression in the last week has been very good. He might have some exposure tomorrow depending how the game goes.
The question about who plays tonight is a tricky one, and I do like that. If he made no changes from the team who played Bournemouth, I wouldn’t be majorly surprised. If he made three or four, we have the quality and the depth to do that. He was asked if he’d have Man City in mind when it comes to team selection this evening, but I think it’s probably more about how those who were a doubt for Bournemouth came through that game.
I’d have no real issue to see the likes of Takehiro Tomiyasu, Jakub Kiwior, and Fabio Vieira come into the side, while players such as Reiss Nelson and Emile Smith Rowe will continue their push for more minutes. Do you keep Kai Havertz in, hoping he can build on the confidence boost his penalty will have given him? I suspect it’ll be a pretty strong side for an away game though, and let’s not forget Lens are in this competition because they finished second in Ligue 1 last season, just a point behind PSG and 11 points above third place Marseille.
Their start to the season hasn’t been great, they’ve won just two of their first eight games in all competitions, but it was their last two. Arteta is expecting a tough game:
What they did last year is incredible to be within a point of the title. The way they did it, the form they had at home. This season they’ve been really unlucky with some of the results they’ve had. At home they’ve got just one point and I don’t know how. So we expect a huge battle tomorrow. We’re more than aware of it. We showed the players everything and we have a huge test tomorrow.
Taking nothing for granted, and what we do in Europe – and how we do it – is a really interesting aspect of this season for me. The win over Bournemouth at the weekend was as business-like a performance as could have hoped for. I felt like we had a couple of extra gears if needed, and perhaps we’ll need them later on. This is our third away game in a row now, and of the four we’ve played in all competitions, we have yet to concede a goal. That is something I’m sure the manager will be looking to lean into, and there’s no doubt that we have attacking players with the potential to hurt the home side this evening.
Let’s see how it goes. As ever we’ll have live blog coverage for you, and all the post-match stuff on Arseblog News. In the meantime, there’s an Arsecast Extra if you haven’t had a chance to listen already, plus two more podcasts over Patreon – a brief preview of the Lens game, and an episode of The 30, looking back at a Premier League weekend with lots of talking points. Get them here.
Right, I’ll leave it there for now. Catch you later for the game. Come on Arsenal!
