The last Interlull is here

Morning all.

Here we are then, in the throes of the final Interlull of the season. I know sometimes this campaign has felt like one to endure rather than enjoy, but at the same time it’ll all be over in about 8/9 weeks time. Times flies when you’re having fun, eh? Even if that fun is occasional and not as consistent as you might like.

Football is always about ups and downs, but the downs have been more frequent this time around, and ups not quite as uppish as you or I might like. We can hope that lessons have been learned, and the course gets corrected. To be fair, that is certainly something Mikel Arteta has demonstrated an ability for during his time at the club, but this season it felt like issues have gone beyond the manager.

I don’t want to say anyone took their eye off the ball, but I do wonder if perhaps we got a little comfortable with our progression. This season ought to serve as a reminder that unless you operate at a high level from top to bottom, you can fall short of the things you want to achieve. Still, there’s a new Sporting Director coming in who can hopefully remedy some of that, and for now there’s the Champions League to give us something to dream about – although I can understand people not being willing to let themselves hope too much given the upcoming opposition and some of our ongoing issues.

I think the Sporting Director thing is quite fascinating. It hasn’t been made official yet, but we all know who it is. It’s a post for another day, perhaps, but there’s such a lot for Andrea Berta to do over the coming months. From recruitment to sales to contract renewals, there’s plenty for him to get his teeth into. I think I’ll put something together on that at some point.

I haven’t seen a full list yet of all the players who will be away on international duty, but from doing some quick searching around, it looks like basically all of our defenders are going on their travels. From David Raya in goal, Jurrien Timber, William Saliba, Gabriel, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Riccardo Calafiori, Kieran Tierney, Jakub Kiwior and Oleksandr Zinchenko will all represent their countries during this break. The only one staying home is Ben White who is now open to playing for England again, but these games come too soon for him after his recovery from knee surgery.

I mention this only because as we look ahead to what remains of the season, and the Real Madrid games in particular, it’s our defensive strength that gives us some hope. We might get Bukayo Saka back after the break, but I think we have to be realistic about what we can expect from him after such an absence, and how hard we can push him after such a serious injury.

As we saw the other night when Ben White started his first game in months (against PSV), there’s a world of difference between being fit enough to train and play again, and match fitness. So, I’m going to keep everything crossed during this Interlull that our main area of strength isn’t compromised when the real football begins again. Speaking of Ben, hopefully he can get himself up to speed during the break, and take some of the burden off Timber who has played a lot this season after his ACL injury.

We talked about him a bit on the Arsecast Extra yesterday, and when you’re considering how we cope with some of Real Madrid’s attacking talent, having him sharp for those games in particular feels like an important aspect of it all. Could that mean we turn to Ben White to carry the load for the games against Fulham and Everton, leaving Timber fresh for a battle against Vinicius Jr? It would make some sense, but let’s see how it all plays out.

Right, I’m gonna leave it there for this morning. Don’t forget Arsenal are in Champions League action against Real Madrid this evening – and Tim has a full preview of the women’s game over on Arseblog News. Kick off is 17.45 in this part of the world, and you’ll find details of how/where to watch in Tim’s post. He’s on the ground in Madrid, and we’ll bring you all the post-game reporting and reaction too.

The Arsecast Extra is below if you haven’t had a chance to listen yet, and there’s an episode of The 30 – our Premier League round-up podcast – on Patreon too. For now, have a good one!

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