Good morning from London. I’m here for our book launch which takes place tonight, but also for our game against Hull tomorrow. Mikel Arteta will meet the press this afternoon ahead of that one, and we’ll bring you all the stories on Arseblog News. I don’t think there’s gonna be anything mind-blowing, it looked like we came through the Slavia Prague game without any issues, so fingers crossed that’s the case. I suppose I’m mildly curious as to whether Viktor Gyokeres’ performance on Wednesday will see him keep his place up front. He got a great goal, provided an assist for Noni Madueke, and probably should have had another assist when he headed back across goal for Mikel Merino, only for the Spaniard to head over the bar when we know he can do better from those situations. He’s a player who seems to need confidence and rhythm, and on that basis it would make some sense to keep him in the starting line-up. After the last Interlull, when he scored in four successive games for Sweden, I made the case that giving him a start in our first game back would make some sense to try and harness some of what was a good goal scoring run. Strike while the iron is hot and all that. I looked at a home game against Leeds as the kind of fixture that would suit him. He scored two against them at home last season, and one at Elland Road, but when the time came Mikel Arteta picked Kai Havertz up front. Speaking about the decision to start Gyokeres on Wednesday in Prague, the manager said: It was a game we believed would be really good for him, for the demands the opponent puts in and the spaces he could use. He’s done it really well, not just for the assist and the goal, but he was really connected to the team. It’s really great news for him, because he really needed that performance. The question will be does Arteta think Hull at home will be as good for him as Slavia Prague away? After a bright start to the season they haven’t won any of their last seven but they have drawn five of those. Chances are they’re going to come and sit deep, using the blueprint we’ve seen many teams deploy against Arsenal in the past. If a Gyokeres game, if we can call it that, requires the opposition to leave spaces he can use (as per Arteta’s quote above), then maybe this isn’t one of those. However, on paper, and with all due respect to tomorrow’s opposition, if Hull at home isn’t a Gyokeres game, then it’s hard not to be a bit worried. Personally, I’d be all right to see him start this one, and if it doesn’t work then you have other options. Havertz is the obvious one, but Mikel Merino is an alternative as well with his ability to find spaces inside the opponent’s penalty area. Ideally though, it’s a bit of a building block of a game for the Swedish international. We need him to deliver goals and assists, the last few weeks have been a bit more positive in that regard, and ultimately it’s important that the manager recognises the moments in a season when he might have to choose one player over another for the overall benefit of the team. Which is to say, I look forward very much to seeing Declan Rice starting up front against Hull tomorrow, and Arteta revealing that his tech-boffins have invented a gizmo which will allow Rice to player 180 minutes in every game. Plus injury time. I kid, obviously, but I suppose we should know by now that regardless of what we think about team selections, use of players, and everything else, this manager will never be even remotely swayed by external noise – and that’s a good thing most of the time! We will talk a bit more about the Hull game in a quick preview podcast on Patreon a little later on. Because of the book launch, we’ll be recording before the manager meets the press, so bear that in mind. Hopefully catch lots of you later on at Big Red – and here’s a nice piece on the photos in the book. Just a reminder again that those who have registered to come to the launch, you can purchase the book via the email sent to you (check your junk folders if you don’t see it), so you can simply come and collect on the night. We can also facilitate sales via credit card etc if you don’t want to do that. If you purchased via the Patreon pre-sale, those books are not for collection tomorrow, and will be shipped to you in due course. There is also some scope to come along on spec on the night, and we should have copies available but obviously priority goes to those who registered. We will then have a final batch of books going on general sale online on Saturday evening after the Hull game. Full details of that to follow here on site and via Arseblog on BlueSky. For now, have a good one! The post Is the Gyokeres iron hot enough for Hull? appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.