It’s press conference day today, which means hopefully we’ll get some answers to questions that have bemused us over the last week, like:

  • What has Xhaka done to you?
  • What is the nature of your relationship with Francis Coquelin?
  • Do you know where Debuchy is?
  • Can you you go the entire press conference without using the words “look”?

Hard-hitting, straight-to-the-nub, journalism. That’s what we want to see today. Or, you know, just questions asking who’s fit and if he’s planning on signing anybody in January, if the journo’s are too out of their comfort zone with my questions above.

It’s quite an unusual one today though, because normally Arsene does the away game pressers on a Thursday, so the team can travel on a Friday, but perhaps given their destination he wants to spend as little time in Hull as possible. It’s not exactly the cathedral of beauty that a man who was in Paris on Tuesday would prefer to designate a lot of his time to spend in.

I really do hope he’s asked the questions about rotation though, because it’s clear he didn’t get it right to start with on Tuesday night, even if we did get away with it in the end. He would probably dismiss the question with a well-worded and more eloquent version of “I’m the manager, i’ll sodding-well pick who I like” but at least we’d know that he is being asked the question. At least we know that somebody has put their hand up and said “erm, wasn’t exactly great in that first half against PSG, was it?”.

I often wonder if people do ever ask  him any questions within the club. Seriously. That may sound like a silly thing to say and you may be saying to yourself “seriously mate, you know that nobody challenges him”, but none of us actually really know that, so you can’t say for definite and therefore we can only hope that he is questioned. Because it is only when others question and challenge your thinking, that you can actually grow, and I would like to think that somebody as intelligent as Arsene would be open to growth on a personal level. I guess when you get to a certain age though, your desire for that tends to dwindle and it becomes more and more about being listened to, than growing! Just think about your grandparents!

The idea that the plane touches down in Luton or Stansted, then the players and manager make their way home, only to come in to London Colney the next day, with everybody back slapping the manager for fear of retribution, does still niggle in the back of my mind though, because if you hear praise all of the time one does tend to feel like one is infallible. You want to know that somebody says to the boss “erm, you do know we were a bit pants in that first half, right? And you  do know that a lot of people were a little surprised at your squad selection, right?”. As long as that happens, at least we’d know that he has some ‘food for thought’.

Anyway, this is all sounding a little too down just before a game is about to take place this weekend and let’s all be honest, it has to be a game we’ve got our eyes on for three points. Hull have had a decent start to their season, but we need to be positive tomorrow and I hope Arsene’s presser is naturally more bullish as a result.

We  need to be better though. Two pretty average performances aren’t exactly what you want to see at the start of the season from an Arsenal team, especially when we’re traditionally quick starters and slow finishers when we’re going for a title race. And I’d much rather have that option than our other tradition of starting a season terribly and then playing catch up by a good end to the season.

Right now we’re not enough games in to judge whether it’s been a good start (opening game aside), but equally we don’t have enough data to tell us whether this lack of cohesion in the team over the last couple of games, is anything to be worried about. We’ve had a fabulous performance at Watford, followed by a drab performance against Southampton and PSG, punctuated by an international break. It’s not exactly a lot to go on at the moment, is it?

I do think it’s funny that the Comms team at Arsenal are even sending Arsene not-so-subtle messages about what they think – http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20160915/live-press-conference-will-xhaka-start- – being a great example! Good going guys! It’s reflective of your readers, so let’s just hope Arsene listens!

By the time some of you peeps do see this you’ll probably already know whether he’s answered the Xhaka question, as his press is at 9am UK time and i’m writing this at 7.30am, but either way he won’t give anything away for tomorrow’s team.

Right, that’s it from me for another Friday, as I’m off to clean my house. It’s a roller coaster ride in my life, I can tell ya!