Speak to your friends about the last few months and you'll often be met with post-holiday depression and holiday blues. You may even be met with a review of that dreaded Euro 2024 campaign for England. Try as they might, Arsenal's Bukayo Saka, Bayern Munich's Harry Kane and Real Madrid's Jude Bellingham could not drag the Three Lions across the line in the final against Spain.
Gunners hero Saka did at least get redemption for that spot-kick miss in 2021, scoring a vital goal against the Swiss and then bagging in the shoot-out too. Mikel Arteta no doubt will have had a wry smile on his face.
However, we're done with international football now. As Andy said in Toy Story, we don't want to play with you anymore. The Premier League is back and Arsenal are unbeaten.
But wait, what's that? It's the horrible screech of yet more international football. Lee Carsley's first match as England manager was no doubt intriguing, and the Gunners' very own Declan Rice scored, but come on, let's put all of that on hold for now.
There aren't many supporters of international football so soon into a new campaign and that's now been hammered home following a huge injury blow ahead of the north London derby.
Martin Odegaard's injury on international duty
With Rice already out of this coming weekend's north London derby, Arsenal knew they were going to have to make some changes to their midfield.
Mikel Merino's shoulder injury means that he won't be seen until October, cruelly ruled out following his very first training session with the club.
There are also some doubts surrounding Riccardo Calafiori too who has been sent back to London following an issue he sustained on duty with Italy.
However, the biggest blow lies with Martin Odegaard, Arsenal and Norway's captain. As the Scandinavian country defeated Austria 2-1 on Monday evening, the attacking midfielder limped off the field with a nasty looking ankle injury.
The prognosis is that the 25-year-old has suffered a small sprain and now faces a race against time to make the match with Tottenham on Sunday afternoon.
Speaking after the game, Norway team doctor Ola Sand stated: "He got a small ankle sprain. We will see, maybe we use ultrasound to look at it. If we are unsure, there will be an MRI tomorrow [Tuesday]."
How Arsenal can overcome Odegaard's injury
In a normal set of circumstances then Arsenal likely would have handed a debut to Merino in this situation. However, with the Spaniard, Rice and Odegaard potentially missing, it leaves a huge hole in Arteta's midfield.
One option could be to move Kai Havertz back into a role behind the striker with Jorginho and Thomas Partey sitting.
The German was selected in that role for Germany as they defeated Hungary 5-0 over the course of the current break. Havertz scored from the penalty spot and caused all sorts of havoc, winning said penalty, completing 92% of his passes and producing five shots. It's a valid solution for Arteta to take.
Yet, if he wants to keep the German up top and play with a more defensive-looking midfield on Sunday, he could move Jurrien Timber into the centre of the park.
Timber, who has only played in midfield twice throughout his career to date, certainly has the attributes to feature there on a more regular basis.
He arrived at the club primarily as a centre-back but has been seen more as an inverted full-back (example below) by Arteta, notably featuring in that role for his first two starts of 2024/25. The Dutchman has thrived too, offering another body in the centre of the pitch and progressing play brilliantly.
So, why could he thrive more centrally? Well, with the help of analyst Ben Mattinson, who labelled him "elite", we have the answer.
Taking to social media, he wrote: "A total football like Timber is capable of playing there and adding physicality in ground duels and ball progression via carrying or line-breakers."
A look at his heat map for the season to date and the numbers supplement this vision. As you can see below, he doesn't hug the touchline by any means and is already playing most of his football (in possession) in central areas. Remarkably, for a left full-back, he's even appearing quite regularly on the edge of the opposition's penalty area.
So, on that evidence, he shouldn't have too much trouble adapting to a role in the centre of the field. The numbers suggest so too.
Data is slim on the ground for last season considering Timber only played one match but if we assess his 2022/23 numbers from centre-back in the Champions League, we can build a stronger case.
Centre-back
166
9
Right-back
49
2
Left-back
14
1
Midfield
2
1
The 23-year-old ranked inside the top 4% of positionally similar players in Europe's elite competition for pass success rate per 90 minutes, as well as among the best 12% for progressive passes and progressive carries per 90, illuminating the aforementioned skillset that Mattinson outlined.
So, while it's certainly not an ideal scenario for Arsenal, Timber could well be a short-term solution among all of the chaos in Arteta's midfield.
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