There’s not many of you who will probably know this, but on my Dad’s side of the family there is an army of West Ham fans, with my Dad having been brought up in Stratford and his family all dating back to Whitechapel and the surrounding areas of East London. My brother chose to support West Ham and I am very much the ‘Red’ sheep of the family when it comes to my football preferences, so whilst there are some West Ham fans who leave an uncomfortable taste in the mouth, last night I watched the game and very much wanted to see my brother and little nephew happy. He has watched me see Arsenal lift countless trophies over the years and the closest he ever got was that Stephen Gerrard final in the mid 2000s.

So I make no apologies for starting today’s blog talking about a historic moment for West Ham and their fans. It will have meant everything to them and they go back to England today with a trophy, European football and a beleaguered manager in David Moyes who has suddenly written himself in to West Ham folklore. Fair play to him.

Now, back to The Arsenal, and my hope is that all of this positive vibes that I’m channelling towards the Hammers comes back to us asap.

We’ll take one Declan please. No need to wrap him up, we’ll just take him as he is, thanks.

Whether or not all of the memes and jokes about Edu waiting at West Ham central, or disguised in Prague so he could grab Karen Brady and David Sullivan are going to come back to bite us all on the arse i’m not sure, but if he is Arsenal’s priority then we all want it done sooner rather than later.

I actually thought he’d be the first one off the blocks on our new summer mini series on the Same Old Arsenal pod last night, but as it turns out, both Kaya and Johnny (my guests for the evening) decided not to go for the obvious in picking him. I quite liked that; it meant for a more interesting debate and surprisingly both went for strikers.

Do we really need a striker that much?

I think I agree that I’m not sure Nketiah is going to ever step up and be ‘the guy’. Don’t get me wrong, he’s young enough for his game to go to more levels, but I just have a feeling he’ll always be at a certain level and he’ll never quite reach the upper echelons of elite that we need to take us to the next level. That next level is winning the league and maybe winning the Champions League. The difference this season was five points and that may not sound like a mountain to climb, but when you are in that dogfight like we were in with City, the mental strength you need to keep a side like that at bay is massive. Nketiah did well, he filled in, but as soon as Jesus was back he never got a look in. He wasn’t banging down the door with his form before he got injured and he never truly convinced Arteta enough for him to say “hold on Gabby J, I know you were bought as the main man, but this guy is doing everything right now, so I ain’t dropping him”. It was just a given that Gabriel Jesus came back in and stayed in.

Perhaps this summer we just need to have a think about that and consider whether we need that alternate option. And maybe I am falling victim to Abou Diaby Syndrome (where a player not in the team and not currently playing – through injury, or on loan somewhere else) when I start to think about Flo Balogun, but I’d really like to see him be given that shot as an understudy. I know we’ve seen how much Saliba stepped up and Arteta kept him in for the whole season so that now he is a regular, but if you listen to those Arteta interviews from midway through the season, I don’t think that was the plan. I think the plan was to have him as a rotation option to build him up, but because of the injury to Tomiyasu at the beginning of the season where he wasn’t fully fit during pre season, Arteta decided to try something a little different. White came in Saliba played and played really well and the rest, as they say, is history.

Why can’t that happen to Flo? Why can’t we have a look at him in pre season, see if he really has stepped up as a man like Arteta told him to, then let’s see if he can have an impressive pre season and force his way in to the managers thinking? I keep hearing about us needing a big, strong target man, but I think Flo is about six foot, is still probably growing, has great technical ability and I think he’s better on the ball than Eddie. He’s just had the most brilliant loan spell in France (hmm, that sounds familiar….#Saliba) and he comes back to The Arsenal brimming with confidence. With all of the talk about needing a target man2, a big guy, a guy that offers something different to Gabby J, why can’t Flo be given a go?

Last night on the pod we talked about Arsenal and Edu/Arteta being ruthless. Well, I think putting a word out that Eddie could be available for the right price sounds like the kind of ruthlessness that could possibly be beneficial for us.

I’m not sure the club will do that and on top of that, Eddie’s wages and profile probably means we’d want money that I’m not sure a lot of clubs would want to pay, but I’m just saying that I think it could be a shrewd move, is all.

And on that note I will leave you to ponder for today. Enjoy whatever it is you are doing and I will catch you in the morrow for more musings on all things The Arsenal.

Have a good one folks.