Foot & Soccer Soccer Match Reports, Football News
Good morning.
We are in Champions League action tonight, taking on PSG at home. After a draw in our opening game against Atalanta, three points later on would be very welcome, and Mikel Arteta will have some thinking to do about his team.
Describing Riccardo Calafiori as ’emotional’ after the final whistle of the Leicester game, the Italian was seen in training yesterdady, allaying fears/rumours of an injury. But is there any element of risk in playing him later on? The Ben White situation might play a part in that, if he can return at right-back, then Jurrien Timber could play on the left. There’s also Jakub Kiwior to consider, and if the manager was feeling really brave, Myles Lewis-Skelly is an option too.
It was also good to see both Mikel Merino and Takehiro Tomiyasu back in training, but it remains to be seen how ready they are. There’s a picture doing the rounds of the summer signing from Real Sociedad sliding into a tackle, so having been ‘caged’ by the medical staff since picking up that shoulder injury, he’s obviously been released into the wild. Arteta played down the idea that we’d have anyone back ahead of this game, but by this point we must have learned not to take what he says about injury and player availability as gospel.
Beyond that, I don’t see much changing from the side that beat Leicester. Perhaps Jorginho for Partey, but ahead of that position, I can’t see any alteration unless there’s a physical reason to do it. Gabriel Martinelli was back on the scoresheet and provided an assist at the weekend; Leandro Trossard scored one and forced an own goal; Kai Havertz scored with his mickey; and Bukayo Saka was brilliant. So, against opposition like this, why do anything different?
PSG are without Ousmane Dembele after he had a weekend spat with Luis Enrique, but they still have plenty of quality. Is there more balance in their side after the departure of Kylian Mbappe? I don’t watch enough Ligue 1 to say, but I’d much…
Source link : https://arseblog.com/2024/10/psg-a-good-yardstick-to-measure-european-progress/
Author : arseblog
Publish date : 2024-10-01 06:47:37
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