Arsenal: Kieran Tierney, Hector Bellerin news still requires patience

Kieran Tierney and Hector Bellerin are both ahead of their October recovery schedules. Despite the good news, Arsenal must still be patient with both.

In Hector Bellerin and Kieran Tierney, Unai Emery opened up the season without either of their starting full-backs fit and available. Unlike last year, he has not had to adapt his entire Arsenal system, instead just swapping two players in and out.

Find the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast here — The Big Unai Emery Debate

Nevertheless, due to the increased importance of the full-back positions in modern football as teams increasingly utilise pressing and counter-pressing techniques, I am sure that Emery is keen to have both his starting full-backs in hand.

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This week, Emery was asked about their respective availabilities. This is what he had to say:

"“Really, we have to be calm but also we have to be demanding with their recovery, because we need them. That international break is going to give us two weeks to test them better than before, because now my focus with the team is the players that will be available on Sunday and to prepare with them. After that match, we will test different players and how they can be closer to us, to the team, to start playing with us.”"

He concedes that he would like them back as soon as possible. He also admits that patience is necessary and neither should be rushed into action before they are ready.

It is this latter point that Emery and his coaching staff must keep in mind as the season progresses. While Bellerin and Tierney may be ready for action in September, despite the pair not initially being addresses as October returnees, that does not give Arsenal the green light to rush them back into action.

Both Bellerin and Tierney are not in the squad for their immediate impact, however positive that may be. Tierney, especially, at just 22 years of age, arrived at the club this summer to lock down the left-back position for the next decade, not for this season alone. As he recovers from a sports hernia, pushing him into the fold at the risk of greater injury is utterly foolish.

Bellerin, similarly, is rehabbing from an ACL tear, one of the most critical and serious injuries in the modern game. If not managed correctly, it can linger for many years, which is precisely what Bellerin and the Gunners do not want.

I understand the eagerness to bring them back into the fold. They are both far superior to their deputies. But patience is required here, no matter how frustrating that may be.