Morning friends, I hope and trust today finds you well, ahead of an important encounter tomorrow against Brentford. And it is a Brentford side that are the form team  in the league and that in itself means they will come in to this game full of confidence having beaten Southampton, Liverpool, West Ham and Bournemouth, whilst drawing against the Scum and Leeds. I’ve seen Paul Merson describe tomorrow’s game as the ‘biggest of the season‘ and whilst I know that he sometimes comes across as a little wild with some of the comments he makes, I can kind of see where he’s coming from. We need to get back on that winning horse and if we don’t – to a Brentford side that will be buoyed by their recent form and go to The Arsenal with all of the pressure off them.

I often do that you know – scour the ‘Tinternet to find out what some of the ‘pundits’ are saying about us. I don’t really know why though. I mean, I don’t really hold what Chris Sutton or Michael Owen say in such regard that I believe they warrant me believing everything they say, but I kind of subscribe to the bookmakers approach on these things; i.e. if all of the bookmakers are predicting one thing, you know that there is a reason for that. So by looking at what a lot of pundits are saying about my club, I’m getting an external validation on the game ahead and what might happen.

And interestingly enough, everyone seems to be predicting a very tight game tomorrow. That’s totally understandable, of course, because Brentford are the form team in the league and unbeaten in nine so you know this won’t be easy. But that validation by hearing it from other people and not from a red-tinted spectacles perspective does help. I think.

So what else is new ahead of the game? Well the European Super League has once again reared its ugly head, with the company behind the idea – A22 – putting out a statement about a new way of forming the league with multiple divisions and 80 teams in the competition, with it also not being a closed shop. Of course it is a little absurd; FIFA have talked about trying that sort of thing with an enhanced FIFA World Club Cup that they want to bring in to effect, as they try to get their greedy mitts on the cash generated by club football. But hopefully that – as well as this lame idea from A22, can continue to be laughed off. It’s basically a way for the big European Clubs to try to cash in and drive more of their own revenues and is as transparent as a pane of glass. They have financially mis-managed their own football affairs by trying to keep up with the PSGs, Man City’s and Chelsea’s over the last 20 years and the Premier League’s riches. They don’t like that the football club elite has been broken by the money of the Premier League and they just want a piece of that pie. Instead of trying to get their own houses in order – Barca, Juve, for example – they want a quick way of getting a bigger slice of cash to mask their own accounting ill-practices. So I can see why they are pushing hard for this Super League idea. But from a football fans perspective I’m not interested in this approach. And neither are the Premier League – understandably – so I think this will probably die down a bit for a while. It won’t go away – maybe ever – because obscene amounts of money are potentially on the table, but as long as for now it has cold water poured over it, I think that’s the best we can hope for.

Back in to the Arsenal world and there’s been a bit of noise around an interview Martin Odegaard did with the Players’ Tribune in which he talked about coming to Arsenal, about being able to choose between Arsenal, Madrid, Dortmund, United, etc. I don’t think anybody could really have been surprised that he choose Madrid given their gravitas in the game, but ultimately he’s with us now and I personally couldn’t be happier. Ever since we had him on loan, I’ve always felt like there is something about him. His technique, the way he moves across the grass with an intensity and drive that many players don’t have. His vision is stunning – as evidenced by that pass for Martinelli’s goal at Brighton, but the way in which he knits everything together for us is so very important.

I was listening to the ArsenalVision podcast in the aftermath of the Everton defeat and Clive said something that I thought was interesting though. He talked about how if teams give him a kicking early on, sometimes he doesn’t always feel his way in to a game. If he’s recognised that, then other teams might too, so I’ll be interested to see if that happens at times this season. Can Odegaard be kicked off his stride a bit?

Hopefully we don’t find out very much and certainly not tomorrow. I just love watching him in full flow and I hope we get some of that tomorrow at the Emirates.

There’ll be a press conference today and I’m sure the manager will give an update on player fitness. The good news from some of the photos of training released yesterday are that it appears we’re looking good in terms of key players available. I wonder if Arteta will give an insight on ESR and Gabby Jesus though? The latter must be pushing for a spot in the match day squad but I’d be surprised if we saw him before March. If that means he’s fully fit and raring to go for the run in then jolly good indeed. We will need him.

Other than that I think i’ll call time on today’s nonsensical ramblings. Catch you all in the morrow.