u/ArsenalAxis

After what happened in the last Portugal vs Norway game, I’m honestly a bit nervous about tonight’s match. That late tackle from Bernardo Silva left Martin with an ankle scare, and he was clearly not happy about it. Thankfully he recovered in time to start against Wales, but now he has to face Portugal again tonight. I know he wants to play for Norway and you can’t blame him for that, but as an Arsenal fan I’ll be watching this one hoping he gets through 90 minutes without any more drama. At this point, I just want Martin to come back from this break healthy.

Arsenal already have plenty of quality and depth in midfield, so their reported interest in Ibrahim Maza is an interesting one. The 20 year old is still developing, which could make him more of a long term investment than an immediate starter. With a reported £60m price tag, though, it raises the question of exactly where Maza would fit into Arsenal's current midfield. Would he offer something different enough to justify bringing him in?

Ødegaard starting against Portugal tonight, and honestly, that’s enough reason for me to tune in. I love watching him when he’s got the captain’s armband on, dictating the tempo, finding those little pockets of space and playing passes that make everything look so easy. Hopefully he puts in another big performance and maybe gets himself an assist or two. Most importantly, though, just get through the game safely and come back to North London without any knocks.

Not because I don’t want him playing for England, obviously, but with the amount of football he’s played and the hamstring issue he’s been managing, there’s really no point taking any chances. The bit that matters is that this sounds like load management rather than some new injury. He’s back with Arsenal, gets a proper chance to recover, and hopefully comes back fresh rather than trying to play through something and making it worse.

Rice is one of those players we absolutely cannot afford to lose for any length of time. He basically runs on pure stubbornness sometimes. After everything he played last season, I’d much rather see him get a proper rest now. International football can wait. We need him fit for the important stuff coming up with Arsenal.

I really didn’t see 3-0 coming yesterday. Brighton away is never an easy game, but after the way we’d started the season, I thought we’d at least make it a proper contest. The possession makes it even more frustrating. We had 57% of the ball and 479 passes with 87% accuracy, but somehow only managed 6 shots and just 1 on target. Brighton had less of the ball but looked so much more dangerous whenever they went forward. 14 shots, 5 on target and they made their chances count. They caught us out a few times in transition and their finishing was spot on.

Credit to Brighton, they got their game plan right. We just never really looked like getting back into it once they had control of the game. Not going to panic over one bad result because every team has days like this, but there were definitely things to be concerned about. Hopefully Arteta gets it sorted quickly because the next few games won't get any easier. Was this just a really bad day at the office, or do you think there are some bigger issues with how we're dealing with teams in transition?