Arsenal is still struggling to get a team together for the upcoming Carabao Cup semi-final return leg against Liverpool.
The Gunners have lost some players to injuries, covid and the AFCON in recent weeks.
This has left them short of players, and the Premier League postponed their last league game against Tottenham.
The Sun reports that they now face having to call off yet another game if they cannot get enough players to face the Reds.
Martin Odegaard, who has been self-isolating because of covid, could return to the Arsenal starting XI if he tests negative for the disease.
However, another player tested positive over the weekend and will miss the Thursday game if it goes ahead.
The report adds that the availability of Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Kieran Tierney, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Calum Chambers, Cedric Soares and Sead Kolasinac is still in doubt.
Just Arsenal Opinion
Hopefully, we can get a team together who can face Liverpool in the return leg.
The postponement of the NLD has already caused an uproar among Premier League clubs.
This League Cup semi-final was also postponed from an earlier date and it makes little sense to shift it again.
Playing at the Emirates hands us some advantage, but we need our players to be fit before we can win the fixture.
That’s exactly why I hated the fact that games are postponed!🤦…. Teams should have played all games with any available team and youngsters they have.
I doubt if we can get a team to play any game, because we keep loaning players out. Just heard Mari has been loaned to Udinese when we can’t even get a team to field for epl and league cup. This sound crazy and awkward.
We’re making this look a scripted movie
I’m trusting the “process” and, as MA is a “magician” I’m sure he knows what he is doing.
You are clearly NOT trusting the process KEN, to judge by your regular critical of MA posts. Even though you DO CLAIM to support him, it is not true.
Jon, it’s called SARCASM!!!!
Reading the thoughts of some on JA, it seems that they see MA as the second coming and, if anyone points out some of his obvious mistakes, they are seen as not supporting him…. a little like your response to my post.
The rose tinted glasses that some were accused of wearing with regards to previous managers, now seem to be back in fashion wouldn’t you say?
It is being suggested that the club now want to postpone the second leg against pool, for the same reasons the spud match was called off – yet we continue to send out players on loan and, as yet, haven’t signed any player capable of bolstering the first team squad… so you see, I have to trust the process and / or believe that MA is the magician that some believe he is…. I still have no idea what he and Edu are up too, but let’s hope it all comes to fruition.
Ken I knew it was sarcasm, which is why I wrote as I did; that you do not suppport MA.
I THINK YOU ARE WRONG AND ALSO UNFAIR. MA WAS NOT THE CHOICE , I SUGGEST , OF VIRTUALLY ANY GOONER, YOU AND I INCLUDED, WHEN HE CAME.
BUT HE WAS PICKED AND IS HERE AND AFTER A STICKY START IS SHOWING CLEAR PROGRESS AND A SENSE OF CLEAR DIRECTION PLUS THE DERESSING ROOM , MINUS THE LIKES OF GUENDOUZI, OZIL, AUBA IS HARMONIOUS NOW.
As a senior and dedicated fan, you should be setting an example to the kids onhere , not joining their foolish quest to oust MA.
YOU DISAPPOINT ME KEN,AS I WOULD HOPE FOR BETTER FROM YOU, OF ALL PEOPLE.
Jon, I’m not here to set an example to anyone – I think everyone who takes their time to write in and give their views are sensible Gooners, with a view of their own.
I’m sorry that I disappoint you, but as an elder statesman, like myself, you’ll shrug your shoulders and carry on in your own distinctive way.
Meanwhile, we both hope that MA will bring back the glory years and if not, at least bring us CL football that we were accustomed to for over two decades.
Unlike you, I really don’t see progress….. at least not on a consistent basis.
Signs of blending together a strong and united squad I do agree with – but even you have to concede he is STILL making elementary mistakes.
Your thoughts on Xhaka, Lacazette, Holding, Chambers, Kolasinac being selected to play are proof of that, so I don’t understand your anger when I don’t get behind him 100%.
Just like this folly of letting players go, not replacing them and then claiming we can’t field a squad of players.
It makes the club look like amateurs and one doesn’t have to be young or old to see that.
Ken I lost all respect for you in recent weeks. As someone that would defend Wenger when most wouldn’t the way you attack MA completely out of your normal character is odd to me. Someone who Wenger actually cares about makes it even odder.
To get one over on Jon really the guy that literally everyone argues with….. seriously?
Angus, why would you see me in this light, when all I do, is compare like for like?
I actually wrote an article for JA, detailing what I felt were Arsene Wenger’s failures… ten I believe… so why wouldn’t I also criticise in the same way for Mikel Arteta?
Jon and I see our football in quite different ways and I have always questioned his approach and manner, with regards to other fans… it’s not a point scoring situation, just a difference of opinion.
As for AW and MA, what either thinks about the other has no bearing on what I say or think.
I BELIEVE that MA could become as successful as AW, but to not judge or criticise him in the same way as his predecessor was, is to follow blindly and believe he actually is a magician.
If that doesn’t explain where I’m coming from, then I’m sorry, but rest assured, my wish is to see our club successful once again.
He certainly is a magician, he keeps making players disappear!!!
Brilliant JW and I wish he could make some actually appear!!!
Unfortunately can’t just play the kids. Both the Premier league and carabao Cup use the same submitted 25 player list. To do this they would need to change the rules.
The same reason why Liverpool had to ask for a postponement because they had a number of cases, even though most ended up negative.
Just the way it is really. It’s a mockery of it all anyway, injuries are injuries but the lottery of who has and who doesn’t have covid makes it all an uneven playing field
A not too canny way of deflecting attention fron the furore surrounding our postponed game with Spurs. Also seeking underdog status. Our PR machine doing a good job here. 🙂
Also a handy excuse should we lose 🙂
Never mind guys they will be fine by wednesday and will play on thursday.
Invest “spend & gain” Arsenal u are matured enough
Arsenal should play the fixture, I must say.
The club continues to loan out players, then claim the difficulty in fielding a team.
Balogun, AMN, now Mari are healthy and uninjured before they were loaned out.
Sorry to say but this should be brought up if they indeed seek another postponement.
This is a perfect example of how far we’ve fallen, from an ethical /morality perspective, and this certainly didn’t start with MA, as this downward spiral began years ago under the auspices of Arsene Wenger
now, of course, this wasn’t the case during his pre-Emirates reign, quite the opposite in fact, but since our less than fortuitous move the bar has been drastically lowered both on and off the pitch
while some continue to propagate the notion that we hold ourselves to a different standard than other clubs, much like in those early Wenger/Dein days, this simply isn’t the case and hasn’t been so for a considerable period of time
it’s quite simple to trace the decline, as everything changed when the stadium was built under false pretenses
this organizational “lie” fundamentally changed the way in which we conducted ourselves from that point forward
sadly, many within the fanbase have refused to believe that the club or, more importantly, our former manager would do them like that, which ultimately led to a significant division from within the fanbase that stills exists in some capacity today
now maybe it’s too much to expect that we return to the pre-Emirates ways, as the footballing world is vastly different now, but we simply must take those rose-coloured spectacles off whenever we’re analyzing the actions of our present organization
The stadium was not built under false pretenses, as you put it.
The stadium was first planned and talked about while George Graham was our manager.
Once the club had committed itself to the project, that’s when the footballing world vastly changed.
No one ever dreamed that Abramovitch would buy chelsea for a pound, write off the debts that saw them hours from liquidation and then spend money that no other PL club could match…. Until City, so long a cinderella club, suddenly became the richest club in the world and competed with chelsea for the best money could buy, including five players from our own club.
It was an impossibility to compete with this, especially when paying off the debt of the new stadium and the ownership of kronkie to take into consideration.
Unlike city and west ham, the club paid for our stadium, with no handouts from the government and, despite all this, we never dropped out of the top four.
Anyone with an ounce of sense would see this and accept that circumstances played the ultimate role in why we were unable to compete, as was espected, with the likes of Madrid, Barca, City and Chelsea.
Nothing to do with ethos, standards, managers, being “lied” too and, throughout this period, the club was never brought into disrepute or made decisions that could have been seen as such.
If one wants to cast stones, let’s remember the way our owner tried to join the “super league”, something that certainly brought out club into disrepute, along with this fiasco about (if its true) trying to call off Thursday’s game, while sending players out on loan.
There’s two examples and they have happened /happening in the last few months and that’s why our club is being seen as having falling standards.
quite a tale Ken…the original intentions behind the build have little whatsoever to do with what ultimately transpired, it’s just periphery noise that has no bearing on the real issues at hand…in order to comprehend the deceptive nature of the stadium “financial” narrative all one needs to have is a basic understanding of Kroenke’s business model, when it comes to his sports-related empire, and Wenger’s about-face when it came to team building in the post-Highbury era
of course, I would strongly suspect that Wenger relished the very notion of being the managerial equivalent of Don Quixote and that if he could have won at the highest levels, without bowing to the demands of the modern superstar, he would have undoubtedly been anointed as the greatest footballing genius of our time…I believe that then and only then would we have been privy to the underlying truth
that of course never happened and even when it became glaringly obvious that fundamental changes were necessary, he refused to give up the ghost…why else would he and others have suggested that no one was outside our financial reach, yet continually settle for far less, or that he would only bring in those who met his exceptionally high standards yet sign a steady stream of duds; not to mention, the very fact that he couldn’t stop yammering, with a strange prideful tone, about all the superstars he passed on…there was no doubting the fact that it was his way or no way, which was ultimately to our detriment
You missed the point that a decision to move grounds, was taken before kronkie became the owner.
Dein wanted to move to Wembley – he was sacked for going behind the board.
Wenger was not blameless, but he kept us in the top four and winning cups, despite kronkie and gazidis.
We never received any adverse reaction from the media regarding the off field antics….unlike we have in the last few months.
You see it your way and I see it my way.
based on your above response, it’s clear that you didn’t fully comprehend my point either…no worries, as even though I can lead you directly to the “water”, I certainly can’t make you drink…I just wish you were a tad more open-minded on these matters, like you have been regarding the whole Arteta debate…Cheers
Perhaps if you didn’t waffle quite so much, your “point” might become clearer?
To the point young man, to the point.
if there’s one thing I’m not known for it’s waffling
You are now and that reminds me, how’s the article coming along… Yep more waffling.
that was the functional equivalent of “I know you are, but what am I”
how did things descend to such a ridiculous level, as I thought we were actually moving into a more cordial “agree to disagree” phase…oh well