Good morning all! Welcome to Arsenal Today, our new daily bulletin from all of us on The Athletic’s Arsenal beat.
Hopefully everyone has recovered from the weekend’s 2-2 draw with Liverpool, as we’re back into the midst of three-game weeks. Mikel Arteta has his pre-match press conference today ahead of Arsenal’s Carabao Cup trip to Preston North End, where he is likely to be asked for updates on the fitness of Gabriel and Jurrien Timber. As was the case pre-Liverpool, James McNicholas will be at the training ground to hear all the manager’s updates.
No matter how much Arteta wishes to divulge, this week should provide a nice change of pace to the Premier League. Four academy graduates started in the third-round win over Bolton Wanderers and further involvement is anticipated for this trip to Lancashire.
Before we get there, however, here is what’s going on today:
- Ahmed Walid had his tactical goggles on while Arsenal were going toe to toe with Liverpool on Sunday. His focus was on how Arteta’s side planned to stop Mohamed Salah and how it worked for the most part, which you can read here.
- Timber was a key figure in Arteta’s plan to keep Salah quiet before he was forced off with an injury. A quick right-footer at left-back, the Dutchman was comfortable showing Salah down the outside as well as challenging him on the inside. The first time Arteta deployed a plan like this was with Takehiro Tomiyasu two years ago. I have written a piece this morning on the Japan defender and why he should not be written off despite his injury issues.
- A piece has not been written on this, but Ben White was unlucky to come out of the Liverpool game without any real mention. Back at centre-back, he partnered Gabriel extremely well and was commanding as the senior centre-back alongside Jakub Kiwior. With the Carabao Cup game on Wednesday and William Saliba’s return from suspension, he may not be back in a central berth for a while, but he provided a nice reminder of how important he is.
- With the Carabao Cup in mind, I may also be in the process of writing something academy-related to run ahead of the game. You’ll have to wait another day to see what that is, though.
Thanks for reading and let’s see what the Carabao Cup has in store for us later in the week. Oh, and if there’s anything Arsenal-related you’d like us to cover, feel free to post in the comments.
(Top photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
