November 8th 2023.
The Arsenal squad is facing a crisis with the injury of Gabriel Jesus, and questions over the fitness of Eddie Nketiah and Martin Odegaard. Mikel Arteta may have to shuffle his starting XI to make up for the absence of these three players.
Jesus picked up a hamstring injury two weeks ago and missed the Premier League matches against Sheffield United and Newcastle United, as well as the Carabao Cup defeat to West Ham. Nketiah replaced him in those three games, scoring an impressive hat-trick against Sheffield United. However, he picked up a knock in the loss to Newcastle and was forced to miss training on Tuesday.
The situation is further complicated by the doubt surrounding Odegaard, who is dealing with a hip injury and missed the clash against Newcastle. He was an unused substitute in the win over Sheffield United and only played for 10 minutes against West Ham.
These absences mean that Arsenal need to rethink their starting line-up. One option for Arteta is to replace Nketiah with Leandro Trossard as the main striker. Trossard usually plays as a left winger, however he has been used as a centre-forward before, most notably in the 2-2 draw against Fulham in August.
Another option is to move Kai Havertz up top. Havertz was usually a centre-forward at Chelsea but he has been transformed into a central midfielder since joining Arsenal. However, Havertz was not known for his goalscoring ability at Chelsea and has only been used as a centre-forward once for Arsenal. Should Arteta decide to move Havertz up top, someone would need to replace him in midfield, which could be Fabio Vieira or Mohamed Elneny.
Lastly, Arteta could use Gabriel Martinelli as the main centre-forward. Although Martinelli has not played up top this season, he was used in the position on three occasions last term and impressed in the 4-0 home win over Everton in March, scoring two goals. If Arteta decides to move Martinelli to the middle, he would need to find a replacement on the left wing, which could be Trossard or Reiss Nelson.
It remains to be seen how Arteta will choose to rearrange his team. A lot will depend on the fitness of Nketiah and Odegaard.
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