Skills challenge, actual challenges, challenging kit
Morning all. A very quick Wednesday blog.
Arsenal won the MLS All-Stars Skills Challenge apparently. If you have any interest in that, the official site has a run down of how it happened. I’m sure it was a bit of fun, but I honestly can’t be arsed.
Tonight there’s the actual game of football against an MLS All-Stars side managed by Wayne Rooney. Mikel Arteta was asked if Declan Rice would be involved, and said:
We just wanted to manage him. A lot has happened to him in the last five or six days, a very hectic schedule. He had a few training sessions that were really good, but prior to that he didn’t do much before he joined us. So we wanted to just manage him. He trained today with us, he was in good form and he’s fine.
So, your guess is as good as mine. It sounds like he might not be, but you never know. I suspect Arteta will use this game as much more of a fitness exercise than anything else, giving playing time to as many as possible, before using the Man Utd and Barcelona games to really dig into the pre-season work. In this part of the world, the All-Stars game doesn’t kick off until 1.30am, so I will happily read about it tomorrow morning. To those of you going, have a great time!
Martin Odegaard has been talking about new campaign ahead, and taking what happened last season as a way to drive improvement. He said:
That’s what we did last year after we missed the Champions League the year before. We came back stronger and that’s what we’re going to try to do. What we have to do is learn from last year, to use the disappointment, the anger and all the bad feelings. We have to use them in a good way. We had a good season and took some massive steps.
We were so close. It still hurts and it’s still painful for us. It’s important to use it in a good way to come back even stronger and to show we have learned and improved.
An interesting aspect of what lies ahead is the increase in expectations. That’s something Odegaard touched on, saying:
with the new signings and what we did last year I think the expectations are gonna go up. That’s part of the game and we have to deal with it. All we can do is focus on our jobs and continue to work hard every day and that’s what we’re going to do.”
It’s not just the fact that we came so close last season, it’s that we’ve spent big again this summer – including pulling off the highest profile transfer of the off-season so far in Declan Rice. Externally the expectations will be high, but that’s out of our hands. It’s what they are internally that’s most important, and if they’re not just as high, there’s something wrong. It’s clear that the demands of the manager aren’t just to win games, it’s about achieving success and winning trophies, so none of these players will be taken aback by what Arteta himself expects from them.
In transfer news, there’s a link to Ajax’s attacking midfielder Mohammed Kudus. It’s not the first time his name has been mentioned in relation to us, and it does seem as if we’re keen to add someone else to the forward line during this window. However, much depends on departures, and this is a pretty heavy squad now which needs to be trimmed down a bit before we buy again. One to keep an eye on though.
Finally for today, I guess I have to mention the launch of the new away kit. I think it’s fair to say that since they came back on board, Adidas have made better ones than that. I’ve seen people speculate that this might end up as a cult classic, like the bruised banana. I’m not sure to honest, but if we win a load of games in this shirt, people’s understandable reactions to it might well soften a little bit. That said, I’ve already ordered my ANDRE SANTOS 11, so …
Right, I’m gonna leave it there for this morning. Back tomorrow with more here, and we’ll have an early Arsecast for you too.
Until then.
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