I watched the WSL opener as I was doing some work in the kitchen yesterday and I have to say, that Olivia Smith lass looks good, doesn’t she? That’s one heck of a shot she’s got on her and if that’s the sign of things to come, then Arsenal Women have themselves one heck of a player on their hands. You can also see why they broke the bank to get her. Super talented. But that seems to be that Arsenal Women team to be fair and, despite the initial blip, they dispatched a London City Lionesses team with scoreline ease in the end, even if the game itself possibly didn’t quite reflect the end result.

I then spent the afternoon getting some exercise and going for a few walks with The Management, before setting up the BBQ whilst putting the England game on. Rice scored, which was nice, I thought Noni was bright again on that right hand side and that bodes well for us in the immediate future too. With Saka out we need to see a player come in to that position and give us something. Nwnaeri did a good job there but he started to fade towards the end of the season and I think the move for Madueke is, thankfully, making more and more sense with every passing minute. I’m liking what I’m seeing and the bits I saw of him yesterday I liked too.

Tuchel was pleased with him and said he did well and can be an important player for England, but he did acknowledge that Noni ‘falls asleep’ in reference to counter-pressing and I suspect with more time on that training ground it will be something Mikel will want to work on. The reason that Smith Rowe was shown the exit – aside from the very good fee we got – was, I think, because of his lack of concentration and focus off the ball. Emile is electric when it’s at his feet; he can beat a man, showed the other week he gets into good scoring positions in the box and can be very exciting to watch on his day, but football these days is as much about what you do out of possession as in it. The managers of Premier League teams all want to see hard work and focus when off the ball and when Arteta didn’t get that from Smith Rowe, he found himself out of the team, then barely getting any minutes. Madueke is young, he’s talented, I’m sure he wants to improve and his off the ball stuff will be something that Arteta will focus on.

The Eze comments from Tuchel I will take with a pinch of salt. His words were apparently “not quite the quality” and “he didn’t find the creativity that he found in training” and I suppose there could be a slight concern for us because Eze faced a low block and we seem to spend two-thirds of our season against low block teams. Eze was brought to be that tricky player, that clever player, the one who can beat a man but also take shots when we’re sitting with a wall of defenders in front of us. He had three yesterday but I can’t really recall anything specific from them. They were all on target but nothing really spectacular. I’m not too worried though, because I think Eze is going to be playing a different position for The Arsenal. Yesterday he played centrally in that number ten role, with Rashford playing wide left. I think Eze starts on the left for us and that allows his positioning to be different in game. He is going to be an ‘out to in’ player for us; starting position wide, getting the ball wide, then driving inwards. In that role yesterday he will have been required to float across the front line, to link play with Nadueke and Rashford and be a connector for Kane. I just don’t think he’ll be given that instruction by Arteta and I think that will be beneficial for him. Starting on the left will naturally give him licence to get on the ball and run at players more because in low block teams you have a bank of four, one, two or sometimes three holding midfielders congesting that space in front of the D. Teams are happy to cede space in wide positions if they get their shape and so if Madueke is given more time on the ball, freedom and licence from out wide to drive in, I think he can be a success for us.

So yeah, less worried about Eze’s performance yesterday, more focused that we get all of these players back and fit.

Rice came off on 68, Eze on 78 and Madueke played the full 90, so it appears we’re good there. Tonight we have Zubi and Merino playing against Turkey and so we have to cross everything on that one, as well as Jurrien Timber playing for the Netherlands against Lithuania. Hopefully he doesn’t get one and he can be saved for Forest next weekend. Leo might get some minutes as Belgium play Kazakhstan, but then tomorrow and Tuesday are the remaining games for the players I ran through yesterday, so there’s not really a lot to read in to until we start to get to Tuesday/Wednesday and we get news of any players who have become crocked. We just have to keep those fingers crossed.

And I’m going to spend the day in the garden in the sun, taking in what is the last of summer, so I’ll catch you all tomorrow.