{"id":842830,"date":"2025-04-22T18:12:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T23:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/22\/calafiori-injury-worry-mikel-goleador-merino-scores-again\/"},"modified":"2025-04-22T18:12:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T23:12:07","slug":"calafiori-injury-worry-mikel-goleador-merino-scores-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/22\/calafiori-injury-worry-mikel-goleador-merino-scores-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Calafiori injury worry : Mikel \u2018goleador\u2019 Merino scores again"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Morning all.<\/p>\n

A quick Friday blog for you, and unfortunately we have to start with some potentially bad news. It feels typical of this season that an Interlull arrives and an Arsenal player gets injured, but it has happened again. This time Riccardo Calafiori, in the dying stages of Italy\u2019s 2-1 defeat to Germany, slipped on the pitch and his knee buckled in a way which genuinely made my heart sink when I saw it. Clip here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps we\u2019re too conditioned now to see something like that and fear the worst, but that\u2019s where I am with it this morning. A relatively innocuous incident that leads to a terrible outcome. No doubt some information will emerge during the day, but if it was the bad knee thingy (a Scottish play equivalent in terms of football injury writing), I wouldn\u2019t be at all surprised. I really, really hope I\u2019m wrong, but after everything else that has happened this season, you wouldn\u2019t put it past the universe to throw in another couple of stabs before we resume for the final part of the season.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not even going to say \u2018Well, at least it happened in an area where we have lots of cover\u2019, because that\u2019s just inviting the fates to do their thing on someone in an area where we don\u2019t. I don\u2019t even believe in that shit, jinxes and what have you, but the bad luck we\u2019ve had with injuries this season has been off the charts. Hopefully it\u2019s not a serious one for Calafiori, I\u2019ll keep my fingers crossed for him.<\/p>\n

Also in action last night, William Saliba played 90 minutes for France as they were beaten 2-0 by Croatia; Kieran Tierney came on as a sub in Scotland\u2019s 1-0 win over Greece; Gabriel played in Brazil\u2019s 2-1 win over Panama<\/del> Colombia but picked up a yellow card which rules him out of their next game (good!); Leandro Trossard and Oleksandr Zinchenko faced off as Ukraine beat Belgium 3-1; while Jurrien Timber was unwell and unable to play for the Netherlands as drew 2-2 with Spain.<\/p>\n

David Raya and Mikel Merino were both on the bench for that one, but the latter was introduced in the 84th minute and scored an injury time equaliser as the game finished 2-2. It\u2019s not the most beautiful goa<\/a>l he\u2019ll ever score, but if that was a certified centre-forward, you\u2019d give him credit for being in the right place at the right time to tuck home the rebound.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t already seen it, he did a really interesting interview with Sid Lowe in The Guardian<\/a>, talking about how he\u2019s coming to terms with his new role up front. He backed up the story from before the Leicester game where the idea of him playing there was sprung on him on the morning of the game. It didn\u2019t sound very Mikel Arteta, if that makes sense. He\u2019s usually so meticulous in his preparations, but there was method to the madness:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThey know me: they know I want to know why<\/em> we do things, exactly what movements to make, to not make, everything. If they told me sooner I would have been thinking too much, instead of letting it flow. And look: they told me late, I didn\u2019t think much, I went out, I flowed, I scored two.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Afterwards though, he wanted more:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI was quick to say: \u2018Look, it\u2019s great that you didn\u2019t tell me anything before but, please, now give me some fundamentals.\u2019<\/p>\n

I\u2019m getting used to being a centre-forward, fighting with the centre-backs, them hitting you from behind. You\u2019re always at a disadvantage and they like to mark their territory, intimidate you physically. They want to ensure you\u2019re uncomfortable and don\u2019t have space, from first minute to last \u2013 even if the ball\u2019s not there. It\u2019s more mental than midfield because it\u2019s a more direct duel. But I\u2019m adapting and if there\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve always been it\u2019s a battler: I like the contact, I never back down.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is a bit mad to say it, but in the absence of anyone else, his importance to the team in the final 6 weeks of the season can\u2019t be underestimated. I think there are going to be games where it\u2019s tough because of the quality of the opposition, but hopefully he\u2019s learning enough on the job to be effective. I will say this, I like his attitude and his character. He\u2019s willing to do whatever the team needs, with no complaints, and he\u2019s determined to do to the best of his ability. He wants to understand the new role and learn as much about it as he can. Can\u2019t fault that.<\/p>\n

Right, I\u2019ll leave it there for now. There are players in action this evening: Declan Rice, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri (Eng U21s), Thomas Partey, and Jakub Kiwior, with Martin Odegaard playing for Norway tomorrow. It\u2019d be very nice if the injury gods turned their Eye of Sauron elsewhere, perhaps on, I dunno, people who are doing the entire world harm rather than just Arsenal players.<\/p>\n

Now though, I\u2019m gonna go play golf and win the club championship with a round of 61 and I definitely won\u2019t be cheating no no no I\u2019m just an incredible athlete and golf hitting guy, no hanky-panky I can assure you just definitely a real golf score 100% true and true no lies just honest golf in the hole. Thank you!!!!!!<\/p>\n

If you need something to listen to, there\u2019s an Arsecast below. I\u2019m joined by Elliot Smith from the ArsenalVision Podcast to do Statements, some good ones in there. Have a great day, folks.<\/p>\n

Download<\/a> \u2013 iTunes<\/a> \u2013 Spotify<\/a> \u2013 Acast<\/a> \u2013 RSS <\/a><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Morning all. A quick Friday blog for you, and unfortunately we have to start with some potentially bad news. It feels typical of this season that an Interlull arrives and an Arsenal player gets injured, but it has happened again. This time Riccardo Calafiori, in the dying stages of Italy\u2019s 2-1 defeat to Germany, slipped<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":842831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[139166,1767],"tags":[139165,10679],"class_list":{"0":"post-842830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calafiori","8":"category-injury","9":"tag-calafiori","10":"tag-injury"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}