So here we are folks, in the mire of another international break and whilst some football fans get in to the swing of it, for me as you’ll know if you regularly read my thinking’s, it does nothing of the sort. All I want from the next few days is a clean bill of health from those who have been away with their international teams. As far as I can make out so far, the games that have been played and see players having navigated through this bog of international football are:

  • Saliba not playing for France
  • Gabriel playing for Brazil
  • Martinelli an impact sub for Brazil
  • Trossard getting the full 90 for Belgium

So all-in-all, so far so good. I think given his form Trossard probably isn’t an automatic choice, but you still don’t want him picking up a knock, because we’ve had enough of those this season already. I also think what we want to see is Trossard rediscover some form and for me that means that he needs to go back to being an impact sub. We’ve seen it work before and I have a feeling it’s the best way to get him working well for us again.

He seems like a peaks and troughs sort of player for us. He makes a big impact from the bench, gets goals, looks good, there are calls for him to start, he starts, he plays well for a few games, then tails off a bit, then the calls are for him to go back to being an impact sub. Then we sort of rinse and repeat with him. I think there’s no doubt that he’s been an overall positive for us since joining from Brighton, but it hasn’t been completely plain sailing for the Belgian. But for what we paid, his age and profile, I think that’s exactly what you get, to be fair. He’s a very good squad player who is often on the verge of starting. I have no problem with that. What we do need to do, however, is ensure that we have more players on form and that’s where the likes of Martinelli being back in the goals is useful. Having started the season in a bit of a barren spell on the goal and assist front, he’s bagged three goals and three assists in all competitions so far. That’s an okay return, but having played 17 games I think we’d maybe be looking at one or two by now.

There’s plenty of time for him to get them, to be fair, because if you think that he’s probably – fitness permitting – going to play around 45 to 50 games in all competitions, he’s about a third of the way through his season. If he maintains this form it will be nine goals and nine assists. I think if you were to ask him of a target he would like to set himself for the season, it needs to be 20 goals and assists. Two season’s ago he got 15 goals and six assists and we were all expecting that to be the Martinelli we see from now on. It didn’t quite happen for him last season with 13 G+A in all comps, but he’s trending towards that 20 mark so we have to hope he gets closet to it. He’s broken the duck/barren spell now and the goal against Chelsea will give him confidence. The arrival of Odegaard will hopefully also mean he will get found a little more in a little more space now. What Odegaard is good at is switching the play and if he does that from right to left, usually it means Martinelli has more green grass to have a run at. Better that than being tightly marked, whilst hugging the touchline, having been fed a five or ten yard pass to feet and expected to go and beat his man. That’s where we’ve seen him run down blind alleys a bit and that’s why he’s frustrated a few Arsenal fans, I think.

But hopefully that can change, if he stays fit, which will help if he remains a mostly spectator for Brazil games. I am absolutely on board for that, by the way.

Tonight the gauntlet will be run by Raya, Merino, with Havertz playing for Germany tomorrow no doubt. Poland play tonight so Kiwior will get some minutes, but there are rumours that are starting to hot up that he’s a target in January and I suspect he’ll be allowed to leave, so it feels like he’s only half a concern right now. What I am hoping for is good news on Calafiori front and that Tomiyasu has not, in fact, disappeared into an infinite black hole time loop somewhere. But we won’t get any details on that until the end of next week when Arteta talks ahead of the Forest game.

So for now we wait. I may or may not be back tomorrow, depending on whether there’s anything worthy of a bit of chatter over. So I’ll catch you soon you wonderful humans, you.