Very quick rant: when do you ever see such an over-reaction to a player leaving a club like Steven Gerrard? He’s been a wonderful player for Liverpool, but the fact every manager in the Premier League has been asked a question about him, the fact there has been interviews everywhere on his story, as well as the fact it’s Liverpool, seems to have stoked some of the most ridiculous sycophantic hyperbole I’ve ever heard from the media. Forget the cake, forget the player and his legacy, this is becoming over the top now. He was great, but he’s moving on, just like Cantona, Giggs, Zola, Bergkamp, Le Tissier et al. Did they all get the same nauseous treatment when their carers finally wound down? Of course not. Because the media are obsessed with this ridiculous notion of the ‘romance’ of Liverpool, perpetuated with the fact that football punditry is littered with ex-Liverpool players who have seeped through our media like cup of sticky Ribena on your nice new material sofa. More than a minute of his presser spent talking about him. Eugh.

Anyway, rant over, let’s have a talk about The Arsenal shall we? After all, Arsene was in front of the media yesterday and was asked the usual idiotic questions like “is having Danny Welbeck out injured a blow?” or “Are you close to signing anybody Arsene?”, but at least he gave us a bit of useful information when prompted by a semi-useful question. For example, the team news, which has been firmed up from the ‘Who’s fit?’ news item that appeared on the site on Thursday evening. Essentially, it’s ‘as you were’ from Swansea and although I’ll do more of a stab at the team tomorrow, I’d be surprised if Arsene doesn’t keep it exactly the same as it is. Debuchy, Arteta and the Ox are all still out, which means the main players you’d expect him to potentially bring back in for some rotation won’t be available. But as I said yesterday, we have the players to cope with those losses so I don’t think there’s many of us going in to this game on Sunday afternoon with our fingers chewed down to stubby ends.

It will be tough on Sunday, we all know that, which Arsene alluded to by talking up the ‘symbolic’ nature of the result. A draw would be perfectly acceptable in our race for third, but I just wonder how the game beforehand will shape how we come out, because if Swansea pick up anything at home to City, it means that a win for us puts us back in the driving seat for second. Finishing second and potentially winning the FA Cup would be a remarkable season given the start, so I think the team will be up for it and I think Arsene – whilst cautious in his presser – will be thinking about whether he goes a little bit more aggressive against the Mancs.

Arsene also spoke about the Champions League play-offs and the pressure of not qualifying. It’s always interesting because it’s often been cited as a reason for us not being able to sign players early, but Arsene admitted that the consistency of our qualification that makes it easier for players and I think he’s right, because a player will know Arsenal’s Champions league record and will be pretty confident that he’d be in the group stages if he was at Arsenal. You can say a lot of things about the club, but you can’t argue with the Champions League record. So why do we sign players so late? A question that was never asked and one that probably a lot of us would really like a truthful answer to. Even if it had of been asked, we would probably not have been given a truthful answer from Le Boss, but at least if a journo is asking those types of questions then they’re giving it a chance for Arsene to open up. I suspect that Arsene doesn’t gamble in the conventional sense – with cards and a roulette table – but likes a flutter in the transfer market and that’s why we get our last-minute signings so often in the window. We’ll probably see the same at the end of August this year too.

Anyway, I’ve got a patio set to put together and some ivy to chop, so i’ll take my leave and wish you all the best until tomorrow.