Morning.
The early reporting on Martin Odegaard’s harm suggests he’ll miss the North London derby and subsequent week’s journey to Man Metropolis. The Norwegian staff physician, Ole Sand, mentioned:
What we now have to date obtained from the MRI examination in London is that there’s most likely no fracture within the ankle. It’s at all times a bit troublesome to interpret an MRI scan when you might have had an outdated harm, however Arsenal are virtually sure there isn’t any breach, however this will nonetheless take a while.
None of that is stunning. It could have been an enormous shock if he had been obtainable, so affirmation of his absence is, whereas disheartening, not out of the blue or something like that. He’ll additionally miss our first Champions League sport, in opposition to Atalanta on Thursday – btw, how good of the schedule to provide us a Thursday sport once we’re going to the Etihad on Sunday. Cheers for that.
The time frame of Odegaard’s harm provides Mikel Arteta quite a bit to consider. Clearly he’ll have been contemplating what to do with out Declan Rice for Sunday, however that’s a one sport suspension – you discover one thing you assume will work within the very short-term. With regards to the absence of the captain and the principle playmaker, it’s considerably totally different when it’s important to discover a resolution for an prolonged time frame. It’s conceivable that Odegaard might miss 7 video games earlier than we see him once more, and that necessitates far more than a sticking plaster resolution.
My suspicion is that we’ll see one thing extra tactical than merely a one for one alternative in that place. I may very well be flawed, however the closest participant we now have stylistically to Odegaard is Ethan Nwaneri. There is part of me that may love him to get the nod, and to get a run of video games to showcase his expertise and potential. We all know that Odegaard has been mentoring him behind the scenes, however I can’t think about the plan would ever have been for him to be required this early within the season, for this lengthy, and with video games of this magnitude to cope with.
He’s simply 17, and whereas the comparisons are apparent – not least due to their left-footedness – he’s nonetheless fairly inexperienced, and we all know from the previous that Arteta is reluctant to ask an excessive amount of of gamers earlier than he thinks they’re prepared. He would possibly properly contemplate Nwaneri prepared, we’ll discover out sooner or later, however it wouldn’t be an enormous shock if he was reluctant to ask a participant of that age to shoulder such an enormous burden. Even when he did, I don’t assume he and Odegaard are like for like when it comes to how they play.
The skipper is extra inventive on the ball, the person who leads the press, and appears to chop groups open with the precision and deftness of his passing. From what we’ve seen of Nwaneri, he has a few of that, however seems far more like a ball-carrier, a participant who could make issues occur in a extra direct means. The pattern dimension is small, so I don’t wish to make direct comparisons with gamers of the previous, however the level is that if we do swap Odegaard for Nwaneri, it should doubtless require some change in the way in which we play.
Different options I’ve seen proffered embody going to a double-pivot, which might be one thing to consider when Rice returns, however a Thomas Partey/Jorginho duo would go away me fairly uneasy going into Sunday’s sport. The supervisor additionally has Oleksandr Zinchenko as an choice for Odegaard’s place, however has by no means appeared eager on utilizing him in midfield. There’s additionally a part of me that wonders if, given this would possibly properly be classed as a form of emergency, you might take into consideration Bukayo Saka there, with Gabriel Martinelli on the precise hand facet of the assault.
That might be an actual shift, however if you happen to’re searching for someone with the expertise and soccer intelligence to do a brand new job, there’s no query in my thoughts that Saka has that in his locker. I’ve talked earlier than about how I feel he might simply play the ‘left 8’ place, possibly that’s one thing Arteta will probably be fascinated by now. In fact it’s not very best to take a participant who is without doubt one of the greatest on the planet in his place and transfer him elsewhere, however this isn’t an abnormal state of affairs we’re dealing with right here.
One of many issues we’ve spoken about usually with regards to our current recruitment is each the flexibility and intelligence of the gamers we signal. These are issues we’re going to should lean into closely within the interval forward. Little question Arteta and his teaching workers will probably be having conversations about how greatest to manage with out Odegaard, and whereas we as followers will view it with apparent and comprehensible disappointment, he has to current this to his gamers as a problem they should overcome. There’s no level crying about it, there are nonetheless video games to win and factors to play for.
Perhaps we’ll get some concept of his plans at tomorrow’s press convention. My intestine feeling is that he’ll play his playing cards nearer to his chest than ever earlier than, however let’s see. Proper, I’ll go away it there for now. Again tomorrow with extra right here and a model new Arsecast.
Till then.
