Happy Saturday folks, hope you’re doing well and after Mikel Arteta all but confirmed what we were talking about yesterday re: Saliba, that’s one positive we can all take about the official announcement that the Frenchman will remain with us for a fair old dose of time yet.

I liked what Arteta said about how he had a frank and honest conversation with Saliba and Big Bill told Mikel that he definitely wanted to stay. I suspect Mikel can be quite blunt with things like this; he probably said that unless he’s got 100% commitment then all parties will move on and the fact that Saliba was like “nope, no chance I’m moving on” is absolutely amazing stuff. I did most of my talking on it yesterday so I won’t labour the point on it, but merely I’ll once again underline that I think it is fantastic news that we have this all but wrapped up and it means all eyes can be on Bukayo Saka and trying to get him nailed down.

Speaking of B, he’s one that Arteta confirmed yesterday is fine to face Newcastle and after the slight scare against Port Vale in which he had one of the Vale players tread on the top of his ankle, that’s positive to hear. We’re gonna need as many of our top boys out there tomorrow against Newcastle because it’s going to be a tough game, a physical game, a game in which we haven’t scored up their in our last matches and so I’m certainly not looking forward to this one.

And it could feel like the pressure is even more ratcheted up by the end of play today. Crystal Palace are up against Liverpool and as much as it’s great to see they’re on a 17 match unbeaten run going back to last season, this Liverpool seem once again seem to have absolutely everything going their way this season, so I’m expecting Palace to have a player sent off and then Liverpool to be gifted a goal off somebodies arse at some stage today. I’m just glad it’s a 3pm kick off so I don’t have to endure any of it, as I’m out and about in Birmingham doing cultural stuff today.

Anyway, I digress away from the real stuff which is The Arsenal, who I am fully expecting will find themselves eight points off Liverpool at this early stage of the season by the time we kick off against the Geordie’s and that means that Mikel will need to find a way to find three points in the North East. My ‘the good news’ hope is that we’ll at least have Odegaard back, because Mikel confirmed he was training yesterday and will train today. If we’d have been missing the Norwegian for a few months and he’d just got back in to full training then I’d probably say he has zero chance of being involved, but I suspect he’ll make the match day squad tomorrow.

The big question will be whether he is good enough to start and I suspect regardless of the answer to that, Arsenal will be cautious, but I’m going to save any of those thoughts for tomorrow when I do some kind of guesswork on how the team might set up. Spoiler alert: I think it will be similar to last weekend/Liverpool away.

We know Madueke is out, we know that Arteta rotated a fair few players against Port Vale and we know that there is going to be a loud atmosphere tomorrow afternoon. Mikel referenced it when talking about how he analysed Barcelona’s game against them and I think it is interesting that he referenced that game specifically. Newcastle have played Liverpool, they’ve played a number of other teams so far this season, but he called out that Barcelona game and I suspect it is because of the raucous atmosphere that he’s expecting tomorrow, but I also think it is because stylistically Barcelona might be more aligned to us. Possession-based, some quality talent and depth in their side, so seeing how Newcastle lined up against them could go some way to seeing how tactically Eddie Howe might set up against us.

Arteta talked about the first half an hour of the game and how different it could be and I suspect that’s what he’s banking on for tomorrow i.e. a Newcastle side that will try to Blitzkrieg us tomorrow (hence me thinking he will set up like Liverpool away), hence talking about how the game could have been very different had the first 30 minutes gone differently in the Champions League. Of course Arteta was full of his usual plaudits and platitudes for Howe and his Newcastle side; Arteta might increasingly seem a little imperial and bristly in his press conferences, but he knows full well not to serve up any ammunition to the upcoming opposition, so there was no surprises in him saying nice things about the club, the manager, the fans and the atmosphere.

Other than that there wasn’t too much from the press conference that is worth pulling out in too much detail. There was a little exchange about the whole ‘boot the ball into touch to gain territory’ trend that teams have been doing this season, but he wouldn’t be drawn too much on it, so I don’t think that there’s too much we can really discuss on it. Football has trends, fashionable things one coach tries and then everyone does it, then it dies down after a few months. I get the feeling this might be the same. The trend of doing long throws will, I think, stick around for a little longer. But I have my doubts on the kicking to touch thing.

Rifght, I’m off to do the Birmingham Back to Backs, whilst occasionally checking my phone and seeing that Isak has scored after the ball has hit the back of his head having had Marc Guehi booted against it.

Back tomorrow for a match preview.