Okee dokee, here we go, with the countdown well and truly on ahead of the League Cup final. The two managers will have their press conference today, and it’ll be interesting to hear what the fitness and availability of the respective teams is. For us, I think the main concern is Odegaard; we know Merino is basically out for the season, so Arteta has an almost fully fit team to pick from. We’ve got another two days of build-up before the big game, so there will be plenty of time to start thinking about how we might line up, but some early ‘vibes’ from me are that I think we’ll see a Kai Havertz cup final. It just feels like the way the games have fallen, that Arteta has been deliberate in his starting XI selection. In the Champions League, Gyokeres has had more space; he’s had a little more joy, and in the first leg against Leverkusen, it looked at the start like it would be a good night when he rolled his man. It didn’t quite pan out that way, but I think that is more to do with the performance of the whole team than the Swede, per se. Then, the Everton game was always going to be a tough, gritty, well-drilled Premier League side for which a little more technical ability on the ball would be needed, so it made sense to have Kai start, with Big Vik coming on. For Leverkusen at home, again, Arteta was probably thinking about the Champions League factor, and Gyokeres did really well, I thought. But on Sunday, I think we’re back to it being a Kai Havertz game. His first competitive one in an Arsenal shirt was in the Community Shield against Man City, if I remember rightly, and he played up top and did really well. I think Gyokeres probably gets swallowed up by the City defenders if he plays from the start, so my initial early prediction is that we’ll see Havertz from kick off.

Speaking of predictions, shall we have a little look to see what the media are saying ahead of this game at Wembley, eh?

Joe Cole has said he thinks it’ll be an Arsenal win, but Wayne Bridge and Carlton Cole think it’ll be City. Merse has said he thinks we’ll do it with a 2-1 win. Timmy Sherwood thinks it’ll be City, whilst Lewis Jones on Sky Sports thinks it’ll be a draw with City winning on penalties. So there’s a fair bit of plumping for City going around and whilst yesterday I saw the chat rooms of City fans being less upbeat, I can see why. Where the FA Cup is a competition we often joke about being ‘ours’, this one has given plenty of pain over the years. My first cup final after I had my season ticket was the infamous one against Birmingham in 2011 and I can still vividly remember the Szsesny and Koscielny complete cock up at the back to see Obefemi Martins win it for them. I was there for the 3-0 defeat against City and seeing Mustafi just let the ball drop over his shoulder for Aguero to do us over in 2018 and so my feelings going into League Cup games at Wembley are very different to when we’re going there for FA Cup games.

It’s so weird the way this sort of stuff plays out over time, as if there is some kind of hex upon us in the League Cup. The players were different in 2007 when we lost to Chelsea as Drogba bullied us; they were different in 2011, they were different in 2018 and they will be different this weekend. But sometimes it feels as though the footballing gods just like to f*ck with you a bit with stuff. So I’m not overly convinced that we’ll beat City on Sunday, but I do know that hopefully we will give them a better game than that awful showing in 2018. I mean, for starters, I think we’ve got notable upgrades with Raya for Ospina, Saliba for Mustafi and Bellerin for Timber/White. And there’s no square peg in a round hole with Chambers at left back either!

This is a bit of a shorter one today, mainly on account of wanting to save some thoughts for the build up tomorrow and Sunday, but I’ll be back to have a bit of a review of the two press conferences tomorrow, so if you fancy joining me on here then I’d love to have you.

Let me know what you think re: Havertz v Gyokeres in the comments.

Catch you tomorrow.