Morning.

I expect it’s rather amusing to see my different social networks feeds and so on awash with examples of gamers who ‘delayed the restart’ this weekend by choosing the ball up when a complimentary kick was granted, or stood in the method to avoid the opposition getting things going once again rapidly. The ‘letter of the law’ merchants have little to state about it, and here’s the important things all of us understand: if the letter of the law was used throughout the board in every video game, football would be messed up.

For example, every corner or set-piece into package would lead to either a complimentary kick to the protecting group, or a charge to the opposition. It simply depends who the referee chose to provide the choice to. There would be no happy medium with the letter of the law. That’s why referees have the capability to utilize discretion.

Clive made a great Tweet, which highlighted precisely that. Last weekend, when John McGinn booted the ball at William Saliba, he might quickly have actually been scheduled, and when Ben White booted it right back at the Villa man, he might have gotten a yellow card too – by the letter of the law. Even when it appeared like there may be a little bit of aggro in between the 2 sets of gamers, the ref came by, had a word, soothed things down, and we rapidly proceeded with the video game. No reservations, no red cards, simply a practical handling of a short flare-up in a 90 minute video game of football.

Now, I’m not here to protect Michael Oliver, whose performance history of fudging choices in video games we’re associated with has actually been irritating sometimes, however you would 100% take that type of officiating over the rubbish Chris Kavanagh provided on Saturday. His face when he was offering Declan Rice his 2nd yellow was stating ‘You gave me no choice, what can I do?’, as if he couldn’t have actually handled the scenario any in a different way.

Of course he might have, he simply selected not to. You all can have you own viewpoints on why that may be, however that’s the bottom line. Whether he saw it as a chance to make himself the centre of attention, or something else, he shunned good sense and discretion to penalize Rice, and by extension Arsenal. As I stated in the other day’s blog site, the unfairness of that choice in the context of the video game we were playing is worsened by the reality he is now suspended for our video game versus Sp*rs in a number of weeks time. That feels especially severe for such a small violation of a guideline which is, generally, never ever penalized by referees.

It definitely offers Mikel Arteta something to consider ahead of that component, and my primary takeaway from the very first 3 video games of the season is that we have a little bit of a midfield issue at the minute. Obviously the Mikel Merino injury is a huge part of that. I highly think that had he been fit, he’d have made his launching on Saturday as part of the post-red card reshuffle. Adding a gamer of his experience and quality to midfield appeared the apparent modification to make, however without him, I seem like the supervisor hesitated to do that.

His choice on the bench was Jorginho, and I don’t believe Arteta relied on that a set of 30+ legs with Thomas Partey and Jorginho sufficed to handle Brighton because context – thus the choice to utilize Riccardo Calafiori and shift to a back 5. I am rather curious to understand what’s occurring with him however, due to the fact that he has actually hardly played of late. At completion of last season, he dropped to the bench when Partey was readily available once again, and played simply thirty minutes in 3 alternative looks throughout the last 5 video games. He hasn’t left the bench this season yet.

Now, if Partey was tearing things up in midfield, I’d comprehend it a little much better, however that’s truly not the case. I have significant issues about how gamers can bypass him – on and off the ball – and the security in ownership he utilized to have is no longer there. He gets captured on the ball too regularly, and no longer has the capability to win it back when he does lose it. So, I have actually discovered Arteta’s unwillingness to utilize Jorginho a bit odd, however maybe that informs us something about the Italian worldwide also.

All of which is to state that without Merino and Rice for the derby, the supervisor will likely need to reconfigure his midfield a bit. If Gabriel Jesus is fit to begin, you might see Kai Havertz hang back in, however offered how excellent he’s been in advance, it’s a regrettable modification to need to make it. But, that’s the truth of it. When Merino is back, and possibly when Rice has the advantage of a week off when he returns from worldwide task, I believe our midfield will handle a various shape, however this weekend’s occasions have actually highlighted an issue today, and one which will evaluate us offered our components after the Interlull.

Ok, that’s it for today. Please join us for a brand name brand-new Arsecast Extra a little in the future. Keep an eye out for the call for concerns on Threads @gunnerblog and @arseblog with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your concern in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.

Pod ought to be out mid-morning. For now, have a great one.