Good morning, things are getting busy back here in Washington State and with the end of the FIFA Enrichment Break it looks like things are getting busy back at London Colney.
Here in Washington, the kids are heading back to school and yesterday was my son’s first day of the year. If you’ve seen the videos out there of those wacky people throwing tantrums at school board meetings over mask mandates you might think that happens everywhere in the USA but it doesn’t: the USA is almost like 50 (or maybe even 500) different countries all mashed together.
So where one county in a state could have people who are so triggered by their kids wearing masks and so deeply ruined by conspiracy theories and anger grifters that they have a near riot at a school board meeting, the very next county could have people who are just like “yeah, masks seem like the least we could do”. All of which is to say that my kid is in middle school, is vaccinated, and everyone wears a mask in his school. And I haven’t heard of any screaming at school board meetings in my town.
That’s not to say that I’m not worried. Masks and other measures help reduce the spread of COVID but this new Delta variant is hard to stop. We are already seeing tons of cases of COVID in other schools with in-school learning so I would say within two weeks or so, we will see a major spike in our school district. Our hospitals are already overwhelmed to the point that my insurance company emailed me the other day asking me not to go to the emergency room unless it was “like, dude, a real real emergency.”
Adding to that anxiety is the fact that I too am gearing up to go back to in-person learning. I work for the local University and we have a mask mandate and a vaccine mandate (all staff and students must be vaccinated) and I guess we aren’t going to let the public in the buildings at this time. My normal job does require that I work on a service counter and I also have to teach (workshops, I’m not faculty) but they are generally small classes.
I am nervous about all of this impending human contact. In my job I routinely got sick two or three times a year before the COVID outbreak. That’s just because I use to handle so much equipment and would often get close to people to help them solve problems. It’s also because, honestly, B.C. (before covid) we never even thought about how often we would have to wash our hands or not to touch our face. So, between the kid going back to in-person classes and me probably teaching a bunch of workshops this fall, I’m expecting to get COVID. I just hope the vaccine helps. Actually, I know that statistically, based off all of the available data, the vaccine helps immensely. I take solace in this knowledge.
Another difficult part about returning to work is going to be all of the quarantines and absences. If you even have symptoms, you need to stay home. That means that as cold, flu, and COVID season ramps up we are going to have a ton of people out at any one time. That’s my prediction, which is based off data I’m seeing reported at other Universities. That’s going to make work tough. Which will in turn make school tough for the students.
In Arsenal world, they too are gearing up to return to work. This weekend Arsenal face Norwich and we finally have some good news on the injury front.
Thomas Partey has recovered from his ankle injury and has started training with the first team again. He is available for selection this weekend.
Ben White is also back in training after his positive COVID test and he too is available to play against Norwich. Seeing Ben White, Auba, Lacazette, and other players recover from COVID so quickly (because they are vaccinated) alleviates a lot of stress about this virus. Not that I’m anywhere near as fit as they are, but just that when I see them come back a few days after a positive, I feel like it’s going to be ok. Which is possibly irrational on my part but this is just how I feel.
Gabriel is also back and training with the first team and could be selected for this weekend. He’s overcome a number of problems but most recently it was a hamstring pull that kept him sidelined.
I like the idea that Arsenal could start White and Gabriel for the first time this season. I think they are supposed to be our number one starting pair so we need to get them playing together as much as possible to iron out the kinks.
In midfield, it’s good to have Partey back but there are a number of other injuries that cast a pall on his return. Lokonga was left out of the Rode Duivels’ match against Belarus with a “minor injury”. Reports suggest that he could start and he wasn’t mentioned in Arsenal’s injury update today so fingers crossed we see a Partey/Lokonga midfield. If he’s not fit, however, there aren’t many options: Elneny is out for three weeks with a hamstring and Xhaka is out with a case of COVID and a red card.
That leaves Arsenal with just Maitland-Niles as a backup midfielder. Chambers and White are often mooted for that position but I beg of you, please, please stop. The data for Chambers at DM while at Fulham is bad. They were relegated for a reason and he was a part of that reason. I guess he could deputize in a pinch but don’t expect much out that that match.
White could possibly be a better choice there and also could very well be better in MF in the long run but that’s a huge unknown. I do wonder if we might see it happen some this season? If the injuries and red cards we’ve already suffered are any indication, we just might.
Overall this should help explain why the club didn’t want to sell Mo Elneny. The reality is that COVID is rampant in England, and without him we have three real midfielders at the club. Three that Arteta sees as midfielders anyway.
I know that Maitland Niles wants to play there (he actually wants to play higher up the pitch, not so much in the DM role) and has done before (with a lot of meh, results) but apparently Arteta sees him as the ultimate utility player. So, I guess he’s our “in a pinch” man but I doubt Arteta would prefer to start him over Elneny if given the choice.
I agree with Arteta on this one. I’m no huge fan of Elneny and he’s got obvious flaws but if I had to choose between starting Maitland-Niles and Mo Elneny, I go with Elneny. He’s just far more reliable on the ball and while his tackling is poor, he is positionally astute and tends to be in the right place defensively. That might not be your preference, which is fair enough.
I could be wrong, I’d love to be wrong. Nothing would make me happier than seeing an academy player turn into a great starting midfielder for the Arsenal. And what a great redemption story for Ainsley as well. Maybe we’ll see it start this weekend?
Ooh, I know, lets see Arteta start Ben White, Calum Chambers, Maitland-Niles, and Rick Pitino* in midfield this weekend! It’s only Norwich.
*Larry Bird is not walking through that door, folks. Come on, I know his name is Charlie PAAAAtino.
I’d say “stay safe”, but it is as meaningless as telling someone who’s suffered a bereavement to “be strong”. So I’ll just saying I’ll include you in my prayers, pal, for what that is worth. It must suck to be and feel that exposed. Covid-19 has taken an axe to my income, but I am fortunate in not having a job that puts me on the frontlines.
Hoping you avoid it.
Norwich? Three points, innit? 🙂 But we did say that about Brentford. We should be hungry and ready. A number of key players were not involved in the internationals.
I like Elneny just fine. Solid journeyman, doesn’t hide, puts in a shift, faults and you don’t need to be a great tackler if you’re in good position to block/intercept passes.
I feel for you as an I.T. manager. I.T. of sorts was my main life when it wasn’t music. Dropping a network node or getting a workstation prepared was a no brainer for experienced folks. I can’t imagine now with Covid protocols.
We have a Federal Election up here and I’m a Poll Operations Manager for the month of September. Wrong time for an election but Trudeau got it into his head he could push for a majority in parliament. He’s going to have rude surprise. But the pandemic related $h&t our Agency, Elections Canada has to deal with… yeah.
“I could be wrong, I’d love to be wrong. Nothing would make me happier than seeing an academy player turn into a great starting midfielder for the Arsenal. And what a great redemption story for Ainsley as well. Maybe we’ll see it start this weekend?”
The icing of the cake, great post Tim. My favourite blog this. Cheers!
AMN is a 180 degree player. By that I mean some players are when they don’t have to deal with what’s behind them or on one side. He needs to play on the flanks. He doesn’t have that glance over the shoulder to see what’s there before the ball arrives, that drop step to buy an extra half second, the ability to turn in either direction without a pause on the ball. He’s a good option on the flanks, but if he really really wanted a midfield role, we needed to send him somewhere that could humor him.
I’m just praying Partey stays injury free the remainder of the season. I think if he could get a run of 10-15 games it would do wonders for settling our midfield and I think it would also help us offensively by providing a great platform that allows Saka, ESR and Odegaard to prosper.
“Arteta says ‘door is always open’ for Wilshere to return to train with Arsenal”
….Return of the Man??
This season, Mikel has subbed on Ainsley into midfield, not full back or wing back. Plus he stopped his loan move to Everton. Plus, he’s got 200 right backs (I exaggerate a little). I think we can do the math on this one.
Great news on Jack, Kush. Great gesture by Mikel to let him train at Arsenal. It was what I was hoping for, after reading about his plight in The Athletic. Hope it helps him to get a gig somewhere, soon.
My oldest started school (UB) two weeks ago. All staff, and all students MUST be vaccinated. My youngest (sophomore in high school) started a week ago. Unfortunately, they don’t mandate for either students nor staff to get their Covid shots. Knock on wood, everything is good so far but I’m a bit skeptical since it’s not exactly flu season yet. So just like you, Tim, I predict that we’ll see spikes in the near future. Maybe not two weeks but six weeks from now, it’ll bound to happen though.
As for Arsenal, I’m not even sure I want to spend (waste is probably a better word) any more time talking about our problems. From our back four to our midfield to our attack, I don’t see anything that makes me want to scream or jump out of excitement. And it all starts with our manager. I’ve been very vocal about how I feel about Arteta, and neither our poor start to a new season nor our (disaster of a) transfer window have proven me any different. I know how you feel about our new additions, Tim (you’ve been very positive), but I think we’ve spent a TON of money on a LOT of average players (including extending some questionable contracts). So here’s another prediction that I will make – None of the new players that we’ve signed will have any significant impact on our season, and Arteta (fingers crossed) will be gone in a matter of weeks, not even months. My only hope is that the new manager (whoever that might be) will be able to get the most out of this bunch of dross that Arteta will be leaving behind, and salvage the rest of the season.
University at Buffalo?! Ask your son to take a class with Dr Joshi in Anthropology. Great stuff.
Daughter. Yes, she just started her pharmaceutical studies at University at Buffalo (what’s the deal with “at”? btw, asking as U of R alumni). I’ll pass it along though.
Sorry, I read it wrong. SUNY has this convention of “at.” SUNY at Binghamton, SUNY at Buffalo. That’s as far as I know.
Pharmaceuticals. Medical Anthropology might be a possible course for her. Or other gen ed electives.
From now on, if I encounter “B.C” in any excerpts, I’d always wonder if the person is referring to Before Christ or Before Covid. Frankly, the two are not so dissimilar in a way that they divide people and spread fast with multiple variants (denominations?).
I thought 7am has a daughter, not a son…maybe I’m confused. Anyways, fingers crossed all our younger children stay healthy until we can get them cleared for vaccination!
Avie is trans and would prefer he/him pronouns.
Ah got it, sorry
No apologies necessary! I made an announcement on twitter but not here yet so it’s my fault.
Ahhh…I thought my memory was going! Lol
Had no idea Avie had a brother, of whatever variety. Not sure how I missed it.
In the end we’ll all get Covid, that’s kind of the idea and expectation as I understand it, although I may be wrong. Thank the good lord, and the indifferent ones, for vaccines.
Same here. Not sure if Tim just made a typo or this has been the biggest hoax of all time. Tim… is your name really Tim? 😁
Great post Tim.
Hopefully Partey can come back and play well this season. His Arsenal career has been a run of continuous injuries. There is never an excuse for conceding 9 goals in 3 games no matter who you play and the defense has to be fixed immediately. However, the start of the season has been disjointed due to injuries, COVID and the schedule. The game against Brentford we had no one in the line up other then may be Pepe that we could have expected to score and no one should be surprised that we were shut out. Then we run into Chelsea and Man City who are arguably 2 of the best defensive teams in all of Europe and the 2 CL finalists last season. The odds of us scoring a goal against either of those teams was never very high even if we had a full strength squad. I am confident the ship will be righted reasonably soon and just like last season by the end of the year we will end up around 7th or 8th place.
AMN has had the what feels like the typical Arsenal career for so many of our academy players. Great performances and a lot of promise in the academy leagues which gets everyone excited. Then a relatively strong start to his first team career which gets everyone even more excited. Unfortunately almost all of the others he never really improved as he gained more experience. He hit a ceiling that is much lower then we hoped and never breaks thru the ceiling. Look back over the last 15 years and something very similar has happened to almost every heavily hyped academy products and nearly all of the youth players we purchased over the years. Eventually we end up letting the players go or selling them. Bellerin is the latest example of a player who looked like a can’t miss prospect. Rumor was that we had a good offer for AMN a couple years ago. We probably should have sold him when we had a chance to get a decent return. The pattern has become predictable.
You will be alright if your family is vaxxed, odds of dying on a breakthrough case are slim to none.
Did not say you will not get sick or not have covid issues, but you will not end up horizontal.
Wish everyone the best from the worst in this situation.
Me, front lines, south San Jose, CA, tons of kiddo’s from everywhere (only half vaxxed), already had the crap two Decembers ago when the WHO said it did not exist. Now all legit medical publications keep pushing back the dates as when it first spread in US. Clue, to those who fail to see, let’s just guess it came in through either the east coast, west coast, or our sieve of a border from CA to TX.
Last word, everyone, everywhere just needs to get vaxxed (if possible), mask up indoors and in tight spaces period, until science make the virus bearable or the actual virus runs it’s natural course. Looks like LA Unified might make vaxxe’s mandatory in schools like TDAP, this would be a step in the correct direction, at least out here.
Norwich, ESR is out, means no chance creation from solely Ode, see 1-1 or 0-1 in AFC’s near future.