Bad news for Bukayo and a big challenge for Arsenal

Morning all, a quick Christmas Eve blog for you.

The only place to start is the news that Bukayo Saka will miss ‘many weeks’ according to Mikel Arteta after tearing his hamstring during the win over Crystal Palace on Saturday evening. Speaking at his press conference yesterday, the manager spoke about how the player himself has been affected:

He was gutted. You can tell that he’s not been injured because he was really, really emotional. He was really down and we need to lift him up because it’s part of what we do. It’s part of what he does. It’s part of his job, big part of his job, he will be fine, but I think he’s going to need a few days.

It’s hard to put an exact time-frame on it, but I’ve seen reports of up to eight weeks, or even three months, but we’ll just have to wait and see. What’s clear right now is that we’re going to have to cope without him – and Raheem Sterling who has a knee injury – for some time. That is going to present a challenge, and when asked about how he’s considering reshaping his team in the absence of a player who has been fundamental to Arteta’s Arsenal, he said:

I am putting some ideas together. I haven’t got there yet, but I have a few. Then I want to speak with them as well, to understand how we are going to generate that and take it in a positive way.

Gabby has played there, Ethan has played there, Leo can play there in relation to how that unit moves. Kai can play there, asking him different things. So, We’ll see, try to speak to them as well and understand how they feel about it.

We have to look internally at what we have and be creative, do a very good exercise again. How can we mould the squad? How can we adapt to the circumstances and be different? We cannot pretend to be the same. We’re going to have to be different and try to find the best way to do it and be very competitive and win a lot of games.

It’s understandable that he made it clear his priority is to get as much as possible from the players he has, because they are what he has to work with now. It’s also understandable that there were questions about the January window, about which Arteta said:

The preparation is done. We are ready if something happens. Obviously we didn’t predict the situation with Bukayo and Raheem at the same time. We predicted more if something has happened, for example, in the defensive line. But the job is done. Then, okay, if something has to happen we will be open. But the main focus is now how we should strive to distill the potential that there is in this squad.

January might come down to who is available, and from where. We can buy anyone we like, but we can’t loan another player from a Premier League club because we have Neto and Sterling filling those two places, which is the limit. It is possible to loan a player from outside the Premier League however (thanks James!), so that might well be an option, and if it is something we explore, let’s hope we can find a deal that’s more Martin Odegaard than Denis Suarez.

The wider debate about Saka and how much he has played for Arsenal is one which will rumble on, I guess, and I get that some people will feel he’s been overplayed and thus this injury is a consequence of that. I can’t say I’ve never harboured some concerns about how many minutes he has accumulated since making his breakthrough, but the reality is that the best players play all the time. That’s just how football goes. Saka is one of the best players in the world right now, he gives you a better chance of winning games, and whether it was Arteta or someone else, he’d be playing game after game after game – especially when so often they come down the finest of margins.

I also think that Saka’s quality complicates the idea that you get a back-up who can share minutes. Who is realistically going to come and sit on the bench for most of a season? The answer there is a player who isn’t good enough to play at the level you need. Our de facto back-up this season is Sterling, and I don’t think he’s convinced anyone he should be starting games while we leave one of our best players out of the starting XI. I understand why people want to ease the burden on Saka, but I don’t think we can pretend it’s as simple as having a Saka-Lite available.

What is clear now though is that Arteta is going to have to explore options and ways to cope. I quite like the idea of Martinelli there for a bit, but I don’t think it’s going to be a case that it’s him for every game. Therefore, we might see Jesus, we might see Nwaneri or Trossard, and those decisions will have knock-on effects elsewhere. It’s going to be a massive challenge, because of all our attacking options, Saka has been the most consistent by a long, long way. Others will have to step up, so let’s hope they can do that.

Finally, let’s hope Saka’s recovery and rehab goes as well as it can, with zero complications and the quickest possible timeline. It’s going to be tough for him to be sidelined for that long, but we’ll hope that old cliche about coming back stronger applies to him when we do see him again.

Ok, I’ll leave it there for today, and obviously tomorrow is a day off, so to speak. I’d just like to wish all of you who celebrate a very merry Christmas, and to everyone out there peace, love health, and happiness over the festive period. Be with your family and friends, look after each other, and we’ll talk again after.

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