Happy Friday folks – how we all doing?

Let’s start with some positive news, which is that yesterday afternoon Big Vik took to his Instagram to get pictures of himself in training. Given how Arsenal spend so much time trying not to give anything away by clearly selecting pictures they know won’t include any players who will have had question marks over them, this will have left Arteta absolutely FEWMIN’ I’ll wager. He loves every single marginal gain he can possibly grasp his mits on, so when he’s asked today about who is back, whilst he might still be coy and say “we have some players back who were injured” and not name names, I think a lot of us can guess who.

My original guess was Noni and Martinelli, but news also emerged yesterday that Odegaard was back in training and whilst I suspect the skipper doesn’t have a place from the start, having a bench that could include him, Noni and Martinelli to give us options, is a huge boost. In a week in which we lost Big Gabi to a needless and preventable injury (thanks Brazilian national team and Ancelotti, by the way), the boost of potentially Odegaard AND Gyokeres making the match day squad is EXACTLY what we all read right now.

And having listened to a couple more podcasts and videos yesterday looking at the North London Derby, where it might be won or lost, this was just what I needed as a bit of a boost going in to what is going to be a really tough weekend and subsequent week for us.

But how are those Scum fans feeling? Welp, as is my wont these days, I ventured well into enemy lines again to have a look. And I tell you what, they are not confident at all. There’s lots of talk of just making this a physical game, of giving it their best shot, ‘it’s a one-off game’ and the like. I’m really surprised actually. It’s funny that compared to the likes of Villa, Forest, Sunderland, etc, their fans are so negative. Maybe it’s a London thing because when we were in their shoes and coming up against Chelsea in their pomp I’m pretty sure that would have been the Arsenal forums, but I’d have expected more optimism given their away form. That’s what is doing me the most nerves this morning and has been all week. I had a look and going backwards from most recent it is an away win at Everton in which 3-0 really did flatter them, a tight 2-1 against Leeds in which again they had fewer shots, less possession, less passes, corners, etc. Then there was the 2-2 at Brighton in which it looks like they edged that one in terms of dominance, which came after the smash and grab at a struggling City side who had all the possession but didn’t really create too many chances for what you’d expect from City at home. I’ve just watched that game and Marmoush should have had two before they scored a counter attack from a long ball to Richarlison, a slip by the last man and then a tap in from wide runner Johnson. That is 100% what they want to do on Sunday, by the way. I’ll have a look at the style of play and approach in the pre match blog on Sunday, but the Blueprint for the Scum is to be compact and spring long balls to get the likes of Kudus and probably Johnson running three-on-three with Richarlison as well. The second goal was an absolute shocking from City playing out from the back and that came from them having seven of their ten outfield players in or around the penalty box. It came from City fannying around at the back and then making an absolute howler rather than spotting what the Scum were doing and going long into the middle of the park to contest longer balls. Within five minutes on Sunday we’ll be able to tell if the Scum are adopting the same tactic, so I expect Arteta to be aware of this and to be planning accordingly with Raya ready to go long if needed. City did create chances though and I’m stunned they didn’t score to be fair. But what I have seen is that when the Scum were ahead, it was all the bodies in their own box.

But what about the pundits? Well, for the second week in a row in the Premier League, Jones Knows on Sky has an Arsenal defeat in mind and I can understand why. Frank is a man who loves an ‘underdog’ tag as he points out and whilst that won’t be sustainable long-term with what their ambitions are, this is exactly the type of game he’ll fancy doing that and playing low-block, scabby football against us, which I will reiterate – I do fear.

Merse is going for a 1-0 and calls it right I think when he says he thinks it will be a cagey affair. Sutton thinks this has got 3-0 Arsenal stamped on it, saying that it is their front line he is worried about, which I get but I would say to be fair to them, they’ve had almost as many attacking injuries as we’ve had this season. I cannot see that in a million years becuase there’s no way we get three goals against a low block Spurs outfit. Olly Murs said he wasn’t impressed with Spurs last time out (he was the celeb doing the predictions) so he’s said 2-0 to The Arsenal. Finally, Alan Shearer has completed the (almost) full house by saying that we’ll ‘edge’ this game.

Heck – however it comes about, I’ll take any kind of win, but what we need now is some fighting talk from Arteta and some confirmation that we have some fresh, new bodies arriving to the match day squad come Sunday. Fingers crossed.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some post-press conference thoughts from both managers. See you then.