Feels like there’s a couple of ways that Mikel Arteta can look at tonight’s game:

  1. Get the points and automatic qualification lined up so we can properly rest players for the final two matches
  2. Rotated heavily to preserve some players for Wolves and Everton in the league, which as I mentioned yesterday, has a full week between them and so there’s an opportunity to get some rest in for some of the players.

Mikel referenced that in his pre match press conference yesterday, citing the opportunity to get ‘oxygen’ into some of the players and I think that means he  might be leaning more towards option number two above, rather than the first. He was specifically asked about Norgaard and so you get the feeling that the press were kind of leading him to say something along the lines of “yeah, we’ll rotate alright” which it is their jobs to do, but you’ll never fully get that from him, as we all know.

We also know that Big Bill’s “just a few days” after picking up that knock against Chelsea has turned into “just a few weeks”, with him supposedly training indoors yesterday and clearly not quite ready to be playing tonight given that context. Saka and Rice were also training indoors and I suspect the reason for that is that they all might be either taking a seat on the bench tonight, or left behind completely as Arteta shuffles his pack for this.

I think that’s the right thing to do. Rice has been racking up the minutes recently and so an opportunity to give him respite so we can try to get back to winning ways in the league is vitally important in the context of our domestic season. We’ve talked all season about the depth of the squad and the need for rotation to give us the best chance of winning silverware, this game is the most archetypal “rotation option” game you’re going to get in the Champions League. As long as we don’t lose to a Club Brugge side who are yet to taste defeat at home but have a shoddy record away in Europe, then I think we’re pretty much through and even a draw tonight keeps us top of the Champions League table, so that’s a positive. And I think it does mean we will see some – albeit not wholesale – changes.

Arsenal have called-up Gabriel Jesus into the Champions League squad, but I doubt he’ll play tonight, perhaps a five to ten minute cameo at best, but apparently according to Arteta he’s about two to three week’s ahead of schedule, so even just having him on the bench is amazing. I’d be tempted to give him five or ten at the end of the game this evening, sharing minutes with Gyokeres, who also needs a start and a good game after a pretty anonymous half against Villa last weekend. You’d expect ‘Big Vik’ to be one of those who under normal circumstances gets the rest given we don’t have too many options in attack, but he needs to get the rust out of his engine after injury and with 45 completed last weekend, it would make sense to see if he can do 75-80 minutes tonight, with maybe Gabriel Jesus doing his cameo in return. If both players come through unscathed this evening, you’ve then got both starter and bench options for the weekend and the Christmas run-in.

If we go from back-to-front in terms of starting line up, personally this is what I would like to see:

Kepa

Timber   –   White   –   Hincapie   –   Calafiori

Norgaard

Nwaneri   –   Merino

Madueke   –   Gyokeres   –   Martinelli

I’ve picked this team very much on the basis that:

  • Some need more minutes
  • Some are the only options we have because of injury to others

You can argue that maybe you go Eze instead of Merino and I toyed with that, especially given Arteta effectively said that Merino was gassed last weekend, but I just think that for Wolves at the weekend I’d like to see Odegaard and Rice in the two eight positions, with Eze wide left. I know it didn’t work last weekend, but Wolves at home feels like exactly the kind of game you use Eze in and I wonder if Merino’s game time might be a little more limited from the start as injured players return back to the team like Havertz and Gabriel Jesus. So let’s give him more minutes now, let’s try and experiment one more time with him in midfield, then let’s recharge the likes of Eze and Odegaard and have them raring to go against Wolves.

Arteta will want a win, we all want a win, but even looking at that side there I feel like there should be enough to get over Brugge. They are a decent side, but they will also leave space for Madueke and Martinelli to run in to – more than they get in the Premier League – so I want to see big performances from those two in particular. Then, at the back, I think it’s just a case of having players come through unscathed and maybe if there is an opportunity at some stage to get White or Timber off to rest them up for the weekend (perhaps you go MLS and then shift Calafiori and Hincapie across one at centre back?) then I’d certainly countenance that.

Winning gets us back on the horse, it breeds that feeling of motivation and confidence, as well as removing the bad taste of that late defeat to Villa from the mouths of players and fans, so getting another one tonight would be great. But let’s not lose sight of the bigger picture here; Arsenal need to just ensure we come through this match unscathed – both from an injury and morale perspective – then look towards getting a run of games and wins in the league back up again.

Back tomorrow with some more thoughts and a post-match debrief. Catch you all then.