There’s no rest for the wicked, as the Arsenal squad – and a fair few fans – make their way to Lisbon today ahead of our Champions League showdown against Sporting. I suspect we’ll get an Arteta press conference towards the end of the working day today and we’ll get a bit of an update on player availability.

The fact that he was able to rest a few key players should mean that it’s a relatively clean bill of health. The only question marks will be over the full backs and I suspect this will be a recurring theme for the remainder of this calendar year; no Tomiyasu and no Ben White means that at right back we have Jurrien Timber as our only real recognised right back. We all know Arteta could call on Thomas Partey if we needed to, but he’s in form and playing, so if he slots in at right back he won’t exactly be fresh. There’s also a question over his fitness nearly every season we’ve had him at the club, so to be reliant on him as your rotation option if Timber needs a rest, is quite precarious indeed.

It’s crazy to think that we lose a couple of players and suddenly it feels like we’re treading on thin ice, but I guess if you have any team in this league who lose two players in the same position, any side would struggle. If you take Walker and Rico Lewis out of the City side, they are probably playing Ake or Akanji, who whilst very good defenders, are still not natural right backs. Liverpool without Trent or Bradley are also playing a centre half in Gomez, so for us to be without White and Tomiyasu and STILL have a quality right back who can play and be a key player for us, speaks to our strength in depth.

But that means we are walking that tightrope for the foreseeable future and with Timber having been out for the whole of last season, it does feel as though Arsenal will be saying a fair bit of prayers to keep him fit. It’s not as if the games aren’t really important, either. We currently sit 12th in the Champions League table having won two, drawn one and lost one against Inter. Sporting meanwhile sit second with three wins and a draw and are undefeated in their domestic league. They have 11 wins out of 11 and we’ll come face-to-face with the most potent striker in Europe in Gyokyres, so this will be a really tough game. As an aside, is it me, or have we have we had what has turned out to be a really tough draw of fixtures? Atalanta at home are a tough prospect, we’ve played PSG, the Italian champions Inter and now an imperious Sporting side. Seems like it’s quite a tough set of games we’ve had…

A…Anyway, back to Sporting. They’ll go in to tomorrow’s game full of beans having beaten City at home in their last match. Then, it’s West Ham away next weekend and whilst they sit in 14th and look very patchy, it’s a London derby and they’ll be massively up for it. We then play United in midweek and whilst they didn’t look like any great shakes yesterday, those games are always tight and always tough whether they’re home or away, as will Fulham away be with some ex-Hale Enders looking to show the club what they are missing. If we lose or draw to Sporting then that table is going to start to look rather precarious indeed. You want to be in the top eight to qualify automatically and as it stands this match tomorrow represents what feels like a bit of a crossroads; win it and suddenly we’ve put ourselves in a good position to have a go at the top eight positions. Lose it and we’ll be looking at those playoff spots potentially.

Which brings me back to my original point and the question for today’s blog – how is Arteta going to juggle the full back positions?

It feels like at left back there are options – after Calafiori there’s Zinchenko, Kiwior, Myles Lewis-Skelly. So I think we’re pretty covered. Kiwior came on for Timber with a few minutes to go on Saturday, but that feels like an even bigger square peg in an even smaller round hole than Partey. So where does he turn to if, for example, Partey is injured and Timber is showing signs of fatigue? Josh Nicholls equipped himself well against Bolton, but that was at home, against a team two divisions below us. Every one of our next nine games taking us to Christmas – maybe Palace in the League Cup aside – feels like a match in which you can’t risk playing the kid in. Calafiori played a half at right back for us this season, but that didn’t quite feel too natural either, so not sure that’s a viable option. So that means Timber is going to need to be called on – and robust enough to stay fit – for every one of those games I suspect.

Let’s just hope that he does remain fit. I don’t want to jinx it, but so far his injury record prior to his ACL with us last season, has been pretty good. He’s missed the odd game. This season he’s missed a few already, so hopefully he’s over that now and he can get a run of matches where he’s fit. We’re going to need it.

Right, I’m going to leave it there for today I think. I’ll be back tomorrow for a preview and a look at Sporting, as well as a look at what Arteta has said in the build up to this game.

Have yourselves a good one.