By Tony Attwood
Sporting’s games in the Champions League this season have been something of a mixture, with an away defeat to Napoli, a home win over Marseille, a 1-1 draw with Juventus, a 1-3 away defeat to Bayern Munich, but a 2-1 win over PSG. The message seems to be that they can be beaten, but they are certainly no walkovers. They can also pull off the occasional surprise.
For Arsenal, the key issue, of course, has to be the phenomenal list of injuries the club reported during the international break, which resulted in many of the players returning to London before there was no one left for Arsenal to put out in their team this week.
As a result, Arsenal shot to the top of the Premier League injury list with a reported number of players out, the likes of which I have never witnessed before. And the number is still high as we enter the day of the game, away to Sporting. But at least we don’t have the added insult of being top of the injury table, for we can always rely on Tottenham Hots for that. It is indeed a position they have now reclaimed, and indeed what they seem to feel is their rightful place, given how low they are in the league. They have 10 injuries.
Of the Arsenal injured, three players are absolutely ruled out: Mikel Merino, Eberechi Eze, and Piero Hincapie Reyna.
There is also considerable uncertainty about Gabriel dos Santos Magalhaes which suggests he is very unlikely to play.
Bukayo Saka is rated 50/50, while those with a 75% chance of playing are Declan Rice, and Leandro Trossard. It is just about the worst injury range I have ever seen for Arsenal, and it seemed mostly to come from the international break. When will the clubs finally stand up to the FA and say, “no more”.
Worse, while Arsenal have been having a tough time on the pitch, Sporting have been winning – their last two games being a 4-1 away win over Alverca on 22 March and a 4-2 home win over Santa Clara on 3 April. And perhaps we might note that while they were winning those two games, Arsenal were losing to Manchester City and Southampton.
So the question becomes very simple – can Arsenal pull enough first teamers back together to put up a real fight in Lisbon, or are they going to try and hold on? Holding on might even mean accepting a one-goal defeat, in order to pull things back when hopefully a more comprehensive squad is available – although that can be dangerous as the away team will simply put out a full team of defenders.
After this match, on Saturday 11th, Arsenal play Bournemouth in a lunchtime fixture before the return leg on the following Wednesday for the Champions League game.
Of course, if Arsenal do get knocked out in this round of the Champions League, there will be much talk of the club being soft, and little mention of the way that the recent international matches decimated the club, but as long as Arsenal allow international managers to do what they like with their players, I regret this is how it will be.
Additionally, the fact that Arsenal played seven games in March, before the team went off to play internationals for their country, also tells us that we really do need to have higher-quality players available for months like this. Except, of course, that higher-quality players demand the right to go and play for their countries when they get the chance. The number who have seen the light and refuse to accede to these ludicrous demands is small..
And yet on the other hand, maybe we should remember that in the league round of the Champions League, Arsenal played eight successive games and won the lot, scoring 23 goals and conceding four. We were only held back in any way with the games against Bayer Leverkusen, the first of which was drawn 1-1, and the second was a 2-0 win.
So it has to be with that string of results in mind that the club and the team need to enter this latest round of games, while integrating the backup players to cover for the multiplicity of injuries suffered of late. I am hoping that Arsenal can come away with a decent result tonight, and then with maybe half our normal squad available, we can see off Bournemouth at the weekend and then finish off the job against Sporting on Wednesday, with a full first team present.
But even I will admit to a certain level of nervousness about the days to come.
Next up a look at the team Arsenal could put out tonight.
