ARTETA DOUBLES DOWN ON XHAKA
The presser is IN and there are some bits that I did NOT like.
Mikel Arteta is digging his heels in over Granit Xhaka.
‘If you see the statistics’
Yes, we know that Granit is a capable left-back, we know that Mikel does not like Nuno, but Xhaka at left-back isn’t about being left-back, it’s about the midfield.
Sambi and Odegaard is not a natural pairing. Odegaard deeper reduces our chance creation. Moving Granit into left-back upsets the entire team.
It’s also not a great way to treat Nuno.
We’ll see what happens tomorrow, but if it’s a hill Arteta wants to die on, then he’s clearly convinced that Xhaka at left-back can see us into the top 4. It’s on him now.
He also indicated that Lacazette hasn’t been training for personal issues. Usually, with Arteta, that means someone has fallen out with him. I hope that’s not the case. Whatever it is, it means Eddie, Martinelli, or ESR will be playing that forward position.
It should be Eddie, but if he’s not staying, it could been seen as wasted minutes.
I’d quite like to see ESR in the false 9 role, but Arteta again said he’s struggling with fitness… an issue that has been dragging quite hard this season.
All I really care about is getting the 3 points and the perception of some momentum.
… until Chelsea spank us at Stamford Bridge and end our top 4 chances on Wednesday.
I saw the below post.
Just goes to show that the trend for disgusting abuse is a global issue that goes beyond some of the weirdos in our fanbase.
Instagram could ban the people, they could ban their burner accounts, they could stop the people signing up for new ones. But they don’t, because it would affect engagement, and the chunk of accounts they’d have to delete might not look good on earnings reports. The same reason Twitter doesn’t delete the bot accounts.
Why you’re here, why not drop into a BEFORE THE WHISTLE PODCAST hosted by JOHNNY and guested by ME. It was supposed to be calm and chill but it wasn’t. A good listen regardless. Tune in, give us a 10* review!
xxx