Man Utd preview: Waiting on midfielders

Morning.

It’s Man Utd at home in the Premier League this evening, and Mikel Arteta was giving little away in terms of player availability for this one. There are some question marks, with Thomas Partey and Mikel Merino absent from the win over West Ham, while Gabriel and Riccardo Calafiori came off at half-time and early in the second half respectively.

Speaking at his press conference yesterday, Arteta said:

We’re going to have a meeting this afternoon. We have done a training session. We have monitored and kept a few away from certain activities. After that meeting, I will decide which one is fit and available and who starts.

They all want to play.

The obvious place for changes is in midfield if Partey and Merino are available. Either one of them could replace Jorginho if the manager is minded to do so, with Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard making up that trio. At left-back I think it will be Calafiori if he’s fit, if not it’ll be a first start in the Premier League for Oleksandr Zinchenko since the 2-0 win over Wolves on the opening day of the season.

United’s new three at the back system under Ruben Amorim gives their wing-backs licence to get forward, so that might be an area they look to exploit. Hence the only other change I can envisage is Gabriel Martinelli starting on the left to provide stronger defensive cover down that side, with the ability to still get forward and use the space those wing-backs leave behind.

United come into this one on the back of a confidence boosting 4-0 win over Everton, although I suspect they will find the Arsenal defenders a lot less accommodating to them this evening. Some of the goals Sean Dyche’s side gave away were absolutely abysmal, they made it easy for United. It’s also a bit of a free hit for them, the new manager has arrived, they’re not necessarily expected to come and win at Arsenal, so there isn’t the same pressure for them.

The flip side of that, of course, is that we’ve scored 5 goals away from home in our last two games, and three without reply in our home game against Forest. So, we’ve found a way to click in attack, and tonight they do have some defensive absences which, hopefully, we can use to our advantage. Also, our recent home record against them has been very good, let’s look to extend that again later on.

Asked if his team needs to find another level to catch Liverpool, Arteta replied:

Yeah well, the level is to win, win, win, win, win and win, that’s it. So, we haven’t done that this season yet. We have won a lot of games, not at the level of Liverpool, so there is another level, for sure.

The home games are so important as we try to chase down a Liverpool side who are absolutely flying this season, but with the likes of Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard heavily influencing the outcomes and performances in such a positive way, I don’t think it’s wrong to feel quietly confident about this evening – even if on paper this is always going to be a tough game.

Right, I’m gonna leave it there for now. Don’t forget the preview podcast is available right now on Patreon. Join us later for live blog coverage, plus you’ll get the match report, goal clips, reaction, player ratings and much more over on Arseblog News.

Until then.

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