Maybe it’s weird and irrational, but this World Cup hasn’t even started yet, and all I want to happen is for our Arsenal boys to come home.

Perhaps this feeling was triggered by the Jurrien Timber news, which I spoke about yesterday, or maybe it was the news from Tommy Tuchel that Bukayo Saka is still suffering from the Achilles problem that plagued him last season. Those two bits of news within two days of each other have me spooked. I’m not going to lie to you, and given our boys played more than any other team last season in Europe, I have genuine fears that we’re going to get some breakdowns.

I certainly think we’re not going to see a load of them for the start of the Premier League season, which means the fixture lists, which come out on 19th June, will have an impact and a bearing on our overall season. For sure. Think about it – if Arsenal, Man City, and Liverpool all have players who are still recovering having gone deep into World Cup competition, then they are not going to be ready for mid-August. So the clubs will have to bed their star players in later, probably for some only really getting them up to fitness for September. Now think about who we played at the start of this season – United away, Leeds at home, Liverpool away. Man City kicked off with Wolves, Spurs, and Brighton. Imagine the same happens again this season, in which we get three really tough opening games, whilst still bringing players back, whilst Liverpool and City play two teams expected to be down there towards the end of the season.

It has an impact.

So don’t let anyone tell you things like “everyone has to play everyone twice” as if that makes it some kind of level playing field. It isn’t. Arsenal playing Brighton away on a Saturday, having half the squad injured, following an away Champions League game in Azerbaijan, for example, would be very different from City playing Brighton away in April if the Seagulls have nothing to play for. It’s the same principle for games at the start of the season if you have players missing.

That’s why I’m praying for a relatively easy start. Doesn’t tend to happen for us, though. Didn’t happen last season, the season before, in our first four games, we had to play Aston Villa away, Brighton at home (that joke of a draw in which Rice was sent off) followed by the Scum away. In 2023/24 we had the sort of kick-off I would take in a heartbeat: Forest at home, Palace away, Fulham at home. That’s the sort of thing you need for your early games in the season, especially if half your players are crocked coming back from a World Cup, with the other half shattered.

Back to Saka, though, and I don’t know about you, but it does make me wonder about how his Achilles problem gets solved. Is it simply a case that he needs rest that he just hasn’t had? What you don’t want is for this to become a regular ‘thing’, i.e., he plays three or four games, then is out for three or four games. And how long has the club known about this? Has this been going on for over a year? Have they been managing it for longer than we all know? If it’s an Achilles tendonitis that he’s suffering from, then in reality, he probably shouldn’t be at the World Cup at all, but there’s no way that you’re going to stop Saka from being there. If he needs three months of rest, then that should have started after the Champions League Final and finished in August, with him ready for September.

One thing I will say about Tuchel, that I certainly didn’t feel the same with Southgate and that twat Holland, his assistant, was that I trust him to manage Saka’s fitness and be sensible with it more than Southgate, who would happily be flogging him in whatever friendly England have next before they kick off their World Cup campaign.

I do wonder what the news about Arsenal sacking the club doctor abruptly, and then bringing in this guy from Villa, has to do with some of the injury problems and challenges we’ve faced over the last two seasons, will do for us. I seem to recall a Palace fan or two saying “good luck with the muscular injuries” when the previous doctor came to us from Palace. So perhaps there’s been a bit of a review internally and they decided that his methods weren’t quite on the nose. There’s a lot of talk about how Arteta beasts the players in training. We’ve heard that Eze had a word and that made Arteta reign in some of his training sessions towards the end of the season, but if that’s the case, then there needs to be a strong voice that tells Arteta where we’re at when players get to that fabled ‘red zone’. Arteta may be a man of his own mind, but he’s proven he’s willing to listen to people if they are good enough in communicating their message.

Ultimately, we won’t really know how this appointment impacts the team until we get into the thick of next season. We countered it this season by stockpiling in all positions – is that just what Arsenal need to do from now on because of the volume of games? Maybe.

Right, i’ll call it a day, although not before I point you in the direction of James’ lovely video documentary he released yesterday. It’s a great 12-minute watch here.