Arsenal will be without Bukayo Saka against Everton on Saturday, and probably for a lot longer than that. He limped off in the 2-2 in Munich with a thigh injury. On Friday Mikel Arteta said Saka needs another MRI because there was "quite a lot of fluid in the area". Reports put the lay-off at six to eight weeks, but the club hasn't confirmed a timeline.
The fan YouTubers didn't wait for the scan. By teatime the Arsenal rooms had moved on from how long he'll be out to whose fault it is.
Saka's injury: another MRI and a feared two months
Arteta's lines were careful: "a few more scans and opinions from the specialists", and a plea to be patient. Then he added that when a player is "struggling to walk without any pain" and restricted in movement, "they are not good signs". Not much comfort there.
The Goonerverse does the maths on the fixture list. By his count, two months would mean missing Everton, Liverpool away, Newcastle away, Dortmund, City, Spurs, Real Madrid and United. "Maybe around Christmas he gets back on the pitch."
The Goonerverse and NorthsideLDN: was he run into the ground?
This is the real argument. The Goonerverse thinks "Arsenal could have managed his minutes better", and remembers asking years ago whether Saka could sit out Europa League group games and Carabao Cup ties. To be fair, the same video also allows that "the best players play a lot of football and this is just bad luck".
NorthsideLDN is less forgiving. He goes through quad grades like a man who's spent the afternoon on a physio website, then says it plainly: "Saka's got worse." His comparison is boxing: athletes always want to fight, so "there's a responsibility in the people looking after them to save them from themselves."
BoodsBants puts it more briefly: "I think he's just been overplayed."
Deluded Gooner: "You made your bed"
Deluded Gooner has sympathy for Saka, his teammates and the fans. For Arteta and the people above him, the sympathy "is capped". The summer let wingers leave without replacing them, and now "you made your bed, you're going to have to lie in it." His point is that keeping your powder dry looks clever in August. It looks less clever in October with no right winger.
Max Dowman, Eze and who plays on the right
Everyone has the same answer. Deluded Gooner's is the loudest: "Unleash Max Dowman. Unleash him. He needs minutes." Even he admits it'll probably be Eze and Noni Madueke on Saturday. Curtis Shaw TV asks the same question in the title of his video, "Time To Play Dowman?"
Arteta at least gave them something. He called Dowman's rise "something inevitable" and said "for sure he's going to have minutes". In football that's about as firm as promises get.
Khwaja Talks Football: the minority report
Every pub has one, and Khwaja Talks Football is happy to be it. His Everton XI moves Eze into the middle, and on Saka he doesn't hedge: "I think we're better off without Bukayo Saka, but obviously, don't say that to the Saka fan boys, they're going to cry."
The argument: bad luck or bad management?
Nobody is arguing that Saka's been at his best. Even the fans who rate him most admit his form had dipped, and The Goonerverse's hope is that "some time away from the game might help him". The split is over who's to blame. One side says it's a brutal calendar and bad luck. The other says the club ran its best player into the ground and then didn't sign cover. The MRI will settle how long he's out. It won't settle that.