Havertz out, Gyokeres in. Over to you, Viktor
Well it sounds like Kai Havertz is going to be out for three to four weeks with his hamstring injury, if some of the noises from the socials are to be believed. If that has been confirmed by the club, if it is three weeks, say, then we’re looking at him being back by 24th October, which would mean he missesLeeds at home, Lille at home, Forest away, Bayern away, possibly back for Everton at home. It’s pretty much what I speculated about when we first heard of the injury, but it’s been lessened by the fact that it hopefully isn’t too long, and this lengthy international break means he comes back having spent one of those three weeks when there was no proper men’s football being played anyway. So I guess I’m choosing to look at this situation as the glass being half full today.
And, as mentioned in my blog from last week, it means we’ll need to lean on Gyokeres and/or Merino, with my money for the Leeds game being on the Swede for sure. He played against Bosnia and Herzegovina and bagged another goal – his third in three games for his country – and, according to FOTMOB also had the best performance of any player on the pitch, which is certainly encouraging for us for sure. He played the full 90, and it looks like it was a very ‘Gyokerres’ game; he created just one chance, he created one big chance, he had two shots on target, had just 39 touches, fifve in the opposition box, but bagged a goal to get his confidence flowing even more.
What I liked about the goal, which you can see here, is that it wasn’t a scrappy poacher’s goal, but a proper strike from a guy who looks like he’s getting his form and confidence back. And just in time, too, given the Kai news. We need a Gyokeres who is going to be that bulldozer, who’s going to take on those kind of shots, lean into what he is i.e. a bit of a blunt instrument with one heck of a hard shot on him. Give him space and let him shoot. That’s it. He is very much not a complicated footballer and we need to use him such.
The other Arsenal involvement was Riccardo Calafiori, who played the full 90 against France last night, which I guess is ok and means that he’s fine in terms of injury challenges. I think of all the players currently on international duty,he’s the one most of us have our eyes on, because he’s the one who has had the most chequered history since signing. He’d be the one that, if I was a betting man, I’d be placing the most money on potentially breaking down. If you do fancy a flutter (not on injuries, don’t jinx it!), then you can access live betting tips here. And we’ve also seen him break down over international duty too whilst being an Arsenal player, so we need to see him returning in fine shape for next weekend.
He’s had a pretty good start to the season for The Arsenal, actually, and has certainly been the X-factor player that we all know and love him to be. For a left-back, getting 0.66xg in his game is nothing to be sniffed at (he’s only behind Bukayo, Odegaard and Havertz in the Arsenal team – all of whom you’d expect to be at the top given they are attacking players), and he has 0.62 expected assists as well (again, he’s only behind Odegaard, Saka and Rice on that metric). He’s played five games in the Premier League and bagged two goals and only Tzolis, Havertz, Odegaard and Saka have had more touches in the opposition box for us. He’s an integral part of the team and seeing him get through these games with 90 minutes is clearly quite important.
It’s interesting though, because if you look at his heatmap (click on the player name on the line-up to get the pop-up and see it), for Italy, he seems to act a lot more like an authodox left back compared to us. In the game last night against France he very much stayed in his left-back lane, only occasionally popping up in the attacking and central position. That might be because it was against France and so the need is for more defensive work for him, but for The Arsenal I’d expect that heatmap to look a little different. I’d expect him to have a lot more yellows and red in and around the opposition penalty area, and certainly if he’s fit against Leeds I’ll expect that to look different. Just look at the Brighton game – in which we were crap and he would have had to be a little more defensive, he still has a different-looking heatmap.
Tongiht the worries turn to England in Croatia, as we hope that Myles, Noni, Saka and Eze all come away from the latest pointless international unscathed. Then in S[ain it is Zubimendi and Merino who we’ll have our eyes on. Given Zubi started in their last match and De La Fuente rotated a bit, I’d expect Rodri to come in tonight, then maybe Merino off the bench too. Hopefully they can both get enough minutes but come out of it unscathed. As I’ve mentioned previousy, if I was Arteta, I would be thinking about how to get Zubi involved from the start soon, because I think he’s shown some encouraging signs in the matches he’s played for us this season.
There’s also a Brazilian friendly against India at 3pm. Fingers crossed Big Gabi and Bruno play little to no minutes for that one. I won’t hold my breath though.
Right, that’s me done for the day, so I’ll leave you to get at your Saturday, as I’ll get at mine, then catch you tomorrow. Have a good one.