Don’t shoot the messenger here, but just before I woke up this morning, I was in Berlin about to watch Arsenal play in the Champions League final. We’d beaten Monaco and Basle and in the semi final we’d played Norman Booth under-11s (they were the best team in my youth league and won every game by about 12 goals) and I was with friends and family about to head into the stadium.

I don’t want to leave you on tenterhooks, but unfortunately my alarm went off so I didn’t even get to find out if we’d won the Champions League, so I can’t give you any predictions on glory or ultimate failure I’m afraid. My subconscious probably timed the dream perfectly so that wouldn’t happen anyway no doubt.

In the real world, the build up to Sunday’s showdown with Middlesborough starts in earnest today and, with Boro flying high in the Championship, as each passing day goes by I am starting to think that the manager could probably afford to rotate his strongest team less and less. There will be those of us that think lower league opposition should be relatively easy to cope with, but teams riding high in the Championship are a different kettle of fish. It’s looking like Middlesborough might get promoted by May, so this tie played in a year’s time would therefore be an all Premier League affair, something to consider.

We also need to recognise what confidence does to a side. Just look at the Spuds. They have strung together a good run of form and with a bunch of okayish-looking players they have suddenly become a bit more of a threat. All because of the confidence that their run of winning games have brought. Now compare that to Middlesborough. If they were a Premier League team near the foot of the table, they certainly wouldn’t have the levels of confidence that they have right now, riding high as the Championship league leaders. So I guess what I’m saying is for the Arsenal players – and manager – to beware of complacency and appreciate what confidence does to teams less technically gifted than our own.

I still think Arsène should rotate and I still believe that with some of our rotated players (Gibbs, Chambers, Welbeck, Rosicky) we should have enough, but there just needs to be an air of caution and concentration surrounding the team.

For what it’s worth, the players are saying the right things. Olivier Giroud is on the official site and is stressing the importance of starting off on the ‘front foot’. A replication of the last rounds excellent start by scoring within the first few minutes will be important.

Whether Olivier plays or not is a question for the manager, but I do wonder if he’ll fancy giving Akpom a shot at the Smoggies on Sunday. Probably not and he’ll probably have to contend with a place on the bench, but it’s clear Arsène feels he’s one for the future and the cameos he’s featured in so far, he’s done ok in. More to come from a player who was supposedly tracked by Dortmund and Liverpool.

I suspect he’ll go on loan eventually. I think the loan window is still open, but I’m not sure for how much longer but with Coquelin and Campbell both getting airtime on the dot com, I’d expect to see Akpom take a similar journey. Coquelin has been talking up his time in Freiburg as pivotal to his career and whilst the official website creates this content for the fans, I do wonder how much of it the players read and therefore the conspiracy theorist in me wonders if this little campaign of talking up the loan players, is a little bit of propaganda to send a message – the right message I hasten to add – to Akpom.

Probably not. This is probably just a classic case of your average Arsenal fan reading waaaay too much into things. We’re pretty good at that as a fan base, by and large.

Anyway, that’s enough from me for one day, I have a game of Marvel Puzzle Quest to catch up on.

Cheery-bye.