GYÖKERES’ LAST STAND & THE GABRIEL INJURY TWIST!

TURKEY HANGOVER - WILL IT GET ARSENAL?

I told you I had a good feeling about this week. Gabriel is getting a late decision on the game tomorrow, according to Hand Of Arsenal, and BIG Kai has a chance of being in the mixer. This is a good day for us all.

Those two won’t start, even if we do get a double dose of returns. So then the question that remains is: who is Arteta going to start to break this goal drought we’re in at the moment? I would love to imagine it’ll be Gabriel Jesus, but we have to treat that man in the same way the club has been preserving the fragile body of Calafiori. Two starts in a week would be nice, but I’m not sure the club will take risks like that right now.

One senses the man who’ll get the nod will be Viktor Gyökeres. He used to play for Brighton back in the day; in fact, there are videos of him and Benny Blanco in the same team. If we’re looking for mini, almost pathetically meek sub-plots that could boost this flailing striker, then that’s about as good as it gets for me.

The Swedish striker is on borrowed time. He’s dodging bench calls like I’m dodging a demon king in Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom with one hit left in me. The outcome feels like it’s already set, but every great player always has a moment in them that makes even the most hardened critic sit up and pay attention. I can’t think of too many examples, to be honest. I’m trying to rustle one up for you now. Maybe Julio Baptista, who had similar traits to Gyökeres, scoring four against Liverpool against the grain? Danny Welbeck scoring that goal against Leicester? I’m struggling out here. But let’s build some hype for our blonde sharpshooter and hope if he’s given a chance, he can show some improvement after a few days out of the heat of the Arsenal sun.

I don’t like the idea of Calafiori playing a second game within three days either, but our defensive options are quite slim at the moment. Hincapie might return, but do we trust him? We might have to see the Italian drop in next to Saliba, with Myles getting another run-out at left back. I’m not too worried about that; Palace hardly ran us ragged the other night and the central position is a little lighter on the bones. That leaves the midfield probably looking like Declan, Martin Z, and Ødegaard.

Brighton are built to frustrate. They’ll defend aggressively, press our players, and invite us to drop deep to get the ball back from them because they are very confident moving the ball through the lines. Under Hürzeler, they are quite similar to Arsenal. The German-American manager has added pragmatism and loosened the De Zerbi model a little bit to give himself more flexibility against the wide variety of teams he has to deal with in the Premier League. It’s worked in spurts, especially against teams they’ve taken lower possession against. Brighton have scalped United, Newcastle, Chelsea, and Man City this season. Their problem is less with the big sides and more how they’re dealing with the smaller teams. They lost to Everton and Bournemouth, and drew against Spurs, Palace, West Ham, and Sunderland.

They actually haven’t won a Premier League game in December under the new manager. That makes them dangerous, but again, it shows where the weaknesses of smaller teams are: in periods where they have high loads to deal with and not enough players to rotate, and in periods where they don’t have a week to prepare tactically.

In short, this should be a fairly decent time to play them. They’re in a rut, tired, and the next two games against Burnley and West Ham are far more likely to be fruitful for points as they look to climb the league. I’d say they’d make sacrifices to their starting XI because it’s Arsenal and they know the probabilities, but I’ve been burned too many times thinking that. This is a team built on the idea of being a stepping stone for young players. Their players will want to shop-window the fuck out of themselves, and there’s no better team to shine against than Arsenal right now.

Their team changes over so often it’s hard to keep track of who is in their starting XI. Danny Welbeck, Jan Paul van Hecke, Lewis Dunk, and Diego Gómez are all back in the mixer after injuries or suspensions. Carlos Baleba is out at AFCON, but Yankuba Minteh is still here with The Gambia failing to qualify. Minteh is a fun player to watch; United wanted a piece of that this summer, and no doubt he’ll be gone by the next one.

So what do we want? A no-drama festive period game. Some very good goals—goals from Arsenal players. A return to normal business. No injuries. What will we get? You know it’s going to have a “too many pigs in blankets over Christmas” feel with our players coming out of the traps slow, with a stodgy atmosphere to boot. NOT GOOD.

But I still think we can win. My major hope is that we can win this game and keep enough in the locker to be EXPLOSIVE against Don Unai three days later. I want to see us avenge the xG sorcerer. They’ve scored 8.3 more than they should have and conceded 5.2 less than they should have. I want Arsenal to be the correctors of another lucky Emery season. The way he celebrated was unacceptable. I want to see him chastened and dithering after the game.

This. Is. War.

Ok, check out this amazing before the whistle where Pedro gets everything right and goes unchallenged because he’s solo podding. Also, there’s a little deal going on if you want to sub up. That’ll also give you access to the LIVE AOP show that literally everyone is talking about because it was really fun and good. So good. Better than good.