Morning Gooners and welcome to matchday 19. We’re at the halfway point in the season for our lads and apart from if we were playing City today, you won’t find a sterner test than playing United this afternoon, so it’s time to put the game faces on and do everything we possibly can to get the win today.

I say it is possibly the hardest game after City, but in fact, it might even be harder than City today, because we know exactly how United will set up and we also know that their aim today will be to try to soak up our possession and territory dominance and then hit us on the counter. It is exactly what they did at Old Trafford and we fell right in to their trap. At Old Trafford they relied on us pressing, leaving space for Erikson and Bruno Fernandez to thread balls in behind to Raqshford. That was on their own patch, so they will absolutely look to replicate that format today at The Emirates. We have to have an answer.

What we have going for us is that they don’t have Casemiro, who is their defensive lynchpin who also acts as a quarter back, threading balls to the forward line and has been a vital member of their team. His absence will certainly be felt today for United, but whilst Ten Haag is right to point out that United beat us at Old Trafford without him earlier in the season, what should also be noted is that this will – hopefully – be a very different Arsenal team today.

Firstly, we will have Partey anchoring our midfield instead of Lokonga, who has fallen down the pecking order and isn’t getting much game time at all. In that game at Old Trafford earlier in the season it was the space he vacated that all0wed United to take advantage of us on one of their goals. The hope is that Thomas Partey doesn’t cause the same issues. But also the impact of Partey in building up our play cannot be understated. He was important for both goals we scored last week against the Scum and whilst Ten Haag can shrug and say “we did it before without Casemiro”, we can rightly point to the fact we were without Partey. My hope is that those two players can be a massive part in swinging the game for us today.

Perhaps also, the fact we didn’t play in midweek, will also help us. De Gea can complain all he likes about us not playing in midweek, but the fact of the matter remains that they finished second in their Europa League group and therefore have two additional games to squeeze in, so the reason we didn’t play in midweek was because we got the job done in our group stage. But I do hope that the fact we’ve had our feet up helps us too. My hope is that United are sluggish today and certainly I hope that when we get in to the latter stages of the game they start to look tired.

But when the game kicks off that won’t be a factor and I suspect the United game plan today will be to try to ride out a possible Arsenal quick start, then hit us on the counter. They have the players capable of doing it. Rashford, Martial and Antony are all quick; if we allow them space to get in behind our back line they will punish us and I suspect their perfect game today is to ride our the first 15, score against the run of play, then sit in and defend their lead for the 90 minutes. We have to be ready for that. And we also need to not engage in any silliness. McTominay will probably play, he will probably take somebodies ankles away, he will probably get away with it. But we have to not response and we have to be prepared for some antics from United today to see if they can rile us. Bruno diving, McTominay assaulting, Martinez sh*thousing – be ready for it all and rise above it, Arsenal.

Our team should, I would think, remain unchanged from last weekend’s away win at The Scum and my hope is that we can deliver the same high quality performance that we did away at The Toilet Bowl. The home fans will be in raucous mood and we’ll be roaring the lads on like we always do, but we have to ensuring that if there is a setback, that we stay with the boys, because they’ve talked about how much of an impact the crowd reaction has been this season.

I wouldn’t say I’m overly confident today. The chips are stacked in our favour – week off resting compared to our opponent, one of their key players missing, we’re at home, we’re in form, etc, etc – but that’s normally when as an Arsenal fan you get your nose bloodied. What I want to see today is an Arsenal team that looks like a side so full of belief that they know they can get the job done. Then, if needed, hopefully we also have those players from the bench – like Trossard – who can come on and make a difference. That is what Arteta knows we’ve been lacking but with his arrival it now feels like we have those options. He’s had two days of training with the team and so hopefully he’s ready to make an impact if needed.

I’d love to see Martinelli make an impact today. He’s been quiet in recent games and so it would be nice to see him pop up and bag us a goal or two in what is an essential match which shows our credentials. If we lose then the media narrative will be set. If we can win, somehow, then it is another big hurdle we have overcome. We should all be excited about where we are as a football club, but if you really want to be dreaming about things like league titles, it is tests like today, days like today, that we must successfully navigate.

Righto, that’s me done for the day. I’m off for a run ahead of a trip to North London to roar on the lads.

Catch you all tomorrow. Fingers crossed.