•Playing against Liverpool last weekend in the FA Cup, Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz provided plenty of potential goal-scoring passes into the box but most of them were wasted.
•Kevin De Bruyne’s long-awaited return to football was greeted with a standing ovation from the City faithful
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Arsenal’s legendary striker Ian Wright is one of the most knowledgeable sources when it comes to all things happening at the Emirates Stadium. He visits regularly and he is constantly in touch with the players, staff and fans who respect his pedigree.
When he speaks about the Gunners, it is worth listening. Wright says that Mikel Arteta needs a “killer” up-front to take goal-scoring opportunities.
Playing against Liverpool last weekend in the FA Cup, Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz provided plenty of potential goal-scoring passes into the box but most of them were wasted.
Even Bukayo Saka was off-key and he had two glorious chances which went sky-high over the bar. Arsenal have now lost three in a row and have only one victory in their past seven matches.
The facts show they have had 61 shots at goal in the last three games and scored just once! Ian Wright is spot on with his call for a “killer” in front of the goal but that costs money and even if owner Josh Kroenke brought his checkbook along with him to the Emirates, the club have spent around £400m during the last three years which brings them to the edge of the Financial Fair Play rules.
Top scorers cost top money and Arsenal are not allowed to spend big.
Homegrown academy players count as pure profit in the financial accounts and therefore, selling Emile Smith Rowe, Eddie Nketiah and Reiss Nelson makes sense to allow the Gunners bigger spending opportunities.
But who could Arsenal sign? Ivan Toney from Brentford is a potential but he will cost £100m. Napoli’s Victor Osimhen would also cost the same amount but he is away at the moment playing for Nigeria in the African Cup of Nations.
Against Liverpool, Arteta played Odegaard and Havertz further upfield than usual in a 4-2-2-2 formation as he hoped to cover the loss of Jesus to injury (he should be fit by next week). Arteta believes the lack of goals comes down to a psychological problem which he hopes to address during the break the team are taking in the Dubai sunshine.
Werner could be in Spurs’ squad to face United
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A massive game for Manchester United this Sunday against Tottenham with new 25 percent owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe attending the game to check on his investment.
That is a lot of pressure on coach Erik Ten Hag. Having spoken with United insiders, they are backing Alejandro Garnacho, still only 19 years of age, to take over as the club poster boy from Marcus Rashford who has been jeered by the fans recently.
Kobbie Mainoo has also been backed by Ten Hag and has shown his quality having started more games than Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney achieved at the age of 18.
He has shown his teeth in tough matches at Goodison Park and Anfield. Ten Hag has a problem now when Casemiro, Mason Mount and Christian Eriksen are all fit in midfield because he has to decide, not which of them will start but who will play next to Mainoo. United are optimistic that Casemiro, Mount, Martinez and Maguire could all be available for Sunday’s match.
Martinez needed two operations on his metatarsal fracture and has been absent for four months. Mount is the most unlikely to play since being injured on November 1 with a calf injury and although he has started outdoor training, he has not yet joined the squad but Ten Hag is hopeful.
Most Spurs supporters, journalists (including myself), and inside staff at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium are asking, “Why is the club signing Chelsea failure Timo Werner as cover for the absent Son Heung-min?”
Werner does not have the record and goal-scoring ability of Son. His six-month loan deal has an option to buy at the end of the season for £13.7 million if the move proves successful.
Werner will likely be in the squad for this Sunday’s match at United and Spurs are covering his wages during the loan period.
There is only one way this transfer has been achieved…coach Ange Postecoglou is convinced he can make a quality player of Werner and he told the striker as much during a long phone call which persuaded Timo to return to the Premier League.
Werner was certainly a failure at Chelsea scoring only 23 goals in 89 appearances after joining the Blues for £45million and he returned to Leipzig in 2022.
He has struggled in the Bundesliga this season, scoring only twice in 14 matches. With Son away until possibly mid-February, Ivan Perisic not expected to play again this season and Manor Solomon slowly approaching a return following injury in October, this is a golden opportunity for Werner. Whether he can step up and justify Postecoglou’s faith in him remains to be seen.
Genoa’s Romanian centre-half Radu Dragusin flew into London for his medical on Wednesday after Spurs beat off the challenge of Bayern Munich to sign him.
Part of the deal sees right-back Djed Spence go the other way on loan in an attempt to restart his faltering career.
Dragusin has been playing as a left-sided centre-back but can play anywhere across the back-line. Cristian Romero and Ben Davies, who has been filling in at the centre of defence, have hamstring injuries. Meanwhile, Eric Dier was hoping this week to complete a dream move for himself by joining Bayern Munich and personal terms have been agreed.
Alexander-Arnold injury blow to Liverpool
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Jurgen Klopp’s good mood this week was followed by disappointment as Trent Alexander-Arnold was given a recovery time of four weeks following his knee injury during the FA Cup victory over Arsenal.
According to the Reds’ medical team, he hyper-extended his right knee and tore the lateral ligament.
His absence comes at a time when Mo Salah is away on international duty and Andy Robertson, Dominik Szoboszlai, Joel Matip, Kostas Tsimikas and Thiago Alcantara are all out injured.
Klopp said of Trent, “He was decisive in all the games and was the one who constantly created for us from deep and gave the team a high level of flexibility. We will miss him.”
One bright note is the return of captain Virgil van Dijk who returned to training this week after missing the Arsenal game because of illness.
De Bryune is back! Shows he has his skills after injury
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Kevin De Bruyne’s long-awaited return to football was greeted with a standing ovation from the City faithful. After hamstring surgery forced him out of the team on August 11, the play-maker entertained the crowd for 33 minutes, made one assist and his final third passes amounted to 21. Not bad stats at all.
Coach Pep Guardiola said after the match, “We are incredibly delighted he’s back because Kevin helps us to win games and there are few in the world like him. I said before that he needs to accumulate training sessions more than games. At Newcastle this weekend, we have another chance and then two weeks to have some good training in Abu Dhabi. With all the runners we have now, it’s good to have a guy who can make these passes from behind.”
Guardiola had hinted at a special partnership between De Bruyne and Phil Foden and we got a taste of it against Huddersfield when the Belgian slotted in behind Foden who moved to a false nine position. Guardiola mentioned the pair in the same breath as his iconic pair at Barcelona, Xavi and Iniesta.
Praise indeed but Pep was quick to point out that he still wants to ease Kevin back slowly and does not intend to start him at Newcastle this weekend but he will come on later in the game just as he did so successfully against Huddersfield.
Nkunku is out again after four matches
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Chelsea’s Christopher Nkunku has suffered yet another injury as he tries to make an impression at Stamford Bridge. Mauricio Pochettino told us he could not start Nkunku in midweek for the FA Cup match against Middlesborough.
Nkunku joined from RB Leipzig for £52million in the summer and first appeared last month after sustaining a knee injury during pre-season. After four appearances he has suffered a hip injury in training and as I write this column Pochettino isn’t yet sure if he will make the home game against Fulham. The coach said, “It’s not related to his old injury, it’s a different problem—a small issue on his hip.”
Pochettino will decide on Saturday morning but after so many problems, he doesn’t want to take any unnecessary risks.
Chelsea are short of players up front with Armando Broja still searching for his rhythm and form after another knee injury and Nicolas Jackson is away playing for Senegal in the Africa Cup of Nations.
Pochettino met with club directors this week to discuss the January transfer window opportunities. Conor Gallagher’s future is still uncertain in what is becoming a long-running soap opera. Is he going or is he not? Chelsea were unable to confirm one way or another but mentioned that his contract has another year to run but as yet has not yet been extended.
Nottingham Forest training break cancelled
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Newly appointed Nottingham Forest coach Nuno Espirito Santos has scrapped plans to take his team to a major UK training camp at St. George’s Park after being held in a surprise draw to League One club Blackpool.
Nuno replaced the popular Steve Cooper last month and was planning to spend much of the time away with the players to do a crash course on his strategies and methods of play as there are no fixtures before Forest travel to Brentford on January 20th.
That has all changed with the club focusing on the Blackpool replay. Nuno said, “The FA Cup means a lot to us and it means a lot to the supporters. We want to go back to play at Wembley but to achieve that, we have to handle these games better. We can’t play as we did in the first half!”
Sancho's Dortmund deal is still being negotiated
Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke says he still feels confident about taking Manchester United’s out-of-favour Jadon Sancho on a short-term loan deal.
Details are still being ironed out which means Jadon has been unable to join Dortmund’s players in time to attend their Spanish winter break training sessions in Marbella.
Sancho has not played for United since August and has been forced to train away from the first team squad and also eat alone in the United cafeteria because he will not apologize for criticising his manager Erik Ten Hag on social media.
The deal between the two clubs includes United paying £100k of Sancho’s £250k weekly salary (the same as Mason Mount and Anthony Martial) but there will be no “buy” option which many have taken to mean that Ten Hag might not be at Old Trafford much longer if United’s results do not turn around and if he goes Sancho will possibly be available to the incoming replacement coach.
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Mings move to put on hold
West Ham striker Danny Mings’ proposed move to Wolves has been put on hold due to the Hammers' rising injury problems.
His fellow forward Michail Antonio is having problems recovering from a knee injury which has led coach David Moyes to step in and prevent Mings from leaving.
The 31-year-old striker has started only one game this season so far. To further increase the Hammer’s problems, top scorer Jarrod Bowen and Brazilian play-maker Lucas Parqueta were also injured in last Sunday’s FA Cup draw with Bristol City and a replay is something Moyes did not want.