Our defence was very makeshift in Arteta’s first match, and although Kieran Tieney is a long term absentee, and Sead Kolasinac will miss the next few games, the Boss will be assessing Bellerin and Holding’s recovery to see if they are available.
We have also lost Sokratis for this match due to concussion but at least we will have Calum Chambers back from suspension to fill the void, if Holding is not yet ready.
We have more good news with the fact that Dani Ceballos and Gabriel Martinelli are also back in training and will also be assessed ahead of today’s game.
Obviously not all these players will be deemed to be match fit and may remain on the injury list for now, but it is clear that Arteta will have many more choices when we move into the New Year. There is also a slim hope that we could be bringing in a couple of new faces in January, as Arteta told SkySports: “We need players back from injuries, first of all, to be more solid, more compact. And then we might need to do one or two things if the right players become available, to help us. But at the moment I am more concerned with getting the maximum out of the players available to us.”
The fact is that, despite our awful run of poor form, we do actually have a great squad of talented players. Now if Arteta can just get them motivated and hungry again, and we get most of our injured players off the injury list, we will definitely start winning games again.
Let us hope we get a great morale booster this afternoon…
Admin Pat