Don Pacifico wrote:

We should also use the squad players we have more so they don't always lack match sharpness whenever we desperately need them.

Interestingly on the tiredness front, saw an interview with Ben White after the game where he suggested or second half was down purely to the team being sloppy. Arguably, tiredness would still contribute to poor decision making but thought it was noteworthy that he didn't make the excuse of too many matches.

he would never make that excuse after what Arteta said on Thursday regarding Saka's minutes. Arteta basically said top players play tons of minutes and these players need to be ready to play lots of minutes. 

where is Areta potentially right and where is he wrong? top players do play tons of minutes. data just bears this out. however, Saka was a bit unique in that he was on the young side amongst players who played a lot of minutes last year. so there might be some risk there, but i don't have the benefit of a whole team of sports scientists and physios behind me. 

The top teams do have players getting a lot of minutes but they rotate too. For instance a quick check of the stats shows Xhaka has played more minutes this season than Citys mids, Liverpools, United, etc in fact the only mid at our rivals I could find in my quick and dirty search that played more was Hjoberg and he had a ridiculous amount of minutes for Denmark for some reason. Saka and Martinelli aren't far behind Xhaka either which is even more of a concern to me given their ages. You can probably push the likes of White quite hard as he is at peak age and has no real history of injury, Xhaka probably falls into that category too, and Gabriel but after that I'd be less convinced. All our fullbacks (bar White) are crocks. Parteys been a crock since we signed him. Saliba, Saka, Martinelli, etc are too young to be pushing to these limits. Odegaard seems to get a bit more protection but I can see why, his stamina isn't at its peak yet, especially for the work he does.

I really thing we should rotate a lot more. Especially in the Europa and with earlier subs. I also think we spend so much on guys like Lokonga and Vieira that they just have to be used. Same goes for Eddie with the wage he's on. The trust has already been placed in them, its not acceptable to withdraw that trust when the going gets tough. This is Artetas squad, they're his guys, its up to him to figure it out.

We need one point from the last two Europa league matches to be top, and we have Zurich at home last game (who have zero points so far) and PSV has Bode away. Even if we lose on Thursday. This is the game where he has to rotate heavily and make sure we win at Nottingham Forest. Simples

180 minutes per week really isn't that much. Modern training programs are way different than even Wenger's days, let alone before that. Any fatigue is almost certainly mental as much as anything.

Shadow of the World Cup break undermining the players' focus a bit seems likely.

I think we certainly need to rotate more and arteta has to get better at that. At times we take chances with key players that are unnecessary.

Ah obvious example I remember was the game against Bodo Glimt at home we went 2-0 up and then at 58 mins bring on Jesus, Saka & Odegaard. I remember at the time thinking why are we doing this.

awooga83 wrote:

I think we certainly need to rotate more and arteta has to get better at that. At times we take chances with key players that are unnecessary.

Ah obvious example I remember was the game against Bodo Glimt at home we went 2-0 up and then at 58 mins bring on Jesus, Saka & Odegaard. I remember at the time thinking why are we doing this.

They were either going to come on or do sprints after the game pretty much 

I just meant it's unnecessary in my view we were in a position where we had won that match why bring them in for 30 minutes where there is a risk of injury or just racking up minutes when I don't see it's necessary. Use some of the other players and you have to be able to do that in my view.

awooga83 wrote:

I just meant it's unnecessary in my view we were in a position where we had won that match why bring them in for 30 minutes where there is a risk of injury or just racking up minutes when I don't see it's necessary. Use some of the other players and you have to be able to do that in my view.

i don't think there is really a massive injury risk bringing guys in for the last 30 minutes of a game. the guy who is an injury risk, Partey, is excused from a lot of our midweek games. and he's always been a low minutes guy even at Atletico

Damn, that's a tough run of games. Not a big fixture guy so hadn't even checked, but not a single one of those are easy wins. West Ham should be, but it's the first game back after the WC.

Burnwinter wrote:

Decent time to reboot this thread, as we are not going to play until Christmas, and after our next five, the season should be half over in terms of fixtures.

At the moment this is the line-up, and you'd have to say that if we came away from this with a perfect record, it would be surprising and it would be completely impossible to contain the hype.

Boxing Day West Ham (H)
New Year's Eve Brighton (A)
3 January Newcastle (H)
14 January Spurs (A)
21 January United (H)

We could definitely win all of those, but …

Thank god we are out of the Carabao Cup.

And let’s hope for an easy draw in the FA Cup after Newcastle at home.

All of those teams would be enjoyable victories for different reasons.

Edit: Important to remember City have Chelsea and Man Utd away back to back during the above period.

I think we will drop points at Spurs and probably Brighton

Nah we’re fucking beating Spurs at the 02 cosmetic bowl mate

I think 8-10 points from those 5 would be considered a good return, all things considered. Of course, the big variable between now and then is in what shape players (both ours and our rivals') return from the World Cup.

Two schools of thought:

1) Biggest concern with the break is that it significantly halts our momentum which as we know not always easy to build.
2) Gives the players and staff a mental re-set. Take stock of what we’ve done. It’s been a record breaking amount of games we’ve played in a short period of time so you can argue it’s best to have a break when you are at top.

Also let’s say if Brazil lose the final, what state will Jesus/Martinelli be in? We all saw what happened to Arshavin’s form when Russia failed to qualify for WC 2010. Don’t think he played well for us again.

Having said that, the opposite could happen. Imagine having returning players in the squad that come back as world champions half way though the season. Their momentum will be unreal for rest of season, would be on such a high.

Of all our next five to come, I think the games I'm currently most worried about are the Brighton away and Newcastle at home ones. I think they'll be tough games to negotiate in such close proximity, though I would always back us at home.

I'm sure the fear will come nearer the time in regards to Spurs and United, but Spurs have not exactly been formidable at home this season and we are clearly a much better side than we were in May, so I think we can get at least a point there. And West Ham home feels quite a kind reintroduction to the Premier League.

I think 9 points would be good from that. Any more and it'd be excellent. Obviously losing 2 games in 5 would scare us all but if we could recover after that and win the games we should then 9 from that 5 isn't bad at all.