- Is it possible that Arsenal could retain the title next season?
- What’s wrong with Declan Rice and how do we make it better?
By Tony Attwood
Players are due to return to Arsenal to start pre-season training just a day or two after the World Cup final. But of course many won’t make it back then because they are all entitled to a three-week holiday break after their last game of the summer. And with so many Arsenal players making it into the latter stages of the WC there is every chance Arsenal will start the new season missing a lot of first teamers.
So what are we to expect? Probably an opening to the new season with a reserve team, and a smattering of first teamers whose country did not make it to the United States for the summer.
Missing could be Saka, Rice, Eze, Madueke, Merino, Zubimendi, Raya and Saliba, some of whom may also need to recover from undisclosed injuries. Declan Rice has been reporting his has been playing through pain for months, while others will have played on to help their country when really they should have been resting.
This is why Arsenal need to add more players to their league squad, which ran for much of last season with only 22 over-age players instead of the 25 allowed. Indeed, the opening to the new season could be a time that causes Arsenal quite a lot of difficulty with a reserve team, and a smattering of first teamers who managed not to risk going to the United States for the summer.
Although let us not forget a fair number of these players were injured before they even got to the United States. And although England is reporting that Rice is now, amazingly, fit and can play in the next game, even though he has been reporting his has been playing through pain for months, there’s no telling what will be discovered once Arsenal medics examine him when he returns for training.
Of course, there is always the danger of someone covering up an injury, just to prove there is nothing wrong with a series of international matches just before the new season starts.
This is why Arsenal need to add more players to their league squad, making use the various younger players who didn’t go to the WC plus a full squad of 25 over age players from which a team can be built. Indeed, the opening to the new season could be a time that causes Arsenal quite a lot of difficulty, and that of course will be just what the media will leap upon, saying that Arsenal’s unique tactics last season have been found out, and referees are not letting them get away with “it” (whatever “it” was) in the new season.
There is, however, one thing that is working in our favour.
Roy Keane (not usually an Arsenal ally) recently said, “What I’ve noticed is that it is becoming a routine for players to prefer Arsenal over other clubs…. That tells you everything about what Mikel Arteta has built…You hear stories about Tzolis wanting Arsenal only, Bruno Guimarães making it clear he wants Arsenal, and Morgan Rogers reportedly willing to wait because of Arsenal. Whether every transfer happens or not, it shows the appeal the club has right now.”
Now I think that we are starting to see the impact of this in some of the transfers that don’t happen. More players are now looking at the way teams are playing, and the way players are looked after by their clubs. In short, Arteta did not just win the league last season, as others have said; he as made Arsenal “a club players genuinely want to be part of.” And that takes some doing!
Indeed, I think we are only just starting to see the benefit of this. Everyone knows that Arsenal beat ManC to the title without having a fraction of the money ManC has and without the guarantee that players would certainly get a league winners’ medal with ManC. Now, after two seasons with ManC coming second and third, that spell is broken. Players know the guarantee is no longer there.
Yes, they know that Arsenal have only just won one title in 20 years, but they have seen that without any claims against them for misusing money, Arsenal have come second three times and then winners last season. And suddenly that makes Arsenal a much more interesting prospect than anything at ManC which will for years be tainted by the tales of dubious financial dealings.
ManCs ploy, of letting the 100+ claims against them just sit in the file against them, leaving them unresolved, has looked until recently to be a very clever approach. Being innocent until proven guilty allowed them to play on, and say “come on – prove it”. But now we can see that without all that extra oil money, they come second and third, rather than winners, while facing the possibility of points deductions for past indiscretions still hanging over them; that policy seems to have backfired.
It’s going to be an interesting transfer window, and an interesting season.
