Arsenal have confirmed the 27-man squad that has travelled to Dubai for a warm-weather training camp and friendlies with Lyon and AC Milan.

Alongside familiar first team stars not involved in the World Cup, there are a host of academy youngsters with squad numbers running into the 90s.

Of note is the inclusion of Emile Smith Rowe who is stepping up his return to fitness following groin surgery in October. He’s been rehabbing in the United Arab Emirates and will be hoping to get some minutes under his belt ahead of a Premier League return.

As expected, Ben White has not travelled. The defender left England’s World Cup camp for personal reasons and will remain in the UK for the time being.

At the time of writing, Bukayo Saka, Aaron Ramsdale, Takehiro Tomiyasu, William Saliba, Gabriel Martinelli and Granit Xhaka remain on duty in Qatar.

We imagine Thomas Partey and Matt Turner, now that they have exited the competition, will be afforded some time off but could well join up with Arsenal before they return from Dubai.

After confirmation of his knee injury, Gabriel Jesus is facing a spell on the sidelines. Worryingly, it is suggested he may need surgery.

Full squad

3. Kieran Tierney
6. Gabriel Magalhaes
8. Martin Odegaard
10. Emile Smith-Rowe
14. Eddie Nketiah
16. Rob Holding
17. Cedric Soares
21. Fabio Vieira
23. Sambi Lokonga
24. Reiss Nelson
25. Mohamed Elneny
27. Marquinhos
31. Karl Hein (GK)
35. Alex Zinchenko
43. Nathan Butler-Oyedeji
44. Catalin Cirjan
50. Taylor Foran
53. Hubert Graczyk (GK)
56. James Hillson (GK)
63. Zane Monlouis
71. Charles Sagoe Jr
72. Matt Smith
81. Myles Lewis-Skelly
83. Ethan Nwaneri
85. Amario Cozier-Duberry
96. Lino Da Cruz Sousa
97. Reuell Walters

Watford came from behind to defeat Arsenal 4-2 in a behind-closed-doors friendly at London Colney yesterday afternoon.

Organised to give minutes to those players not taking part in the World Cup, it sounds like it was very much a game of two halves.

The Gunners started with a side made up of first team squad members and led at the break 2-1 courtesy of goals from Marquinhos and Eddie Nketiah.

Mikel Arteta then switched all of his outfield players for kids from the academy and the visitors promptly hit back to secure the win.

Judging by the highlights, Arsenal were well on top in the opening period of the match with Mo Elneny twice coming close, Eddie Nketiah flashing wide and Sambi Lokonga hitting the post. The pressure eventually told on 28 minutes when Marquinhos found the bottom corner with a curler from the edge of the box.

Watford hit back against the run of play as Keinan Davis took advantage of a gaffe by Gabriel Magalhaes to round keeper Karl Hein and slot home.

The Gunners recovered the lead quickly thanks to Eddie Nketiah’s close-range header following a fine cross by Kieran Tierney. We’ll need more of that from the striker given the concerning reports that Gabriel Jesus will be sidelined for three months.

The likes of Lino Sousa, Ethan Nwaneri and Matt Smith were all part of the academy lineup sent out for the second period and they came close to extending our advantage when Amario Cozier-Duberry hit the post with a header.

After that, Watford made their experience count with an unmarked Davies grabbing his second before Yaser Asprilla fired into the top corner. He was later replaced by Edu’s son, Luigi, who was back on familiar territory following his departure from the club in the summer. Joao Pedro’s solo effort rounded off the scoring on 77 minutes.

Arsenal’s warm-weather training camp in Dubai is next on the agenda. We assume everybody who took part yesterday will be on the plane today and could get another run out in four days when we face Lyon.

After that, it’s AC Milan on 13th December, Juventus on 17th December and soon enough the resumption of the Premier League.
__

Arsenal lineups: Hein (Graczyk 58), Cedric (Walters 46), Holding (Foran 46), Gabriel (Monlouis 46), Tierney (Sousa 46), Elneny (Lewis-Skelly 46), Lokonga (Nwaneri 46), Odegaard (Smith 46), Nelson (Butler-Oyedeji 46), Marquinhos (Sagoe Jr) 46), Nketiah (Cozier-Duberry 46). Subs not used: Awe, Cirjan, Ideho.

When Arsenal lost Kim Little and Beth Mead to injury in quick succession, they didn’t just lose two important players, they lost two players who a) top the minutes played ranking for each of the last four seasons and b) who play next to one another. Little is the right-sided central-midfielder and Beth Mead the right-winger.

Add to that that the right centre-half, Leah Williamson, has also been injured and, if you want to stretch the example, Laura Wienroither has taken over from Noelle Maritz as the first-choice right-back, you can see it’s a lot of change in a short space of time. When he spoke to Arseblog News after the game, Jonas Eidevall said his team were rebuilding some key relationships.

“I think it is interesting what you say about relationships on the pitch because that’s what you lose when players are injured, you don’t only lose quality, you lose the relationships between different positions and you have to build again and that is what we are doing at the moment.” Here are some of the issues Arsenal came up against in the Everton match that demonstrate some lost fluidity, even if the team put up an XG of 3.3 and ought to have won this game more comfortably.

McCabe has played on the right for Arsenal to devastating effect before, most notably during Arsenal’s title-winning season. Since Jonas Eidevall arrived, Beth Mead has had that right-sided spot on lockdown. Obviously, McCabe, as a left-footer, will play the role differently to Mead as a more inverted winger. Here, Wienroither receives the ball from Wubben-Moy and we can see McCabe in the half-space we are used to seeing Mead operate in.

But because McCabe is left-footed, she wants the ball to feet here so she can chop inside on her left foot. Wienroither plays the ball in-behind, which Mead would have wanted. Neither player is incorrect here, it’s a simple misunderstanding based on muscle memory.

It’s similar in this scenario a few seconds later. Blackstenius holds the ball up on the edge of the area. She is used to Mead, a right-footer, making a run in behind the left-back here. McCabe’s left-footedness means she wants to hang back and get the ball into feet so she can cut in. Again, she isn’t wrong for doing that, it’s just that Blackstenius cannot have played many games for Arsenal where it wasn’t Mead outside her on the right, she is used to Mead’s movements.

Blackstenius hesitates because her muscle memory is telling her to expect Mead to run in behind and, in that half-second’s hesitation, she loses possession.

Arsenal had some issues playing out on their right-side in the first half too. Here Wubben-Moy rolls the ball back to Zinsberger, as is very normal.

Zinsberger is well closed down by the Everton front line but on Arsenal’s right-side, nobody is in the shot as Zinsberger looks to play to that side, which means the spacing isn’t quite right, there are too many players on the touchline.

Stenevik easily gobbles up the clearance and, again, you can just about see McCabe at the bottom of the screen but Wienroither and Wubben-Moy are not. Again, nobody is guilty of an egregious error here, it’s just a slight spacing error borne of unfamiliarity.

It leads to Everton’s best chance of the game but Wubben-Moy does brilliantly to recover and blocks Jess Park’s shot.

From the resulting goal kick, we see Wubben-Moy and Walti in conversation, potentially just sorting out some positional tweaks.

As Arsenal shape up for that goal kick, we see Walti moving over to the right, presumably the conversation was about Wubben-Moy holding a more central position in case Arsenal were exposed in transition, with Walti providing a connecting line to Arsenal’s right-hand side. On this occasion, Zinsberger plays the ball to the left in any case. It’s just an example of players having to sort some issues in-game that, with more games together in those specific positions, they would already know through muscle memory.

Here we see Wubben-Moy misplace a pass to McCabe.

A routine possession error most likely as the ball is played behind McCabe.

In the aftermath, we see McCabe signalling to Wienroither that she was expecting Laura to be in that position so that McCabe could push on. Again, no player is wildly in the wrong here, it’s just a case of learning to understand one another’s movements in real time.

But what starts to happen is that the players on the right begin to develop that muscle memory. McCabe is less likely to run in behind as a left-footer on the right, she is going to want to get on the ball and that makes her more of a playmaker. Soon enough the players start to subconsciously absorb this. Here Wienroither passes confidently into Miedema from right-back.

Miedema protects the ball and comes back to Walti and she immediately looks for Blackstenius in the right channel.

You can see where McCabe is as Walti looks for Blackstenius, she wants to come in off that flank onto her left foot, that means she is more of a wide playmaker. That being the case, she will come short for the ball and when players do that, they can attract defenders to them, thus leaving space in behind. That’s what happens here, George follows McCabe inside which gives Blackstenius space to hit the channel. Unfortunately, the pass hits the back of her heel.

A minute later, we see a far more fluid interchange. McCabe is in-field, as you would expect from an inverted winger. Wienroither has no hesitation in the pass.

McCabe touches the ball back to Walti and look at Blackstenius’ position.

Walti tries to hit the right channel. The pass is overhit but we have seen the exact same pattern from Arsenal twice in a minute on this side. Wienroither has fully assimilated that McCabe will want to show for the ball on her left foot. Miedema has understood that McCabe wants to drift into playmaking areas, so she has decided to let her do that and to behave more like a forward. By drifting into these areas, McCabe will take a defender with her and that creates space for Miedema to run into. It’s not a big coincidence that Miedema scores two minutes later, she has understood that McCabe will naturally find those spaces between the lines rather than running behind the full-back, so Miedema decides to start making more runs in behind the Everton defence to stretch them.

The footwork from Viv is just #BarclaysWSL @ArsenalWFCpic.twitter.com/dVC4utJuod

— Barclays Women's Super League (@BarclaysWSL) December 3, 2022

And when you look at the winning goal, it’s built on the right. Wienroither doesn’t hesitate in playing the ball in-field and whips a quick cross-field ball into the area for Foord and Miedema is on hand to do her thing in the area. That’s three times in the space of two minutes where Arsenal have started attacks by Wienroither passing in-field, whereas had Mead been playing she might ordinarily have expected to veer more towards the touchline.

The ball makes its way back to Wubben-Moy here. The screencaps don’t do it justice but the ball moves faster. Wubben-Moy is happy to go in-field to Walti here because she knows that McCabe will be in-field too.

Again, McCabe comes short to the ball off the flank. She isn’t going to run in behind, she wants the ball on her left foot.

There’s no hesitance from Walti, who just bumps the ball off to McCabe and she switches the play to Foord on the left. There’s less hesitance now, the players expect to go in-field on this side.

Here, Wubben-Moy dribbles the ball out of right centre-half. McCabe comes short again and Wubben-Moy is not surprised to see this but she is already looking at spreading the ball over to the left. Nothing earth shattering is happening here, it’s just that the right-side is getting used to McCabe’s movements on the right as opposed to Mead’s.

This pass map, courtesy of Statsbomb, shows you the pass network and you can see that McCabe is more connected to the midfielders than the forwards because her tendency as an inverted winger is to show for the ball rather than to run in behind.

This is Arsenal’s pass map from the previous game at Meadow Park, against West Ham- a reasonably comparable opponent and we see that Mead is more connected to the forwards.

In this game, Vivianne Miedema showed her intelligence to adapt to in-game situations, she started pushing on once she realised that McCabe would take up the playmaking areas between the lines. Miedema ended the game with seven shots, six of which were on target. The first of those was her goal on 24 minutes, that shows you that she adapted to the in-game situation. Arsenal had some small misunderstandings on the right which they sorted after 20 minutes or so.

The news regarding Gabriel Jesus goes from bad to worse.

After initial worries about him needing a scan, the Arsenal forward was then reportedly set to miss up to a month with a knee injury.

This evening, further information has come to light suggesting the Brazilian could be out for up to 3 months as it’s said he requires surgery on his knee problem.

Gabriel Jesus three months out. Will need to have surgery on his knee. He’s flying to London on Sunday 3pm to begin his recovery. Really bad news https://t.co/DuDDcDN29n

— Renato (@rehnato) December 3, 2022

It’s obviously a big problem for Arsenal and Mikel Arteta, but with the break between now and the opening of the January transfer window, there is time to react.

The Gunners resume Premier League action against West Ham on December 26th, and face Newcastle, Sp*rs and Man Utd in January.

It feels like reinforcements will be required. Let’s see what happens, and let’s hope GJ can recovery quickly. A bit of Elneny DNA might be useful.

Leah Williamson returned from a two-month injury lay-off during Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Everton on Saturday afternoon. Leah came on as a 67th minute substitute to rapturous applause from the home crowd. Leah spoke to a couple of us post-match, the first three questions are from Arseblog News.

On whether the injury gave her a welcome chance to refresh…
I think I needed it. I wasn’t in the best place so I’ve used this time to – I said I had to get something out of this; I’m injured, I can’t play so I’ve used it to my advantage as best I can and got myself back on track.

On rehabbing alongside centre-half partner Rafaelle…
I love the girl honesty. We spend most days together, me, her and Teyah (Goldie) have been a right little crew. But for me and Rafa it’s made the rehab drills a little bit easier, we’re both centre halves so we’re just working in a partnership like we do on the pitch so it’s been nice.

How’s your Portuguese?
Yeah not great. I keep asking for words but she says we have to start with the basics so…

On whether this felt like a comfortable win…
I was saying that for your return you don’t really want to come on as a defender 1-0 up but the team had it under control, it was good. I think that was the message at half time and stuff. At the end it got a little bit hairy but you expect that when they’re throwing everything at it so I think the girls did good today, really good.

One of our own, @leahcwilliamson pic.twitter.com/z8P5H5TwMb

— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) December 3, 2022

On the reception from the crowd when she came on…
It is nice. It’s nice because you come back in, the girls have been great, I just want to keep delivering on what they’ve been doing. So to in and people be happy about that so to speak is not a bad feeling.

On how her teammates have done in her absence…
Yeah I think it’s that element of control. The girls have done an amazing job. There’s been some incredible results in there. Obviously the loss to United, we wanted to come back and start again kind of thing. It’s been good, it’s been great; it’s a nice feeling when you’re injured and you’re fighting to get back in and as soon as I come back in I felt well off the pace which is great because it means the team’s firing and hopefully catching up a little now.

On making her 200th Arsenal appearance…
It means everything. Very proud. Very grateful. What am I, 25? I’ve probably also been out for the accumulation of about three years as well so it feels like I’ve been here forever. 200 appearances is a nice milestone to get to.

Arsenal were 1-0 winners against Everton in the WSL on Saturday afternoon thanks to a first half goal from Vivianne Miedema. Jonas Eidevall spoke to the press post-match, the first three questions are from Arseblog News.

On whether the game was nervier than necessary towards the end…
Yes, of course but that is always the case when you don’t score the second goal, that they will throw everything up. You either score the second goal or you have to defend those situations. I am a bit disappointed with that part, that we didn’t put the game to rest earlier because we had the chances to do it.

On swapping Lia Walti and Frida Maanum’s positions over after half-time…
In general, our thinking is that Lia is better on the left and Frida on the right. Sometimes in football you end up in different positions. I think you could see quite clearly in the second half when Wally is on the left and Frida on the right they are both getting more out of their games than the other way around. I think it is interesting what you say about relationships on the pitch because that’s what you lose when players are injured, you don’t only lose quality, you lose the relationships between different positions and you have to build again and that is what we are doing at the moment.

On starting Jen Beattie today...
There are a lot of layers. It was important to me to prioritise our most forward like wide players against their wide players, so my choices were Caitlin Foord and Katie McCabe. After that, the other pieces fell into place. But that was important with the way Everton play.

Vintage @VivianneMiedema #BarclaysWSL @ArsenalWFC pic.twitter.com/dVC4uu15MN

— Barclays Women's Super League (@BarclaysWSL) December 3, 2022

On getting Leah Williamson and Rafaelle back in the squad…
Both very important players in our squad, I think the players that have been playing while they have been away have been playing very, very well. I hope Leah and Rafa feel they are stepping into a strong environment and a strong competition that has increased during their time out. That is beneficial for all of us.

On whether he felt comfortable during the game…
It’s different, you feel comfortable if you have nothing to lose from it! If you want to know how I feel inside, it’s better to ask Tim how he feels! I felt ok until the last five minutes, there i thought it was unnecessary to be in that position. Some things we did well, we defended the setpieces really well, but giving away the setpieces….we can’t do that. It’s their best opportunity to get crosses in we need to be more disciplined in how we defend there. We weren’t punished today but we need to learn from it.

On Everton goalkeeper Emily Ramsey’s performance…
Some of them were really good saves, some of them the finishes weren’t quite good enough.

On the overall performance…
One of the things I am really pleased with is that they set out in a slightly different way than we thought, we had a hard time getting a hold of them in their build up in the first 20 minutes of the game. But together with the players, we managed to figure out how we are going to change our structure, after that we were very solid in our pressing. That requires that we have players who are fresh and want to take responsibility and Viv is a big part of that.

1.Zinsberger; 26.Wienroither (16.Maritz ‘68), 3.Wubben-Moy, 5.Beattie (6.Williamson ‘68), 7.Catley; 13.Walti, 12.Maanum, 11.Miedema; 15.McCabe(c), 19.Foord, 25.Blackstenius (8.Nobbs ‘75).

Leah Williamson and Rafaelle both start on the bench for this afternoon’s WSL clash against Everton after both have been out for just over two months.

There is a change in defence as Jen Beattie starts at centre-half alongside Lotte Wubben-Moy with Steph Catley at left-back and Katie McCabe, who captains the side, playing on the right.

Laura Wienroither continues at right-back, while Caitlin Foord starts on the left wing with Blackstenius through the middle. The game is being streamed live on Arsenal.com.

1.Zinsberger; 26.Wienroither, 3.Wubben-Moy, 5.Beattie, 7.Catley; 13.Walti, 12.Maanum, 11.Miedema; 15.McCabe(c), 19.Foord, 25.Blackstenius.

Subs: 2.Rafaelle, 5.Beattie, 6.Williamson, 8.Nobbs, 16.Maritz, 18.Marckese, 23.Iwabuchi, 59.Agyemang.

It is being reported this morning that Gabriel Jesus is set to miss the rest of the World Cup due to a knee injury sustained in the 1-0 defeat to Cameroon last night.

The 25 year old was due for a scan today, and it seems that the news is not good for the Arsenal man. It should be noted that this not yet official, but appears to be coming from well placed sources.

Má notícia para o Brasil!

Exames apontam lesões, e Gabriel Jesus e Alex Telles estão fora da Copa #genacopa pic.twitter.com/z7NrZXjF6b

— ge (@geglobo) December 3, 2022

It’s a blow for the player, and obviously a worry for Mikel Arteta. Jesus has been an important cog in his table topping machine, and being without him for any sustained period of time would be a significant blow

More on this as we get it, and in the meantime keep everything crossed that it’s not too serious. The report says he could be out for up to a month, so it’s not impossible that he could be fit again by December 26th when we face West Ham in our first post-World Cup fixture.

Gabriel Jesus will have a scan of his right knee today amid concerns he suffered an injury during Brazil’s 1-0 defeat to Cameroon last night.

The Arsenal striker was handed his first start of the World Cup but was relatively muted in his 64 minutes on the pitch managing one shot on target and just 11 passes. 

Given it was an opportunity to try and usurp Richarlison, it didn’t exactly go to plan.

Afterwards, team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar revealed: “Gabriel Jesus after the game complained of pain in his right knee and after clinical assessment, we have asked for an imaging exam tomorrow.”

As far as we’re aware, Jesus didn’t require treatment on the bench, nor do pictures show him with any ice or strapping applied to his knee after the game. All the same, if there is an issue, he doesn’t have much time to recover. Brazil’s last 16 clash with South Korea takes place on Monday.

Given Tite is also without Neymar – the PSG striker is still recovering from an ankle problem picked up in the first game – Brazil’s much-vaunted attacking strength in depth is being tested.

Whenever you hear of a potential knee injury, it tends to send shudders down the spine, so we’re wishing Gabi a swift recovery. There are 25 days until Arsenal are back in action.

After a manic couple of weeks full of surprise results and last-gasp drama, the group stages of the 2022 World Cup are done and dusted.

From an Arsenal perspective, only Thomas Partey has been eliminated while Ben White has returned to England for personal reasons. That means eight Gunners will be in the knockout rounds which start tomorrow. Here’s how the last few days played out…

Bukayo Saka

Benched for the game against Wales, he watched replacement Phil Foden grab a goal sandwiched between a brace by Marcus Rashford. The result sealed top spot for Gareth Southgate’s side who now face Senegal on Sunday.
Total minutes played: 149 (exc. stoppage time)

Aaron Ramsdale

Another game, another 90 minutes on the bench. Unless there’s an injury to Jordan Pickford it’s hard to see our man getting game time from here on out.
Total minutes played: 0

Ben White

Word coming out of the camp ahead of the Wales game was that White was struggling with illness. After the game, the FA said the defender was leaving Qatar and not expected to return. We don’t know the reason and we’re not going to speculate but we hope he’s ok.
Total minutes played: 0

Matt Turner

The USA progressed to the knockout rounds with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Iran. Christian Pulisic scored the decisive goal seven minutes before the break and took a kick in the goolies for his troubles. Turner’s second clean sheet of the group stages sealed a last-16 tie with the Netherlands on Saturday afternoon.
Total minutes played: 270 (exc. stoppage time)

Multiple #USMNT clean sheets at a @FIFAWorldCup:

Jimmy Douglas @headdturnerr pic.twitter.com/CGu1eVGlvs

— U.S. Men's National Soccer Team (@USMNT) November 30, 2022

Takehiro Tomiyasu

After missing Japan’s shock defeat to Costa Rica with a slight hamstring injury, Tomi started on the bench against Spain. He was sent on with 21 minutes remaining to see out a famous victory that sealed top spot in Group E. Alvaro Morata had put Spain ahead after 11 minutes but two goals in three minutes just after the break by Ritsu Doan and Ao Tanaka completed a remarkable turnaround. Japan will face Croatia on Monday afternoon.
Total minutes played: 66 (exc. stoppage time)

Wow, Japan!

An amazing achievement as they win group E.

Congratulations to current PFA members Takehiro Tomiyasu & Kaoru Mitoma. pic.twitter.com/sXTCDNRGnH

— Professional Footballers' Association (@PFA) December 1, 2022

William Saliba

The 21-year-old finally made his World Cup bow as a second half substitute as France went down 1-0 to Tunisia. Wahbi Khazri gave the unfancied Africans the lead five minutes before Wilo’s introduction and they just about held onto the advantage as VAR ruled out Antoine Griezmann’s stoppage time equaliser. Australia’s win over Denmark in the other game saw them progress behind France, who will play Poland on Sunday afternoon.
Total minutes played: 27 (exc. stoppage time)

Thomas Partey

Ghana’s big grudge match with Luis Suarez’s Uruguay didn’t go to plan for either side. After Andre Ayew’s early penalty miss, the South Americans sealed a 2-0 win but still missed out on qualification as South Korea stunned Portugal in stoppage time to snatch second place. Frustrated at the referee’s decision not to award a late penalty, the Uruguayans completely lost it after the final whistle with Edison Cavani punching the VAR monitor. All very funny. Thomas will have a couple of weeks to get over his disappointment before reporting for Arsenal training in Dubai in a couple of weeks’ time.
Total minutes played: 270 (exc. stoppage time)

Gabriel Martinelli

Brazil may have lost in stoppage time to Cameroon but Martinelli’s first start for his country was very promising. Playing on the left side of the attack, the 21-year-old was a willing runner with the ball and created several chances for himself to score. We might be biased but we thought he was the Seleçao’s best player on the night and hope he gets more opportunities in the knockout stages.
Total minutes played: 93 (exc. stoppage time)

Martinelli has been causing havoc down that left side #CMR #BRA pic.twitter.com/y2IrMnaf9j

— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 2, 2022

Gabriel Jesus

Asked to lead the line in place of Richarlison, Gabi was full of energy but rarely offered a threat in the final third. He’s not scored a competitive goal for Brazil since the final of the 2019 Copa America and he’s not scored any goal for either club or country since the north London derby on 1 October. You sense it’s playing on his mind. Brazil play South Korea on Monday and we suspect he’ll be back on the bench.
Total minutes played: 92 (exc. stoppage time)

Granit Xhaka

Needing a win to confirm a place in the knockout stages, Switzerland took the lead and then had to come from behind on their way to a 3-2 victory in a pulsating encounter with Serbia. As an ethnic Albanian with a history of winding up the Serbs, it was little surprise to see Xhaka, who was voted man of the match, leading the shithousery in the closing stages. While there was no double eagle celebration this time, he was no less fired up about things and even seemed to want to fight his own teammates after the final whistle. Hopefully, he calms down before Switzerland face Portugal on Tuesday.
Total minutes played: 270 (exc. stoppage time)

Ladies and Gentlemen… your Player of the Match ©#natimiteuch #lanatiavecvous #lanaticonvoi pic.twitter.com/zGE8Rh4hKc

— Nati (@nati_sfv_asf) December 2, 2022

Jonas Eidevall was delighted to confirm that centre-halves Leah Williamson and Rafaelle will return to the squad for Saturday’s WSL game at home to Everton.

Rafaelle sustained a metatarsal injury in the win over Ajax in late September while Leah Williamson picked up an ankle ligament injury a few days later while training with England.

The Gunners have coped without their two first-choice centre-halves for the last two months and Eidevall says their return is timely for a number of reasons not just related to team selection.

“When I see us practice and these two players come into our environment again, it helps us a lot. We get two players of very high quality and that will boost any team and it certainly does for us.

“When you see a player like Leah come into the environment you can see the qualities she will bring, both on and off the ball and with her leadership- it’s the same with Rafa, it’s two quality players.”

Williamson and Rafaelle both captained their countries to continental titles over the summer and Eidevall said that the club and the players decided to use the injuries to give the players a little time off to mentally recuperate during their recovery.

“Leah is very motivated to get back onto the pitch and help the team. I sense that the motivation is really strong with all the injured players. I think you have to do the best with any hand that you are dealt, if you are dealt an injury you have to do the best with it.

“In that process, when she was unavailable, we tried to prioritise not only her physical recovery but also helping with the mental part of the game, with getting some time off and not being in a strict team environment to allow for some more freedom in the time planning.

“I think we have to remember that with National Team players, especially when they go far in tournaments in the summer, they don’t get any free time. Any human being living a life like that over a long period, I think that will restrict your motivation, so it’s really important that we planned for that as well.

“It doesn’t matter how much you love your job, you always need to take vacation to reconnect, that is something that is deeply human.”

Leah Williamson back training at Arsenal. Had been over in Dubai doing rehab work there with Elite Sports Performance, who have worked with likes of Emile Smith Rowe in past. https://t.co/HEyfCvdbFX

— Simon Collings (@sr_collings) November 17, 2022

Eidevall was asked whether he felt the playing schedule, which is increasing in elite women’s football, had anything to do with the injuries, especially as Rafaelle and Williamson played so much football during the summer. Eidevall says that isn’t the only factor but suggested more needs to be done to protect players.

“It could be how you travel to games, how well you recover and sleep between games. It could be things like the support structure in clubs, with access to doctors and physios and individualised training and loading programmes.

“The co-operation between club teams and National Teams. The more demands we put on the players with the schedule the more support we need to be able to give them.”

Despite playing without their two first-choice centre-halves for eight weeks, the coach is pleased with how his team have adapted and has warned that further adaption will be required.

“So far we have managed a difficult period in a very good way but let’s not relax, we are not done with it. I told the players that today when I selected the squad for tomorrow, I said it is great that we are getting players back but it also means that whenever we get players back, it’s a new team so we need to keep doing the basics and remembering our identity.

“It’s similar when we come back from the international periods, we need to start building from the basics and not from the top.”

THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal are back in WSL action on Saturday afternoon as they take on Everton at Meadow Park. The game is being played on Saturday as opposed to Sunday to give Jonas Eidevall’s team more time to prepare for Wednesday’s Champions League clash against Juventus at the Emirates. The Gunners will be looking to recover from their first league defeat of the season against Manchester United a fortnight ago.

The team has had some much-needed time off following their 1-1 draw with Juventus in Turin last Thursday, with the players being given the subsequent weekend off to recharge. The Gunners have been operating with a small squad in recent weeks with injuries piling up, though Leah Williamson and Rafaelle return to the match day squad for this game.

New: Jonas Eidevall reacts to 1-1 draw Juventus https://t.co/RqxgTdhxtK #arsenal #afc pic.twitter.com/wQEKlILY4d

— arseblognews (@arseblognews) November 24, 2022

Arsenal have made short work of Everton in recent seasons but now coached by Brian Sorensen, the Toffees do appear to be a less supplicant opponent in this campaign. This is Arsenal’s penultimate league game before the Christmas break and they will hope to boast a meatier squad when they face Chelsea on 15th January.

There has been a sense of ‘just trying to get through’ both this and the Aston Villa game next weekend following the defeat to Manchester United. The second half of the season sees the Gunners face Manchester City and Chelsea twice and Manchester United away, they will want as many points on the board as possible in the more forgiving half of the campaign.

TEAM NEWS
Leah Williamson and Rafaelle will return to the squad after ankle and foot injuries respectively. Lina Hurtig is out with a hamstring injury but should return before Christmas, while Teyah Goldie is stepping up her recovery from an ACL injury in March. Beth Mead will miss the remainder of the season with an ACL problem while Kim Little is out until the New Year with an MCL injury.

Available squad
GOALKEEPERS: 1.Zinsberger, 18.Marckese, 40.Williams
DEFENDERS: 2.Rafaelle, 3.Wubben-Moy, 5.Beattie, 6.Williamson, 7.Catley, 16.Maritz, 26.Wienroither
MIDFIELDERS: 8.Nobbs, 12.Maanum, 13.Wälti, 15.McCabe, 23.Iwabuchi, 61.Earl
FORWARDS: 11.Miedema, 19.Foord, 25.Blackstenius, 59.Agyemang

A WORD FROM THE BOSS
Everton have had a real change in expectations, I think. I have only been here for 18 months but when I came, it was about how Everton were going to compete for Champions League qualification. Now that’s not really the expectation. I don’t think they have lost a huge amount of players from the team that was going to challenge for the top three, they have a very good team. But they are playing more relaxed now because they don’t have the expectation on them. I think that has helped their performances and it shows why it is important to match expectations with reality in a performance sport like football.

LAST TIME OUT
When the teams met at Meadow Park last season, Arsenal ran out 3-0 winners with goals from Katie McCabe, Lotte Wubben-Moy and Frida Maanum. The most recent fixture between the sides came in April at Walton Hall Park, Arsenal were also 3-0 winners in that match with goals from Caitlin Foord, Beth Mead and Jordan Nobbs.

THE OPPOSITION
In recent seasons, Everton Women have genuflected the strategy of the men’s side. Plenty of investment but very little in the way of strategy. Every summer seemed to see enormous turnover of players in and out and every summer, the coach was gluing a new team together from scratch, trying to make sense of talented, yet ill-fitting parts. The best performing of those parts, like Hayley Raso and Chloe Kelly, were gobbled up by the bigger WSL clubs.

There does seem to have been a difference in emphasis this season, after finishing in an incredibly disappointing 10th place last season, a campaign that saw them burn through three different coaches. They appointed Danish coach Brian Sorensen and their summer transfer business had an emphasis on youth and development.

They took Jess Park on loan from Manchester City, Aggie Beever-Jones on loan from Chelsea, Gio Queiroz on loan from Arsenal and goalkeeper Emily Ramsey on loan from Manchester United. Whether this means that Everton have accepted their lot as sitting just below the WSL elite and have opted to give the coach younger, more malleable tools to work with or whether they want to become a more aspirational team for younger talent remains to be seen. But Everton look a more serious outfit this season.

A win on the road! #SHUEVE | #ContiCup pic.twitter.com/6uwx4czkRG

— Everton Women (@EvertonWomen) November 28, 2022

PLAYER TO WATCH
Frida Maanum is probably Arsenal’s in-form player at this moment in time. After an imperious display away at Lyon, the Norwegian muscled her way into the number 10 role ahead of Vivianne Miedema, which is no mean feat. Of course, since then, Arsenal have lost Kim Little, their nominal number 8, to injury.

On the back of the defeat to Manchester United, Jonas Eidevall told Arseblog News, “We are building again, block by block. We cannot continue building something we had five weeks ago. I think I made a mistake with the United game, even though the time was short (to prepare).” At Juve, he moved Jordan Nobbs from the number eight role to wide right, moved Maanum to number eight and played Miedema ahead of her.

After the Juve game, Arseblog News asked Eidevall about this tactical adjustment, “i could see we might lose something offensively because she has been playing so well in the number 10 position. But i don’t think we did, we had some really good moments with her taking space with the ball and you can see she is playing with a lot of self-confidence and turning, facing forward with the ball. Her performance pleased me a lot tonight.”

I think we can assume, from that, that Maanum will continue in the number eight position against Everton, a club she came very close to signing for last summer. Her ability in tight spaces and to carry the ball most closely resembles Little of the options available and it sounds as though that position will be Maanum’s in Little’s absence, with Miedema in the team just ahead of her.

PREDICTED LINE-UP

Subs: 2.Rafaelle, 5.Beattie, 6.Williamson, 16.Maritz, 18.Marckese, 23.Iwabuchi, 40.Williams, 59.Agyemang, 61.Earl.

HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The game takes place at Meadow Park at 2pm on Saturday and it will be shown live on the FA Player app and website. You can find the website here, just register an account and you can watch the game for free, wherever you are in the world (bar Israel for reasons I don’t entirely understand). Do register an account well before kick-off, it tends to be quite slow going if you log in five minutes before kick-off.

Arsenal have confirmed that our FA Cup third round match at Oxford United will take place on Monday 9th January and will be broadcast in the UK on ITV1.

The trip to the Kassam Stadium falls halfway between a home match against Newcastle and the north London derby at Sp*rs. Those matches take place on the 3rd and 15th of January respectively.

The U’s, who are currently 13th in League One, have progressed to this stage of the competition after wins over Woking and Exeter. Karl Robinson’s squad includes ex-Gunner Marcus McGuane who left the Emirates for Barcelona in 2018.

We last faced them in 2003 when an own goal and a strike from Dennis Bergkamp secured a 2-0 win for Arsene Wenger’s side at Highbury.

The Premier League International Cup isn’t the most high profile of the competitions which Arsenal U21s are involved in, but it is certainly a beneficial tournament for development.

This week Arsenal suffered a 1-0 defeat at home to Sparta Prague and the game posed a real challenge for Mehmet Ali’s team as they were faced with different tactical problems which they don’t usually have to deal with in league games.

Matches in this competition are often very hard-fought and not as open as usual.

Arsenal’s cause wasn’t helped by the fact that they were without a host of key players, but for those who were involved it was certainly a useful exercise, and Ali gave debuts to four U18 players who featured as substitutes, with Mathaeus Roberts, Osman Kamara, Seb Ferdinand and Ismail Oulad M’Hand all coming on.

Jack Henry-Francis, who captained the team, made an impact in midfield, and there was also an encouraging performance at right-back from Josh Robinson, who is striving to earn a professional contract.

Arsenal’s hopes of progressing to the knockout stages of this competition suffered a blow with this defeat, but the overall experience will have benefited the players immensely.

Centre-back Zach Awe has featured prominently for the U21s this season and is now approaching the stage where a loan move could be required. The 18-year-old received a callup to the first-team squad last season against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

As we approach the halfway point of the season, there are plenty of positives to take for Arsenal U21s, who are top of the league, although there was frustration in being eliminated from the Papa Johns Trophy.

Next up is a Premier League Cup game at home to Burnley next Friday.

—

Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird

Arsenal have announced a post-tax loss of £45.5 million for the year ended 31 May 2022.

While a loss of this magnitude is concerning, the results mark a considerable improvement on the £107.3 million loss registered this time last year after the club had been badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Gunners’ lack of European football in 2021/22 has been identified as the “principal contributory factor in terms of the overall result for the year”. In essence, if we’d been in a UEFA competition the broadcast revenue and ticket sales probably would have seen us break even.

Overall, football revenue for the year was £369.1 million; up £41.5 million on 2021. This was down to fans being able to attend 23 domestic games with an average attendance listed as 59,568.

The club also make a point of underlining KSE’s position on squad strengthening after two summers of investment on the player front.

“This investment recognises that the Club has not been where it wanted to be in terms of on-field competitiveness and that, as a minimum, qualification for UEFA competition needed to be regained, as a pre-requisite to re-establishing a self-sufficient financial base. This investment would not have been possible without the support and commitment of the Club’s ownership, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment.”

You can read the club’s full statement, here.

TOPLINE FIGURES

Matchday revenue

Slightly lower than pre-pandemic levels but presumably that’s down to fewer home matches as a result of being out of Europe and not progressing far in the cups. We’d expect this to grow next year given Europa League football and the 4% season ticket price increase.

Broadcast revenue

Higher than 2020 as a result of increased PL deals domestically and abroad but lower than 2021 when we were in Europe. Also, there were more games in the last financial year because of the way the pandemic delayed the season. Qualify for Europe this year (hopefully the Champions League) and we should see a nice jump on this front this time next year.

Commercial revenue

Hovering around same level as 2020 and slightly higher than last year. The adidas deal has just been renewed (terms unclear but could be more performance based than in the past) and we fully expect Emirates to further commit to the club in the near future. Current deals end in 2024 so unclear whether revised terms would be seen on the books next year.

Wages

Clearly we’ve been making an effort to bring these down. The club specifically mention “a process of restructuring the men’s first-team squad to improve the efficiency of spend.” We have a number of young players on ‘legacy’ deals – Saliba, Martinelli and Saka – all of whom will be expecting big pay rises. There will also be chunky bonuses to be paid if we happen to make the Champions League. Hard to say at this point whether wages will creep up again, but it’s likely.

Player sales

Not an area we’ve excelled in for a while. The club continue to claim it’s down to being “adversely impacted by market conditions”. That’s probably true but we’ve also not helped ourselves in the recent past with the way player contracts have run down. Looking at the current squad, we’re in a much better position on that front so if we do need to sell, hopefully we hold the upper hand in negotiations.

Player loans

Given how many players we’ve sent out on loan in the last year, it’s a remarkably low figure. Perhaps we don’t want long-term development to be hindered by bartering over fees. Never usually that high, as you can see by the last five years.

Net finance charges

Significantly down on last year where KSE paid a big chunk of cash to refinance the outstanding stadium debt repayments and lower than what we’d been paying in the years prior.

__

No doubt, @Swissramble will be grabbing his abacus and sharpening his pencil. We look forward to reading his analysis in due course. He’s moving away from Twitter threads so you’ll need to register for his FREE newsletter. Details below.

In future I will be posting my football finance analysis on Substack, so no more lengthy Twitter threads filling your timeline

Subscription to the newsletter is free (at least while I still have a day job). First post tomorrow. You can find me here:https://t.co/VZbocjzPNm

— Swiss Ramble (@SwissRamble) November 21, 2022

Ben White has left Qatar and the 2022 World Cup to return home.

In a statement on the FA website, ‘personal reasons’ are cited as the cause for his early departure.

The full statement reads:

Ben White has left England’s training base in Al Wakrah and returned home for personal reasons.

The Arsenal defender is not expected to return to the squad for the remainder of the tournament.

We ask that the player’s privacy is respected at this moment in time.

The 24 year old didn’t feature in England’s first two games, and missed Tuesday’s 3-0 win over Spain Wales due to illness.

Newcastle United have confirmed that their match with Arsenal at the Emirates will kick off 15 minutes earlier than previously scheduled.

Back in October, Sky Sports selected the match for broadcast in the UK and moved it to Tuesday 3rd January with an 8pm start.

For an unknown reason, they’ve since lobbied the Premier League for a 7.45pm kick-off and had their request accepted. What power they wield.

Is this the drabbest story we’ve ever written? Quite possibly.

After four matches a day for more than a week, we’re both behind in our World Cup round-ups and frazzled by the amount of football that’s been played.

After a while, it all starts to blur into a non-stop montage of goals and emotional fan close-ups soundtracked by a jaunty Ally McCoist.

Anyway, here’s what the Arsenal boys have been up to…

BUKAYO SAKA

Having starred against Iran, Bukayo was comparatively muted against the USA. He did tee up ex-Arsenal striker Harry Kane early doors but on a night when England’s best player was Harry Maguire, he wasn’t the only one to underperform. England remain top of Group B ahead of Tuesday’s clash with Wales.
Total minutes played: 149 (exc. stoppage time)

AARON RAMSDALE

He’ll be annoyed that his teammates didn’t get the job done against the USA because a dead rubber group game might just have been his best chance of World Cup minutes.
Total minutes played: 0

BEN WHITE

Another 90 minutes of his life was wasted watching football. Apparently, he’s now ‘ill’ so he may well escape bench-warming duty on Tuesday.
Total minutes played: 0

MATT TURNER

Made a very decent stop low to his right to deny Mason Mount in the first half of his country’s 0-0 draw with England. Spent much of the second half twiddling his thumbs as the game petered out. A win against Iran will see the USA progress to the knockout stages.
Total minutes played: 180 (exc. stoppage time)

WILLIAM SALIBA

On the bench again as his country overcame Denmark 2-1 courtesy of Kylian Mbappe’s brace. With qualification assured, it’s likely Didier Deschamps will shuffle his pack for the game with Tunisia. If he does, Saliba is in with a chance of some game time.
Total minutes played: 0

TAKEHIRO TOMIYASU

In the aftermath of Japan’s incredible win over Germany, Tomiyasu revealed he’d tweaked a hamstring and would likely miss the match with Costa Rica. While he was fit enough to take up a place on the bench, he wasn’t risked as his countrymen were downed 1-0. Japan face Spain in their final game with all four sides in Group E still able to qualify for the knockout stages.
Total minutes played: 45 (exc. stoppage time)

THOMAS PARTEY

Ghana are still in with a chance of making the knockout stages after a couple of goal-laden matches. They went down 3-2 to Portugal in a game that was 0-0 after the hour-mark and then beat South Korea 3-2, recovering their composure after letting a two-goal lead slip. Their fate will be decided against Uruguay; the country that cheated them out of a place in the 2010 semi-finals. It’s sure to be a spicy affair.
Total minutes played: 180 (exc. stoppage time)

GRANIT XHAKA

Talismanic for Switzerland at last year’s Euros and in fine form for Arsenal, the scene was set for Xhaka to take his third World Cup by storm. It hasn’t really panned out that way. He’s been quiet in both the 1-0 win over Cameroon and the 1-0 defeat to Brazil. Given his Albanian roots (and THE incident in 2018), something tells us, he’ll be up for their last group game with Serbia.
Total minutes played: 180 (exc. stoppage time)

GABRIEL JESUS

A late substitute in the wins over Serbia and Switzerland, he’ll be hoping for more game time now that Tite’s side have secured safe passage to the knockout rounds. The highlight so far was probably the way he chased down and dispossessed Granit Xhaka in the dying seconds of this evening’s win. Given the Swiss had said he’d have no qualms giving him a ‘smash’ if necessary, he couldn’t help but laugh at the tenacity shown by his Arsenal teammate.
Total minutes played: 28 (exc. stoppage time)

GABRIEL MARTINELLI

A three-minute cameo wouldn’t normally be much to shout about but when you’re 21 and making your World Cup debut, it’s little surprise he was over the moon with his substitute cameo against Serbia. Taking to social media, he labelled it, “an unforgettable moment.”
Total minutes played: 3 (exc. stoppage time)

Arsenal’s quest for a 15th FA Cup success will begin with a trip to League One side Oxford United.

We last faced Oxford in the FA Cup in 2003, on that occasion winning 2-0 at Highbury courtesy of a Dennis Bergkamp strike and an own goal. We also faced the U’s in the same competition 60 years ago, winning that one 5-1.

The third round ties are due to take place across the weekend of Friday 6 January to Monday 9 January 2023 but we won’t know the exact date until broadcast selections have been made.

Whatever slot we’re given, it’ll fall between a tough home clash with Newcastle and the second north London derby of the season on 15 January. Should we progress, the fourth round will take place before the end of January after we’ve hosted Manchester United.

The Gunners exited the FA Cup at the third round stage last season with a disappointing 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest.

Full draw

Preston – Huddersfield
Middlesbrough – Brighton
Chesterfield – West Brom
Manchester City – Chelsea
Charlton/Stockport – Walsall
Boreham Wood – Accrington Stanley
Sp*rs – Portsmouth
Derby – Barnsley
Cardiff – Leeds
Brentford – West Ham
Bournemouth – Burnley
Coventry – Wrexham
Norwich – Blackburn
Aston Villa – Stevenage
Luton – Wigan
Oxford United – Arsenal
Fleetwood – QPR
Liverpool – Wolves
Grimsby – Burton
Blackpool – Nottingham Forest
Dagenham & Redbridge/Gillingham – Leicester
Forest Green – Birmingham
Bristol City – Swansea
Hartlepool – Stoke
Hull – Fulham
Crystal Palace – Southampton
Millwall – Sheffield United
Hull – Fulham
Crystal Palace – Southampton
Millwall – Sheffield United
Shrewsbury – Sunderland
Sheffield Wednesday – Newcastle
Manchester United – Everton
Ipswich – Rotherham

Arsenal’s home fixture against Man City has been rescheduled for mid-February.

The original game was postponed to make way for the Gunners Europa League clash with PSV which had itself been postponed because of the death of Queen Elizabeth.

The only available date in the calendar was the night we were supposed to take on Pep Guardiola’s side at the Emirates. This afternoon, the Premier League announced the new date: Wednesday February 15th, with a kick off time of 19.30.

This clash comes sandwiched between our home encouter with Brentford and a trip to Aston Villa the following Saturday.

At the time of writing, Arsenal hold a 5 point lead at the top of the Premier League, and fingers crossed by the time this game comes around, we’re still in a good position and continuing our title challenge.

We’re overdue a win over City, the last one in the Premier League came back in December 2015 when goals from Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott gave us a 2-0 victory.

Time to set that record straight.