FAMILIAR FACES

Well, another interlull snoozefest is finally over. The international break is like one of those cringe af forced, team-building exercises we all get made to attend at work. Everyone painfully pretends to enjoy it, but deep down can't wait for it to be over.

​

Here at Arsenal Legion, we love international tournaments as much as the next person. The Euros, the World Cup, we're fully invested, we're all in. Slovakia vs Costa Rica in a World Cup? Where the snacks at? But my god, the actual getting there is mind-numbingly dull.

​

The return of the Premier League sees us travel to Craven Cottage tomorrow tea-time to face Fulham, who have some familiar faces in Saka's bestie ESR, Alex Iwobi, and Bernd Leno.

​

It's funny how we, as fans, take to some players more than others. Here at AL we loved Smith-Rowe, but were never a fan of Iwobi, despite the Nigerian being a centurion, playing 100 games exactly for the club (20 more than ESR) with roughly the same goals tally. We still remember the feeling of disbelief when Everton gave us £30m odd quid for him. He is, to date, our 7th highest player sale ever. We got more for him than we did for Nketiah. His shooting technique used to drive us absolutely barmy in that he didn't have one. Was all scuffs and side foots. It was like he couldn't strike a football properly. Yes, yes, we know. Watch him hit a 30-yard physics-defying screamer in the top corner against us now. It's how football karma works.

​

As for Smith-Rowe. It was never about the talent. We always felt two things went against him. One was obviously the injury woes. He could never put together that sustained run of performances for any length of time to really cement himself. The other was his personality. By all accounts, a shy introvert who just seemed too, well, nice. He just wasn't what we would call an Arteta type. Maybe there was a third reason, and that was his love of a cheeky Nandos, but we'll leave it at that. 

​

What we do know and will never forget is his help in shaping Arteta's and the club's upward trajectory when we really needed it.

​

Picture, if you will, Arsenal sitting 15th on a seven-match winless run and Chelsea coming to town for a huge televised Boxing Day match. If it wasn't for the pandemic and games behind closed doors with no visible fan pressure, Mikel might not have even made it that far. The team was decimated by injuries (sound familiar) and was crying out for creativity, for inspiration, for something. Up stepped 20-year-old Smith-Rowe for his first start of the season, and after inspiring the side to a 3-1 victory in a free-roaming no.10 role, he kept his place for the next ten games, and the rest, as they say, is history. Real Gooners never forget.

​

We were sad when his time at the club came to an end. Not angry. We understood it. He was one of only a few sellable assets, and we needed some incoming cash flow, and got what we perceived as a fair offer for a player that never quite made the Saka-type jump/progression we'd hoped. It happens. He became Fulham's then club record signing at £27m with £7m add-ons. His career at Craven Cottage has followed a similar trajectory. 41 appearances (not always as a starter) with 7 goals. He has failed to start a league game this season. His two starts and single goal came in the Carabao Cup.

​

As for Leno. He was a victim of what we call 'Joe Hart syndrome', ie, great hands, bad feet. We still remember vividly his save at The Carpet from Lukaku's header vs Chelsea early 2021. We lost 2-0 that day, but for him it would have been way worse. We transitioned from him to Ramsdale to Raya, so no complaints about how it all worked out.

​

So how are the Cottagers doing so far?

​

They currently lie 14th on eight points from their seven games with 2 wins, 2 draws, and 3 defeats with a minus-3 goal differential. To be fair, they have been on the receiving end of some seriously honking VAR decisions early in the season (we can relate). The Chelsea one was a particular doozy that got them a meaningless apology that in no way helps their cause. They have scored in every game bar one (the Chelsea one), but have lost their last two matches, both 3-1 to a resurgent Villa and an impressive Bournemouth. The interlull came at a good time for them.

 

Fulham is one of those sides that you never quite know what to expect. One win in our last four games against them testifies to that, although on the glass-half-full flipside, we only have one defeat in our last four. Our last two visits to Craven Cottage have seen us winless, with a draw and a loss, so improvement is needed.

​

They were surprisingly quiet in the transfer window, much to manager Marco Silva's dismay, who sounded like he was delivering a politician's line, saying it was "passive and not delivering on the agreed-upon plan." Ouch! He was proven right when injuries at center forward hit, and Josh King played there in their latest defeat at Bournemouth. Silva himself only has a year left on his deal, and we get the impression his time at Fulham has run its course.

​

One of their four signings, despite the manager's grumblings, did break their ESR transfer record with £34.6m winger Kevin Santos Lopes de Macedo arriving from Shakhtar, imaginatively known as just 'Kevin'. Imagine your club record signing being known as 'Kevin'. Sounds like a local painter and decorator, never mind your most expensive purchase ever.. Oh, and he has yet to start a league game. They also signed another winger, Chukwueze, on loan from AC Meeeelan, who has also yet to start a league game. Maybe, we dunno, when you are restricted to only four signings, don't make half of them wingers when you play five at the back? But what do we know?

 

Their other two signings were a veteran backup keeper from Ligue Duh and a striker from The Bayern of the Munchens, a young Swede by the name of Kusi-Asare, who is struggling to recover fitness after picking up an ankle knock as far back as last April. He hasn't so much as been near a match-day squad thus far. Not much of a return on a £4m loan fee. You can see why Silva is pissed off. They signed him a kid who's been injured since the Easter Bunny was putting in a shift, to replace the guys they have injured. Make it make sense.

​

As for tomorrow's injury report, we previously mentioned that Josh King had been filling in at centre forward as both their other guys Muniz and Jimenez, were out injured. Muniz is definitely a no-go, as is left back 'Jedi' Robinson, along with midfield destroyer type Lukic. Jimenez, Chukweuze, and Tete are 50/50, so we all know which way they are going to fall.

​

As for us, Kai, Noni, and Gabi J, who were missing before the break, still are, though on the plus side, that's another fortnight's recovery time in the bank for the trio. Zubi was missing from training due to 'load issues', but is available, and we expect him to start.

 

The other training absentee is one that kinda stands out, and that's Benny Blanco. Arteta likened his situation to Zubimendis, but we have no idea how you can have 'load issues' without actually playing. We have already mentioned this season that something is going on with our dark arts master. He seems to randomly appear for a game, then disappear for weeks on end with no real explanation given. What is going on with him?

 

Everyone's favourite Ecuadorian (except Chelsea Caicedo fanboys), Hincapie, is slated for a possible return on the bench. We are extremely interested to see how his signing impacts MLS minutes. Just like the Eze and Madueke signings have curtailed Nwaneri's involvement so far this season, we wonder if MLS will suffer the same fate?

​

The big injury news that dropped in the interlull is Odegaard won't be back until after the NEXT round of internationals, which is mid-November, so you are looking at a possible return just in time for the NLD at The Carpet on Sunday, 23rd November. It was one of those injury prognoses where it could have been better, but could have been a whole lot worse. Praise Berta for getting Eze in the building. EE10 will have at least the next month to shine in his preferred ten role. However, we here at Arsenal Legion are catastrophising doom merchants and fully expect Ebe to pick up a month-long injury tying his shoelaces in the warm-up. Book it.

​

In saying all that about Eze starting in the 10, Arteta now has the same dilemma he had after the last international break, and that is, does he ride the Merino Spain train? The guy is a beast for La Roja. It's like he pulls on the red jersey and turns into some footballing superhuman.

​

To be fair, we did mention this on Twitter/X when someone was having a pop at him, and that is his utilisation. He is NOT a number six who gets the ball from the back four and builds attacks. He is too flat-footed and slower than a VAR check for that. What he IS good at is crashing the box to get on the end of things. If he starts as the 8 or 10, then play to his strengths and keep him up the other end of the pitch. He may wear number 6 for Spain, but certainly doesn't play as it, they have a guy you may know called Zubimendi who does that.

​

We liken his situation to Xhaka's. He was used by Wenger and Emery as a pivot 6, looking to receive the ball from the back line and build play. This was a disaster as, like Merino, he is flat-footed and ponderous and was frequently caught in possession in dangerous areas. When Arteta arrived, the first thing he did was get Xhaka as far away from our end of the pitch as possible and almost immediately reaped the benefits. His goals went up, and his bookings went down.

 

Merino doesn't have the Swiss's range of passing, but he does have more of an eye for goal. Arteta isn't stupid. We would be amazed if Merino starts deep again like he did at Anfield.