So, Xhaka in an Arsenal kit, eh? Imagine if both clubs suddenly stumbled on an agreement and the deal broke through now? I think some people might just be finding some tall ledges to walk off. Every Arsenal Tweet for the last few days has been responded to by an Arsenal fan saying “Announce Xhaka FFS”, so if something broke down now, when he’s just done his medical and pictures, people will go absolutely bananas.

I saw a Tweet from somebody yesterday in reply to the leaked pics saying “Somebody at Arsenal is getting fired”, which you can imagine happening given the secrecy of transfers when it comes to Arsenal. The club prefers to get everything done and dusted before making the formal announcement, even in terms of the picture taken as this shows, so to have their thunder stolen by somebody whacking something up on Instagram will really grate on them. I can understand that to be fair. Especially from the PR, web and media teams point of view. The club gets over analysed for everything they do, blamed for everything they do, then when they have some really exciting news to share and try to bask in the reflective glow of like a transfer, somebody else essentially steals all of their thunder.

Still, none of us cared, because we got to not only see that the club is moving swiftly on outfield player deals, but we also got to see the new kit. And I have to say I like it. I like it because it looks a little bit like a hybrid of the 1990/91 shirt with the 1993/94 shirt. As a football fan well into my 30s, I’m becoming more and more nostaglic for days of Arsenal yore, which means when the club produces something that looks like it’s a tip of the cap to a time during my childhood that I remember fondly, i’m always going to give it the two thumbs up. I’m not sure about the darker red that runs through the middle, because it kind of looks like a manufacturing fault that somebody couldn’t be arsed to correct, but the collar and the sleeves are lovely and plain white. It’s the same with the away kit, in which somebody has clearly sat down at Puma and said “people don’t like tinkering with their traditions. I think we should just have the away kit as simple as possible and give them all back their yellow and navy”. YES! That’s EXACTLY what you should be doing Puma, for which I salute you, so well done on that front. I look forward to seeing all of our dozens of new signings parading the pitch in them next season…

What I’m not looking forward to, however, is the return of Jose Mourinho to the Premier League. The papers seemed to carry a universal headline that van Gaal would be sacked after the FA Cup, replaced immediately by Mourinho, which seems to me to be a classic case of ‘no smoke without fire’ and we can all expect to see his odious presence on touchlines next seasons. United will have finally sold their souls to the devil in a return for attempts at trophies and they can expect more of what van Gaal brought to the team in terms of style of play, but with a bit more success thrown in. I wonder what all the United ‘purists’ would make of that and whether or not they’ll prove that actually, the majority of them would gladly give all of their principles away for the taste of success.

It does make me laugh though. In the 90s when I was growing up, I was surrounded by West Ham, Tottenham, Man United and Liverpool fans. All of them talked of ‘boring, boring Arsenal’ and how you’d never see their teams play with that sort of style, because it wasn’t their ‘way’. Well guess what folks? It’s exactly your way, because there is no such thing as a ‘United way’ and you’re about to find out all about that. And you’ll probably buy in to it too, conveniently forgetting the years of abuse you’ve fired in the direction of us Arsenal fans, old enough to remember how we were lambasted because of our style of play under George Graham.

As for us, we’ve already got a terrible record against United that has built up over the years, so I guess nothing will really change. If The Odious One signs for United then he’ll come to the Emirates for a 0-0 and he’ll look to inspire his United team to cheat their way through a home victory against us at Old Trafford, where we haven’t won since Australia became a commonwealth, so we’ll just be able to accept that as fans and hope we pick up enough points against everyone else to win us the league next season.

As for the actual cup final yesterday, I’ll designate as much time to talking about it as it gave me excitement, which is very little. But I will say one thing; anybody employing Paul Scholes from his punditry deserves to get a bit of a pasting, because he is the very definition of a flip-flopper. A few weeks ago he taunted Arsenal and Arsenal fans for the celebrations of fourth and the FA Cup. Yet he seemed quite happy to talk up United’s win. Mate, have a word with yourself, because you just look like a bit of an idiot when you change your stance because it relates to your beloved team. Be happy about them winning the cup, be unhappy about the league position, but don’t pretend that Arsenal fans were any different last season. We wanted a better league campaign and got third. Walcott even said last season on cup final day that it wasn’t enough and we should be going on to better things in the league. So rounding on Arsenal as you did a few weeks back just makes you look like a bitter little man. Focus on your own club that you’re unhappy about.

anyway, I don’t really want to talk about United, because I’m all about the Arsenal. So for today, I shall take my leave and catch you all in the morrow.