Football returns with a trip to Watford this evening’s late kick-off. Team news is still a little sketchy because of the Interlull, but it does appear as if Alexis Sanchez has been passed fit to play.
“How do you feel Alexis?”
“Good. I play.”
“But your groin is the size of a cantaloupe”.
“I. Play.”
Whether he starts or not remains to be seen. Typically for a game against Watford which precedes one against Bayern Munich, you’d expect the manager to rest some players for what would be perceived as the more difficult fixture. Bayern will provide a tougher test than Watford, I guess, but for me the game today is by far the most important.
To qualify from our Champions League group will require something exceptional, and obviously it would be great if we could do that, but after the position we put ourselves in following the first two games, we have to be a bit realistic about it. If it happens, great, but we cannot for one second afford to prioritise the European games over the domestic ones.
As it stands we’re second in the Premier League, just 2 points behind Man City, and that’s where our focus should be. It means playing the best possible team we have today, then seeing what sort of a team we can put out on Tuesday evening. The fact that players have come back from international duty and some may be a little more fatigued than others may see some changes today, but as much as possible you’d like to see the XI that started against Manchester United.
The manager spoke about the need to treat this game in the same way, to show the same desire as we did then:
We have to be conscious that it will be a different game but the level of urgency is a big part of success and that is what we work on. The level of champions and people who want to fight at the top is urgency. Urgency is something that keeps you alert and we know what will be expected of us.
As good as the United performance was, there were contributory factors. A defeat to Olympiacos demanded a response; the fact we were playing a ‘big’ team and were thus a bit more up for it; player meetings beforehand to get properly focused and motivated; all of which fed into the way we played. The challenge now is to repeat that against sides like Watford, who won’t be the pushover people expect.
They’ve conceded just once at home so far this season which means we’re going to have to click in much the same way from an attacking point of view. What you would say though is that previous to United we also had a fine attacking performance against Leicester, and the story of this season hasn’t been an Arsenal that can’t create chances or don’t get into good positions: it’s been about being more clinical with those chances.
Eight goals in our last two games in the league suggests that issue is being addressed in decent style, so fingers crossed we can replicate that. It’s not always easy to pick up where you left off after an international break, but as we talked about earlier in the week the players that were away did well, so hopefully that will help us do what we need to do today.
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Meanwhile, the boss has been talking about Theo Walcott’s recent performances, and he believes the cruciate injury is still playing on his mind:
Sometimes the confidence comes back when you go into a challenge which you naturally avoid and then you realise nothing happens when you do it. The quality of his movement is outstanding and he has found his finishing again. Now against Man United he has also found his commitment back.
Again, the challenge is to do that in every game, not just for which you’re particularly fired up:
What you want from Theo is the commitment he showed against Man United in the challenges. If he adds that to his game then he will be difficult to stop.
So far the humble pie Walcott is serving up as a centre-forward tastes pretty good, but there’s a long way to go this season and that effort we saw against United has to become his default setting. If it’s all tied in with confidence and feeling better about his knee, then hopefully that will be the case. Even if he doesn’t play particularly well, he can still make a nuisance of himself if he puts himself about and is switched on defensively.
But, it’s something he’s going to have to work on in every game because this is not what comes naturally to him, and as good as he has been recently, it’s impossible to make a definitive judgement after so few games. Let’s hope we see it again and again and again, because the manager is right: if he does play like he did a couple of weeks ago, he’s going to cause defences all kinds of problems. We shall see.
Right, that’s just about that. As always we’ll have full live blog coverage for you here – as well as a match report, post-game reaction, player ratings, stats and more over on Arseblog News. Check back later for a post with all the live blog details, or bookmark our default live blog page and updates will begin automatically.
As it’s a late kick-off, you can check out this week’s Arsecast to help pass some of the time. I chat with Jeremy Wilson from The Telegraph about the AGM, preview the Watford game (kinda), and there’s lots more in there too.
Time for breakfast, catch you later for the game.
