Common sense prevails as Odegaard escapes international duty

Morning.

Let’s start with Champions League action from last night, and Arsenal Women hammered Juventus 4-0 away from home. The goals came from Frida Maanum, Stina Blackstenius, Mariona Caldentey and Caitlin Foord. It’s another win for interim head coach Renee Slegers, and Arsenal are unbeaten in five games since she took over after Jonas Eidevall’s departure.

You can see the goals in the report here, and get the reaction from Renee Slegers with questions from Tim here. Next up for the women, a North London derby away from home on Saturday, and hopefully another good result in the offing there.

Meanwhile, Martin Odegaard went to Norway, had a chat with the national team, and it was decided he’d be best served continuing his recovery in London rather than playing against Slovenia and Kazakhstan. The Norway team doctor said:

This has been a complicated ankle injury. With very few training sessions with the team in the last nine weeks, it is natural that the body is not one hundred percent at this stage. In consultation with him, we have agreed that it is better for him to return home to London to continue his rehabilitation.

Odegaard, for his part, says he has to listen to his body, and to me this is the most sensible approach. Did he really need to go all that way for them to come to this conclusion? It’s hard to understand how this decision couldn’t have been reached over the phone, but it is what it is. The main thing is that he can continue to recuperate back at base, to speak.

It doesn’t mean that’s a zero risk environment, but it’s much less risky than playing competitive games. There are a couple of other players who we hope to have back after the Interlull. Riccardo Calafiori and Takehiro Tomiyasu have got their comebacks to manage, and we’ll have to wait and see what happens with Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice who withdrew from England duty.

As for the rest, we keep everything crossed they come through their international duties without any issues. The players to keep an eye on are: William Saliba (France), Kai Havertz (Germany), Leandro Trossard (Belgium), Jurrien Timber (Netherlands), Gabriel and Gabriel Martinelli (Brazil), Jakub Kiwior (Poland), Mikel Merino and David Raya (Spain), and Oleksandr Zinchenko (Ukraine).

Just going back to Odegaard for a second, it’s been interesting to see how much of the discourse in his absence revolved around Ethan Nwaneri. I think we can all understand why, he’s an exceptional talent with tons of potential, and there’s something fundamentally romantic about the idea of a kid from the Academy stepping up to the fill the gap. Would I have liked to see more of him? For sure, but I do think the focus on him obscures the fact that there are questions to be asked about your squad building when a 17 year old is the only real option you have in the absence of the captain.

Arsenal let both Emile Smith Rowe and Fabio Vieira leave this summer, and while there might be good reasons for both those departures, we left ourselves light. Perhaps the Odegaard absence wouldn’t have been felt quite so keenly if Mikel Merino’s introduction hadn’t been delayed by injury, and his pre-season basically took place in his first few games for the club. That’s not ideal, but while I thought there were encouraging signs from his performance against Chelsea on Sunday, he’s clearly a very different kind of player from Odegaard.

I think it’s clear Mikel Arteta and the recruitment team have a good eye for defenders. Ben White, Riccardo Calafiori, Jurrien Timber and Takehiro Tomiyasu all look the part, even if the latter has been sadly plagued by injuries. It’s further forward where I think we need to see the next positive wave of arrivals. Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard have been good signings, and I think the former could go on to be a very successful purchase due to the years he has ahead of him.

But Gabriel Jesus hasn’t worked out the way we’d have liked, and in 5 years here Arteta hasn’t yet bought an out and out centre-forward. He inherited Saka and Martinelli (which isn’t a criticism, just an observation), and it’s overlooked in our current funk just how many goals we scored last season. But is there room for improvement, both in terms of creativity and efficiency in front of goal? 100%, and that’s what I’m looking for as we head towards the next transfer window.

I’m getting ahead of myself a bit, I know, but it’s the Interlull, and if we can’t let our minds wander now, then when? Right, I’ll leave it there for this morning. Have a good one.

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