I was flying back to Blighty yesterday from me hols, so I missed about 55 minutes of the Liverpool versus City game. I switched on my Sky App as I was going through the airport, so I saw the Superb Szoboszai goal to put them one up. It was interesting because reading the commentary on how the game had been, it sounded like Liverpool had been pretty poor in the first half, but they were on top against City in the second and probably could have been a couple of goals up by the time they did score. City, in fact, barely had a kick until they got their equaliser. At that point, with six minutes of normal time going on, you’d think that Liverpool would go back at them. But I switched off from watching it because I had a weird feeling that 115 Charges FC would just nick something, as it proved to be.

And it’s funny, you know, because if City had scored two in that first half and Liverpool had got one back in the second, I think the prevailing narrative and hyperbole that came from the likes of Neville et al as a result of the timing of the goal, is the reason why there was a bit of deflation from Arsenal fans. And Sky, well, they need a drama. The last thing they want is one team going away and wining it at a canter. So it is in their interest to big up the significance of this. And sure, if you’re in the City camp this morning, you’ve got to do that. It’salso the timing in the season of this game. If this match happens like this in September – a bit like our win away at Newcastle in September – then I don’t think there’s as much hype around the significance as there will be from the media this morning.

The only ones that want a big points-march procession to the end of the season are Arsenal fans.

So this morning I’m kind of like “yeah, disappointed, but we knew that this season was not going to be easy. No Premier League season is easy if you want to win a title. But you have to go out there and be relentless in the winning of football matches”. What’s happening now is that people are looking at the blocks of games and saying things like “City’s is a lot easier than Arsenal’s on paper” and “by the time Arsenal play Brentford they (Man City) will probably be three points of them”. What Arteta and his team need to do, which, to be fair to them, they’ve done all season, is just to get their heads down and do their jobs.

When we had that little January wobble, the narrative after United was “Arsenal fans are making it worse in the stadium, and the team is being affected – the blip could cost them”. The response? 4-0 against Leeds, 3-0 against Sunderland. What we need to do on Thursday night is approach a game that is just as tough as Man City’s game against Liverpool yesterday, against Brentford (and yes, it quite LITERALLY is as tough because we play away to Brentford, who have the same number of points and goal difference as Liverpool in the table as it stands now.

I said on Saturday in the pre-match blog that Arsenal needed to heed the advice from Clooney in From Dusk Til Dawn – that feels relevant today as well. “Everybody be cool. You be cool”. That feels like where we need to be at today. We have six points, it will almost certainly be three by the time we play, because City play a Fulham team who lost to Everton at the weekend, United away the week before, as well as Leeds away a couple of weeks before that. But that’s fine – this weekend we had the slightly easier game at home and played first, and we did the business, with City holding serve with their game. We just need to do the same in midweek.

Everybody, be cool.

Right, so, what other Arsenal news is kicking around then? Well, the Arsenal ladies bagged a 1-0 win over what I think will probably be the WSL Champions Man City at the Emirates, but for those ladies, the focus will be mainly on getting into those Champions League spots. Good finish from a ball in behind for her too – proper strikers one, that one (fast forward to 1:48 for the goal).

On the men’s side, it’s mainly focused on team news, but I don’t suppose we’ll find out much until the middle of the week, because of the fact we play on Thursday, and so the press conference will probably be left until Wednesday. Hopefully, that means the knock that forced Trossard off is resolved, as is the Odegaard injury, although I suspect there will still be no update on Saka. I was going to say “we should be ok without him for Brentford”, but that’s arguably, for the aforementioned reasons of their league form – one of the most difficult games we have coming up. The North London Derby is always tough because of the very nature of what it is, and the Scum will elevate their game for us more than for any other side. Wigan will be rotation, Wolves still sit bottom, then we have Chelsea at home, which we’ve seen will be tight, as well as Brighton away. That block of games feels like if we come out of that with close to maximum points, THEN I might start thinking we could do it. But I suspect there might be a couple of bumps coming up, so we, as fans, need to be ready for it and to ESPECIALLY cut out the rival fan and media hyperbole that will come with it. The second we even draw a game, we’re getting called bottle-jobs, because people don’t want to see us win the league. They prefer a City win because they are a nothing club, and it’s easier to be ‘meh’ around a nothing club that carries no historical weight (or ‘wait’, to be fair).

Right, I’m going to leave it there, as I need to remember what I do for a living and start my day of tapping at my desk on the keyboard. Having just spent the last 30 minutes or so doing the same to write this. Amanda and I will be back at 6.15pm for a post-Sunderland pod review on the Same Old Arsenal Pod here if you’re interested.