Like a new signing
Arsenal's first signing of last summer caught almost everyone off guard as Fabio Vieira was brought in from Porto. With the way the transfer market works these days there tends to be weeks in which the hype train around new players can begin to gather pace, but maybe because Vieira's arrival was so immediate, he doesn't quite seem to have had the same treatment.
In fact it's probably fair to say that in and among all the discussion of Arsenal's lack of depth in the attacking areas, it has been forgotten that they have a player who we've not seen the best of, already in the squad. Vieira came to north London with a fractured foot that robbed him of a pre-season, and with this mid-season break, Arsenal's coaching staff have been keen to put that right. The Portuguese midfielder has been adjusting his physicality to the demands of the English game.
Mikel Arteta has obviously always been a fan of Vieira and warned Arsenal supporters that there is plenty more to come from him this year.
READ MORE: Every word Mikel Arteta said on Nelson's injury, January transfers and Smith Rowe's fitness
“It’s a shame that we detected an injury when we were doing the medical," Arteta said after his impressive Premier League debut against Brentford. "He had no pre-season and everything has been delayed but hopefully, you’re going to see a lot more of him in the next few weeks, and I’m sure that you’ll enjoy it.”
It's easy to forget what a useful player Vieira is to what Arsenal are trying to achieve. In the game against Juventus, the 22-year-old picked up three different positions - right wing, right eight and left eight - and excelled in each and every one. Be it in central areas, wide areas or defensive ones, Vieira has really impressed in this second pre-season and it's that versatility that convinced them to sign him in the first place.
“We were looking for players that could play in three positions in the front line and in the attacking midfielder positions," Arteta said back in September. "We were looking for very specific qualities in the market and when I saw him, I really liked what I saw.”
The focus of the discourse around Arsenal is how they have to bolster their squad depth through external recruitment, but Vieira's ability to play in multiple positions means he could just about fall into the category of 'like a new signing' when football returns competitively in just over a week.
The Gunners have been gearing up his fitness, playing him for only 45 minutes against Lyon in Dubai, then 75 against AC Milan and finally the full 90 on Saturday. The hope is now that he can kick on and show why Arsenal chose to spend £35million on him in the second half of the season.
Youngsters impress
Aside from Vieira's display though, there wasn't an awful lot to get excited about in Arsenal's defeat to Juventus. A half-full Emirates Stadium led to a slightly hollow atmosphere that possibly translated into the lack of urgency in the performance. The bitterly cold weather almost certainly didn't help, but what would have warmed those watching was the display of two of the next talents potentially about to step off the Hale End conveyor belt.
The first introduced into the fray was Amario Cozier-Duberry who may be someone that's slipped slightly under the radar of fans with a focus on the senior team. The 17-year-old has been a regular in Mehmet Ali's under-21s side this season and is certainly on Mikel Arteta's radar after he was included in the Europa League squad for the trip to FC Zurich. Being in the squad is one thing though, actually coming on and making a difference is another.
That's exactly what Cozier-Duberry did though, as he provided some much needed attacking punch to an Arsenal display that had previously been cumbersome. He has played through the middle on occasions this season, but stationed out on the left wing, the youngster looked the most likely to create something that would breach the rigid Juventus rear guard. Often youngsters make the step up at the Emirates and are blinded by the lights and pressures of such a grand arena. Cozier-Duberry had no such issues.
The same goes for Ethan Nwaneri who, despite being someone we've all heard about now after his record-breaking debut against Brentford, was actually making his first appearance ever at the Emirates. Again, most youngsters will come on and play safe in order to avoid making mistakes, but Nwaneri was not going to be overawed. There was one instance where his diligent battling prompted an intense round of applause from Arteta on the touchline and with a shot that sailed just wide of the post, the Hale Ender looked as though he belonged. It's probably worth reminding you at this stage that he's still only 15!
As Arsenal prepared for their journey back to London from Dubai, Arteta thanked the youngsters he had brought with him for raising the level of the training in the absence of the World Cup players. At the time it felt like little more than a typical managerial platitude. Now we've seen what he was talking about.
Arsenal's Mudryk plan still on course
It was a real shame to see Reiss Nelson have to limp off with what looked like a hamstring injury on the night. Not only is that because he is one of the more likeable members of the squad who has come back from his loan spell in Holland a far more rounded and mature human being according to sources inside the club, but also because he was playing really well.
The 23-year-old had been direct with his dribbling down the left and nearly opened the scoring with a low shot that hit the side netting. On another day he could have provided an assist for an absolute worldie as he showed sublime technique to lob the ball over to Fabio Vieira, whose volley was well saved.
It was gutting after that to see him pull up and as he left the field he appeared devastated. After the game Mikel Arteta's update was not positive. "We don’t know the extent of the injury," he told football.london in his post-match press conference. "The fact that he had to leave the pitch straight away is not good news, especially with someone like Reiss who is really powerful and fast."
While this is obviously terrible news for Nelson who has done superbly to fight his way back into first team contention, it also presents a real problem to Arsenal when it comes to their depth up front. Emile Smith Rowe has been unable to train for the past few days and is unlikely to be fit this month and with Gabriel Jesus also set to be sidelined for a while it means that Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Eddie Nketiah are going to have to play a lot of football in the coming month. That is, of course, if someone doesn't come in during the transfer window.
It's no secret that Arsenal want to bolster their Premier League title charge next month and Mykhaylo Mudryk is reportedly the man they're looking at to try and do that. Nelson took to Instagram to post a cryptic message that read "trust the process" which seemed to imply his injury could rule him out for a little while. With that in mind it wouldn't have been a huge leap to suggest Arsenal might want to speed up their pursuit of Mudryk in order to cope with the thinness up top.
Mikel Arteta though seemed to suggest that wouldn't be the case. "Let’s see what will happen," he told football.london. "We know what we have to do and that doesn’t change the plans."
World Cup returnees
Before people start to panic too much about the defeat to Juventus, it's worth noting that this was far from Arsenal's first choice squad. On top of the World Cup absences, the Gunners are dealing with a host of injuries that didn't need risking in a friendly game like this.
Albert Sambi Lokonga was dealing with a foot impact injury sustained in Dubai, while Takehiro Tomiyasu was out with a tight hamstring and Alex Zinchenko is still dealing with his muscle tightness. For the latter pair, Arteta seemed hopeful that they would be in contention for the return of Premier League football on Boxing Day.
"Alex is progressing well," he told football.london . "Tomi is already running on the pitch. Hopefully we’ll get those (in time for West Ham)."
On top of that the group is also set to be bolstered by the return of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli. football.london understand the pair will be back in training early next week after returning back from the World Cup and Arteta intends to waste no time integrating them back into the group.
"They come back straight away into the rhythm, shape and mood of the team," the Spaniard said. "We are waiting for them and they are desperate to be back as well. I’ve spoken to both of them, Gabi was here today (with) a big smile, big energy and ready to go again. It’s going to be a big boost for the team."
With all that in mind it's probably worth putting the Gunners display into context. Yes, it wasn't the kind of flowing performance that we've come to expect from them this season, but then again they were without as many as eight senior players when you count William Saliba, Gabriel Jesus and Emile Smith Rowe in with the group already mentioned.
Even with that they still created more than enough to win the game. Nketiah had two seemingly legitimate goals disallowed that VAR would surely have given and after the match Arteta was keen to focus on the display rather than the outcome, even if he was unhappy with Arsenal's end product.
"Probably because the result doesn’t reflect the performance," he said when asked if he'd focus more on the latter than the former. "But it’s a good test good learning for us. The fact is that the games are decided in the boxes and they had one shot or two and scored two goals and we had 19 or 20 shots and only two on target. It’s not enough. Overall, everything else I think really, really positive. That final thing that you need wasn’t good enough."
Social media does appear to be awash with doom mongering fans predicting the end of the title challenge off the back of this Juventus display alone. But let's not get too hyperbolic too quickly. The Gunners will be far better with their senior players back available, and hopefully that will be in time for West Ham.
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