Adam Wharton’s transfer to Arsenal makes sense

Last week was a hell of a week arsenal.

The win against Nottingham Forest was good, but the way they put Sporting and West Ham away was very, very impressive.

They’ve got their mojo back. You can tell by the way they are playing. They have confidence, they are scoring goals and they are playing again with smiles on their faces.

The Sporting and West Ham games were much more like what we expect from Arsenal. Now they are moving the ball quickly and it gets teams out of position. This was not the case at the start of the season when they were struggling for form and confidence.

The return of Martin Odegaard is obviously central at the turn Mikel Arteta’s team is much better when he is involved. He is central to everything and keeping him fit from this point on is obviously absolutely crucial.

The key now is to maintain the momentum that has built up over the past three games as Liverpool show no signs of slowing down.

They brushed aside Manchester City with ease on Sunday. It was another big statement from them and if Arsenal are going to chase them, it looks like they will have to be near perfect from this point on.

Wednesday night’s game against United is huge. United had a decent win against Everton and will be dangerous, especially on the counter attack, but I still think Arsenal will have too much for them if they play well.

Obviously, there are some injury doubts ahead of the game. Hopefully Gabriel Magalhaes is fit because it would be a big loss in both frames if he doesn’t come.

There will be a late call to Thomas Partey. As far as I know, the muscle problem that kept him out against West Ham is nothing serious and there is hope that he will be available.

Jorginho was very good in his absence on Saturday, though, so even if Partey doesn’t make it, I’d still feel confident with the Italian sitting behind Martin Odegaard and Declan Rice.

When you’re nine points behind in a title race, all you can do is keep winning. There’s no point focusing on what Liverpool are doing because that’s all out of Arsenal’s hands.

The only thing they can control is their own results and they have shown in recent games that they are getting back to their best. Now they have to keep doing this and see where it takes them.

I laughed when Mikel Arteta was asked in his press conference after the West Ham game if Nicolas Jover should get a goal bonus.

This would certainly affect Arsenal’s profits if this were the case, considering the number of goals they have been scoring from set pieces in recent seasons.

Jover’s star is certainly on the rise at the moment and his reputation grows stronger with every goal Arsenal score with one of his carefully constructed routines.

I’m sure other managers or clubs would love to bring him in to take advantage of his experience, but I can’t imagine him looking to go elsewhere at the moment.

He is such a key figure in Arteta’s coaching staff and you can see how much work he puts into making the team such a threat from set pieces.

I loved the one against West Ham because of Gabriel’s goal. It was a little different to what had worked so well against Sporting a few days earlier, but that made the difference.

Gabriel started a little deeper than he usually does. This time his starting point was inside the pack that always gathers beyond the far post, while against Sporting he started the run from a more central area and attacked the back post.

He caught West Ham and that allowed the Brazilian the space he needed to meet Bukayo Saka’s corner. It’s such a potent weapon for Arsenal that it works time and time again.

Obviously, Jover deserves a lot of credit, but it has to be said that all his work would be for naught if the players didn’t put his ideas into practice so well.

Saka and Declan Rice are so good at delivering the set piece and the players who act as blockers to leave space for Gabriel to attack do so well.

Everyone plays their part.

There will be plenty of players linked with Arsenal as January gets closer and closer. We have seen it in recent weeks, with Adam Wharton mentioned as a target.

Wharton is a good player and you could see the immediate impact he had at Crystal Palace when he first arrived from Blackburn last season.

Injuries have hurt him this season, with his last appearance coming in October, so I’d be surprised if anything happened to him in January. If it were to move, I think it’s much more likely to be a summer thing.

We know Manchester City are keeping an eye on him and I’m sure there will be plenty of other top-flight clubs monitoring his progress at Selhurst Park.

With Thomas Partey and Jorginho coming to the end of their contracts, Arsenal will have to make some decisions soon about how they will revamp their midfield options and it would not be surprising if Wharton was thinking.

But I can only reiterate what I have been told about January and that is that the likelihood when it comes to Arsenal is that it will be a reactive window, rather than a proactive one.

I think the plan is to wait until the summer to do anything significant unless something happens that potentially forces them to time the market.

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A new contract for Ethan Nwaneri It’s certainly something on Arsenal’s agenda right now.

The club is happy with the work done in rewarding its players over the past two years, but is well aware that it cannot afford to sit still when it comes to contracts.

Nwaneri only signed his first professional contract in March, but his progress since then has been rapid, with the 17-year-old already scoring four goals in 11 games this season.

There is no rush to extend his deal, but Arsenal’s approach to signings in recent years has been to ensure players are rewarded for their performances and their position in the squad.

Nwaneri has already become a key part of Arteta’s squad and Arsenal will be looking to reward him for that, with discussions understood to be ongoing over a new deal.

And when you look at what he does and how talented he is, it’s impossible to say that he doesn’t deserve it.