Claudius will put the basic firmly back on Ben White when the inevitable comparisons begin.

    When the links to Timber emerged in the summer I think it took a lot of Arsenal fans by surprised, I think a fair few hadn't even heard of him. Fair to say one of our most impressive players in preseason and someone I think Arteta saw as integral to the first XI.

    Sicario2 - Tier 1 We've had good luck with injuries overall. Just happy he's playing for us next season.

      Mirth Considering the tight margins I don’t even think that’s a hyperbolic claim. Fit Timber would have got us 3-4 points more even by just being halfway decent

      with the troubles we've had at LB despite supposedly being stacked there, he would definitely have made a difference.

          banduan Can definitely imagine him having saved us a couple of points round Christmas when we went off the rails.

          On the other hand he's incredibly young and it's a bit silly to think he wouldn't have made a few errors in defence. I'd love to be corrected on that when he actually gets to play.

              Burnwinter Good goal against poor/inexperienced defending and feeds into a nice narrative about his return after a season-ending injury, but he's been put on quite the pedestal now. A lot of hype and expectation to live up to. I expect this thread to be a rollercoaster next season.

                  It's not a given that Timber is now a permacrock like Tomi. If so you should replace him in the summer.

                  Timber will face some recurring injuries once he’s back in the match day squad which is normal for someone who has been out for a year. Hopefully he pushes past them

                    Mirth

                    The good news is he’ll have pre-season to really ease back in and get his body used to football.

                        6 days later

                        I’d Timber is on the bench and we are fit, one of Vieira, Nketiah or ESR will be joining Nelson VIP

                          kiwior held down the fort manfully, but it really feels like a settled timber would've done bits in this team from that LB position. he's so good on the ball, I think arteta was banking on him having an alexander-arnold type of impact on our build up play

                          Qwiss would make sense to leave a defender out.

                          Arteta can never have too many defenders.

                            18 days later

                            I liked his little cameo. I think he will break some ankles and unbalance teams that try to press us next season. slot him in at LB and use tomi as his utility back up.