Mikel Arteta told fringe Arsenal players to ‘be prepared to play any minute in any moment’. The same goes for Liverpool and Manchester City squad members.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!With the games starting to come both thick and fast at this, the business end of the season, it could be that the Premier League title race is settled by someone on the Arsenal, Liverpool or Manchester City sidelines stepping up.
“Sometimes you just need a second to change the history of a football club. You don’t need 100 minutes to play football,” Arteta said. And this lot have it in them to be decisive despite barely featuring all campaign.
Reiss Nelson (Arsenal)
“Look at the example of Reiss,” Arteta said. “His best moment for Arsenal, it’s a moment where he played a few minutes and made a huge impact and it’s one of the best days in his life as an Arsenal player. Nobody remembers if he started or if it was off the bench.”
The last point was a little laboured – Nelson quite obviously not only did not start that match, but hasn’t started a Premier League game for Arsenal since July 2020 – yet the general message was logical. The midweek-to-weekend grind will be pretty constant for each title contender from here on in and the supporting cast will be needed.
It is a call to arms Nelson has heeded before. That late and obviously over-celebrated but actually Keys-approved Bournemouth winner sticks in the memory but a substitute hour against Nottingham Forest earlier last season produced two goals and an assist.
A new four-year contract in the summer has not translated to more opportunities, with Nelson starting only in the domestic cups and a Champions League group-stage dead rubber. But Arteta will know he can be relied upon when all seems lost.
Arsenal over-celebrate
Emile Smith Rowe (Arsenal)
That same dramatic Bournemouth victory last March also featured an assist from Smith Rowe, who succumbed to injury soon thereafter and was replaced by match-winner Nelson. Once an equal to Bukayo Saka, the 23-year-old has seemingly overcome those physical problems but finds himself almost exclusively on the bench.
Arteta has credited Smith Rowe as the one who “helped shift momentum” in his reign numerous times, but those halcyon days of December 2020 feel like impossibly distant history for player and club.
It has been another deeply frustrating season for Smith Rowe, albeit for more agreeable reasons than any struggle with injuries. His time has instead largely been spent on the bench, save for a couple of Premier League starts in victories over Sheffield United and Nottingham Forest. Arteta has previously explained that “we cannot play every player in every game” but his more recent comments suggest a more effective rotation policy will be deployed soon.
Fabio Vieira (Arsenal)
Another who stands to benefit from that rotation policy is Vieira, who has actually already shown a penchant for game-changing cameo excellence this season. The Portuguese won a penalty and set Eddie Nketiah up at home to Fulham in August but the Gunners conceded within four minutes of being given a man advantage, while Vieira also assisted the Gabriel Jesus clincher against Manchester United and converted a spot-kick in a thrashing of Sheffield United.
Since undergoing groin surgery in November, the 23-year-old has only played 45 comfortable minutes in another Sheffield United shellacking. Arteta leaned on Vieira as an “insider” who “gave us some important information” in the Champions League against Porto; he might place a different level on trust in him soon.
Stefan Bajcetic (Liverpool)
“He is now in partial training with the U21s, and he will be in full training with the U21s next week because we pretty much don’t train because we play all the time,” said Jurgen Klopp. “Then after that, he will join our training. That’s the plan, and then we will see.”
Those final five words felt deliberate. While Juan Sebastian Thiago is unlikely to be factored into any meaningful Liverpool equations when reliability is needed in such a pressurised situation, Bajectic might be considered a wildcard in an important position.
This would have been the perfect campaign for the Spanish teenager to establish himself in a remodelled Liverpool midfield but fate and surgery transpired against him; Bajcetic last made a Premier League appearance so long ago that he was being replaced by Fabio Carvalho and the Reds were fifth after losing to Bournemouth.
More than a year has passed but that recovery time has been used to bulk up and address Klopp’s previous claim that his body was not “ready for the intensity professional football is asking for”. Bajcetic can shoulder some of that Wataru Endo burden soon.
Oscar Bobb (Manchester City)
With his name like an awards ceremony haircut, there has already been one Hollywood ending this season for Bobb. The sublime touch, footwork and finish to secure a late victory at Newcastle in January has kept Manchester City in a title race he might yet help decide.
The following month, Bobb was handed a five-year contract extension and first career Premier League start. But aside from that hour against Brentford, the Norwegian’s only other league game since the Newcastle heroics was his introduction in the seventh minute of stoppage-time against Manchester United.
There is a furious on-pitch Pep Guardiola lecture waiting with his name on it before the end of the season.
