Unfortunately we have a few injuries after those games and the injury to Rob Holding is the worst with a projected absence of six to nine months. It’s a big blow for a player who had become a mainstay of our defence under Unai Emery, but hopefully we can have him back for the start of next season. Meanwhile it looks like Laurent Koscielny is just about ready to return to first team action after his six month injury absence.
If the manager wants to continue with three central defenders he needs Koscielny back as the only other alternatives are Stephan Lichsteiner and Nacho Monreal. Lichsteiner filled in quite well when Holding went off at United, but Monreal is out injured at the moment too and it’s not the preferred position for either of them. The only other option is Konstantinos Mavropanos, but he’s injured too and fairly inexperienced to boot.
At least we can welcome Granit Xhaka back after he served his suspension in midweek and he’s a very important player for the way we play. Matteo Guendouzi played well against United, but the partnership between Xhaka and Lucas Torreira is very important for the way we play. I have no doubt Guendouzi will continue to improve with each game and he has a great future to look forward to with us.
Pierre-Emireck Aubameyang led the attack in both of those games and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him start from the bench with Alexandre Lacazette starting today. Lacazette was carrying a knock which meant he was on the bench against Spurs, but I think the manager also wants to keep one of his two strikers in reserve so he can change things from the bench. His in game management is fantastic and our second half performances so far show his ability to switch things in a game to our advantage.
There is a train of thought that United set out to kick lumps out of us on Wednesday night so we would lose players to injury and the manager wouldn’t be able to affect the game from the bench. It certainly worked out that way, but I don’t think it was the case although I don’t doubt Jose Mourinho would have set out to do so if he thought it would have worked.
Aaron Ramsey will also miss out today after the knock he picked up at United, but it looks like Mesut Ozil is fit again. Whether you believe Ozil was injured or dropped is irrelevant, but if he does play today his attitude and work rate will be under scrutiny. With Ramsey out I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the team, but it has to be in a number 10 role and not wide if we want to get the best out of him.
Huddersfield lost away to Bournemouth on Tuesday night, but from what I saw they were very unlucky and dominated the game. They are the lowest scorers in the league so far this season and their inability to find the net is their real weakness. We certainly won’t have it all our own way, but we should be too strong for them if we can bring the intensity of our last two games to this game.
It’s the first time we’ve played a home game at 3pm on a Saturday in a while and I’m sure the home fans will be happy. The atmosphere for the Spurs game was fantastic and our away fans are always brilliant, but we could do with a better atmosphere in the Emirates for “run of the mill” games. The belief is returning on the pitch and in the stands though and with the attitude the players are showing it certainly encourages the fans to get behind them. Let’s hope they do just that today and they get a performance from the team that they want.
That’s it for today.
See you tomorrow.
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