Well, having stood in Block Five yesterday, I will tell you this: Those Arsenal fans in my area of the stadium absolutely brought their dinner. By the time I got home yesterday, I had little voice left. Part of that was because I was screeching at the woeful performance in the second half, but before that, there was support and desire from the home fans to be that extra man for a very much makeshift Arsenal team.

And it felt like a very tired, leggy, and makeshift performance. Bournemouth may have had three weeks to prepare for this one, but that is no excuse for those Arsenal players to do just the basics all very wrong, as Arteta also admitted afterwards. White getting done in behind by the wide-forward (maybe Madueke should have tracked too) is one thing, but MLS just watching as Kroupi just ran past him to tap it in after a deflection as just bad defending. I don’t think that goal happens if you have Calafiori or Hincapie on the pitch. We all love MLS, but the performances of last season are a distant memory. He looked every bit the young and fallible player in that moment.

Overall, though, he didn’t actually have the worst game in comparison to some of his teammates. Martin Zubimendi, for one, has regressed so much that in my WhatsApp groups, there are genuine calls to change something now. Honestly, people, Zubi is starting to scare the sh*t out of me when he drops to collect the ball from Raya, which happens an alarming amount of times, I’m afraid. There was one moment in which it was a simple pass to Ben White in the first half that he just massively overcooked and knocked it out for a throw-in. Where’s the vertical line-breaker from the first half of the season? It can’t be down to fatigue when you’re doing that for 15-20 minutes. He’s just woefully out of form. I am wondering if some of my mates are right; perhaps we do need to drop him completely and get Rice into that six role.

Mind you, if he’s there, who is playing in the left eight spot? Maybe Eze, who wasn’t fit enough to do 90 yesterday, but certainly not Havertz. When he signed for us, Arteta tried him there, but it didn’t work, and as somebody has already pointed out on social media after the game yesterday, that’s three defeats out of four with Havertz playing in midfield. Of course, it’s not all his fault that the team has lost those three games – there’s a collective failing of multiple players that has led to this – but I think none of us believe him in that position is a viable one.

If you’re going to be kind to Arteta, you’ll say it’s because he has once again been robbed of key players. Still no Timber, Calafiori not in the squad having played on Tuesday, no Eze from the start, no Odegaard, no Saka, and a left-wing position with which whoever starts these days is utterly toilet. Honestly, Martinelli can get in the bin with performances like yesterday, then Trossard coming on did little else, unfortunately. But that’s being kind on Arteta, because he has to shoulder some of the blame after this one, too. After all, he’s the one who motivates them; he’s the one who needs to assess the opposition and set a team up to exploit our strengths and the opponent’s weaknesses, yet it felt like he just set up the team because of certain players being the ‘next one up’. For example, in Madueke, Martinelli, and Gyokeres, we have three runners. We’ve already seen that it doesn’t work. So why not go with Trossard? I know he’s been crap in 2026, but he has a better working relationship with Gyokeres than Martinelli does. Could we also have gone with Mosquera instead of Ben White? White has been playing a lot of football lately, and I just feel like Mosquera’s recovery pace is better than White’s. Could he have made a difference on that first goal? Maybe, maybe not, as I think the situation is still recoverable if the left back does his job.

But it wasn’t just players who were coming in a little colder. Gabriel and Saliba looked shaky, too. How Bournemouth were allowed to ghost in and just waltz through our defence for that second goal was ridiculous. It was pathetic. Spineless. Lacking in energy, cowardice. There are so many adjectives I could throw at such a shambolic performance.

Even after we went behind for the second time, there was still time for there to be a fightback, but this team looked inhibited. They ran out of ideas, and I saw the xG stats. We had 2.3 overall, but a big chunk of that was the Gyokeres penalty. In that second half, Big Vik was unlucky not to be onside with his run for the disallowed goal for offside (which it clearly was), but I don’t remember us forcing Petrovic into a load of saves.

This was an Arsenal performance for the ages, in a very bad way. It was not a performance of a team that is as far ahead on points in the league as we are right now. It was the performance of a team of players scared of their own shadows. And simply not acceptable.

I’m not really sure what else there is to say. Simply not good enough, City will beat Chelsea today, then next weekend looks like one of those that feels like a foregone conclusion based on that performance and effort from those players yesterday. We need some good news regarding some returning players now, because we can’t have that team, with that lack of balance and creativity, to play again in that set-up. We’ll fall apart if we see that again.

Doing a pod this morning with James. It won’t be fun. Then the football and social media are off for the day.

Catch you all tomorrow.

The players know it, our supporters know it, it’s an early kick-off, so get up early, have an early breakfast, bring your lunch, bring your dinner, and let’s all go together for it because it has to be a big day.

I went out and had a skinful last night, before and after watching Sue Perkins at the Soho Theatre, deep in enemy territory in Walthamstow. I’m up early because I couldn’t sleep. I’ve got a banging headache, but do you know what? Come 12.30 pm, I am going to be fully ‘game face on’, because those Arsenal players need all of us today.

I’ve talked about Bournemouth and the threat they pose already. I’ve had a look at how their fans have been feeling. I’ve perused what the media and pundits think about this game. The talking is almost done. Now it is time to do the business on the pitch.

The team news from Arteta’s press conference yesterday was mixed, but there are some positives in there from some of the people ‘in the know’, including the fact that Pierro Hincapie has been included in the preliminary squad for today, according to the well-known source ‘HandOf Arsenal’. That’s a big boost, because one of the question marks is Calafiori, and whilst we have Myles Lewis-Skelly there who can play if needed, it does feel as though we need that steel available in such a tense game as this.

And it is tense. It is scary. It is a worry, and it is a match I’ve been thinking about for a long time. Bournemouth are no mugs. They are on a long unbeaten run (again, as I’ve already mentioned on the blog this past week), and they still have Europe in their sights. A win for them, or even a draw, keeps them in contention, so we aren’t at the point in the season yet where a team in 13th has nothing to play for. They absolutely do. So we need to be ready for them.

So, to a possible starting XI, which I feel is going to be tough to predict, given the number of question marks we have over some of our players. Thankfully, as we’ve all seen, Eze is back, but Arteta wouldn’t really be drawn on who is fit out of Saka, Odegaard, Timber, and Calafiori. If I were to stab at a guess based on players out and trying to feed certain players back in to the team, this is the line up I ‘think’ Arteta will go with today:

Raya

Timber   –   Saliba   –   Gabriel   –   Hincapie

Zubimendi

Eze   –   Rice

Saka   –   Havertz   –   Martinelli

I think the fact that Bournemouth is a more open team, a team that does give up chances, means that Martinelli is preferred on the left. I also think that Arteta will be managing Trossard’s minutes, and I think Leo starts in the Champions League in midweek. I think Havertz being used as a sub was telling, because I think he’s been earmarked to start centrally, and I think that is the right call. Martinelli and Gyokeres haven’t really seemed to connect, but Havertz can do with the Brazilian, who, if given more space through a transitional game as Bournemouth presses forward, will give him space to open up his stride a bit more. Havertz feels like a player who will also be a little more effective in a game like this, plus he’s more rested than Big Vik. I think Saka comes in because I am hoping he’s rested enough from his injury. Let’s not forget that he wanted to play for England just over a week ago. He reported to training and was sent back like Rice. I have no evidence, no insider knowledge, but I just have a ‘feeling’ that he has been given extra time to rest and recuperate after carrying something, and I think he’s been earmarked to come back in for this game. Because it’s massive. It’s an opportunity to go temporarily 12-points clear and that, as an incentive to deal a psychological blow to Man City, is huge for the players. They have to be ready to take it.

In defence, I’ve gone with Timber and Hincapie to return, but perhaps Timber is the one I’m not sure about. He’s been out for a while now, he could be quite rusty, but I don’t think that means White comes in, so maybe I’m wavering on that one and it’ll be Mosquera who is given the nod. And if that happens, I think most of us are ok. Hincapie on the other side might be one that is more likely to start, because he’s been out for a shorter duration of time, and therefore he might be somebody who can pick up match fitness quicker.

For Bournemouth, they don’t have such injury question marks, as Iraola has said they are in a ‘good place’ with players returning from injury. Tyler Adams, Ben Gannon-Doak and Julio Soler are all back, as well as Alex Jimenez and Junior Kroupi, who has bagged goals this season from the bench, including against us in January. They have had time off, so they are well-rested, which I think means they are going to be intense in the press and put us under a fair bit of pressure today. So these Arsenal players need to be up for it. They need to move the ball quickly, smartly, with purpose and precision. And if we do that, this Bournemouth team might be able to be moved about a bit.

I don’t think any of us are under the illusion that this will be a walk in the park today. It’s going to be gruelling, it’s going to be scary, but that’s what this time of the season is all about. Those Arsenal players need to heed the words of their manager and embrace this challenge. We’re at the proper ‘business end’ of this season. We can’t afford not to show up today.

Right, that’s it from me I think, as I need to drag my sorry arse out of these PJs and get my game face on for this kick off.

See you all tomorrow.

Firstly, the training pics and team news, and the real positive from yesterday was the sight of Eze in full training. He’s been out for three-and-a-bit weeks so far, so having him back is timely. Especially so, given that Odegaard wasn’t pictured in the open training session that the club held yesterday. Now, that doesn’t mean he isn’t good for Saturday, because there were other players not there, and I have a feeling we’ll see a few line up against the Cherries. For example, in the video session, there was no Timber, Hincapie, Calafiori, or Saka in shot. They might have been doing work inside, and, given that Calafiori has played a lot of football lately, plus Odegaard has been out, my gut feeling tells me that this weekend we might see Timber, Calafiori, and Odegaard. Whether we see Saka remains to be seen. The general vibes we got from Tuchel, and then Arteta was that he wasn’t far away, so I suspect they are just managing his load in training.

The good news is that Noni looked decent against Sporting, and if they want to be super cautious tomorrow, they can just have Saka on the bench and give Noni the start. In a way, you’d probably say he earned it and, were the referee to actually have done his job on Tuesday night and booked Araujo, I’m pretty sure we’d have seen even more from him as he’d have had more licence to try to beat a man who would already have been on a (deserved) yellow. With Eze back, that kind of covers any concern about Odegaard starting back-to-back games, which just really leaves question marks over the full-backs. Ben White has been playing more football, but Arsenal must surely be getting to the point of concern re: his ability to complete consecutive 90s. The upside is that Mosquera could come in and deputise if White needs his minutes managed, but on the other side, Myles looked off the pace against Southampton, so Calafiori starting tomorrow is one I have my eye on in particular. I do think Myles would be better with more of the first-XI regulars on the pitch, but there’s no doubt Calafiori adds a spot of dynamism to that position, which we might need against Bournemouth. So, of all the players I hope the club is wrapping up in cotton wool, the Italian is top of my list to be protected and told to get out there tomorrow lunchtime.

We’ll know more from the manager later at his press conference, but for now, let’s turn our attention outwards and see what some of the pundits think about tomorrow, eh? I had a little look at how Bournemouth may play against us based on the numbers and some of the comments from their fans in yesterday’s blog, but I’m interested in knowing what the supposed ‘neutrals’ think.

Well, let’s start with that grumpy bar steward, Chris Sutton, who thinks we’ll get a 2-0 victory, but does admit in his commentary that Bournemouth will give us a good game. I didn’t realise that they were undefeated in the League since we played them in January! That’s 11 games and, whilst a lot of those matches have been draws, it shows they are a tough side to beat. Conversely, I guess, and for balance, we are also unbeaten in the league for our last eight in the Premier League since that defeat to United at home, although some have admittedly been anything but comfortable (Chelsea, Brighton and Everton the last three that we played and hardly convincing).

Merson has gone ‘balls out’ with his prediction, saying we’ll beat Bournemouth 3-0 and City getting a draw at Chelsea, which means the title is ‘over’. I can’t see any of these things happening. Firstly, I do think we might concede, given that Bournemouth are a side that knows how to get goals. I don’t think it will be an easy 3-0 for us, but nor do I see Chelsea getting anything against City; they’ve already handicapped themselves by sidelining Enzo Fernandez, and I think City will smell blood.

Lewis Jones on Sky Sports is an interesting one, though. I quite respect his opinion because he’s a guy who knows about the betting markets, and they make it their job to know absolutely everything that the data tells them. He’s talking about how Bournemouth are on a good run of 12 in all competitions unbeaten, but that in their last six matches, there has been regression. This is good. This is the kind of intel I need to soothe my worried heart. Apparently, their xG against in those games is nearly two goals per game. They are giving teams chances. So he’s gone for a 2-0.

And finally, to Sports Mole, who have said it will be a ‘winning ugly’ kind of 2-1 game for The Arsenal. At this stage, I think as all of us have said in the pubs, WhatsApp chats and on social media, we accept that this might just ‘be us’ for the rest of the season. We have to make peace with that. I would bite yer hand off for a 2-1, and that’s my gut feel on scoreline, as I mentioned above with Bournemouth’s form and yesterday with their chance creation. They put the probability of an Arsenal win at 64.7%, with the most likely score being 1-0 with a 13% probability. I don’t buy that, for the aforementioned reasons, but I do hope that some karma comes our way from last season, because to me that Evanilson winner at The Emirates was handball. It clearly came off his elbow, and if that happened to us, you’d bet VAR would have pulled it back. Not that I’m still bitter or anything, mind…

So that’s the view from the pundits. We’ll hear the team news and vibes from the managers later today, so now all we have to do is wait until kick-off to see what sort of Arsenal we’re going to get, and what sort of Bournemouth will show up as well.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a match preview. See you then.

The Premier League games just hit differently.

That’s why the nerves are already starting to ramp up.

Bournemouth is a good side. They are a well-coached side. On Saturday, they will be a well-rested side, too, and in the time since they last played on 20th March at home to Man United, we’ve played:

• Three Champions League games
• One League Cup final
• One FA Cup quarter-final

There are a lot more minutes in those Arsenal players’ legs than there are in those of the Bournemouth players.

They have a pretty strong and relatively injury-free injury squad to call from, too. We’ll hear more from Iraola tomorrow, but by my count, they might only be missing Justin Kluivert, Julio Soler, and perhaps Tyler Adams. They also have the benefit of UAE-favouring Michael Oliver and Darren England. Honestly, I don’t understand why at this stage in the season, they don’t just stick him in random mid-table games, because any contentious decision against us this weekend is just going to have more people questioning the man’s integrity. For what it’s worth, I don’t think he is corrupt, but I do think he has an unconscious bias against Arsenal in certain games. Namely, those against Man City, and if he’s the ref next weekend, I’ll probably be blowing my lid more than this weekend. He’s refereed us twice this season; one was the 0-0 draw in which he and his VAR officials decided that Olana’s blatant handball wasn’t a handball (which I put on VAR more than Oliver), as well as the 4-1 home win against the Scum. So this season has not been as bad as we might have worried. Indeed, Bournemouth fans feel the same about him, but their story is similar. I haven’t watched the games in question, but they have a 2-0 win away at Wolves, a 0-0 at home to Chelsea, and a 2-2 away at Leeds.

I got this sense from them whilst having a look at one of their fan forums – Up The Cherries – and they’re feeling like this, be more history repeating itself as the draw specialists. They have 15 in the League so far, which is almost half of their games, and the only club that comes close to that are Sunderland and Brighton, on 10 draws this season. Those 15 draws have stopped a promising start to the season from being a run like Forest had last season to try to get Champions League football, and I seem to recall Bournemouth being up in the top spots after eight games. Their current position of 13th isn’t where they’d want to be, but the very nature of this league this season means that it’s congested enough that a few wins could put them in contention for European spots. With the coefficient confirmed after our win on Tuesday, I think it means if you’re down in eighth, you could make it. If Chelsea or City win the FA Cup, I think it confirms a Europa League spot in the Premier League. Bournemouth are currently just four points off that position (currently occupied by Everton), so for sure they have something to play for this weekend.

Their fans are naturally feeling that we will be nervous, and there is an opportunity to smell blood. I can understand that; last season they picked up wins both home and away, whilst in the game at the beginning of January they went ahead through a Gabriel mistake really early, before going ahead to cruise 3-1, before Kroupi pulled out a wonder strike to make the game a little nervous at the end. In those last three games, there is enough there to make Bournemouth fans feel optimistic, because before then, we had a fabulous record against them – winning each of the previous five games, and winning eight of the previous nine going back to 2018. But Iraola has changed their fortunes somewhat, with two wins and three defeats since he joined. So we need to be ready for a really tough game.

From a statistical point of view, Bournemouth are a side who score goals and concede goals with a fairly even level of regularity – I guess, hence the draws they pick up! They are the sixth-highest goal scorers in the league, whilst also conceding the fifth-highest number of goals. They take a lot of shots (and get plenty on target), they create high levels of xG (again, sixth in the league), and they try to get in as many crosses as possible. They press the ball high; they’re only behind Brighton, City and Everton in the league, just ahead of us, and their attacks are direct – they have had more direct attacks than any other team in the league this season so far (just behind us).

So we’re starting to have the data give us a bit of intel about what we might come up against on Saturday:

• Higher press
• Plenty of shots
• Go direct, but try to get wide to get crosses in

If they play like they have done all season, they will create chances, but they will also give us space too. That rings true if you think about the game at their ground, when they managed to unsettle us on two occasions. I’ve had a look back on the stats from that day and Bournemouth had 15 shot attempts, with three on target, whilst we had 12 and five on target. They played a 4-2-3-1 and at least two players from that day won’t be playing – Semenyo and Kluivert. They’ve replaced Semenyo with the Brazilian Rayan, who is quick, likes to beat a man and in a game that might end up being end-to-end, he could be one that we need Calafiori to be concerned with.

I’ll do a little more on Bournemouth tomorrow, as we await team news, but for today I will leave you with this thought: I think we might get a good game on Saturday. It might be terrifying, but I don’t think we’re getting Low Block FC rocking up at The Emirates.

And were it not for David Raya, we may well have succumbed, but having him back in the side showed the difference you can make when you have a world-class keeper in between the sticks. I actually don’t think Kepa was that bad last weekend – he’s just not Raya, who exuded calmness and composure with the ball at his feet, but also followed it up with some fine saves too. His first, from a pretty splendid ‘Paul Merson Pass’ outside of the ball splitter by Diomande to put Araujo in, was finger-tippingly brilliant. It crashed the underside of the bar, but he had a vital touch, which enabled the ball to avoid rippling the net. And who knows what direction the match might have changed into, had that gone in?

As a quick aside, the shooter in that instance must have had something on the referee, because quite how Araujo managed to avoid a booking for accumulation despite making upwards of seven fouls last night is beyond me. He had obviously read the Jordan Ayew Book of Impunity with Refs, because even when players like Madueke exasperatedly asked “How many?”, he still got away with one or two more.

It felt like a game in which we really did have to ‘huff and puff’ last night. We were in control in terms of ball-dominance and xG chance creation, but Sporting did have their moments. When you look at the stats, it was pretty 50-50, and so as the clock ticked down to the end of the game, my nerves were more about avoiding a last-minute sucker-punch as we have on a number of occasions already this season, rather than winning it. So when Martinelli shimmied himself into enough space to dink it to Kai in the middle of the penalty box to slot home, I was over the moon. It was a rarely-seen Martinelli pass; we don’t usually expect to see him being the provider to that type of goal, but more the man running on to it. It was a really deft chip and quite impressive from the Brazilian. So too, was Havertz’s touch and finish, which was certainly very clinical, and you could see how pleased he was with his celebration. The run was the type of run that you expect from Havertz when Gyokeres is on the pitch; he is playing as a false nine as Gyokeres occupies another defender, he finds the space in between centre-halves, which enables him to be picked out with a run from the D to the penalty spot, completely unmarked. Kai will not give us the vision or passing range in midfield that Odegaard or Eze can, but as a second striker, he has a big impact.

Elsewhere in the team, we had some decent, if not spectacular, performances. I thought Rice was superb again in his midfield duel-winning role, winning his one tackle on the night, making four interceptions, and recovering the ball 13 times. Any nerves about his lingering fatigue were dispelled last night, and that was great. Big Gabi had his hands full with Luis Suarez, but he came through 90 minutes and, like Rice, I am just pleased we had no lingering effects from what was clearly a niggling knee injury on Saturday. I thought White looked shaky in some of the ‘big’ moments – like that chance from Diomande to Araujo – but if you look at his performance as a whole, he did alright I thought. Plus we got 70 minutes out of Odegaard, which is positive, although his performance felt like a pretty rusty guy. He wasn’t really able to impact the game at all, and of all of his 48 passes (out of 59) that came off, I’m struggling to remember how many really did any kind of significant damage. It’s tough when the guy you come on for does what Kai did, but this season has certainly been one in which substitutes have made the biggest impact. I can’t remember the exact number, but I think we’re close to 40-odd involvements from Arsenal players this season. I think that’s miles more than any other team, so it really does show the positive impact that Mikel Arteta’s changes have made this season.

Understandably, Mikel Arteta was delighted last night, but I do wonder if he will continue to analyse why we have found it so difficult to break teams down. It isn’t as if Sporting sat in a low block last night, I didn’t think. There was space there for us to exploit, but it felt like we chose safety first in ball retention, which, I guess, given this is the first of a two-legged affair, is understandable. But I did feel at times that we could have got more out of the likes of Trossard and Madueke, who blew hot and cold last night I thought. We all know that when Gyokeres doesn’t get service he is basically a passenger, which is why I wanted a little more from our wide forwards. And that left-hand wide-forward slot continues to be an enigma, because it feels like no player wants to step up and make it his own. Martinelli was pretty poor against Southampton, but then comes on and made a key impact last night. Trossard had an indifferent game, but if he doesn’t start at the weekend, I’d imagine that he’ll come on and play well from the bench against Bournemouth. It’s frustrating, but equally a bit of a relief that you know these guys can impact from the sidelines when coming on. Or maybe it is just that Martinelli loves the Champions League? That’s six goals and two assists in 512 minutes – he’s averaging a contribution every hour -Harry Kane averages one every 70 minutes, for context.

So it’s a victory, it’s a commanding position in the Champions League, but it’s back to domestic focus immediately now, because Bournemouth on Saturday lunchtime is already filling my stomach with a bit of dread/fear/butterflies. Catch you all tomorrow for some more thoughts as we build up to that.

Let’s start with the good news, which I think top of my list this morning, the inclusion of Big Gabi in the training session. He went off with a knee complaint against Southampton and was pictured with an ice pack on his knee. When you see that sort of stuff, you naturally feel the worst, but he took part in training, and that means he should be good to go tonight. Phew. I think for me the worry was less about this evening – we have Mosquera, who has proved to be an able deputy all season – but more about what a knee injury could do for his participation for the rest of the season. I think the club will clearly have to monitor him very carefully, but this at least means we have our best centre half in contention for tonight, and hopefully he gets through ok and his knock he sustained can be managed.

It’s the same with Madueke, who this time last week we ended up talking about how his season might end, as he was pictured walking out of Wembley with a knee brace, but he played against Southampton as a sub coming on, and he was also pictured in training. That is really good news, because the bad stuff coming out from yesterday was that Bukayo Saka is out for tonight. And once again, I have to say, to all of those tosser rival fans and media pundits who complained about Arsenal pulling players from international duty – where are you now, eh? Because Saka hasn’t played since the cup final, and there’s no way Arteta would have him in the squad tonight unless he couldn’t train and wasn’t ready. He sounded a little more optimistic about both Saka and Timber for the weekend, but it seems we’ll have to do without them both this evening.

Which is a blow, but it is why we brought in those expensively-acquired squad players, and for Saka, we will see Madueke, but for Timber, who will play at right back? I have a feeling it might be Mosquera. Ben White has played a fair bit of football of late, but he did look a little underpowered with some of his running against Southampton, so I have a sneaky suspicion that Arteta will go with the Spaniard. Either way, we’ve got two solid pros to replace Timber, and even if White does start, I’ve got a feeling we’ll see a better performance from him, because he’ll be around more of the first team.

Which for me means Raya in, Saliba in, Big Gabi in, Calafiori in, Zubimendi in, Rice in (who was also pictured in training), Odegaard in (taken off against Southampton, clearly to protect him for tonight), Gyokeres in, Trossard in. And with Madueke on the right, it makes for a more familiar first XI line-up and one that I’ll expect a little more cohesion from as well.

As for Sporting, they’ll fancy themselves tonight, not least because they’ve won their last 17 home games in all competitions. That sort of run breeds a lot of confidence, and they’ll fancy taking a scalp against us, even though we’ve either beaten or drawn against them in our last five games. They knocked us out on pens a few years back, but last season’s 5-1 win in the group stages was probably one of the best performances we had in the season. We need to take the memory of that and use it as fuel. This Arsenal team have shown they are capable of much more dynamism in the Champions League this season, as teams come at us, and I think Sporting’s home form will mean they fancy having a go tonight.

Their main strength from an attacking point of view comes via Luis Suarez (not that one), who has already bagged over 30 goals in his season. It appears they aren’t missing Big Vik too much, so he’ll be keen to remind them of what he’s capable of, and his good form going in to this means his confidence will be a helpful factor, I hope. Sporting look like they play in a familiar 4-2-3-1 formation, with Goncalves and Trincao as their main creative outlets to spring Luis Suarez. Trincao is a familiar name, as he played in November last season during the 5-1 victory, but there doesn’t look like there is a ton of players remaining from that side. By my count, if Sporting play their ‘first choice’ side, the familiar names who played in that game last season are:

• Trincao
• Hjulmand
• Inacio
• Morita
• Araujo
• Diomande

So actually, it is more than half the team, but there has also been a fair bit of churn, so we need to expect a very different game from last season, I think. That is also true because of the manager change, with Sporting having only just lost Amorim to United, before appointing Joao Pereira, who lasted just over a month before Borges came in. He’s therefore had over a year to mould the side in his image, so I suspect there will be a much tighter game this evening than there was 17 months ago.

Arsenal need to answer some questions that have popped up in our last two games. They have people who are already stoking the ‘bottle jobs’ fire, so a performance in a big European game tonight will go a long way to showing that they are ready for the remaining two competitions we are in. Ready to fight, ready to pick up results, ready to make this still a wonderful season, despite the last two disappointing results in the domestic cups.

We’re going to face a hostile atmosphere, a Lisbon side and home fans who are massively up for it after their impressive comeback against Bodo/Glimt, so those opening salvoes in which they will try to high press and probe us need to have Arsenal taking control of the game and quietening the home crowd. I am hopeful we can do it.

I’ll be travelling for the second half tonight, so I will have to play catch-up, but I will be back tomorrow with some post-match thoughts. See you then.

The Arsenal players have no such luxury, as they face Sporting Lisbon tomorrow and are likely to head to Portugal today ahead of that Champions League game. And suddenly, whereas a week ago we were looking at this tie, as well as Southampton, as one in which we’ll be potentially in two semi-finals if we beat opposition that we are favourites to overcome, we’re all getting a little nervous about this. After all, Sporting beat us over two legs last time we played them in the knockout stages. That goal they scored to lob Ramsdale at The Emirates, then going on to win on penalties, still haunts me. And when you learn that Sporting have replaced Gyokeres with a guy named Luis Suarez, one starts to wonder if the Footballing Gods’ sense of humour and desire to chuckle at Arsenal fans frequently is actually just cruel. We have a pretty bad record at Southampton, and the footballing gods decided that they like a bit of narrative being perpetuated. We have faced Sporting Lisbon for the last few season’s and they’ve made life dificult for us, so the footballing Gods have decided to drop some more narrative in there by pairing us up, with us having their former striker lining up, whilst they’ve got a guy whose name evokes a certain kind of narrative when you think about failed bids and goals scored against us.

But as I said on the Same Old Arsenal pod this morning with James, I’m kind of getting over the Southampton poor result, and I think the quick turnaround is good for all of us. It means that we can put all of our efforts into these final two competitions, which were the ‘main’ ones anyway. And, where we were talking about fixture congestion to us, the same will befall Man City, because our game against Newcastle at home won’t be moved, but their game away to Burnley will be. That means they’ll have to play it in midweek, possibly when we’re playing in the Champions League, so they have their own challenges with the schedule as much as we do.

For me, my dream has always been the Premier League. My ‘hope’ is the Champions League too, or at least progressing to the semi-final, but I want that Premier League title, and so if being out of the FA Cup means we approach games like that Newcastle one without it having been moved because of the FA Cup to a midweek game, then that’s fine. The absence of our involvement in that competition means there is a solid week between Man City away and Newcastle at home. That can’t be a bad thing.

What we do need from Mikel Arteta today is a confirmation that Gabriel Magalhaes is ok. That’s the one I am still worried about, but I am choosing to be positive with the mantra that No news is good news, as the saying goes. Again, I mentioned this on the pod, but by now, if there was a serious injury, somebody like The Athletic would have gotten wind of it and would have published a story on it. We haven’t had that yet, so I am hopeful that his exit on Saturday was purely as a risk-aversion opportunity.

He won’t give us updates, but there is an open training session literally going on as I’m typing this. We know that it means little in reality; Arteta loves to be able to pull everyone away from those sessions if there are any doubts over any of them, so we have to take it with a pinch of salt. But maybe we’ll see a Timber, or a Saka, which will at least give us some hope that their rest has been well-received by their bodies and they are ready for their trip to Portugal.

The next clue will come with the pictures of the players as they board the plane. The club’s social media team normally drop some snaps of the players, so that’ll give us an idea, but it will then be Arteta’s press conference that will be the interesting one to see who he says can play. He’ll give little away – he never does – but even just some crumbs of positive injury news would be welcome right now.

There’s not really a lot else to take from today, to be honest, so I think I’ll leave it for this one, be back tomorrow as we start to look ahead at Sporting Lisbon, then I’ll catch you all then.

Be good.

1. I predicted the line-up spot on
2. Max Dowman

Perhaps you could also point to the impact Viktor Gyokeres made from the bench, following up his goals for Sweden with a smartly taken finish to draw us level in that second half at St Mary’s Stadium, but the rest of the evening was pretty disastrous, if we’re all honest with ourselves.

There were some proper stinkers of performances. I mean, some really bad ones, that could effectively crystallise in Arteta’s mind who he will rely more and more on for the remainder of this season. For example, Gabriel Jesus, who was utterly anonymous on a day in which I had held some faint hope that he would seize this moment to have his manager ask questions. But the only questions anyone should be asking of Jesus right now are:

How on earth are you STILL earning that much money?

He and Martinelli stunk the place out from an attacking point of view. It was one of those Martinelli performances for which those who advocate that he’s a super sub and that’s about it, are people you can hardly argue with, because he made it quite obvious that he doesn’t deserve a start against Sporting on Tuesday.

But weirdly, unacceptably, whilst the misfiring attack (Dowman aside) is something we have seen a fair bit of, of late, what we haven’t seen is a shaky defence. Mistimed passes (Mosquera’s horizontal one in the second half that led to a chance springs to mind), unforced errors (Myles Lewis-Skelly massively overhitting another horizontal pass to the full back on the other side), and mistimed headers (Gabriel, then Ben White for their first goal) were rife in yesterday’s performance. That is very out of character.

I’ve taken a few pelters for a message I put on social media at the time of their first goal, but I will stick by it again this morning, because Alan Shearer had said Southampton deserved to be ahead. The numbers told a different story. It was their second shot, and first on target, when they scored. We’d had 11 shots and their keeper had made good saves. We were the better team up until that point. The only difference was that they took their opportunity, and you have to say that’s what it is all about, so fair play to them.

Arsenal’s response was not what we had wanted, and Southampton troubled us with long balls that we didn’t deal with. I thought that we were sloppy, half-hearted in the duels, and that is something that Arteta will be infuriated with this morning. You have to give Southampton credit, because their game plan was pretty spot on; get ahead, then tuck in and see if we could break them down. Even after we equalised, they were content to play on the break and that worked for them. They deserve to go to Wembley. We do not.

And we are left to lick our wounds again. For the second match in a row. I’m torn between being really worried about this performance, coupled with the one against City, and recognising the specifics behind it. No doubt we were poor against City in the League Cup, but some of our absences forced us to do something that City were able to counter. Last night, because of some of the absences, we were again forced to do something different, because I don’t think Arteta wanted to risk this competition, as he had his eyes on Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday.

One thing for certain, there are a few players out there who will only be used if there is injury or extreme fatigue now, I think. Kepa, White, MLS, Norgaard, Martinelli, Jesus – all of those players will, I think, be spending a fair bit of time on the bench now. We have two games left to play this season, and I think Arteta will obviously ring the changes for Tuesday and Bournemouth at home in the Premier League.

And that needs to bring about a change in performance, too. We can’t have that many errors from an Arsenal team going for big trophies. Yesterday showed us that when you do make that volume of mistakes, you get punished. It is even more acute in the Champions League and Premier League. Arsenal need to change a few things.

The Gabriel injury is a worry, too. I am crossing everything this morning that it is a “if you feel anything, just come off” situation, and he was rubbing that knee that has caused him some problems. Arteta invariably said afterwards, “I don’t know” when asked about the severity of it. If Gabriel is out for the season now, all our faith goes into Mosquera. He wasn’t amazing yesterday, but he’s shown how good he can be. The only worry is that with Hincapie also potentially injured for a while, we’re getting to a point where we’re going to have to rely on those understudies. Yesterday, they showed plenty of flaws for players who hadn’t played much.

Either side of the international break I had thoughts about how these few weeks could define our season. We’re 0/2 on season-defining results now. That has to change.

I feel sad that we are out of this competition. But I am going to feel a lot sadder if we put in another performance like that against Sporting, then follow that up again against Bournemouth next weekend. If I heard that some of the absent players yesterday were rested and will be back to 100% by Tuesday I’d probably start to feel a little easier about this result, because the Premier League is everything and the Champions League is the second jewel that we want to try to snaffle. But at this stage, there are still a lot of question marks over who will be available. Let’s hope that tomorrow, when Arteta talks to the press, he can provide some crumbs of comfort.

I’m going to try to end on a more positive note. Max Dowman. Wowsers. I know we need to temper our superlatives and let the boy grow in to this team, but he once again showed he’s ready to make an impact. He can play in that wide right position. He is ready. Southampton look like a Premier League team in waiting and he was great against them. Like he’s been great in all of the performances he’s had this season. He showed somebody like Martinelli what you should be doing as a wide forward. I think he needs to be considered as a ‘next one up’ if Arteta wants to change things in attack now. What a talent we have. Let’s hope we use him to more effect for the remainder of the season – it could be our ‘ace in the hole’, as they say in cards.

Catch you all tomorrow as we try to forget yesterday’s mess, and look towards Sporting Lisbon.

What it means for us, as we suspected, is that the team news is sketchy at best. We know that Noni and Ebs are out, but we all pretty much knew that already, so that’s no surprise. The fact that Mikel confirmed that Madueke was ‘days’ is a boost, though; he’ll surely be available for Bournemouth, and that means our attacking pains are short-term in terms of options. Eze was a little sketchy on, and I just hope it is because he didn’t want to give too much away, and the player is not fit for the next week or so. The rumours have been Man City at best, which I think is what we have to hope for, but if it is Sporting at home, I think that takes us to around a month, which was the original prognosis, so we have to say that timeline played out as expected.

The other news in which there was definitely more clarity was Timber and Odegaard, which Arteta confirmed are ‘in contention’ to be in the squad today. That is the closest you’ll ever get to an Arteta press conference answer of ‘they’re fine’, so I hope we can see at least one of them tonight.

And that one is Martin Odegaard. Timber is somebody we need for Sporting and Bournemouth, and so giving White the minutes this evening, having made two appearances for England last week, helps to continue his return to form, so I think (and hope) that makes sense for Arteta to do so.

With that in mind, and having already stated some initial thoughts on social media yesterday on what lineup I think he might do, I think I’m flip-flopping a little on what the starting XI might be. I do think he’ll stick with Kepa (there was a bit of fun on naming his ‘keeper yesterday that I enjoyed from the manager), plus I think one of Gabriel or Saliba might play. My thinking on those two is predicated on the fact that Calafiori got 120 minutes for Italy in midweek, and Hincapie’s update from the manager was not good. All he gave us on the Ecuadorian was that it was a ‘serious’ one, and suddenly you start to think his season might be over. Hopefully not, but you hear things like that from the manager, and you wonder if we’ll see him again this season. And if that’s the case, we’ve once again had ourselves an international break in which a player comes back broken. It feels like every break for the last two years has been like that, going back to last season with Odegaard for Norway in the autumn internationals. And I find myself saying, once again, that international football can go f*ck itself.

With that update from Arteta in mind, I think he’ll give MLS a run out, and suddenly, you’re looking at a player who had found game time limited, to be a guy who may well suddenly get a lot more minutes this season. Calafiori can’t play two 90-minute games in a row, I don’t think, so that means you need to start looking at Myles as the de facto understudy again. Imagine if he finds himself playing regularly, as a late shout for England? Highly unlikely, I suspect, but still, he might well think that a door has opened up for him, and a game like today could be a perfect opportunity.

I think Arteta will surely give Norgaard a chance in the starting XI. The Dane can replace Zubi to give him extra time to recover for Sporting, but because Norgaard has been decent enough for us when he’s given the opportunity, this needs to be one that we get him in to continue his stable place in the team.

He will have a look at Odegaard for at least half, maybe 60 minutes, I would have thought. I also think that Gabriel Jesus will get the nod, given Big Vik played twice for Sweden and Kai still hasn’t completed 90 minutes for us. But the rest of the team will be, I think, up for grabs. So here’s my stab at a starting XI for tonight:

Kepa

White   –   Mosquera   –   Gabriel   –   MLS

Norgaard

Odegaard   –   Havertz

Dowman   –   Jesus   –   Martinelli

There are a few in there I’m not sure on, if I’m honest with you, especially in those attacking positions. Havertz and Odegaard together as attacking ‘eights’ could be a little too much of a gamble for a manager who is inherently more conservative in certain instances. Whilst Dowman on from the start, I think it is a big question mark too, given his age. I’d like to see it, and I don’t think many Arsenal fans would disagree with me. He’s exciting, he’s expressive, and he will have a go at a Southampton defence that, as I mentioned yesterday, has had challenges defensively this season. There may be space for him to operate, and I think that he could be a real ‘x-factor’ player with his dribbling ability if he’s given the space to do so by the Saints’ back line. Martinelli, on the other side, is one I’m not sure on either; Trossard is very likely to also be selected, given that Gabby Martinelli did a fair bit of travelling in midweek, getting back from Orlando on Thursday at some stage I’d imagine.

As I mentioned yesterday in the blog, I have the feeling that Southampton will come out and have a go at us tonight, because a) they have nothing to lose as the underdog, b) they still have plenty to play for at this stage of the season, and c) it’s a night game and their fans will have had a few beers and will be well up for it. We need to be ready for that, and Arteta will have told his players accordingly to treat this one like a Premier League game, I think. Next season, it could very well be one.

Amanda and I will be podding tomorrow, I think, so I will be back tomorrow with the blog and maybe some pod thoughts on what might transpire ahead. See you then.

So, given that I’ve watched very few Championship games this season, what’s in store for The Arsenal tomorrow night then, eh?

Well, it’s a side that I think I’ve already mentioned in recent days, which comes into this game in pretty good form. Unbeaten since January, have taken a scalp in the FA Cup, will be buoyed by their form, and will feel like this one tomorrow is a proper ‘free hit’. Their manager will not play it as I suspect, but i’m sure they are all feeling it.

A quick Google AI-search tells me that they are a possession-based side who will build from the back, and who have suffered a bit this season through silly goals, as a result of their build-up. That’s somewhat evidenced by their goals against tally; they are ninth in the Championship for goals conceded. Their xG against also puts them 14th in the table, so this is a side that has its defensive challenges. Where they make up for it is in goals scored, with only Coventry and Ipswich having scored more. Their xG puts them second in the table too; this isn’t a side who are going to low block us tomorrow.

And that gives me some comfort. On the Same Old Arsenal pod this season, I’ve said a few times that the Premier League has felt like it is a real grind. Teams come up against us and they play the deepest of low blocks, which has been shown in numerous graphs and charts that you and search for on social media. Put simply, Arsenal face the lowest of blocks compared to any other side. But the numbers suggest Southampton won’t do that. Perhaps more importantly, the numbers suggest they can’t do that. So let’s have a proper slugfest between two teams, eh?

Adam Armstrong was their main guy in the attacking equation, but he left for Wolves in the January transfer window, so they’ve been relying on Larin up top, who hasn’t proved to be too prolific. Instead, a lot of their recent goals have been coming from the three men behind them in a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Finn Azaz and Kuryu Matsuki getting on the scoresheet a few times in recent weeks. Again, a quick check on playing style for those guys tells me Azaz is their key playmaker, number ten who takes plenty of shots. He’s described as a ‘high-volume shooter’, so tomorrow evening I suspect he’ll be taking opportunities from outside of the box to make a name for himself. Matsuki is a high-energy box-to-boxer who is a relentless presser. I remember Wenger saying years ago that he was shocked at the relentless effort and running of the Japanese footballers, so it appears Matsuki is another one of those in that similar national mould.

So for Arteta today, as he preps his team, he will no doubt have a few dossiers on where they can do us damage, but from a very quick and dirty look from me today, it tells me that, providing we can control the space in front of our back four, we should/could be ok. Nothing is certain in football; that’s why we love the game so much, but even with what we expect to be a relatively heavily rotated squad, you have to be looking at our chances as being high.

That may well also depend on whether we can get our misfiring attack to work. Gabriel Jesus has failed to impress of late, and I think he must surely be in with a shout of starting, so if Southampton are a side that is going to press us and leave space, he will have room to work. He might need rapid wide-forwards around him, so it will be interesting to see what happens about who is available tomorrow. You’d have to think this could be a game for Gabriel Martinelli, but we’ll need to see if the manager thinks his fitness is ok. He scored against Croatia in stoppage time, but he only got on the pitch on 68 minutes, so hopefully that means he’s fine and is as refreshed and ready as possible.

I’ll leave the full review of who I think might play / who I want to play to tomorrow’s blog, because I think a lot will depend on how much information Arteta gives us. I’m not expecting him to give much, but even confirming players are definitely out would be even a little informative.

Have a great Friday boys and girls – catch you all tomorrow.

And double kudos for them this morning, after they beat Chelsea, for which we remind ourselves that in any walk of life, Chelsea are the bad guys/girls.

It is ALWAYS good when Chelsea and their fans are sad. Let us remind ourselves of this.

In the men’s game, they are also the side who have posted the biggest loss, as well as paying out the most on agent fees. If Todd Boehly were playing Moneyball, I think he didn’t get the purpose of Brad Pitt’s movie. Because that ain’t it, mate.

Why am I bothering to talk about them on an Arsenal blog? Well, partly, because I think it means something for their next Premier League game. Because they play Man City at home on the weekend that we have Bournemouth at home, and we really need Chelsea not to be sh*t. And Todd and his CFO need them not to be sh*t too, because if they miss out on Champions League money, posting up the biggest loss in Premier League history is going to be very problematic for them. As a reminder, going deep in the Champions League is worth three times more than the Europa League.

Chelsea are currently one point behind Liverpool in the Premier League, in sixth. I believe that the likelihood is that fifth place will be enough for a spot this season, so Chelsea needs to keep on Liverpool’s coat-tails. On Saturday, Liverpool are at home to Fulham, which I think most of us expect them to win, so if Chelsea don’t get something against City on Sunday, then with six matches to play, they might be four points off Liverpool, and qualification is looking bleak.

That is good for us. It means Chelsea will not be a side that is starting to check out next weekend. They simply cannot afford to: Literally. I know the players will not be thinking about the financial ramifications of non-qualification for Europe’s premier competition, but they will be aware of the club’s financial needs, as well as their own sporting desires.

So my hope is that, providing we can overcome Bournemouth (not an easy task), we can really ramp the pressure up.

But here I am, already looking at the Premier League when, in fact, we have a certain in-form Southampton team that stands between us and another trip to Wembley. And having looked at their form, they have every right to feel quite bullish going into this one. For one thing, it’s a sort of ‘free hit’ for them. They have an important game in midweek next week against Wrexham that could cement their place in the playoffs with six games to go for a win, so they can’t really afford not to be giving 100% in that one, especially as it is away. So I will be really interested to see what Tonda Eckert has to say about the game. Is he going to give hints of a bit of rotation that is needed as the season draws towards a climax? Or is he going to see this as an ideal opportunity for a very big scalp and a proving ground for why Southampton can qualify for Premier League admission and hold their own by playing their best team?

We’ll have to wait to see when he does his press conference tomorrow, but today I decided to have an early look at how their fans are feeling. Here are a couple of select quotes from one of their forum ahead of the game:

I’d rather lose in regulation time than win in over time. Our priority has to be returning to the Premier soccer ball league

And:

I want us to go strong for this, as surely we do have a chance, albeit a slim one. We arent some League One/Two team who are just here for a fun day out and play teams like this once every 100 years. We were in the same division as them (and have been most seasons) until last summer. Only 10 months ago we drew 0-0 at home to Man City and lost narrowly (1-2 to an 89th min Odegaard goal) to Arsenal themselves.

I think Southampton fans are realistic, but depending on how the news comes out about our players who withdrew from international football, that might turn their heads a little bit and give them a bit of a confidence boost. We won’t get anything from Arteta, but I bet there are some back-channel comments on social media from reliable sources like HandOfArsenal or the likes. So I suspect we’ll get something either Friday night or during the day on Saturday.

Whatever the situation, though, this squad has been built for games like this, so some of those players who have had less game time will need to be ready and prepped to deliver. I’m talking the likes of Lewis-Skelly, Mosquera, Norgaard, Gabriel Jesus, et al. They need to prove that the manager can call upon them, and with a week to prepare for this one (mentally, I mean – I know MLS, Mosquera, and Norgaard have been away with their respective national teams), knowing that they will probably start, I expect them to be ready.

Right, that’s it from me today. Back tomorrow as I start to look at what some of the pundits, commentators, and ex-pro’s are predicting ahead of this one. Catch you then.

Let’s start in Bosnia, where Italy missed the chance to end their hiatus from World Cups by being knocked out on penalties, which I still find mad with regard to the lack of Italian competition. This is a four-time winner of the competition, a side who are one of the great international football nations, who now have kids who will have never seen their side in a World Cup. Three times = 12 years; if you’re a teenager, you basically don’t remember what it feels like. And as a kid of the 80s, I have just come to expect Italian sides in these stages. So this is a bit wild for me, if truth be told.

Under normal circumstances, I’d be a bit ‘meh’ about this whole situation, but we’ve got skin in the game these days. Riccardo Calafiori is an Italian national and, having played the full 90 in the last game, he played a full 120 minutes last night, although thankfully he didn’t suffer the ignominy of taking a penalty in the losing shootout.

He will be gutted today. He’ll head back to The Arsenal with his head down, and given we still have so much to play for at The Arsenal this season, that might have a psychological effect. My hope is that he’s a strong enough character to get over it, but we’ve all heard the stories about players and suffering after extreme emotions as a result of international football. There’s the well-documented Arshavin decline, but Big Per Mertesacker also said that he struggled in the aftermath of helping Germany win the World Cup in 2014, so it happens at both ends of the emotional spectrum.

Calafiori will have little time to mourn his country’s exit; he’ll probably be on a plane today, Arsenal will no doubt give him tomorrow off, then it’ll be back on the training pitch on Friday, I suspect.

Or will it?

After all, he is a guy who we all know too well what his injury situation has been like; it’s here for us all to see. So he’s going to be feeling it a bit this morning I think; not just the emotional intensity, but the physical intensity of playing 210+ minutes in under a week. He certainly hasn’t been doing that for The Arsenal this season. In fact, if my workings out are correct, the only time he’s played 180 minutes for us this season was on two occasions; in September when he played for us at away against Athletic Club Bilbao and then at home against City in the Premier League, then in December against Everton away and Palace in the League Cup. Those are the only two times this season he’s played, so I just don’t see him being remotely available this weekend – Arteta surely just can’t risk it.

Which is a problem in itself, because technically both Big Gabi and Saliba are out with knocks, whilst Hincapie limped off for Ecuador. Given we have so many centre halves, it’s quite amazing that we could find ourselves short on numbers for this weekend’s FA Cup game.

That’s an issue for debate this weekend, because as sad as it is for Calafiori, the opposite was happening in Sweden, as Big Vik Gyokeres was a late hero for Sweden to send them through to the World Cup finals. It was a classic poacher’s goal, but nobody in Sweden this morning cares; they go to the US and Mexico, and Gyokeres has just written himself into Swedish folklore, just like Beckham did for England with his last-minute free kick against Greece all those years ago.

And if we’re going to talk about the possibly damaging psychological ramifications for Riccy, we should probably also acknowledge the opposite effect that could benefit us from Gyokeres’ emotions right now. He too played 120 minutes, so I can’t see him getting much time on the pitch this weekend, but when he walks into London Colney over the next day or two, he’s going to be doing it feeling at least six inches taller. As Arsenal fans, we have to hope that this helps him with regard to his end product. We all know that there have been times this season where, frankly, he’s looked about as useful as Inanimate Carbon Rod, but we also know that he is a man who is fuelled by confidence. And in 2026, his confidence has definitely improved; I saw somewhere that for both club and country, he now has 15 goal contributions in 21 games. If you are a striker who relies on your form and a hot streak, getting goals as he has just done for Sweden this week could be massive for us.

We’re in the ‘Business End’ of the season. We need the end product above all else. The pretty/quality football is secondary to results, and you know what gets results? Goals. Lots of goals. We need that Swede to make his contribution, and we need it now. Again, as I’ve mentioned, I doubt that will be much this weekend, nor should it. We have Gabby Jesus, we have Kai who has played a few minutes to build up his fitness, so they can share the minutes with the Brazilian, probably getting most. But when it comes to Sporting Lisbon, you want Big Vik ready for a return there, for sure, methinks.

As the players all start to come back to Arsenal from today, we now turn our attention to the fallout on injuries from this round of matches, with Arteta due to speak to the press on Friday. We have to hope that there is no bad news to surprise us, so let’s just cross our fingers that he is his usual coy self on specifics of injuries, but that he doesn’t confirm that any  players are ‘definitely’ out for a period of time.

Catch you all tomorrow as we start to look ahead to another big weekend.

Phew.

With him returning, having played an hour in the first game and 45 in the second, one would hope that you could chalk this Interlull up as a very positive one that has put minutes in the legs without beasting our hybrid midfielder/forward. It means he can make the relatively short flight back home today, maybe have a rest tomorrow, then get back in training on Thursday and Friday and be ready for selection on Saturday against Southampton.

I’m not sure whether he’ll start, though. If we’re thinking about the matches that lie ahead for us, I think Havertz getting some minutes, but not starting against Southampton, makes sense. Perhaps he comes on as a second-half sub and does 20 minutes or so. This is a guy who returned from a year out earlier this calendar year, played a couple of matches, then broke down again, so I suspect Arteta and the medical team will be acutely aware of this and the need to build him up. He’s played 14 times this season and has just 524 minutes to his name for Arsenal, with his recent performances being:

• 66 minutes against Man City in the League Cup
• 21 minutes against Leverkusen in the Champions League at home
• 61 minutes against Everton in the Premier League
• 16 minutes against Leverkusen away in the Champions League
• 62 minutes against Mansfield in the FA Cup

From those numbers, you can clearly see that the club has been very carefully managing Havertz’s minutes. There’s been a clear pattern that has developed. It does make me wonder, though: When will they feel he’s ready for 90-minutes?

Arteta was very vocal in his praise for Havertz just over a year ago, describing him as a ‘powerhouse.’ The football gods saw fit to absolutely make him eat those words, because it was literally a day or two later that he picked up that injury which basically kept him out of the team for the rest of last season. Since then, his ‘robustness’, as Arteta put it, has been blown away by all of these injuries he’s picked up. It means that Arsenal inevitably have to be careful with him, but there must come a point soon at which he’s asked to play a full 90.

If I were to guess, I would posit the theory that they are building him up for that City game. He’s just played an hour for Germany and then 45 minutes. That’s two in a short time frame, and certainly, when you look at the numbers above, it is more than he’s been playing with Arsenal within a week since returning from injury. That’s why I think he will be used sparingly against Southampton, maybe as a sub, with the idea of him being built up to play in the Bournemouth and City game. It’s just a hunch, but I get the feeling that Gabby Jesus is told to start against Southampton and see if he’s still got something to give for us against a Championship opponent, then Big Vik is told to start the two legs against Sporting, in the hope that Arteta leans into the ‘vibes’ like he did with Eze and the Scum. Then, for Bournemouth at home and City away, either side of the Sporting home game, Havertz is the man. I’m projecting, of course, there’s no way it will pan out exactly like this, but I am imagining him playing around the 70-80-minute mark against Bournemouth, then also doing similar numbers against City a week later.

And I think that seems like a very sensible thing to do.

Elsewhere, Thomas Tuchel had his press conference yesterday ahead of England’s meaningless friendly against Japan, and he clarified the situation with Rice and Saka. Unsurprisingly, it is those two who are getting heat from certain members of the gutter press, and Tuchel was pressed on it yesterday, for which I was pleased that he spoke out about the fact that both had been sent home. Both wanted to play; both were disappointed not to be able to; but the interests of player welfare by an England manager have been taken into account, unlike the previous incumbents of that role. He also used his words very carefully, being very deliberate in describing the Saka and Rice situation as ‘narrative’. Because that’s what this has been since they were sent home; we’ve all known they’ve been in the fabled ‘red zone’ for a while, but there are corners of the British press who hunt for stories and mischief-making angles, regardless of the reality. The reality is that the England manager has realised there is no benefit in risking these players breaking down with a few months of the season to go, so playing them in a meaningless friendly and risking a fatigue injury that could keep them out for a few months benefits absolutely nobody.

I do think the Noni Madueke situation probably strengthened Arsenal’s hand a little in telling the England camp that it might be best to return. Thankfully, Tuchel confirmed yesterday that it doesn’t seem that bad, and we got a HandOfArsenal message on the socials last night that also confirmed it. Apparently, he’s aiming for Sporting/Bournemouth and given one’s first thought when they see a player in a knee brace after the game is that his season is ‘done’, this is a real bonus. Eze too, in that same message, was thought to be hopeful he could return earlier than is expected. I suspect they’ll be looking to see if they can have him ready to play a part in the City game, and if that is the case, then that too is a bit of a bonus. I don wonder if that means that Odegaard might get more minutes this weekend coming that I originally thought, but let’s save that prep for the Easter weekend countdown.

For now, I will bid you adieu for the day, and I’ll be back tomorrow as we start to look ahead at that Southampton match up and hopefully the healthy return of those players still with their respective international teams.

Laters peeps.

At this point, you just have to laugh. Because the latest guy to return to London Colney is Pierro Hincapie, who limped off against Morocco on 72 minutes, and I have to wonder what the actual eff he was still doing on the pitch at that moment. If he’s playing 45 to 60 minutes, I guess you have to say ‘fine’, but he’s on the pitch until the 72nd minute, and given he’s one of the best players for Ecuador, one has to wonder what the point of this was. Does the coach need to get an extra look at him? Of course not. This was pointless and now we have ourselves another player who could be crocked.

Honestly, at this point, it is just farcical. And then I check the sports websites and newspapers to read that Martin Zubimendi has also now been withdrawn with a knee injury.

What the frigg is going on?

These players should never have been called up to these pointless international friendlies. They should have been told that their place is secure and they should be resting up.

Of course, you now have a raft of opposition fans who are bleating about Arsenal withdrawing their players, but as a team, we are still fighting in three competitions, and these players are clearly knackered, so this should have been a decision taken out of their hands. All of them should have been told that they were fine to stay at home and not report for training. The only players who should have been called up are those who need the minutes. The White’s, the Norgaard’s, the Havertz’s – all fine. But Zubimendi? No way he should have been told to report.

And for those idiots who are now blasting out YouTube and TikTok videos calling this a disgrace – you’re a new level of moron. The players, and the clubs themselves, have to provide medical information for those players who are called up by their international sides. They have to show where knocks exist. The Spanish FA has even mentioned discomfort in the knee for Zubimendi; he’s teetering on the edge, and they’ve sent him back to Arsenal.

People are citing Ferguson, but we live in a different age now, because there has to be medical evidence for withdrawing from international duty. There is an obligation by the clubs, probably because of managers like Fergie, who have gamed the system for years and now we find a situation where players are reporting for duty when it is clearly in their interest to be resting up.

So now we have an ‘official’ injury list (in brackets because I think some players are due to come back, but that just hasn’t been confirmed yet) that includes:

• Timber
• Saliba
• Gabriel
• Hincapie
• Zubimendi
• Rice
• Eze
• Odegaard
• Saka
• Madueke
• Trossard

Just 11 players, at the most critical point in the season, who could be out. And the problem we all have as worried Arsenal fans, is that when Arteta does his pre-Southampton press conference, we’re either getting no information from him, or confirmation that a ton of players are out.

This game next weekend feels like it might now be one that Arteta basically throws by rotating out a lot of the above. And do you know what will happen if he does that? He’ll get accused of disrespecting the FA Cup.

Ludicrous.

Away from that though, because I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, I find it interesting that the discussions over Man City and the 115 charges have resurfaced over the last few days. And I thought the discussion that Tom Canton popped up on the Football London website was interesting yesterday. And I agree with Tom about his assertion on a possible points deduction happening towards the end of the season. Because if we do what we all hope we will do and win the league (fingers crossed, touch wood, etc, etc), that last thing you want is the 115 Charges being used against us to asterisk any kind of title.

Ultimately, none of us will care if we win the league, but it would be annoying to see this all unfold just at the point at which we want to be celebrating. Utopia for me would be for us to win the league, then the 60-point deduction to be applied for next season. Let’s have City start off at the bottom of the table and go from there in 2026/27, because I want a purity about the Premier League win, however, come back to me after the Bournemouth and City games, because if we lose both of those I think I’ll be taking that deduction buffer!

There’s not a lot else going on right now, so I think I’ll park any further thoughts for today. I’ll be back on the Same Old Arsenal pod tonight, as Amanda and I are doing a bit of an international break check-in, so if you fancy joining us at 5.45 pm UK time, you can do so here. Otherwise, I’ll leave you all be for today and catch you again tomorrow, when we learn that Raya has broken his fingers whilst in training for Spain.

But Saka? And Rice?

Apparently, according to the official England Football website, it is for ‘medical assessment.’ Now, there are two ways in which this has gotten to this point:

1. The players picked up knocks in England training and therefore the club and Thomas Tuchel have to send them back
2. Mikel Arteta and Arsenal have sh*t a brick at the news of Noni and has told Tommy T to pull them from the game.

I pray, for the love of all that is good and holy in the world, that we are talking about scenario 2 here. Because if it is one, then the list I spelled out in yesterday’s blog, just got really scary indeed. In fact, if those two are added to those who have knocks right now, we’re almost at the point of being able to field a full XI of injured players, such are the question marks that will now surround the Arsenal squad going into that game at Southampton on Saturday night.

I really hope to god that Arteta was like “nope, not happening, get your arses to Colney, NOW”

I’m also now playing a bit of a game in my head, which includes trying to imagine what the starting XI would be at Southampton at this moment in time, if none of the current players who are fit could play. The back line is pretty do-able, but it’s when we get to the front line that I have to really think about how we plug the gaps:

Kepa

White   –   Mosquera   –   Hincapie   –   Lewis-Skelly

Norgaard

Dowman   –   Havertz

Harriman-Annous   –   Jesus   –   Martinelli

That’s not even an ideal team, to be honest with you, because we ideally want to be easing White, Hincapie, Havertz, and Martinelli back, given they have all been away with their respective international teams. White broke down the last time we overplayed him, but I think you’d have to earmark the Southampton game as one in which he should play, because surely Arteta will have Timber earmarked for Sporting away and Bournemouth at home. Those are the two bigger games out of the next three, with all due respect to Southampton and the FA Cup. You could argue that we have a second bite of the cherry in Sporting Lisbon, given it is a two-legged affair, but I think Arteta is going to want all players fit and available for that and Bournemouth. So I think this news about Saka and Rice is one that will mean we probably won’t see them on Saturday. I think I’m fine with that. It will have meant that by the time the Sporting game comes along, Rice and Saka will have had 16 days off from playing football. Hopefully that is enough time for them to have rested an recouperated, because as much as Saka has been in and out of form this season, he is still one of our best players. With Noni no doubt out for a while now (let’s be honest, we’re all waiting for the Athletic scoop telling us his season is over), keeping him fit is even more important.

When I look at the others in that team that I’ve picked as a possible lineup for Saturday:

• Mosquera hasn’t played a ton of football (he’s got 1,400+ minutes this season so far in all comps), so he’s fine to come in, and he’ll be buoyed by his international debut
• Hincapie too, was injured at the start of the season – he’s just over 2,000+ minutes this season
• Lewis-Skelly and Norgaard will be fine
• Dowman will be looking to impress
• Jesus has been a bit-part player for some time
• Harriman-Annous has just 86 minutes all season
• Martinelli has been second to Trossard of late, so he might be alright

So it really is just Havertz, Hincapie, and White that I’d be keeping an eye on, fitness-wise, and all three have games still to play. Let’s just cross everything that nothing happens to any of them.

Anyway, let’s not end on a negative, let’s end on a positive note today. And that positive was an Arsenal heritage scoreline, as the ladies beat The Scum ladies 5-2, with an Alessia Russo hat-trick to down the tiny Tottenham. This wasn’t the hairy-scary performance that the men delivered two years on the trot back in the day, though. The ladies were two goals up within 10 minutes, then given an absolute gift by the Spurs keeper to make it 3-1. It was the very definition of a ‘Spursy’ bit of goalkeeping, that. It’s good to see that the ladies know how to conduct themselves against the old enemy – that’s by battering them wherever they go. Good work ladies. That’s 13 goals scored in the men’s and women’s leagues this season. Love it.

Right, I’m going to leave it there, I think. Have yourselves a wonderful Sunday, and I’ll be back tomorrow with some more thoughts.

I didn’t watch the game (because why would I bother?), but having listened to Tuchel on Thursday, I think most of us knew the sort of treatment he’d get. The media have played their part in this, too, big time, I’m afraid. It’s people like Henry Winter who have felt compelled to make comments like this, or Martin Samuel of The Times, quoting:

England fans like winning, but they still don’t like players who walk out on the team at a World Cup.

Well, Martin, you of all people know the story behind the reasons for Ben’s exodus, and you know very well that Ben White just didn’t suddenly wake up one day and decide he didn’t like England anymore. The good folks over at The Daily Cannon have reposted this yesterday, which I think is worth a link to. Steve Holland is clearly an idiotic, archaic, “Proper Football Man” the likes Yer Da would love. Go back to the late 80s, mate, football ain’t for you anymore.

That Telegraph article from the time leaves a few bits out, but there are also rumours that White didn’t want to discuss tactics of Arsenal whilst in an England camp, whilst the City players didn’t mind, which also sounds very plausible. But the very fact that Ben has come back into this England team and scored that goal, you’d hope that everyone will just drop it. But let’s just see, shall we?

AS for our other involvement on the night, of course we have another injury as a result of f*cking international football, as Madueke was seen after the game in a knee brace, having gone off on 39 minutes. Honestly, these f*cking internationals during the season can just f*ck the f*ck off. I’m sick of them. Players get chewed up and spat back to their clubs to deal with the fallout. With Eze likely to be out for at least another three weeks according to reports, it means that once again we’ll have to become over-reliant on players. And that has been happening all season. Odegaard is out, so Eze comes in. Eze gets injured just as Odegaard goes down. Timber plays all the time and gets injured, then White comes in and gets overplayed. It’s a never-ending cycle when you have players who keep going down. I was wondering about whether this is now worse than last season or not, so I took a little look at the ‘absences’ chart on TransferMarkt for last season and this season. I’m not counting what I would call ‘youth’ players, but perhaps any player who has played more than three times in a season. Last season we had a total squad absence of 196 match-day absences across the squad in the Premier League alone. This season so far we have lost 144 absences. From last year 37 of those 196 were because of Tomiyasu who was basically in the squad on registration only. So if you take him out, last season we had 159 by the end of the season. Depending on how long some of the current injured players are out for, we could eclipse last season, which I dubbed “The Cursed Season,” when we were in it by the end. It’s so frustrating. We just can’t catch a break and, from a position about a week ago where we had an almost fit squad bar Odegaard and Merino, the current list of players absent who have an injury is:

1. Saliba
2. Gabriel
3. Merino
4. Odegaard
5. Eze
6. Trossard

Hopefully, some of those are just knocks, and we see players returning next week, and the noises are that Odegaard will be back, but still, this is silly now.

Elsewhere, Havertz got 63 minutes and came off along with Leroy Sane on 63 minutes, as Germany beat Switzerland 4-3, so that says to me, I think he’s fine. Hopefully, Nagelsmann is sensible and keeps him on the bench for their next game. Rodri played 77 minutes in their 3-0 win over Serbia, and Zubimendi came on for the Man City knobhead, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see that switch around for their game against Egypt on Tuesday. Ideally, you want him to play no part, but clearly, he’s getting on the pitch. Kudos, though, for Cristhian Mosquera, who made his international debut last night as an 83-minute sub. 100% deserved for a player who has stunned us all with just how good he is this season, and I don’t think many Arsenal fans aren’t delighted for him this morning.

There was no place for Raya, though, which I have to say, is a bit bloody weird if you ask me. I know I don’t watch enough football, but the little I have seen of Unai Simon kind of baffles me, that our chap isn’t the main man between the sticks. I know Simon is good with the ball, but better than Raya? And in terms of shot-stopping? Is he really as elite as Raya has shown himself to be? A quick search online tells me his weaknesses are that he has lapses of concentration, technical errors in ball control and his handling is at times questioned. There’s also this article here that suggests that many believe Raya or Garcia should be the number one.

Still, at least it reduces the chances of injury to David, which is important given how much of a delta we’ve seen between him and Kepa very recently, of course.

The other guy that got minutes from our squad yesterday was Pierro Hincapie, who came off on 72 minutes, in clearly an effort from the Ecuadorian boss to appease Arteta. Good man management because the way things are going right now with injuries, I fully expect to hear that Calafiori didn’t last the first 45 in Italy’s play-off game on Tuesday night.

Look at that – I’ve managed to write 1,000 words about Arsenal players, and now I’m grumpy. I should probably leave it there. Hopefully, some kind of good news story can come out from the Athletic or somewhere, because it feels like we need it.

Catch you all tomorrow kids.

Because Last night he helped to get his Swedish team into the final of the World Cup playoffs with a hat-trick, all of which felt very much part of his MO. First one, a tap-in after a good move on the left, with the striker basically touching in to an empty net. Think Everton at home a couple of weeks back. The second one was a transitional moment in which defenders were backtracking, and he shifted the ball inside the box, to then slot into the corner. Think a little like the Leeds goal at home he scored at the start of the season. Then the third was a penalty he roofed into the net.

It’s good for us because it means he’ll be feeling uber happy and confident after the disappointment of the League Cup. We all said that we needed this break, but if it gives a double boost of positivity for players like Gyokeres to come back even more fired up, then I don’t think there’ll be a Gooner around who won’t be satisfied with that. He now plays for Poland, and apart from Kiwior – who is basically an Arsenal player in name only at this point – we have no Polish players that we really need to see boosted, so my hopes are now for Sweden to go through next week and Big Vik to come back feeling 10 feet tall.

Riccardo Calafiori will also be feeling pretty good, as he saw his Italian team go through at the expense of Northern Ireland and, more importantly, he managed the full 90 minutes. Given how he hasn’t played too much of late, that’s not too bad, but I hope the staff are mindful of his injury record this season, and of all the players on injury duty, he’s the one that I have my fingers crossed for the most. I’ve already shown my hand earlier in the week by talking about an early possible team for Southampton away next Saturday, but when I look at the fact that Calafiori may well play another full 90 for Italy, possibly even more if Bosnia send them to extra time, you do wonder whether he’ll be asked to sit that one out if he plays too many minutes whilst on international duty.

I think some of the games coming up mean I’d like to see Calafiori in there from the start if he can stay fit. The City game away, for one, is one I’d have him earmarked for. He played well there last season. He looked good and gave us more dynamism when he came on in the League Cup last weekend, so if I’m Arteta, that’s definitely one I want him fit for.

Christian Norgaard was on the scoresheet for Denmark, who now have to go to the Czech Republic to get themselves to the World Cup in the summer. Again, another player who hasn’t played as much and whilst I absolutely detest international football during the domestic season, getting minutes into his legs is probably a good thing for the context of the remainder of our season. Hopefully, he gets the good vibes and progresses as well, because like Poland, we have no skin in the game when it comes to the Czech’s.

Martinelli got 63 minutes for Brazil in France, who lost 2-1 to Les Bleus, but it seems he was fine when coming off, so that’s another one thankfully ticked off the list.

And so to the remaining players on international duty, and let’s start with Benjamin White, who Tommy Tuchel admitted the player will have to speak to his teammates about his absence. For his part, I think Tuchel has played it well, because he’s said he doesn’t care about what happened before, he has seen White do well in training, and that he’s a good lad. I suspect if Ben plays tonight at 7.45 against Uruguay, he’s going to be roundly booed by the England fans. That’s to be expected from some of the twats that will be in the crowd. Instead of asking the question: “Why did he leave the camp under Southgate and Holland and not return until he was asked by the new manager? I wonder if it was the old administration that had anything to do with it?”, they will bleat and whinge and sing ridiculous things like “you let your country down” and nonsense. But to anybody going tonight that boo’s, if I were able to speak to them as an individual and say, “Have you ever had a line manager who treated you poorly, didn’t look after your interests and made life horrible for you at work?” If the answer is “yes”, then perhaps those idiots who boo would take a second to have a think about what more than likely happened under the last manager. Because if Ben White hates playing for England, he ain’t picking up the phone and returning the first time he’s asked to under the next manager.

As for the others on duty, we have to hope that Madueke sees some minutes and is fine, whilst Saka and Rice are, I believe, not going to be selected for this game. Raya, Zubimendi and Mosquera will most likely be in the squad tonight, but given it is a friendly, I hope the Spanish manager is sensible about his minutes. I hope that Rodri gets a ton of minutes and Zubi is on the bench for both, but I suspect he might alternate. He’s another one that, if we’re all honest, probably needs a week off when he returns from international duty, so I wouldn’t even pick him in the squad for the FA Cup.

HIncapie plays in Morocco tonight, then Eindhoven on Tuesday, which hopefully can be a good thing, because it’s a very short flight back from the Netherlands, and so the long trip back to the UK from Ecuador isn’t on the cards. Martinelli is the one who will face the longest trip, because he’s in Orlando in the early hours of Wednesday morning, so I wonder if that puts pay to any possible start he might have next weekend?

There’s not a lot else worth talking about at this stage, though; we just have to cross our fingers and hope that no player picks up a knock. We haven’t been very lucky with that so far in these international breaks this season, so I’d like the football gods to at least cut us a break this time around.

Famous last words, eh?

Instead, what I want to focus on today is the consequences of what happened last Sunday, specifically with regard to Mikel Arteta, who I think will be delighted that there is an international break. That’s because it affords him time to analyse what went wrong and how to fix it.

And Mikel Arteta is a fixer.

There are plenty of people outside of Arsenal circles who don’t like him. They don’t like his demeanour, they don’t like his arm-waving on the touchline, or the fact that he strays outside of his technical area (which is, frankly, bloody weird given that every Premier League manager does it). There are a minority INSIDE Arsenal circles who don’t like him. This isn’t a referendum blog on his character, though; this is a blog for me to state my point of view on how he is going to sort out what went wrong against Man City.

And I 100% back him to do that.

Arteta will be using this week, with his coaching team, to pore over every detail. Every Arsenal fan knows that. He will watch, re-watch, have the analysts watch, get one or two of the players till at home and not on international duty to watch (probably Clockwork Orange-style, too), all with the intention of learning how to answer the questions that Pep and his City side posed on the day. Forget what he says in the post-match, forget what he will say in his pre-match, because as Arsenal fans we all know that he doesn’t give even 10% of the detail that he goes through, out to the media or public for consumption. Practically every player, past and present, has said that the level of detail and analysis that he does on his own team, but the opposition too, is crazy. We hear that from them, so we all know that when he gets a period like we’re in now, there’s absolutely no way he’s sitting in garden (might be a bit too cold for that in London right now, to be fair) with bis feet up trying to mentally get away from it all. No way. He’s looking at our next opponents, he’s looking at our past opponents, he’s thinking about different ways in whcih we overcome Southampton, Sporting and Bournemouth, when the proper stuff kicks off again.

Arteta is a learner. He will 100% be learning from what happened last weekend.

And that fills me with positivity. It gives me confidence that he’ll have a plan when the players return from international duty and he’ll know how to approach the upcoming games. It doesn’t mean we’ll win them; football is a game of variables and it only takes one moment where a player slips, or a ref gives a dodgy pen against us, and suddenly his best laid plans go out the window. But as Arsenal fans we must take comfort in the fact that our manager has answers to the questions that have been most recently posed.

The response to defeats this season have shown this (in all competitions):

• Our record after the defeat to Liverpool at the start of the season = Win, win, draw, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win.
• Our record after the defeat away to Villa = Win, win, win, win, win, win, win.
• Our record after the defeat at home to Man United = Win, win, win, win, draw, win, draw, win, win.

That’s a lot of ‘W’s there kids. So my hope for this defeat is that it is the galvaniser that Arsenal use to spearhead a multi-winning streak. If, for example, we win our next five games in a row, that last one will be away at City, and I think we’re all looking at the close to the season being a very exciting one.

Now, I know that what has been, doesn’t not reflect on what is to come, but we have enough data from this season to suggest that Arteta will learn, he will work his arse off to change a few things, and hopefully we will get back on track after what was an admittedly very tough afternoon at Wembley to take.

We are not perfect. We have flaws. We have injuries. Southampton are in a good run of form. We could very easily be looking at being dumped out of the cup in back-to-back matches and that could have an impact on subsequent games. But at this point in time, I am looking at where we are at, and I’m putting my faith in the hope that Arteta will be able to course-correct what went wrong with the City non-press. Heck, if anything, maybe we learned more about what City might do against us at The Etihad. What did they learn from us? I would wager ‘not a lot’. Because as many have pointed out on other tactical blogs and podcasts, this fabled ‘Man City four-man offensive non-press wall’ that was lauded, doesn’t work with Raya in goal. He clips over that wall and we have four of their players out of the game. I doubt Pep will do that again, but if he does, then it will be very interesting to see how much space we get.

So I find myself this morning in quite good spirits. I think Arsenal are in good hands with Mikel Arteta, tucked away at London Colney with time on his hands, working out our plan of attack for the remaining games of the season. The international break might not give time for some of the players to rest and reset, but for Arteta, he will use this time well. I am sure of it.

Back tomorrow with some more musings.

So I want to take this moment to offer a public apology to all of you guys who read my ramblings regularly: I have let you all down.

I went Uber-positive on Sunday’s blog. It was a break from the norm. I am an apprehensive Arsenal fan. I always have been since the 2006 Champions League final. I went into that so convinced we would win it. Then it broke me when we didn’t. So I turned to pessimism to protect myself and my emotions from that level of heartbreak. I figured if I think about the worst-case scenario in my head, then if/when it happens, I will be prepared for it anyway. If the best thing happens and Arsenal win, I am doubly happy about it because I didn’t expect it.

For the second time that happened to me, which is in my head, you have to fast-forward 13 years to the 2019 Europa League final. I was convinced that we were beating Chelsea. They had already qualified for the Champions League, they had that ridiculous EFL Cup final in which Kepa (I know, I know) had refused to come off, and then they lost on penalties. They, of course, wanted to win something, but our need was greater, so I was convinced our design would get us over the line. Oh, and we had MR Europa League in Unai Emery too.

We all know how that went.

On Sunday, I had that same conviction, but we all know how that went. And I don’t want to labour the point here too much, but as the dust was settling and we were starting to all think yesterday “it’s fine, we have three more competitions to go for”, the Football Gods decided to clearly read my blog and go “ooh man, we’re are screwing you royally for this”. By ‘the’, I of course mean my proclamation on yesterday’s blog:

My hope is that we don’t get any wind of news that any of the injuries that are sustained are long-term. If we’re talking players needing a solid 10 – 14 days rest to recover, then happy days – for once, an international break has come at the right time.

Famous last words, eh? Because yesterday Sami Mokbel dropped on us this afternoon, and I found myself thinking “for f*cks sake, why does this sort of sh*t always happen to us?”

I do feel like ever since we had the 2023/24 season of various media pundits saying things like “yeah, well, they haven’t had any injuries” in reference to our good form that season, we’ve had one after the other. It’s certainly coming on 18 months of injury after injury. And this one is a particularly bitter pill to swallow because:

1. Eze was starting to find some form
2. Odegaard was able to recover from injury without being rushed back
3. We have been told – and are seeing that with our own eyes – that Spring is when he comes alive.

If the timeframes are right, then we are looking at him being out until probably the Newcastle game at the earliest, and with two months of the season left, he’s missing half of it. It’s a massive blow for a player who has been so clutch for us in recent weeks and I feel has started to see his place in the team, delivering end-product with it as well.

The positive, as Sami says in the article, is that Odegaard appears to be back in training, and the club now has at least another 10 days with which to get minutes in his legs at London Colney. Whether or not he goes straight into the team for Southampton needs to be carefully looked at, though, because he’s hardly built up a cadence of games to suggest he’ll be fine to play on Saturday night and then Tuesday night against Sporting Lisbon. This season alone, according to TransferMarkt, he has missed:

• 37 days and seven matches due to a knee problem
• Eight days and two matches due to a knee problem
• 10 days and two matches due to a muscle injury
• 53 days and eight games due to a knee injury
• 13 days and six games due to a shoulder injury

Our captain has missed a total of 121 days, with five injuries and 22 games this season. Arsenal have played 50 matches so far. So Odegaard has missed 44% of ALL matches we’ve played this season. The worry now, with Eze’s injury, is that we are going to be reliant on a guy who has shown that he’s susceptible to injury all season for basically two seasons now. Last season, he missed 15 games in total. So whilst I love him, I think an Odegaard in top form is integral to the way we play, it does feel like we haven’t seen that very much at all this season and I also think it is going to take him time to get back any kind of form and rhythm.

If I’m trying to look at the positives here, I could say that we have other options. But they aren’t fully tested and, frankly, they haven’t exactly delivered amazing results. At the weekend, we had Kai in that midfield role, but after he signed and then switched to playing up front, we all spent the time saying that he wasn’t a midfielder and didn’t do that job as well. He wasn’t great on Sunday, although he’s still coming back from injury, so he’s building his fitness up after a year out. Saka centrally has the possibility of being exciting on paper, but his form is such that we haven’t seen too much of what his potential is for that role and on the weekend, he wasn’t great in it before Noni came on either. That could be the circumstance of that situation; we were just abject on Sunday in that second half anyway, so perhaps we just have to accept that and move on. Perhaps Saka could be something that works there, but with the season reaching a crescendo, it’s hardly optimal that we’re discussing untested options at such a crucial time.

As I said yesterday, and I’ve quoted above, perhaps the other good news is that Arteta and his coaching staff have the next 10 days to think of how they react to this Eze injury, and how they plan an approach that will get Martin Odegaard’s engine up and running again. We are going to need him, plus some of the other options I’ve mentioned, between now and the end of the season for sure.

Catch you all tomorrow.

Of course, there are two sides to this coin, with an upside and a possible downside. I don’t believe that Arsenal could get away with just chatting to international managers this close to the World Cup, and having an almost unanimous verdict from most that they will leave players at home because their World Cup places are secured. So, whilst the tone of today’s blog will be “good, players will get some rest”, I do think we have some knocks to be worried about.

For example, Big Gabi is not going to Brazil, good stuff. But the statement from the Brazilian FA, which talked about imaging showing that he has a problem in his knee, that’s bad stuff. I’m going to choose the upside, though, which is that the statement from the Brazilian FA also said that what is required is a period of rest to recover, and we certainly have that.

Our next ‘big’ game is against Sporting. Southampton in the FA Cup is important, but let’s get some real talk going here; if we have to, we have to play a heavily rotated team to get those first-teamers rested. The Southampton game is Saturday, 4th April. As of today, that is 11 days away. Sporting Lisbon is 14 days away. A solid two weeks stand between us and our next big one. I want to win the FA Cup; I love going to Wembley for the semi and the final, but if it means we are risking players, then as of right now, I’m saying “nope” to players who are carrying knocks.

I want to see a myriad of warm-weather Instagram snaps from all of the players who have withdrawn from international duty this week. These players have all looked fatigued, Declan Rice even admitted to it post-Leverkusen, as I’ve already mentioned in a previous blog, so we just have to sit as many down on deck chairs and sun loungers as possible. No training, no heavy lifting of furniture or anything like that – tell the wife that the trip to Ikea will have to wait, as there are bodies that need healing ahead of the final part of this season.

Trossard, Eze, and Odegaard are all out. Big Gabi is out. Saliba has withdrawn from the French team. This ain’t no Fergie situation though; these days you have to provide evidence to support issues, so Arsenal and these respective players will have done just that. So the order of the day right now is that every single one of those players needs to stay at home, or get themselves on a plane to somewhere like Portugal – it’s 21 degrees and sunny in the Algarve this week – get yer arses on the golf course!

The worry from the weekend was the clear lack of a creative eight to collect the ball from the back four, but I’m less worried about that, because it sounds like Odegaard was back in training, so I suspect he’ll be staying in London Colney to build up his fitness. But I’m already thinking about that rotated XI over the Easter weekend and, based on needing to sit players down and rest them, here are my initial thoughts based on the little we know:

Kepa

White   –   Mosquera   –   Calafiori   –   Lewis-Skelly

Norgaard

Odegaard   –   Dowman

Madueke   –   Jesus   –   Martinelli

Give Kepa a chance to still feel part of the team after his howler and overall poor performance on Sunday. Ben White needs minutes; he’s not going to play all of the football for the international team, but he does need some minutes, and so this call-up will boost him, so that’s all good. Mosquera, too, hasn’t played a ton of football, plus he’ll have got his first international call-up, so he’ll be buzzing as well. Calafiiro need to build up his cadence and momentum, whilst we all know Myles hasn’t played enough. The same is true for Norgaard. Dowman is an X-factor player, and playing against a team a division down would be good for him, whilst Odegaard getting a solid 60 would be useful. Madueke for Saka feels like the right move, whilst Jesus in so you can have Gyokeres as full power against his old club, feels about right for me. Martinelli hasn’t been favoured for Trossard of late, but he and Jesus have those connections, so it makes sense.

I know it is just under two weeks away, but that lineup for 70 minutes means you don’t put too much into the legs of Zubi, Rice, Saka, Gyokeres, Saliba and Big Gabi. It means you keep Timber out, who hasn’t gone to the Netherlands, and so will also have had more than two weeks out by the time the Sporting game comes along.

My hope is that we don’t get any wind of news that any of the injuries that are sustained are long-term. If we’re talking players needing a solid 10 – 14 days rest to recover, then happy days – for once, an international break has come at the right time. But we need those players who are going – the likes of White, Calafiori, Saka, Rice, Zubimendi, Norgaard, etc – to all come back in one piece. Get through this set of international games, then come back and sit yerselves on the bench for the FA Cup.

It feels a little scary hearing those announcements of players withdrawing from international duty, but none of them feels like they are ‘big’ injuries. Areta’s diagnosis on Eze didn’t sound great, but even if he’s out for two weeks, as I’ve said above, the return of Odegaard is timely for our current situation and the current period we have for the next two weeks, including Southampton.

As the dust settles, I’m going to do more ‘vibes check’ posts about how I’m feeling, and sure, I need to see those Instagram snaps of players resting up. Until we get those, or rumours of players being ‘fine’ from Athletic articles where an agent has fed them some info, there will always be nerves. But as it stands, I’m pretty chilled about the situation.

Back tomorrow with some more thoughts.

Another League Cup Final, another defeat in it, and at this point, it feels like that competition is as cursed for us as the European ones are.

Simply put, Arsenal only showed up for one half, on a day in which there were hopes that we could get a trophy monkey off our back.

I have lots of emotions going on right now; lots of thoughts that might be worth picking up, given that we now go into an interlull, but for today, let’s just pick on one or two of the key talking points from yesterday.

Firstly, I don’t think any is getting away from the fact that the goalkeeper question was a primary reason why we lost yesterday. Kepa is a fine backup. We discussed it in the pub before the game, and I said I was ok with him starting, but hindsight is a wonderful thing, and clearly it wasn’t the right move. The delta between Kepa and Raya is quite large, it seems, and I’m not only talking about the rick that our keeper made in the game to give City the lead. His passing range is not as wide as Raya’s, and his box presence isn’t the same, which I think also leads to a little bit less confidence in the back line. The first goal we conceded yesterday will be one that will give him nightmares. It was proper chocolate wrists stuff, and whereas at the other end, Trafford gave a decent account of himself in the first half with a couple of saves, when the pressure was on us in the second, our goalkeeper folded in that key moment. And that’s what we don’t get with Raya. Sure, he’s had his dodgy moments like the end of the Wolves away game, but in the main, he is solid, and even with little to do, he still has the concentration in key moments that Kepa just doesn’t have (think that great save against Leverkusen at the end of the game last week).

I don’t blame Arteta for starting Kepa, because as I said, I think this was one that he felt he could do. But I don’t think we’ll see the Spaniard in between the sticks if we get to the FA Cup final. And his error yesterday kind of gives Arteta the licence to sit him down if that happens and say “sorry mate, not after what happened last time.

This was one of those cliched ‘game of two halves’ kind of matches. I thought we bested Man City in the first; we limited their chance creation, whilst we got in behind at least once, and Kai probably should have scored. That’s what you occasionally get with Kai, though; he isn’t always the most clinical. Ironically, if Gyokeres had been in that position, it might have been different, but he was somewhere else on the pitch, not getting those chances. But it fell to Kai; Trafford did his job, which we didn’t see from Kepa in the second half, which was also the half in which we failed to respond to City’s approach. They pressed in the right spaces, they were able to control more of the ball, and whilst they hardly troubled Kepa until his mistake, they were definitely edging it. And I think Arteta will do a re-watch of this game and realise that he probably should have made the changes a little earlier than he did. Kai didn’t have a great game, Gyokeres was pretty anonymous, Saka’s poor form continues, and Trossard was left pretty much neutralised and quiet. In that second half in particular, the attack didn’t click, and we simply could not string together enough passes or get enough of a rhythm to cause City any problems.

That second half was woefully short of the ‘standards’ that Arteta and the team set, and unfortunately, in 2026, it’s not an isolated incident. There’s plenty made about the fact that not pressing Arsenal’s defenders is a good way of neutralising them. I think that’s only part of the story. History is always written by the victors, and City fans and the stats people have already been clipping up short videos of City sitting back whilst 1-0 up and us playing the ball across our back four. But game state is everything. I said yesterday morning that the first goal would be pivotal, and I think that’s exactly why yesterday felt so flat in the end, but that’s how it turned out to be. And I don’t want to make this all about Kepa, because so many other players didn’t play remotely to their potential, but in these tight games, there’s nothing more frustrating than a mistake leading to a goal. If a player puts the ball in the top bins from 30 yards, you just hold your hands up, but when the important goal you concede is entirely avoidable, it is doubly hard to take.

I do think the absence of Eze and Odegaard had somewhat of an impact, though. Eze has just found some form, and now he’s injured, which is really frustrating. Arteta said that we have to leave it seven days for a scan, but we have to pray that it is just a short-term thing, because whilst he can rest up for a week because of these internationals, ideally we want to see him on the road to recovery for Southampton in two weeks. In his place Havertz looked at first like he might link up well with Big Vik, and there were a couple of moments where, from my vantage point, I could see us almost playing with two up top, but he faded quickly after a good opening half an hour and the lack of that creative 8/10 hybrid felt like it began to take its toll.

So City draws first blood. Seeing the dejected Arsenal players wasn’t a fun sight afterwards, but the hope has to be that they use this as fuel, because after this international break, there is a great opportunity to get back on the wagon and on to winning ways with an away game against Southampton.

This was the least of our priorities, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t sting, for which I thought Declan Rice summed it up well when describing the mood after this match. Now there is an opportunity to just take a beat, for the players to go away with their respective international teams, which hopefully will provide enough of a reset, before we get back to the proper football over the Easter weekend.

As I said above, I might do a bit of a deeper dive into some of the problems we’ve had in attack over the coming days, given that I have no interest whatsoever in the international nonsense going on from now until the end of next week.

So I’ll catch up with you back on here tomorrow. Up the Arsenal.

This is our first one since Mikel Arteta took us to Wembley for the FA Cup, albeit behind closed doors, and it’s the first time we’ve been at Wembley since we played in the Community Shield back in 2023. That day, we saw Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber for the first time, as we beat City on penalties 4-1. Whilst I absolutely don’t want to see that type of fixture play out today, if you offered it to me right now, I would take it.

That’s because we all know rumours of Man City’s demise have been greatly overestimated. This is a Pep Guardiola side who, if they win their game in hand and beat us on their own patch (we haven’t won at the Etihad in over 11 years in the Premier League), will only be three behind us in the league, a side who still boasts elite talent like Haaland, Doku, Semenyo, Rodri et al, a side who might have stumbled lately, have still won 31 of the 48 matches they’ve played this season.

Arsenal must be ready for what is going to be an incredibly hard challenge.

But I believe in this Arsenal team. I am nervous – of course I am – but I want to transmit only positivity right up until kick off. Then, when I’m in the ground, I’ll be a bundle of nerves. But until that point, I have nothing but positive vibes of success that I want to transmit to Mikel Arteta and his team.

And it is a team with whom, if some of the pictures doing the rounds on social media yesterday and this morning showed Martin Odegaard in training, as well as Jurrien Timber. And if both are fit to make the match-day squad, I think one of them will definitely start.

That’s Timber for me. Because if Guardiola is going to opt for Doku on that left wing for City, it just feels like having Jurrien up against him is the best chance we’ve got of neutralising him. Odegaard may be back in training, but he hasn’t played since coming on against The Scum for 13 minutes on 22nd February. A month ago. In fact, you have to go back to the 3-2 defeat against United almost a month before that, to see his first game from the start, so I just can’t see it today. In fact, given the limitations of the squad you can name for this cup final, I’d be wondering if he’s even ready for the bench. If you can only get 10 – 15 minutes out of Odegaard, shouldn’t his space in the match-day squad be taken up by another?

That’s a decision Arteta is going to have to make today, but if his captain is fit and he can get something from him, my gut feeling says he will make the squad.

So, who else plays today, then, eh?

Firstly, the keeper situation, which basically every Arsenal fan I was listening to on podcasts this week has been debating. The media also asked him the question during his press conference on Friday. Of course, he wouldn’t be drawn on it, but I have a feeling he goes with Kepa today. I’m not sure it’s the right move, hopefully it doesn’t come back to bite us on the arse, but I go back to his arrival in the summer, and I can’t help but think it is a situation like today that is the reason Kepa signed for us in the first place. He was number one at Bournemouth; he could have signed for them or another club and been their number one, but he chose Arsenal, knowing that he 99% won’t displace Raya. But if Arteta had a conversation with him and told him he’s the cup keeper, all the way to domestic finals, then I think he will honour that, and we’ll see the other Spaniard in goal today.

And I think I’m fine with it. Providing, of course, we see know ricks in him…

I’ve named Timber in at right back, and I think the two centre halves speak for themselves, but who to put in at left back, I wonder…

**taps finger on chin in a pondering fashion**

I think it might be Calafiori, you know. I think Arteta will want to have a little bit more chaos in the final third with his inside channel runs, and I think that means it will be the Italian over the Ecuadorian. It doesn’t mean Hincapie won’t see minutes – I absolutely think he will – but I think for the first 60 – 70 of this game, he will be tasked with getting into those pockets of position similarly to last season’s 2-2 draw at the Etihad, where he scored. His task for the day will be keeping an eye on Semenyo, I suspect – no easy feet.

In front of them, I think it’s fairly obvious that Rice and Zubimendi start, and I think Eze is pretty much nailed on for his position too, after his fine display against Leverkusen. He was on the ball more, involved, plus we saw just how hard he can hit the ball if given the chance. But let’s also not forget that Eze has good recent memories of this stadium. This was the scene of his ascension to cult hero status for Palace fans in May and I watched that goal again this morning. It’s a great finish, running onto a cross as City were in transition, and his stroking the ball home was perfectly timed. Another one of those would be great. He was also there for Palace’s 2-2 penalty win in the Community Shield last August, so I’m sure he’s more than happy about his time at Wembley in the last year. Let’s hope he can transmit some of that this afternoon.

The attack has another couple of questions to ask about it, too. Not Saka, I don’t think, but I do think that there is a question over whether it’s Kai or Big Vik, and, despite his good showing in midweek against Leverkusen, if it was my choice, it would be Havertz all day long. He will bring other wide forwards into play, he will be a handful in the air for those City defenders, plus he put in a super display at Wembley in the Community Shield for his Arsenal debut too. So it has to be the German who leads the line. And so to that left-wing spot, in which nobody has really nailed it so far. But I’m thinking it will be Trossard. Again, he combined well at home against Leverkusen, plus I liked how he was drifting a little more, and I think rotation across our attacking players is key today. We need to get at the likes of Nunes and probably Khusanov, because both are players with obvious strengths, but also weaknesses too. Nunes is a physical presence and likes to be aggressive in the press, but he isn’t always the most consistent and I’ve seen people suggest he does have an error or two in him. Khusanov is rapid, but he too has mistakes in him.

Man City can be ‘got at’. We’ve seen it all this season, but we need to see it today, and I think the first goal is massive in this one. At the Emirates earlier in the season, City got their goal with pretty much their first attack and then just sat in the lowest block that has ever been recorded by a Pep Guardiola side. They were away from home and they could see how dominant we were and it was only a late bit of magic that salvaged a point for us. What that meant is that we couldn’t truly test what City are like running back towards their own goal, as many teams have already done this season since that day. If they score first, I think they will be a similar variant of that City team that day, although I expect them to create a few more chances. But if we score first…well…that will 100% bring them on to us and that’s where we need to take advantage of the inevitable space that crops up.

It’s so hard to call. I keep chopping and changing my mind on how this one will play out. But what we all have to remember is that this is just the start of the ‘business end’ run in for triphy attempts. This is the cherry on the cake, before we’ve even got the cake fully prepped yet. So I’m going to try my hardest not to be too down if we lose, but equally, not to be too high if we win.

But if we could just win, yeah Arsenal? That would be great.

Back tomorrow for a debrief. Let’s hope it is a happy one.

Arteta, as usual, gave basically nothing away, saying that Odegaard and Timber are a ‘we’ll see’, using the smokescreen of an additional training session to avoid giving the media – and City – anything conclusive. Weirdly with Odegaard, the best source of news seems to be his national team manager, Ståle Solbakken, who has been quoted as saying:

If he ends up making the League Cup final squad, we’ll reassess…I would prefer that he builds up his physical condition and gets a proper training period. He can have the opportunity to do that during this international break. So if he calls and says he’s fit, I’m not sure I would include him

I think that is a perfectly sensible approach from a coach who is clearly mindful that he needs his captain at his best for the upcoming World Cup. If only Thomas Tuchel took the same approach. He’s called Up Noni, Saka, Rice and Eze, and whilst Noni and Ebs haven’t had as many minutes this season, Saka has had injuries and plays all the time when fit, as does Rice, so I’m disappointed to see them travel. They should have been told to rest up. Somebody said to me they aren’t joining the eam for the first game, but will be there for the second. I can’t find anything online (haven’t looked too hard, to be fair) that gives any indication of that, but if it’s true, that’s a small blessing, I guess. Likewise, calls to have Dowman in the squad were rightly responded to by Tuchel as “no need to give him that pressure” – at least he’s got that bit right.

As for the other international bits of news, Mosqeura got his first call-up, which is nice, and given he hasn’t played much, I think that’s fine. I’m less happy about Zubi being called up and his situation should be treated the same as Rice’s – neither should be seeing minutes next week. That should also go for Gabriel (especially after what happened to him earlier in the season), Saliba, Trossard, Gyokeres and Havertz – who has only just started to come back. Use them sparingly…..please…

Back to Arteta, though, who cut an understanably confident tone as he looked ahead to this game. I didn’t realise this, but he has a 100% record at Wembley. That’s good, although I hate stats like that, because they are always there to be broken. I remember a stat coming up after we scored in the Man United home game earlier this year, that said something mental like “when Arsenal take the lead, they’ve won 26 out of 27 of their last games”. I don’t know if that was home only, but we promptly lost that game to the worldies that United scored, so what I’m worried about with stats like that is the football gods come a-knocking on our door. Let’s hope not.

The journalists also tried a little bit of tomfoolery by asking questions like “is it about beating Pep” but clearly Arteta was not going to bite there, batting it away as he should. Still, it’s not as bad as those Manchester-based journalists, one of whom asked Pep yesterday whether he was still ‘best frriends and go to dinner’ and if they are still talking after last season, when City players accused Arsenal players of ‘dark arts’. It was a pathetic attempt to get a soundbite ahead of this game and Pep clearly just thought the journalist was being a bit of a dick. He clearly was – this sort of stuff is designed to stir up some kind of Mourinho/Wenger-style rivalry that just isn’t there, and never will be there. They have both been in the game long enough, they’ve managed against each other long enough, they know each other so well, that they aren’t going to suddenly fall out. Or if they do on the side of the pitch, they’re both going to kiss and make up pretty quickly afterwards. That’s just life. People have disagreements, then they get over it, then the friendship endures longer than any short-term passionate situation in the heat of the moment.

The rest of the questions were a bit bland, if you ask me, because it was all about whether getting to cup finals is important, on viewing this game in isolation, or if he uses this situation to motivate his players. All pretty easy stuff to respond to; Pep got a few of the same too and naturally just batted them away. He was asked things like “why are Arsenal so good?” or “will this define your season?” and of course, he just gave out some flowers to our approach and strengths, then stated that it won’t define their season. And I think that’s right, in the same way that it won’t – and shouldn’t – define our season. We have ourselves a great opportunity to win a trophy, but it isn’t THE trophy. It’s a positive situation, but it can’t be something that impacts the players after Sunday. That’s where I don’t know if it is a good thing that there’s an international break or not. Perhaps, if we lose, it’ll act as a bit of a palate cleanser. We then have the FA Cup straight after that, then Sporting away, and given the most stressful games recently have been the Premier League ones, and that’s the main prize, perhaps it is good there is a bit of distance between this League Cup final and the Premier League. Maybe that even makes it a bit of a ‘win-win’; i.e. if we win it, we get the boost, but if we lose it, there is enough space between then and our next game in the league, that the players have time to respond positively.

Of course, I could, as always, be overthinking it WAAAAY too much, but that’s just me, right?

I think that’s probably about all there is worth talking about from the press conferences, so I’ll leave it there and catch you all tomorrow for the full match preview, including my probable/possible line-up, as well as how this game might play out. Catch you all then.

Speaking of predictions, shall we have a little look to see what the media are saying ahead of this game at Wembley, eh?

Joe Cole has said he thinks it’ll be an Arsenal win, but Wayne Bridge and Carlton Cole think it’ll be City. Merse has said he thinks we’ll do it with a 2-1 win. Timmy Sherwood thinks it’ll be City, whilst Lewis Jones on Sky Sports thinks it’ll be a draw with City winning on penalties. So there’s a fair bit of plumping for City going around and whilst yesterday I saw the chat rooms of City fans being less upbeat, I can see why. Where the FA Cup is a competition we often joke about being ‘ours’, this one has given plenty of pain over the years. My first cup final after I had my season ticket was the infamous one against Birmingham in 2011 and I can still vividly remember the Szsesny and Koscielny complete cock up at the back to see Obefemi Martins win it for them. I was there for the 3-0 defeat against City and seeing Mustafi just let the ball drop over his shoulder for Aguero to do us over in 2018 and so my feelings going into League Cup games at Wembley are very different to when we’re going there for FA Cup games.

It’s so weird the way this sort of stuff plays out over time, as if there is some kind of hex upon us in the League Cup. The players were different in 2007 when we lost to Chelsea as Drogba bullied us; they were different in 2011, they were different in 2018 and they will be different this weekend. But sometimes it feels as though the footballing gods just like to f*ck with you a bit with stuff. So I’m not overly convinced that we’ll beat City on Sunday, but I do know that hopefully we will give them a better game than that awful showing in 2018. I mean, for starters, I think we’ve got notable upgrades with Raya for Ospina, Saliba for Mustafi and Bellerin for Timber/White. And there’s no square peg in a round hole with Chambers at left back either!

This is a bit of a shorter one today, mainly on account of wanting to save some thoughts for the build up tomorrow and Sunday, but I’ll be back to have a bit of a review of the two press conferences tomorrow, so if you fancy joining me on here then I’d love to have you.

Let me know what you think re: Havertz v Gyokeres in the comments.

Catch you tomorrow.

And the thing that I keep going backwards and forwards on, in my mind, is “What sort of state will this Man City team be in?”

There are obviously two schools of thought on this one:

1. Confidence sapped, psychologically wounded, fearful of the season imploding
2. Compartmentalising and recognising that this is the perfect game for them to show up against the current Premier League leaders.

Obviously, we all hope that it’s option A, but I was curious to see where their fans’ heads are at right now. If you watch the YouTubers, you see a very arrogant fanbase that just talk about how City are inevitable, how they have the muscle memory, how it is always ‘in the bag’, but some might say that about the Arsenal fans. In reality, your average Arsenal fan is like me: Nervous, worried, doesn’t want to jinx anything. We’re not all YouTubers vying for clicks with extreme opinions.

But can the same be said for City fans?

Well, here are the first few comments on a thread that I read this morning for City fans:

Don’t care how, just get us a win and that trophy. Going to have to fight for this.

and:

A must win in an otherwise awful campaign of uninspired football.

and:

100% right mate it’s been fuckin atrocious

Now, I think it is fair to say that those fans are probably reacting in the wake of being knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid, but I guess if you’re looking at it from their perspective, they’ve just seen their side go away to a Real Madrid who they expected to beat up on, plus back-to-back draws in the Premier League. In their last six home games, they have won three and drawn three, and in their last six away games, it is two wins, three draws and one defeat. In the thread I mentioned above, there are also comments like “First time going to Wembley expecting us to lose” and “We won’t win on Sunday, Arsenal are too physical, and our players will run off hiding”. I have to say, it’s a real surprise to see this level of apprehension from a fanbase who have pretty much had it their own way for trophies in the last seven-odd years.

I welcome it at this moment in time, but I’m also wary of the fact that we haven’t exactly been sparkling, with our games being more attritional than anything else. In the game at The Emirates, City scored first, scored early, after we made a couple of mistakes to set Haaland in behind. I doubt we’ll be as open and attacking as we were that day when it was 0-0, but I do wonder what Arteta has in store. We’ll find out tomorrow on team news, but he has lots of options to switch it up from even the game on Tuesday, so it will be fascinating to see what he says about the press conference tomorrow.

I wonder also if he’ll be a lot more jovial about this one, too. After all, this is selection number four of four for the trophies we want to win. All of us want it, we want to lay down a marker, we also don’t want to hear the media narrative about how “now the wobble begins” after a loss to City at Wembley, that we have an extended period of listening to because of internationals and the FA Cup after that. But in reality, even if we lose on Sunday, if we right ourselves by the time Southampton, Sporting Lisbon and Bournemouth come around, then we could still be on for a glorious season if things keep ticking over as they have done already.

Their fans are talking about how Pep doesn’t seem to know his best team, which I think is interesting given that it has, for so many seasons, been the thing that has made them unpredictable. We’ve also heard a lot about him ‘saving’ players for the second half of the season; I’m pretty sure that happened with Foden and/or Grealish for a few seasons. But now they need a settled side that Pep knows and can rely on; that side does appear, by the sounds of a few of them, to be involving Cherki, who I will admit impresses me whenever I see him play.

I wonder if, in that ‘saving players’ regard, we’re seeing the fruits of such an approach with Eze? He has played well in the last three matches, I thought, with the goal on Tuesday night being a cherry on top of the performance, and there’s been lots of talk about how he really comes alive in the back end of the season. Whether or not Arteta has planned this by action or design, I’m not so sure, though. Were Odegaard not struggling for fitness, I’m not sure Eze would have been given the games he has of late to build up the head of steam he now has. Hey, sometimes you need a little bit of fortune dressed as misfortune to allow you to stumble upon something. We all saw how the introduction of Emile Smith Rowe in Arteta’s first season effectively salvaged something for the manager over that Christmas period and that win at home to Chelsea. That came about because he had no other options, and Emile was the ‘Hail Mary’ that paid off. Eze is not that; the whole “save him for the Spring” could be revisionism, but if it works, none of us will give a flying fudge, will we?

Right, I’ll leave it there for today, I think. Have yourselves a great Thursday and I’ll be back tomorrow as the countdown to the big weekend intensifies even more.

His finish yesterday sailed past the Leverkusen keeper Blaswich who, up until that point, very much had the feel of Gandalf and was not letting anybody pass. He’d made six saves before Eze’s rocket to break the deadlock and some of them were worldies too. The one he saved with his foot to have the ball just skip wide of the post is the first one that comes to mind. But on a night in which big shocks had happened in the other part of this side of the draw with Lisbon beating Bodo/Glimt, this was not to be another upset, as Arsenal pretty much dominated from start to finish.

One of the criticisms I think a few of us Gooners have had is that we haven’t started games too quickly. It’s felt at times – certainly in 2026 – as though we take our time to ‘feel’ our way into a game and how the opponent sets itself up. This was not the case last night. Arteta made some tactical tweaks, including Ben White, which I think worked really well, and we were pretty much on the front foot within the first few minutes. You could see that White was looking to overlap and create more space for Saka and I think he must have appreciated that, because he got on the ball and was creating chances. There were still some instances in which I thought Saka could have got a shot off a little earlier, but today is not a day to be bagging on the starboy. Sometimes, to recapture your best form, you have to take incremental steps in the right direction. I thought last night was definitely one.

But there were strides forward from a number of attacking players yesterday. I thought Trossard looked lively, popping up in spaces across the front three, whilst Viktor Gyokeres must have had arguably his best game of the season yesterday. He didn’t score, which is obviously a marker a lot of people will put down as another failing, but not me. Not today. He used his power well; he looked to be half a yard sharper. He had a few runs at defenders and a couple of shots, one of which was deflected wide. He is the sort of guy who will probably have got into the dressing room at full time quite disappointed in himself for not scoring, but I bet the manager was exactly the opposite of that.

After the dominance of the first half, things felt like they got back on to a more even keel in the second, which you’d expect given Leverkusen couldn’t just sit back and hope to counter us in transition. We had our goal, we didn’t need to press forward, so gaps started opening up and even though the game ended with Leverkusen having more possession than us, I think we created the better chances in the second half overall. The one for them that stands out is the fantastic Raya save right at the end, but other than that I can’t rememberr him making a string of saves. That was Blaswich who was in that mood last night, making a couple in the second, but not Arsenal’s second, which was another superb Rice finish from outside the box. Have that, you open play Arsenal goal naysayers.

His first touch for that goal was sublime. It meant it sat up perfectly for a second touch, then the stroke of the ball past the Leverkusen goalie to just kiss the post – *chef’s kiss*. He picked up the man-of-the-match award on the night and, once again, the cries rang out about how we’d really made a steal with him on the price. He’s fantastic. He’s all action. He’s the best player in this Arsenal team by a country mile this season. There’s talk that Bruno Fernandes should get Player of the Year – pull the other one, it’s got bells on. Rice has been the most consistently impressive footballer in the Premier League; he’s been doing it in the Champions League, and his goal last night ensured that the last ten minutes or so were nowhere near as nervous as it could have been.

There were so many positives to take from individual and collective performances last night. I thought Zubimendi looked spritely; he’s been accused lately of taking the safe and backwards options on his passing recently, but I thought he was much more progressive and willing to take risks. With the League Cup final on the horizon, it is lovely to see that we have players hitting some stride, although Declan Rice’s post-match comments about being shattered are a concern. Arsenal and England should take note; there is a period coming up here where there is an opportunity to manage his and the likes of Zubimendi’s minutes differently. I said it on social media, but I’ll reiterate it now – neither of these players should be going away with their international teams, and neither should be starting against Southampton a week after that, too. If you can wrap them up, give them rest, a kind of Spring Break, if you will, then it could be beneficial to both The Arsenal and their respective international managers.

Defensively, we looked good too; our pressing was right, we got into our shape at the right time, Gabriel and Saliba looked good and Hincapie and White both performed well. There was also enough time for a Kai Havertz cameo and I thought he also looked lively when he came on.

And all of this means that Arteta has options for Sunday, too. In the pub before we were talking about where we were going to have a drink on Sunday and a few of us joked that we were overlooking Leverkusen. That wasn’t the case for those Arsenal players, who will also have the big confidence boost of knowing they are into the quarter finals with a great chance to progress there too. But before that, it’s all eyes on the League Cup now, and a showdown with 115 Charges FC. My hope is that they are licking their wounds and feeling a bit sorry for themselves this morning, having just been knocked out to Real Madrid last night.

More on that tomorrow as we begin the countdown to the first trophy attempt of the season. Catch you then.

This is a weird fixture for me. When the draw was announced, there was relief about a possibly easier passage through the competition. WhatsApp groups were awash with ‘take that’ and ‘lovely’ comments. Then you get to the first leg kick off, and you’re thinking, ‘hopefully we can make a statement tonight and put one foot in the final’. Then at the end of the game, after Arsenal haven’t been great, Leverkusen have shown a blueprint on how to counter and hit us on the break, the mind thinks ‘got away with that one, but we have the home leg to finish the job’, as well as ‘the game at home now becomes a one-off cup tie – lovely’.

And yet, here I find myself, Tuesday morning, apprehensive about the match. Yes, it IS a one-off cup game, for sure. And yes, we WILL be heavily favourites to go through, most definitely. But all it takes tonight is one good low block, one transitional counter, and we could find ourselves out of a competition that so many Arsenal fans have coveted for years. We’re all looking over at City’s daunting tie at home to Real Madrid, but if we aren’t careful, we could have our own psychological blow tonight against a Leverkusen side who drew with Bayern at the weekend. Of course, the caveat remains that they played over half the match against ten men, but they still got a draw, and that will still fill them with some confidence, I would have thought.

Arteta did his press conference, and the bad news is that Odegaard and Timber are out. The good news is that it sounds like Leo is back, and whilst Arteta confirmed White is back up and in full training, I’m not sure whether he’ll start in place of the absent Dutchman. Mosquera was preferred against Everton, and I suspect it might be the same tonight. Of course, it may be that Arteta selected Mosquera for that game because he knew he could only get White playing the majority of one match out of these two, so he’s prioritised the Englishman for his overlapping runs today. Maybe I’m talking myself into something that won’t happen, but that does make sense to me, especially after Saka’s performance in the first leg. He wasn’t great; he was hooked on 60 minutes in favour of Noni, but if Arteta wants to create more space for Saka up against Grimaldo tonight, then playing a guy with whom he has a clear connection would make sense to me.

The rest of the team picks itself largely, I think; Raya, Saliba, and Gabriel will all play. I suspect Hincapie comes in at left back. At the base of the midfield, it’ll be Zubi, with Rice on the left and Eze on the right. Up top, I doubt they’ll risk back-to-back starts for Havertz, so it’ll be Gyokeres, with possibly Trossard and Saka flanking him. I certainly think that dynamic works better than Martinelli wide left, plus I’m not sure that Noni on the left really worked against Everton. You could ask the question about whether he deserves a start on the right, but I think Arteta sticks with one of his most trusted players in Saka tonight, so for me, it should be Trossard.

The game plan has to be about control tonight, which I suspect makes for a tetchy start to the game, probably a little shadow-boxing from Arsenal as they look to maintain the control of the ball, with Leverkusen tucking in deep and maintaining a tight shape throughout. They want to hit us on the counter and get a goal up so they can sit deep and see us deliver the horseshoe of death aka The Arc of boredom, so if we can score in that first half, maybe it draws them out a bit, and a little more space opens up.

I suspect patience will be the name of the game today; it is not going to be a pretty one, unfortunately.

Leverkusen will look to Grimaldo to find space in that left-hand-side pocket, and particularly with Timber out, they’ll want to see if they can stress either White or Mosquera, so if we can keep them pinned back as much as possible, then I think we can nullify him somewhat. They have Schick back, which will be a different kind of physical threat, but I wonder if they look at the likes of Kofane as a viable option, because he really tested our two centre halves all game last week, so it will be interesting to see how the Leverkusen boss goes about his starting selection dilemma up top. Of course, if they are behind in the tie and he needs to throw a Hail Mary, then both Kofane and Schick up top could be an option. We need to be wary and ready for that possibility.

The good thing is that if Leverkusen go down that route, then it means they are behind, and in that situation, we would all back our defensive line to be able to hold out.

We’ve gotten used to this season – and particularly ‘The Business End’ of it being quite uncomfortable, nervy and at times downright stressful. But Arsenal keep finding ways – even when leaving it late – to win these football matches. Nothing is guaranteed; those ‘finding ways’ could very well end tonight, but we’re in a good spot as it stands and I am hopeful that we have the players to see us through this evening. Fingers crossed I’m right.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a debrief, as always. Catch you then.

We touched on this a bit yesterday in the Same Old Arsenal pod, but I wonder what the psychological impact of the recent results might be for those two respective teams in this title race? When Man City scored those two late goals at Anfield, the prevailing media narrative was that this was the momentum shift. ‘City were coming’, ‘City have done this before’, and ‘this is the moment they crank up the gears’ were what we heard. That match was on February 8th, and since then they’ve beaten Fulham at home, Newcastle at home, Leeds away, drawn with Forest, and drawn with West Ham in the Premier League. That’s not the same City as we’ve been told about, and certainly sides like the one that we faced in 2023/24 wouldn’t be at this stage in the season dropping points. I wonder if the psychology of dropping back-to-back points in the league, whilst we have picked up back-to-back wins, will impact them? Likewise, does a probable exit this week to Real Madrid (barring some almighty Madrid collapse with them 3-0 up) do more damage to them yet as they prep for us on Sunday next week?

Conversely, we have just gone and got a last-minute winner, before seeing City drop those points away. Does that point the dial in a positive direction for the psychological boost of this Arsenal team?

Maybe, maybe not. The fact that City have been patchy since that Liverpool win shows that things can swing very quickly in this league. Arsenal have done nothing yet, they’ve won nothing yet, but we are in a fabulously commanding position from where we sit. We can all continue to hope that this team drags itself over the line.

It’s weird, though, because we’re at the ‘business end’ of the season now, with seven games left to go, and yet we don’t actually play any Premier League football for just under a month. It’s the Champions League tomorrow, the League Cup on Sunday, then an international break, then the weekend after that is Easter, before we kick back up in the League against Bournemouth on 11th April. There’s a lot of football that will be played, but Premier League football takes a bit of a back seat. Which I kind of like, to be honest with you, because it feels like a little bit of a rest. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be nervous again tomorrow, but despite never having won the Champions League, and it being a massive trophy to win, it’s the Premier League that gets me the most. It’s the one I want to win the most, and if that meant sacrificing everything else, I would gladly do it. So whilst I would be sad to go out tomorrow against Leverkusen, whilst I want us to go deep and maybe even win it, I’m kind of looking at everything other than the Premier League as a bit of respite.

Mikel Arteta will have no time to dwell on such things, such is the hectic schedule. He’ll have given the lads yesterday off, then today it will be back in light training as they prep for Leverkusen. He’ll also have his press conference this evening, and I hope that we get some good news on the players who have question marks over them. I think, particularly, I’d like to see Trossard fit, not least because I had a weird dream about Martinelli last night. The Creative Services Manager who works at my company was playing on the opposition side, and Martinelli – clearly rattled by him – decided to come from behind, grab him in a wrestling sleeper hold move, then drag him down to the floor. He got himself sent off, and we were on the back foot from there. I hope that isn’t a weird sign or premonition for tomorrow. Mikel – play Trossard or Eze on the left – trust my spidey sense…

Other than that, I guess there’s not really much else to do today other than re-live that wonderful moment in which Max Dowman scored to secure the win. What a day for him, his family, the Arsenal players, and Arteta. I’ve watched clip after clip of that, with particular rewatching of Peter Drury’s beautifully hyperbolic commentary. When it is for your team, it really does feel like a work of art.

Right, I’m going to call it there, I think. Have yourselves a great day, and I’ll be back tomorrow as we do a match preview ahead of that Leverkusen match-up.

He comes to maybe one or two games a season, max, and so I could see where he was coming from. Heck, I even said beforehand that it would be an attritional game, and Mark – who helped me with the tickets – also said the same in the concourse before a ball was kicked. We all knew what Everton would bring; it was going to be a case of whether we could get over the line.

The line was well and truly ‘gotten over’ by the end, though, eh?

Effing football, eh? Effing Arsenal, eh? You will be the death of me, as much as you are the life of me.

I had mused on some way through the second half that the ball just doesn’t seem to be dropping to an Arsenal shirt when it comes to the loose ones. There seemed to be an Everton player there every time. That was, of course, until Big Vik Gyokeres was there inside the six-yard box to tap it home.

Pandemonium. Limbs. Hugging. Relief. Arsenal had done it. And all it took was a 16-year-old kid to send us wild. It was Arteta’s ‘Hail Mary’ and boy, did it work. I know we’ve been saying it for a while, but how has a 16-year-old got that much talent at that age? It’s extraordinary. He breathed fresh air into our attack; he unsettled Everton, so much so that I think Jordan Pickford’s flap for our first goal was a result of him being on the pitch. Maybe that’s a stretch, but it was a good ball; close enough to the keeper to entice him to come out, far enough away that he couldn’t get to it. Big Vik touches home on 89 minutes.

Football. In those moments, I love you.

There was still time for us to all be nervous as hell, though, and Everton – who had been pretty defensively resolute and not really an attacking threat in that second half – suddenly were here to spoil a party. But commeth the hour, commeth the…ma…erm…boy?

We now hold the record for having the youngest ever Premier League goal scorer to add to our record books for this season. It’s fair to say it wasn’t the hardest of goals at the end, but to get to that position, Dowman has to show composure, poise, and a fabulous header and touch to set himself off and us two points clear.

We had the joys at the end, and ultimately, the job has been done, but it wasn’t all sunshine and daisies overall, was it? We struggled to break down Everton; they created a few chances in the first half, and McNeil was unlucky not to score from his effort that hit the post. Raya also made a good save with his feet from Beto in the second half. I thought tactically Everton set up quite well; compact shape, difficult to break down, go long where you can, hit on transitional counter when you can. And we struggled in both halves. There was a period between the start of the second half and around the 60-minute mark where it felt like we were starting to exert pressure that might pay off, but after Everton rode that out, we started to look edgy. It wasn’t quite working, Arteta made the subs and, ultimately, I guess you have to say that it paid off.

We did create a few chances ourselves, but not loads and loads, with the Eze effort that just curled wide of the post being one that definitely sprung to mind. But our attack wasn’t clicking. Kai was ok, should have had a stonewall penalty and how VAR has given it I’m not really sure, but I guess it’s one of those that they probably looked at the ‘way’ in which Kai went down and thought he was over-egging it a little bit. We never got to see any replays in the stadium, and VAR seemed to say ‘no’ far too quickly for my liking, but I guess ultimately we got what we deserved, and that was the win. And I think it was a deserved win when you look at the stats. 25 shots, 65% possession, 2.59 xG toi Everton’s 1.07, 249 passes in Everton’s final third, compared to them having 85 in ours – this was a game that Arsenal should have won, and did, ultimately, win. 

We’re just in ‘win’ mode now. We’ve overcome the latest hurdle by hook or by crook. It wasn’t particularly convincing, but I think given all the context and given how deep we are into the season, I think we just have to accept ‘this is who we are’. We’ve probably got another seven of these types of performances to come in the Premier League. Bournemouth will be the same, as will Fulham, Newcastle, West Ham and Crystal Palace. 

The fabulous news kept coming, though, because City dropping points to West Ham was as awesome as it was surprising. That gives us a nine-point buffer, albeit with a game in hand, but that buffer gives us all a bit of relief as we head into a mini break away from the League with the Champions League and then the League Cup Final against Man City. Who knows, maybe the psychological blow from the Real Madrid first leg, then dropping points yesterday, then maybe an exit for them in midweek, can have an impact on how they play against us next weekend? Let’s hope so. 

James, Mark and I are doing the Same Old Arsenal pod this morning, so if you fancy it,  you can catch our thoughts here. Otherwise, I’ll be back tomorrow as the big games keep on coming – with Leverkusen in the Champions League to come on Tuesday.