So it sounds as if we’ve got some returning players due to come back for the Bournemouth game, which is a bit of a relief given that Partey didn’t go to Ghana international duty due to illness and Havertz withdrew with knee problems. I talked about Havertz yesterday, so won’t repeat myself, but Partey also not going was a bit of a worry, I have to say. But that sounds like it’s a short term thing. It’s funny, because when it’s other players – like Kobbie Mainoo at United, your immediate thought is that it’s one of those ‘convenient’ injuries, but when it’s your own player, after initially thinking “good on you” to the club, you think “wait. What if…they’re actually…y’know…injured?”. Sounds like this isn’t the case and I am absolutely fine with that.

The club also posted a video of Odegaard on one of those low gravity running machines with a smile on his face, so I suspect for him the next 10 days are all about every day loading on a little more strenuous exercise on that ankle to make sure he’s fully able to move it around and get in to competitive action on the pitch. I suspect that Bournemouth might be one in which we might see him from the bench though at best; he was injured in the game against Austria on 9th September so that was one month ago. In that time his match fitness will have inevitably dropped a little, but I wouldn’t have thought it would be too much to get him up to speed. We have Bournemouth in 10 days time, followed by Shaktar in the Champions League and Liverpool at home. It’s that Liverpool game that we want him to be 100% on, for sure, so if I was mapping out a probable schedule to him (being the complete amateur physio I certainly am NOT) I’d probably say some minutes from the bench (maybe 20?) against Bournemouth, maybe 60 minutes against Shaktar, then he’s up and running and ready to go for the visit of the Scousers.

And despite the fact that we’ve managed to ‘get by’ without him, I think we all know just how much better he makes us, so I’ll personally be very excited for his return. He often leads our press, his vision is something that we don’t really see in the team anywhere else, plus he chips in with goals too. Having Odegaard in that right eight position ensures that Saka gets his partner in crime back, as well as Kai moving up top again, which is something I think we’re all keen to keep seeing. Trossard and Kai have done a great job of alternating and rotating in the right eight / false nine role, but nobody does that midfield position better than our captain, so I’m looking forward to seeing it.

And, all being well, maybe we’ll even see that midfield trio that we have been waiting to see since the summer of Rice, Odegaard and Merino. Rice in at the six as the ball winner, distributor and occasional lung-busting run, Merino as the high press duel winner forcing over high turnovers and catching teams out just as they start to build up play against us, the Odegaard with his high pressing as well as his ability to move and manipulate our team (and opposition teams) around with his passing range. I am hoping for exciting times.

And then you start to look at our squad and see that the strength in depth is quite impressive now:

  • Right back options = White, Timber, Tomiyasu (could even throw Partey in there)
  • Centre half options = Saliba, White, Timber, Gabriel, Calafiroi, Kiwior, Tomiyasu
  • Left back options = Calafiori, Tomiyasu, Zinchenko (when he does come back), Kiwior – you could even include Tierney, although I think that is unlikely and probably more likely to be Lewis-Skelly as an alternative to get minutes
  • Number six = Partey, Jorginho and Rice all play there
  • Left eight = Merino, Trossard, Havertz (at a push) and maybe even Nwaneri?
  • Right eight = Odegaard, Trossard, Havertz, Nwaneri
  • Right wing = Saka, Jesus Sterling, maybe even Nwaneri?
  • Left wing = Martinelli, Trossard, Jesus, Sterling
  • Centre forward / false nine = Havertz, Jesus, Trossard, Sterling at a push.

That’s depth right there, covering all aspects of the field with decent players multiple times over. And it’s also evidenced by the fact that we’ve already had a bunch of injuries to key players this early in the season; we’re not even in to double figures for Premier League games played and we’ve racked up injuries across defence, midfield and attack in abundance, yet here we are just one point from Liverpool at the summit. Yet when you then look at our fixtures we’ve played and the difficulty in them, which Opta has run a simulation on that you can find here, you start to feel pretty good about where we are at right now. That simulation, which some of the gutter press nationals turned in to a sensationalist “Opta thinks Arsenal should be eighth”, actually shows that given how tough our fixtures were to start off with, for us to be ‘on par’ with expectations, it would not have been outside of the realms of possibility that we could be in eighth position. We played Villa, City, Brighton, the Scum in our first seven games – all results that could have seen dropped points and losses. Yet here we are, with an injury-hit team, having picked up wins away at some of the toughest places to play, as well as seconds away from a win at City.

I think it’s fair to say, we’re in a good place, all being told.

And hopefully after this stupid international break is cast back in to the abyss from whence it came, we can start to look at how to build some real momentum. That Liverpool match is looming on the horizon and they have had the benefit of having the easiest run of the ‘big’ teams, which means that they have the benefit of confidence. We have to make sure we end that run. There’s still a fair bit of football to be played before then, as we know, but with the depth of squad we have, I am feeling pretty good about us at this early stage of the season.

Catch you all tomorrow.