It’s FA Cup Sunday for The Arsenal today and i’ve got to be honest, I’m absolutely hanging out of me arse. Had a lovely linguine alle vongole that I cooked for me ‘n the Management and sunk a bottle of Soave and two cabernet sauvignon’s whilst watching Brad Pitt in Bullet Train. So the standard of today’s pre-match musings might be more questionable than usual.

And i’m going for a roast in a couple of hours. Not exact the best pre-match prep needed. But that probably gives you an insight into this game which, if the Arsenal players were as unprofessional as me with my pre-match prep, we’ll be out of this cup quicker than you can say “Mickey Thomas scores for Wrexham”.

Thankfully, Mikel Arteta is a man who takes his job seriously, so I am expecting an Arsenal side to turn up today and do the business against a Wigan side out of form, in the relegation zone in League One and – big day out aside – probably seeing this competition as something they could do without.

For us, it’s one we obviously want to win, being the leading side to have one it the mosyt times, but as Arteta said in the build up to this, our recent form since winning it simply hasn’t been good enough. We don’t get knocked out to minnows like back in 1992, but we haven’t ventured far beyond this round since we won it during the COVID era. That win gave Arteta the goodwill to keep his job during the dark times, so I suspect it’s one he holds with particular affection, thereby wanting to see us go deep/win it this time around.

The good news is that because of the opponents, we could – and should – see plenty of rotation today. I don’t want to see Saliba, Big Gabi, Zubi, Rice, Saka, Odegaard, Timber, Calafioir. I do want to see Kepa, White, Mosquera, MLS, Norgaard and a few other players who have been a bit ‘bit part’ of late.

So here’s how I’d line us up today:

Kepa

White   –   Mosquera   –   Hincapie   –   MLS

Norgaard

Eze   –   Academy Player X

Madueke   –   Gabriel Jesus   –   Martinelli

My lovely mother was a maths teacher. She always taught me to “show your workings”, so here’s my thinking:

  • Not a single one of those players could play against Wolves, so we could go to Molineux with a first XI having almost a complete rest
  • Players getting minutes who haven’t got them lately
  • We might ‘find’ somebody who Arteta thinks has a bigger role to play in the upcoming Premier League games
  • Eze needs a confidence-booster game. Hopefully, this can be it.
  • Martinelli and Gabby J have a connection that is well-documented.

If Arteta goes with this team, he also has the option for some players to come on. For example, I might have Trossard and Gyokeres on the bench. I wouldn’t have Saka there. I think having certain players even go through the pre-match routine and warm-up is something we should just avoid. Sit Gabriel down. Sit Declan down. Sit Saliba and Zubimendi down. Odegaard is probably injured so rest him. And given Saka didn’t look fit and Timber looked gassed on Thursday, just tell them to stay at home and play FIFA. We should have enough at home to overcome this Wigan side. So let’s use this opportunity to reset ourselves ahead of what I talked about yesterday as two massive away Premier League games next week.

As for Wigan, well, they’ve got a new man in charge having let Ryan Lowe go and they aren’t in a good place. This blog talks about what’s going on here and whilst this competition has delivered the highest high in Wigan’s history, I’ll bet there are some fans travelling today who are just pleased to not be talking about the league, because as the blog I’ve linked to shows they are a club who are drifting. They’ve accepted their domestic League One fate, so today is just a day out I’d imagine.

We can’t treat it like that though. I may be taking the Management out for a lovely roast dinner lunch, but as soon as kick off comes, game faces on guys and gals. We need to dispatch this Wigan side and not do it like City did with Salford yesterday. We probably need a big win and for some of the aforementioned players to step up and show some of their quality. The manager needs to be telling some of them (Eze, I’m looking at you) that a big performance puts them in contention for the North London Derby. I want to see some magic in some of those Arsenal players’ boots.

And again, I think we have to look at Eze as a guy who needs to step up. We all want the highest highs for him; he’s a boyhood Gooner, we all love him, but we need to see some of the early-season magic and that we saw in games like The Scum or Bayern. I want it so badly for him and it feels like a game like today could really help. Come on Ebs, show us your magic.

Right, I’m going to leave it there. It may be pissing it down, I may still be pissed, but I need to blow away the cobwebs by going for a run before me ‘n the missus make our way to The Arsenal.

Catch you tomorrow for the usual pre-match debrief. Hopefully by tomorrow I’ll have dried off from what promises to be a very wet day!

Laters.