This is a very weird feeling today – about tonight’s game I mean.

That’s because never have I felt more ‘ahh it’ll be fine’ about a game against Bayern Munich than I feel this evening. That’s probably why I could never be an elite athlete, to be fair, because aside from the clear and obvious lack of talent on the football pitch, my mentality is such that I would struggle to be high-adrenaline on such a regular basis as these players have to get. My focus would not be able to make it and even though I’d have trained yesterday and been looking forward to tonight’s game, in the back of my mind I’d have been thinking “it’s fine. We’ve got 12 points, we probably only need 16 and even after tonight, we’ll have another two games to pick up a win and a draw”.

You can bet any spare change in your pocket (do people still have that these days??) that Mikel and his team won’t be thinking that though. If anything, Mikel will be thinking about doubling down on the intensity; the team were superb in probably the most intense game of the season at the weekend and after a game like that there’s always a little danger of after the Lord Mayor’s show about matches, but with Bayern coming to town – also one of the most in-form teams in Europe – Mikel will be thinking about how winning-breeds-winning and he will be thinking long and hard about maintaining the highest standards ahead of what is a more important game (with respects) on Sunday against that disgusting football club from West London. They smashed up a Barca team admittedly down to ten-men for basically the whole of the second half, but it was still a ‘statement win’ of their own last night and if we go into that off the back of a home defeat to Bayern, the worry is that it breaks the veneer of infallibility that this Arsenal team has built up so far this season.

With that in mind, I think Mikel is going to potentially pick his strongest team and I’m not sure how much rotation there might be. I have a feeling he’ll rotate MLS in for Calafiori given the Italian’s injury record and the fact that he missed a game for Italy just over a week ago, but other than that, I’m not sure he’s changing much.

Kepa doesn’t come in for Raya.

White doesn’t come in for Timber (I don’t think).

Saliba plays.

Hincapie plays to continue his form (I think on that one – although he might give the nod to Mosquera).

Zubi absolutely plays.

Rice will be first on the teamsheet.

Eze is in sparkling form after his hat-trick and he’ll be about three inches taller following his weekend.

Saka is never getting rested for a game like this.

Trossard is in the form of his life.

Merino will continue to deputise because it sounds like Big Vik isn’t back.

I feel like today feels like the ‘timeshare’ minutes game, in that regardless of the score, I think Arsenal rotate players in to get minutes. Which means there’ll be minutes for Martinelli, Madueke and Odegaard for sure, I’m convinced of it. You give those guys each between 20 – 30 minutes and it means that they are that little bit fresher for the visit to That Horrible Club at the weekend and they are ready to hopefully put on a show.

I think Arteta will want today to lay down a marker and that’s what he’ll be telling his players. He’ll be saying “They all think we’re going to wilt under this pressure of being the bookies favourites for the Champions League. Tonight we show them why we thrive under that microscope” and do you know what? I feel like this team is ready for it. They have been overcoming obstacles all season and if you’re a regular reader of this blog over the years, you’ll know that I tend to put up a kind of psychological protection barrier under the guise of pessimism. The reason for that is because in my mind I feel like if you prepare yourself mentally for disappointment, when it happens it isn’t as painful as you think, even if it is still very painful. But I listened to a podcast this week – The Arsenal Vision one – and Tim Stillman said “I trust these group of players”. I really do too. I feel like this group are so together, so aligned, so laser-focused in their respective and collective jobs, that they are even bringing a cynical and pessimistic bugger like me into the Positive Pete vibes (one for you in the comments, there, Pete ;-).

They keep getting dealt problems – like injuries – and they keep overcoming them.

Well, tonight the problem is Bayern and that dribbly, crayon-eating bar steward Harry Kane and i’ll be honest with you, the points are important, but I want him to go home unhappy more than anything else. That man has scored a lot of goals penalties at the Emirates over the years and if there’s one thing I don’t want to see tonight, it’s him adding to his goal penalty record against us. So let’s hope Saliba and Hincapie/Mosquera keep him quiet and we can have another one of those games in which the opposition doesn’t get a sniff.

Bayern are without Diaz tonight after his horrible ‘tackle’ on Hakimi in the PSG game and that’s a bit of a blow to them, plus according to TransferMarkt they are without Musiala, Gnabry or Davies for this evening. All good players, all players who make an impact for them, so that gives us a bit of a boost as much as our injuries might give them a lift. But the fact it is at our gaff means we should have that little bit more, I hope. I want to see us make that statement win, but the beauty of tonight is that if we don’t, there is no fire to put out. That’s a nice feeling against Bayern and I hope the players can really lean in to it on a night under the lights which I’m sure will be great.

I’ll leave it there for today. Hopefully we get another win, another confidence-booster, with yet more impressive performances from an Arsenal team that has been a joy to watch so far.

Catch you all tomorrow.