Blimey I’m tired. Plus I have a banging headache. I’m sat in a park in Manchester at 9am and my only friend right now is fresh air. It’s a good friend to be honest.

I will say this though; the thought of the impending North London Derby isn’t helping my current situation. The fixture gives me nausea at the best of times so to have it on the horizon whilst on one of my mates stag weekend isn’t helping proceedings.

It’s funny because people always talk about it being the biggest game of the season, the one they look for when the fixtures come out, etc, etc, but for me I could just do without all of the mental turmoil. I am a worrier of course and this game brings out that to its maximum.

One of the lads who is on the stag weekend is a Tiny Totts fan and we had a sensible conversation about it yesterday; he feels the same but on the other side of the fence but with an away game he feels the pressure is off a bit. I kind of get that. If we were at White Hart Lane tomorrow I suspect I’d just be writing off the game, such is our poor record, but with us at home it gives extra pressure and the need for three points becomes all the more stark.

The fact they might have a host of players out injured actually doesn’t help the situation. It just makes me more worried because if they are missing a host of players and we don’t beat them then it makes it even worse in terms of early season psychological blows. Added to that the fact that there’s an international break straight after the game, means we could find ourselves with two weeks of stewing, which is what nobody wants when we’ve had a good summer and some positivity restored.

But that’s life I guess and we just have to get on with it. Much like Unai Emery has to get on with it without Nacho Monreal, who has joined Sociedad in a permanent deal, confirmed by the club today and means we’ll be reliant on Kolasinac for at least the next few weeks. I’ve said my piece on it and personally it wouldn’t be a deal I would do but Monreal has been a good servant and will leave the club with everyone’s blessings. It’s awkward timing but the manager will just have to deal with it and hopefully Kolasinac can enter full ‘Beast Mode’ tomorrow when he lines up against that scummy lot from around the corner.

It’s a short one from me because my eyes hurt but I’ll catch you all tomorrow – depending on how hanging I am – for a NLD preview.

Laters folks.