Rice rest, rotation and the curious case of Noni Madueke

I don’t know about you, but given what happened last weekend, I was hoping that the desire to talk about something else – even England – would have kicked in a little more by now. I’m going to try to give it a go, but whether I’ll be able to hit my normal 1,000 words might be a challenge today, so bear with me.

I guess we should probably start with the withdrawals from the upcoming internationals, with Cole Palmer exiting for ‘load management’. Let’s remember that this guy had a summer off, and I know that he was injured last season, but it kind of feels like a bit of a tightrope he might be walking, given he never made the World Cup squad. It’ll be interesting to see how the media reacts to this. If it was an Arsenal player in that situation, would it be the same? Possibly. I mean, we’ve got Declan Rice withdrawing from the England internationals for ‘load management’ too, so it’ll be fascinating to see how the media handles multiple exits from this extended break.

To be fair, this is why I like Thomas Tuchel, because he understands the demands put on these players. Unlike Gareth “I’ll run them into the ground” Southgate, who has never gone deep into elite-level football management like the Premier League, Tuchel knows that a broken Rice and Palmer is of no use to anyone. Rice in particular just plays and plays and plays, and has done so during the summer too. So this opportunity to give him a second rest at this stage of the season will be welcomed with open arms by the Arsenal coaching staff, but also by us, the fans as well. He can put his feet up; he can have this weekend off, then perhaps go into some light training towards the back end of last week. The blessing and the curse of Rice is that he runs through brick walls, covers so much ground, and never looks tired, so it’s difficult to tell when he might be close to ‘the edge’ when it comes to a fatigue-related injury. But Arsenal and England have clearly spotted an opportunity, and hopefully this is the best for all involved: that he puts his feet up.

I guess for Saka it is a little different. Last season Bukayo Saka did still play 3,200+ minutes across 49 appearances, but he also missed games in August/September, January/February, as well as March/April, and for both England and Arsenal combined, that equated to 15 matches across the season in total. Those injuries were spread out too, so he will have felt that his season never quite got going, and it’s the reason Tuchel preferred Noni at times during the World Cup; Saka was probably only operating at around 80%. And in elite football, that feels massive in terms of final product and what translates onto the pitch.

This time around, Saka can probably do with the minutes. It feels to me like he’s growing with each game, and whilst he wasn’t great against Brighton (nobody was), you do feel like a continuation of matches at this stage would be better than a brief pause like Rice is having. England play on Saturday, then Tuesday, then Saturday, and then Tuesday. That’s the same cadence as The Arsenal would be playing if we were in the Champions League as well as the Premier League, so on this occasion I think I’m ok with him going and getting some minutes.

It’s the same with Eze, who has found his minutes limited a little right now, and who could probably benefit from more game time. If he can play around 180 – 200 minutes over the four games, you’d say that’s pretty good. I would have said the same for Noni, but he hasn’t been named in the England squad, and having played such a big part during the World Cup, one wonders if this will have him having his first question mark over his time at The Arsenal. He’s tasted plenty of football last season with those three Saka injuries, plus there would have been times after Saka returned that he would have had to be eased in, so Noni would have played enough to get into the England side. Then, getting as many minutes as he did in the US would have had Madueke more than happy that he was getting enough game time for his club, but this omission from the squad will have had him questioning a few things I reckon. He’s been pretty much an ever-present in the squads that Tuchel has picked, so this deselection says to me that there’s been a shift in direction, and if I were to speculate a conspiracy theory, I would say that there is no coincidence that yesterday Goal ran with a story about how Juve and Atletico Madrid are interested in his services. The article talks about how the clubs are exploring a mid-season loan in January, but to be fair it also mentions that Arsenal are unlikely to sanction it. Why would they? That’s the point in the season when fatigue starts to creep in, injuries start to happen, and the fullness of your squad is tested. In August and September when lots of players have had pre seasons and are fit, you’re going to get these awkward moments when players don’t play, but come January/February, minutes get to be thrown around like confetti at a wedding.

I could see Noni exploring his options next summer if he hasn’t had as much game time – hopefully because Saka has been fit the whole season – but if that happens, I think it would be good for all parties. Noni has had flashes of brilliance, but as we’ve all said in our WhatsApp’s and online, it’s patchy at best. When you have Max Dowman coming through who will want to take minutes from somewhere, or maybe even Ethan Nwaneri, who last season played a total of 927 minutes and this season already has had 240 minutes at Dortmund so far, it feels like there will be players already at the club who could step up if this season doesn’t go the way Noni, or Arsenal fans, want it to.

That’s probably a debate for many, many months from now. For now, we just need to keep a watching brief.