Arsenal took their extended time off to travel to Dubai and have a warm-weather friendly against Al-Nasr, and while it didn’t matter, one thing did happen.
I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t have given half a crap about Arsenal‘s friendly against Al-Nasr. After two weeks without meaningful football, I am literally parched, waiting for the Premier League to return, and a friendly in Dubai isn’t enough to satiate me.
Turns out the Gunners won 3-2, and that’s fun and all, and there are pictures that make it look like everyone had a real romp of a time, but in the end, Newcastle is all that matters, and whatever happened in Dubai, as long as no one got hurt, I really don’t care.
And then I read the report that Denis Suarez played a full 90 minutes in Dubai, and all of a sudden, everything changed. Perhaps something big was accomplished in Dubai. The heavily criticized loanee got his first start and I will now tell you why that isn’t meaningless.
The ridiculous reports were already rolling in that Unai Emery and the club in general had given up on Suarez and were going to ship him back to Barcelona. They called it “six failed substitute appearances,” I believe, or something like that.
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Which is dumb enough already, but consider this: If Emery was truly ready to ship off Suarez and not even bother, he would not have given him 90 minutes, even in a meaningless friendly. Because there are other players he could have given that opportunity to. As we have learned, Emery is not the kind of manager who is going to pick favorites, and thus he wouldn’t given Suarez a chance just out of pity.
He gave him this chance to try to further his development, and Suarez highlighted that on Instagram after the match as well, saying that this was 90 minutes to keep improving.
I don’t care what the media is out there saying, Suarez is improving, and if it took a trip to Dubai to get him his first start, so be it. He is going to get his chances, he is going to be able to prove himself, and each minute played is one step closer to convincing the doubting masses.
Now we just need to see him truly unleashed, with actual time to make an impact, and then he can prove everyone wrong and be the long-term solution we want him to be.