Just journalists being journalists. People can’t help flower things up unnecessarily. Good for others to start dissociating us from sexual predators early before he’s charged.
Tierney hobbled off the Scotland game just there. Doesn’t look serious. Probably just a wee knock and a bit of time wasting.
Tam People can’t help flower things up unnecessarily
From memory the Fowlers refer to it (disapprovingly) as "elegant variation" in their style manual. Absolutely rife in all forms of football writing, especially in player descriptions.
Has there been any news about Saliba?
I think we might get away with playing Holding at home against Leeds but really hope we have Saliba back for the game at Anfield.
I am Arsenal Till I Die I guess one positive with Holding potentially being in the team for Anfield is that we won't just be throwing him in cold - and he actually played very well against Palace. Obviously, I realise Anfield will be an entirely different kind of test.
No Saliba in training today.
Partey taking part, along with Tierney.
Looks like Saliba injury is worse than initially feared
Clrnc back injuries are always bad
RocktheCasbah Has holding ever fared well at Anfield? Just curious. He's good in a deep block but that's about it. And going there just to defend never ends well anyway.
Thinking if we should blood Kiwior against Leeds... although he had 2 poor games in the international break
Clrnc Thinking if we should blood Kiwior against Leeds... although he had 2 poor games in the international break
Their form has argued in Holding's favour, not against.
We as a team in general don't usually fare well at Anfield. We're a different team now, as are they.
Partey this time last year.
Saliba now (especially after Tomi)
It's been about 14 days since he walked off. Even if they assess and stress test him next Thursday and it looks like he's ok, he should be able to squeeze in a few conditioning/training sessions and be ready for Sunday 9th. At least thats what I am hoping. He's absolutely not critical for this Saturday.
That's positive thinking, certainly. 😉
This is the guy who always gets the first 11 right. Got a lot of injuries news right as well. We have to hold on very tight for the rest of the season, cuz we ain't making it without him
Play him every other game, just as long as he’s available for Liverpool and City.
I trust Holding for most games but don’t want him going in for those head to head battles against Pool and City. Not with a high line.
goon at the same time, do you want him going into games worried about overextending himself and playing with fear? That doesn't even take into account the fact we might be risking making the situation worse for a player right at the start of his career.
goon Problem is I think Saliba is the type who needs to be playing every week. We saw after the world cup it took him a few games to find his rhythm again.
By the time the Liverpool games he would have been out for 3.5 weeks, hopefully will be in a better state to play but the current reports are concerning. Just our luck Tomi is out for the season as well or we could have put White as our CB or used Tomi as our CB.
This is going to be a tricky one to deal with... Back injuries are really hard to manage.
Need to find a solution if he is out for the season.. Wondering if Zinchenko can play right and Ben move to the middle, with KT at LB.
Doc
Play Xhaka at cb.
I think I'd rather play Tierney at CB if it comes to that (we all know it'll be Holding in). We basically play 3 at the back in possession so that'd be Tierney-Gabriel-White with the usual Zinchenko/Partey pairing ahead of them.
Tierney isn’t great progressing the ball though, probably the worst out of him, Holding and Kiwior.
Keep it simple imo, trust who you have with minimal disruption to the rest of the team.
I'd back Holding for about 5 of the 10 games.
The rest I'd be worried about him costing us.
But not much we can do, Arteta will stick with him so just have to hope he plays himself into good form and doesn't cost us like last season.
