Personally, I'm pissed they didn't get through.
So am I. As things stand, Arsenal will play ten league games and none in other competitions in the 58 days between 1 April and 28 May inclusive. If we were to reach the semi-finals of the CL and FA Cup, we'll have eleven league games, four in the CL and one in the FA Cup, so a potential total of sixteen. There'll be a minimum of 13 games, which is the total we'll play if we lose both QFs.
If we end up playing 5 or 6 games more than Arsenal within a period of less than two months, then I'm afraid I think that could easily prove decisive in the title race. Our squad this season doesn't have the quality in depth to allow us to go deep in all competitions. I think a look at the squad we had in 2020/21, when we won the title and the League Cup, made the CL final and lost in the FA Cup semi, as against today's squad bears this out.
(Yes, we also had the advantage in 2020/21 that we had a decent lead so could rotate in league games towards the end of the season without worrying about dropped points proving crucial.)
This season, we've fielded 22 players in PL games, and we selected the same number in 2020/21 if we disregard Liam Delap's single sub appearance early in the campaign and the decision to gift third 'keeper Carson a game in a dead rubber.
The 12 players from the 2020/21 squad who featured in that league campaign and are now still available for us to select in the remainder of this season are: Ederson, Walker, Stones, Dias, Laporte, Ake, Rodri, KDB, Bernardo, Gundogan, Foden and Mahrez.
The ten from 2020/21 who are no longer available are: Eric Garcia, Aguero, Mendy, Torres, Fernandinho, Sterling, Jesus, Zinchenko, Steffen, and Cancelo.
Those to have featured this time in the league and not in 2020/21 are: Grealish, Alvarez, Haaland, Phillips, Ortega, Gomez, Akanji, Palmer, Lewis and Perrone.
Now, I didn't rate all of the 2021 lads who've left by any means. For instance, I could never really understand quite what Pep evidently saw in Eric Garcia, while Mendy, even disregarding his off-field proclivities, had undergone two serious knee injuries by this time and wasn't anything like the player we thought we'd bought.
However, I do think Pep would have trusted all 22 of his 2021 squad at the very least to play in a league match in a title run-in against one of the division's lesser lights when we couldn't afford to drop points. I really don't think that's the case now.
The 12 survivors from two years ago are all clear members of the first-team squad that he's prepared to turn to, as are Grealish, Haaland and Akanji, while Alvarez probably deserves inclusion in this list given that he's earned himself a big new extended contract. In addition, Ortega as reserve 'keeper seems an upgrade to me. But there certainly seem to be question marks over the rest (stats courtesy of
this site):
- Lewis has done brilliantly so far, but is an 18-year-old in his first season and has 11 starts behind him in all competitions, so we must wonder how he'll cope with the cut-and-thrust of a chase for three trophies;
- Phillips was injured before the World Cup break but since then has managed to earn a pitiful 56 PL minutes even though Rodri's been desperately overworked (39 starts and two sub appearances in all competitions so far, and he went to the World Cup as well);
- Palmer will be 21 before this season ends and has 231 PL minutes in his life;
- Gomez was a punt on the cheap from outside Europe's elite leagues and so far has managed 141 PL minutes; and
- Perrone is a young kid from South America who's just arrived so has to face what's a notoriously tough adjustment and if he plays anything more than a small but-part, he'll have significantly exceeded expectations.
Now, my opportunities for viewing are limited at the moment for various reasons and I'm not trying to belittle the above players at all in terms of their quality. But Pep's apparent view of the current form/level of most of them except Lewis suggests he doesn't fancy them at the moment. In the light of that, we'll be relying on a core of about 17 plus the reserve 'keeper.
The schedule will be relentless if we fight for three trophies, so fatigue and injuries are bound to kick in. I think we can fight for the title successfully if we go out of the CL at the quarfter-final stage, and reckon we have a chance in both Cups if we falter in the league so have more freedom to rotate in the PL games (IMO, we have a sufficient cushion to qualify for the CL come what may).
I don't, however, see a squad there than can withstand those issues and fight for all three trophies successfully.
I'd love to be wrong. And if our players are cavorting with all three pots on an open-topped bus heading through town in early June, no one will be more delighted than I would to see me come back here, reference this post and acknowledge what a stupid **** I was.
