At this point, Mikel Arteta looks to have a big squad to choose from ahead of the Norwich City clash on Saturday.
The injury list is down to just Sead Kolasinac and Mo Elneny, while Granit Xhaka remains suspended due to his red card fiasco v Man City.
Other than the nine international players still not in training camp, the Gunners squad is the biggest and healthiest it has been since preseason.
With that said, I am revising my predicted starting XI for Saturday…
[3-4-3]
Saka, Lacazette, Pepe
Tavares, Lokonga, Smith Rowe, Maitland-Niles
Tierney, White, Gabriel
Ramsdale
Other notes…
Turkey’s transfer window does not close until September 8th, so those clubs are still looking for talent to improve their squads. Cedric Soares, Sead Kolasinac and Mo Elneny have all been mentioned to have possible transfer links with some of the Turkish clubs. Football.London did reported Arsenal rejected a bid by Galatasaray for Mo Elneny, while Cedric insists he is not giving up his Arsenal wages to move to Turkey.
TicketGum.com has released their annual report regarding transfer fee monies spent by European clubs. Their report indicated Arsenal overspent this summer by $69-million (USD) for the six players they added to the Gunners squad.
CIES Football Observatory claims Arsenal is 9th among clubs on the list of Europe’s most expensive squads. I’m not sure how this translates into a 20th place position on the Premier League table, do you?
80-year-old soccer legend Pele remains in the hospital following surgery to remove a tumor from his colon. His condition is listed as being non-serious.
Next summer could involve another major shake-up of the Arsenal squad with several players being out of contract. Players on the 2023 bubble include: Alexandre Lacazette, Mo Elneny, Sead Kolasinac, Calum Chambers, Eddie Nketiah and Karl Hein.
Have great day!
Gunner1953
Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochetinno expects Blues forward Cole Palmer will not be available to play v Arsenal on Tuesday due to illness.
Mikel Arteta, “At the moment we are fighting for the league again for two consecutive seasons. We had our first experience in the Champions League for the boys. We have come quite far, not as far was we want that’s for sure and we still want to improve.”
Leandro Trossard, “The resilience has been brilliant. It is always tough when you lose, especially after the run we had by winning so many games. It’s up to the boys to show character and the mentality. We did that today (Sunday). All we can do is focus on ourselves.”
