It’s a weird match day of sorts, because technically it’s a North London Derby day but in reality, this has none of the usual jeopardy that comes with that most wretched of fixtures. So I don’t really know how I feel about it.

It’s because of that lack of jeopardy that I am trying to parse in my mind what any particular outcome may mean. If we beat them, does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? Not really. Yet on the other hand, if we lose to them, it’ll be a world of “Tottenham are back!” and “Frank is going to steer them to glory!” that none of us really wants to hear. Equally, what we don’t want is a high intensity game in which players go down injured, like Joe Willock did yesterday for Newcastle out in South Korea. Thomas Frank’s sides have always been quite physical, played a bit of long ball and been tough to beat, so it will be interesting to see what approach he takes with a Scum side who are hardly a bunch of bruisers.

They’ve had an indifferent pre season so far, drawing with Luton and Wycombe and beating Reading, with a smattering of first teamers in their side, a little like us. It looks like Frank is adopting a 4-3-2-1 formation and that’s stayed pretty consistent, but the players have rotated around and they look like they’re about a week behind us in terms of their training schedule, so maybe that will play a factor. Frank himself ahead of today’s game said nice things about us, but he also said they ‘will be ready’ which I hope doesn’t mean there will be a few reducers on show.

Mikel Arteta did his presser and of course he said it was great to do a derby like this, that he respects Frank immensely and that our goals for the season are to do better than last season. I liked how he didn’t fall into the trap of saying the words out loud “to win the Premier League” because in this day and age of weaponised banter – from media sources too and not even just rival fans – you’re better to just take any kind of soundbite opportunity out of your pressers and go a bit vanilla with what you say. He did give an update on how Calafiori and Big Gabi are out and at this stage on the Italian I do believe we have to be looking at the Kiwior situation and saying that we simply can’t let him go. I’ve said it for a long time, I had worries about it last summer, but as good as Calafiori is, there’s no point in relying on him because sadly it feels to me like his body just can’t handle top flight football. Perhaps that sounds like I’m writing him off, maybe I am a little and that makes me sad, but I can only say what I see and feel and the fact that he’s missing another game and his pre season might be affected by yet another injury, doesn’t bode well for him from where I’m sitting.

Arteta also inevitably got asked plenty on Gyokeres and how he will fit into the team and there were a few bits I liked the sound of.

Firstly, although he wouldn’t be drawn on how much he might play today, I think what he did say points to him potentially at least being involved. Inevitably because of all of the hype around his arrival, there has been a clamour for videos and I’ve already seen one of Arteta giving Big Vik a plethora of instructions, as well as somebody filming a session in which Saliba and Gyokeres were up against each other in a training drill. Suffice to say I think Big Will beat Big Vik on that one, but for a one minute clip I hardly learned anything major.

Secondly, I did like how Arteta singled out his determination, which I think he will have loved from the Swede. You’re playing at The Arsenal, you’re now the ‘big number nine’ and you need to make sure you fill that shirt. He took the number 14 because he believed in it and for me – and clearly Arteta too – that’s a really good sign. So was his comment about him handling the pressure of being at The Arsenal – I think Gyokeres has already started to impress Arteta and hopefully if he gets on the pitch today he can do that more with his performance.

Martin Odegaard was with Mikel too and he was asked similar questions about Viktor and he talked about speaking each others language and how the Scandinavians always bond well together. He also talked about his experience at being a wonder kid and it was only when the press referenced it that I remembered how he had all of that pressure on him as a 15-year-old too. His was probably dialled up a notch too, as he went to Real Madrid, but despite it not working out for him and his career taking a few turns, when you look at how he has turned out as captain of The Arsenal, you can tell that he is happy and we are all happy to have him too. I think sometimes there’s a danger of projecting too much on these young kids; you see what they do at 15 and you think that by 20 they will be twice as good and by 25 they will be Balon D’Or winners. But rarely does a career take that path like a Messi or a Ronaldo. What is important is that these young kids have the right people around them, the right grounding, then they get the right opportunities at the right time. A big performance from a cameo appearance today from somebody like Dowman, for example, will go a long way to having people ask questions about getting him in the squad for the new season like we had Ethan there last season, but the reality of him getting serious game time I think is a little lower. And that’s ok. His career needs to be managed appropriately. He will get his chances and it wouldn’t surprise me to see he’ll get a few minutes today. Whether it’s 30+ minutes like last time out against Newcastle remains to be seen.

It’ll be a challenging one today, but hopefully what we get is another good step in the direction of the season, with it just over two weeks away. Fingers crossed for a win, but at the same time, ‘meh’ and – don’t get injured.

Catch you all tomorrow.