BATTLE AT THE BRIDGE PREVIEW

... CHELSEA PLAY THERE

I watched Maresca and Arteta speak pregame and I feel like I got next to nothing out of their combined 20 minutes of talking. A masterclass in giving away absolutely nothing. All the news was out pregame.

Arteta confirmed that we played Watford, but we already knew that.

He didn’t give much away on the progress of the players. Jesus, Gyokeres, and Kai were all mooted, but we don’t have confirmation on who will make the bench this Sunday.

Maresca was a little more forthcoming. He said Cole Palmer, who has been out for 6 weeks, was available and ready to start. But really…? Start?

My view here? A lot of mud is being thrown against the windshield to make the path of righteousness unclear.

Arteta even said Trossard might not be that bad.

If I were trying to wade through the news, I’d say that we’re most likely to see Jesus and Gyokeres return to the bench. Kai Havertz would be lovely, but I think his issues are a little more complicated than the other two.

I have serious doubts that either of them is going to start. Do we even need them to? Mikel Merino has been in incredible form. The Spaniard is having quite the year. Think back to the start of last season. We were writing him off like some sort of Newcastle-esque clogger.

‘The big lad who likes to press.’

A year on, he’s ripping it up for Spain with goals, and he’s making a serious impact as a defensive 9 for Arsenal. I don’t think you’d be thrown out of a pub in Finsbury Park for disturbing the peace if you said he was our most instinctive finisher. I also don’t think anyone would laugh at you if you told them you thought his style was uniquely suited to making those around him shine in ways Gyokeres bulldozer approach maybe doesn’t.

The most important thing here isn’t taste, bias, or agenda when it comes to our 9. It’s that there’s a strong chance we’re going from one make-shift version to having 3 very different options.

If Gabriel Jesus was an accountant and he walked into the office, someone would say, ‘the man, the myth, the legend’, and wink at everyone. Someone might even call him a part-timer and get hauled into HR for sensitivity training. This man has clocked 2000 EPL minutes in 2 seasons. Last year, he managed 602 and 3 goals. It’s a bleak return for £250k a week and also a dreadful shame, because the man doesn’t want to be injured, and if he was fit, he’d have been so important to us.

Listen, if you think I’m going to get all excited about his return, celebrating his dynamic play, his ability to create chaos, and his unreal pressing, you’d be exactly right. I’ll take him back. I’ll trust the PR around him. I’ve heard things already. He’s buzzing, apparently. The man wants to be uncaged, to be given the chance to have a final hurrah for the club before he moves onto something different in the summer.

Why not?

Ok, ok, I accept your counter on this. A bit negative, but you be you.

I want to dream. To stumble through a field of acrid positivity, so I can feel the glory of a man who has won multiple major trophies, seeing this Premier League season over the line with a mesmeric 6 months that is NOT cut short.

Hold on… ‘feel the glory of man’ made you snigger? Grow up.

Also… believing is good for your health, as an FYI.

If there was a narrative to look out for, I would say it’s probably going to be on how Arteta treats Noni. He exited Chelsea a season after he knew they didn’t want him. He had some bad moments with Maresca that were quite public, but he made amends and landed lots of minutes towards the end of last season, mostly on the left. Noni, to me, seems like the sort of player that thrives under big pressure, and quite possibly has a petty side to him that might bring out the best in his game. I thought he looked very fit against Bayern and very dialed in. He’s hot right now. Leo dropped out, Noni was the next man up. That suggests he was either preferred stylistically for Bayern, or more likely, he’s the fittest of the returning players.

Gabriel Martinelli also likes to play against Chelsea. Could be a good game for him. Maresca will play football. He’s attack-minded, has some very good pacey players, so this game will give speed demons a chance to stretch their legs.

Just have a feeling, if given the chance, Arteta might want to let Madueke do his thing.

I’m also sensing that Hincapie might get the nod against Chelsea. He was great against Spurs. This is a different outing, no doubt. Mosquera had a very good game against Bayern. But Saliba on the right feels better to me, and there’s no point in spending big money on a left sided centre back if you’re not going to choose them when injuries happen.

Chelsea. Where do we start here? The most important things we need to know about them is they made 5 changes between Burnley and Barcelona. They also played the Spaniards with 10 men, not to mention, they caught them on a very off day. Arsenal have one less day to prepare as well.

Estevao, a player Arsenal looked at, and this blog flagged very early on, was a bit of a star against Barca. He’s fast, great in tight spaces, and he has a rocket of a shot with minimal backlift. He’s a bit of a chaos freak, as are a lot of the players Maresca has stocked.

Chelsea have a model that is a bit more closely aligned to Arsenal than Man City. They share the goals around. They have a lot of very fast forwards who break at speed, but also have the talent to unpick mid and deep blocks. They lack real star power considering their outlay. I refuse to have Cole Palmer in that category. It was only in September there were headlines celebrating him breaking his 254 day drought for non penalty Premier League goals. I just can’t get excited about that type of record.

Reece James is actually fit for once, he’s very much a world class offering. Outside that, maybe you’re looking at Enzo or Caicedo. The Ecuadorian is certainly a very good footballer, one I thought we needed until I saw what Zubi and Declan could offer. But don’t doubt his ability to get under our skin tomorrow. He’s all action, a bit old school with the thuggery, but certainly has some of that Brighton intelligence about his game. He can occasionally do bang BANG.

But we all know who got the better of the deals when we were hunting for midfielders. Arsenal. Declan looks a deal, even at £105m.

This is a hard game. I’d take a draw, no doubt. We need to defend with focus and aggression. We also need to work out how we’ll cope with a third game that’ll require extreme intensity again. Don’t let all the I don’t agree that players run out of energy merchants clog up your feed. Energy is finite and it will be hard to come by in the third, super intense, energy sapping game of the week. This game will likely be won in the margins, and the last 20 are going to be very tough, with a lot of aching legs out there.

But we have a lot of momentum, we’ve found our resource runs deep, and when it’s your season, great things tend to happen.

So let’s see where we go.

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