I’ll be honest with you today folks, because I am really torn about tonight’s game. On the one hand logic dictates that it is very difficult to make a case for Arsenal away at Chelski. They smashed Southampton 6-0 where we laboured to a 1-0 defeat. They have a bigger and better squad than us that has very few injuries. They have just reached a cup final by beating Palace last weekend (who we all also know gave us a humbling just a couple of weeks back). They are in better form, with us having lost our last three and scoring just one goal in the process. They have, however, scored eight in their last two.

Every single bone in my body and everything I read or listen to or watch tells me that this will be a home win, a banker, a sure-fire bet for that horrible club from West London.

And yet…I find myself with some sort of weird…well…hope…for this evening. I can’t explain why I have this. It will, in all probability, be misplaced hope and optimism and come kick off I will probably have the grim realisation that it was just the early stages of a blind faith that should have been tempered, but as I write this I do indeed feel hopeful and expectant that we might get a performance out of these Arsenal players today.

That in itself may not be enough and defeat tonight means that confidence may well again be on the floor ahead of United  visiting us on Saturday lunchtime. United were battered last night so the hope is that they too will be a team that looks jittery and not so good against us when we play them at the weekend, but much like I am expecting Chelski to turn up and be good against us tonight, I suspect the same will be for United at the weekend too.

As for the team line up, I don’t really see how Arteta shifts anything about, to be honest. He could tinker with the formation and go for a back three, shifting Saka and Cedric in to wing back roles and dropping Holding in to the middle of the defence, but we haven’t played like that all season and it does feel like a gamble. But then again, when your team has lost three on the bounce and confidence is fragile, maybe it’s the kind of gamble you simply have to make.

If he did that it would be Sambi and Xhaka in the midfield  and you’d expect Arsenal to sit in a deep block defence against a talented Chelski side with an array of attacking talent that will cause us problems all evening. I’ve seen some players suggest that Chelski have nothing to play for but I don’t buy that; when you are as good as they are then you expect that every game needs to be played at the highest intensity and that’s what we’ll get this evening. If you’re looking for crumbs of hope, the fact that they are five points clear of The Scum in fourth with two games in hand, could be used as reasoning for their intensity and motivation perhaps being a little lesser than ours, but their fans and players will take plenty of joy in knocking another nail in the ‘Top Four hopes’ coffin this evening so I’m not expect8ing us to be given an easy ride in any sense of the imagination. I remember a few years ago when they’d qualified for the Champions League and we needed to beat them in the Europa League final to get in to the competition. I was convinced that because they didn’t need that trophy as much as we did, that we would win it, but we all remember the pasting we took that day.

Anyway, back to the line up and if Arteta goes for a back three – which I think is unlikely but not impossible – then you look at there being three in front of the midfield duo of Xhaka and Lokonga and if that’s the case it would have to be Pepe, Smith Rowe with Martinelli up top for me. Let me show my workings here; Odegaard isn’t a wide forward and doesn’t have the pace, Smith Rowe has the pace and ability to dribble and Pepe on the counter with a bit more space feels like it could be better for us than Odegaard hugging the touchline. Then you have Martinelli as the channel runner to chase down those balls when we play him in behind, which could happen if most of the ball is played in our own half.

So to my mind a back three set up to hit on the counter feels eminently sensible. I’d be surprised if Arteta does that, however, so I suspect we’ll see the same goal-shy team that played on Saturday. The difference in opposition will be obviously marked, but so too might be the space we are afforded. If we can keep our composure when on the ball and break a Chelsski press, there could be opportunities for The Arsenal this evening.

But…and this is a BIG BUT…if Chelski score first, we all know the drill. We showed at the weekend how terrible we are at coming from behind so my expectations if we concede early are for a long night. We need to stay in the game for as long as possible and if we can get a footing in the match and create some chances, then who knows, miracles can happen – right?

There’s no point going over the firepower that they have; we all know it, we know they will cause us massive problems, we know that Tuchel has a wealth of options which will keep Arteta guessing as to who will line up and how they will play. But as I said from the start of today’s ramblings, I have a possibly misplaced hope that the team comes out tonight with a point to prove after some pretty shoddy performances.

Let’s hope my gut feel is right.