Selection questions as the season opens at home against Wolves

Well folks, here we go again.

It’s Wolves at home to kick off the new season, and on paper I guess you could say there are probably more difficult games we could have had. Which is to take nothing for granted by the way, but home at 3pm on the first Saturday of the season is exactly where you want to be.

In terms of team news, Jurrien Timber is available after a foot injury kept him out of our last couple of friendlies, and beyond that it’s only Takehiro Tomiyasu, Kieran Tierney and maybe Fabio Vieira who aren’t available. That gives Mikel Arteta plenty to choose from, and there are a few questions about who might play and where.

I think Oleksandr Zinchenko will start at left-back as we ease Riccardo Calafiori into life in the Premier League, with the rest of the defence (and keeper) picking themselves. In midfield, I’d be very tempted to play a trio of Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard, with Gabriel Jesus up front, but I suspect the manager might add Thomas Partey to the mix, with Havertz starting further forward rather than Jesus.

We know he’s going to play Bukayo Saka on the right, and just based on what we’ve seen in pre-season, Leandro Trossard just looks a little bit ahead of Gabriel Martinelli, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him start. If it is Havertz as the 9, that’s a relationship that worked well for us throughout last season, and it leaves us with the two Brazilians (among others) on the bench should we need something a bit different as the game goes on. Whoever he chooses though, we have a strong first XI, with some excellent options on the bench.

One of the big questions about this season is how we do better than we did last time out? It’s possible we might have to improve again to win the league, and that was something Arteta addressed in his press conference. He revealed the motivation of his players, saying:

On the last day [of last season], we had a gathering together with all the club players and they were…

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Author : arseblog

Publish date : 2024-08-17 06:00:15

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