Predictability – needs more ‘un’

Good morning, a very quick Friday blog for you, because there’s still nothing much happening from an Arsenal perspective.

Mikel Arteta will hold his pre-Crystal Palace podcast press conference this afternoon, so we should get some updates on player availability – in as much as we ever do from the manager about this kind of stuff. Nevertheless, with players like Thomas Partey, Fabio Vieira and Oleksandr Zinchenko part of things during the warm weather training in Dubai, it’d be useful for us to have some information about when they might return.

I’m sure there will be questions about the January transfer window, but if Arteta is guarded about what he says about the fitness of players we already have, I don’t expect anything at all on players we don’t. The mantra will be the same – “Get more out the players that are available to us right now”, not “Get more out the players that are available to us right now until we can finalise that Karim Benzema loan deal.”

I mean, of all the things that’s not happening, that is very close to the top of the list. But such is the desperation of football fans for new signings, in some quarters every effort is being made to try and concoct scenarios where it might. I will live-stream me eating my hat* if it does.

The big question is about how we get more out the existing squad, and while I feel a little like I’m banging the same old drum, at least part of the answer is use more of it. The returning players may give us more options, and I think if and when Partey is available, the knock-on effects of what we can do further forward are fairly obvious. Declan Rice can play ahead of him; you could use Kai Havertz as a 9 more often; you could use Gabriel Jesus as one of the wide men if you have worries about the form of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli.

But, how long will it take him to get match fit? After that, how long will it take him to find some form/rhythm? These are things that are difficult to quantify. Until then, what is there? Well, there’s Emile Smith Rowe who is reportedly fully fit, and surely chomping at the bit for some playing time. Next time Mikel Arteta is thinking about starting Leandro Trossard as the left 8, a position he’s never been particularly impressive in, why not start Smith Rowe instead?

At this point it’s hard not to worry that his Arsenal career is fading away to the point where a move elsewhere this summer is inevitable, but there are still 18 Premier League games to go, 1620 minutes (plus injury-time) for him to contribute. He can score goals, he does give us something a little different in the final third, and we’ve had a period of the season where we needed someone to find a way through when others couldn’t. I think some of the frustration of the last few games has been a reluctance to try and make the team a bit more unpredictable.

If it’s not working for Saka, we stick with Saka. If it’s not going well for Jesus, we put on Eddie. When Martinelli looks a bit tired, we put on Trossard. A blind man could signpost our subs at this point, let alone Premier League managers and coaches who are more tactically astute and organised than ever. Which isn’t to say Smith Rowe is some kind of key to unlock everything, he might get his opportunities and not do anything, but I’d rather see us have a go at that than just do the same thing over and over again.

At the start of the season, Arteta spoke more than once about the need to be more unpredictable. To be fair, I think the injuries to Jurrien Timber and Partey have made that more difficult, something I’ve written about before, but even with that, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that we have become entirely too predictable of late, so it’s incumbent on the manager to find ways of addressing that with the players he has.

At least until we can wrap up the loan deal for Karim Benzema.

Right, we’ll have press conference stuff for you on Arseblog News later, we’ll also have a Crystal Palace preview podcast on Patreon this afternoon. For now, I’ll leave you with a brand new Arsecast, chatting to Tom Canton from The Gooner Talk about Arteta, young players, January, and lots more. All the links you need to listen/subscribe are below.

Have a good one.

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*my hat is a pie of my choice. Yes, I wear pies on my head. This is 2024, don’t judge.