Gunners

I am too, but that means we have only have Rice, Merino and Zubimendi in midfield, with Zinny also out the door. You could argue moving MLS to cover midfield, but he's been playing so well in his current role, I don't see the need to hamfist him into a position he hasn't played in at this level. You could also argue Havertz, but he seems to excel up front opposed to when he played in midfield for us.

For me, it comes down to how many times we've not recruited appropriate backup when required and been left wanting. We could be one injury away from disaster again i.e. Havertz in Jan after Jesus being out injured, amongst others in the past few seasons.

People are also getting anxious about the lack of silverware, which has been compounded since Newcastle and Spurs have since gone on to win some trophies (although the EL was easy pickings for a club like spurs).

I think for the amount of comps we're involved in and subsequent games, we'll need the backup.

Yeah, we really do. With both Partey almost certainly going and Jorgingo gone we will be very light in the defensive midfield department.

With no further additions, back-up options for Zubimendi will be:

• Rice, who can play there, but then it deprives us of him further up the pitch.
• Zinchenko, who Arteta doesn't seem to like playing in that position (and who might also be leaving).
• MLS, who I think would be great there eventually, but he's still pretty inexperienced.
• Merino, but I think he's much better a bit further up the pitch, and I don't think he really has the chops to play reliably as a DM.
• White, who played there for Bournemouth years ago, but again Arteta doesn't seem to want him playing as a DM.

Having a PL battle-hardened defensive midfielder who can come off the bench and relieve some of Zubimendi's workload will be essential. And Norgaard fits that need very well.