But here we are this morning, on the eve of a Champions League semi final, and our Premier League fate is back in our hands.

I always liked David Moyes.

Those mini celebrations for that draw last night have now been superseded by the small matter of Atletico Madrid at The Emirates at 8pm this evening.

Mikel Arteta had his press conference last night and he gave us the further good news that both Kai Havertz and Martin Ødegaard are with the squad this evening, which is also a massive boost. We’re still missing Timber, but I think we’re all getting used to that, so there’s a decision to be made in a few positions tonight.

I do think he will rotate a little bit from the weekend. Simeone basically gave his whole team the weekend off by playing a completely rotated side, so they will be back and fresh and we need to be ready for that. Arteta will shuffle his pack a little too, so my gut feel on the starting XI for this one is:

Raya

Mosquera – Saliba – Gabriel – Hincapie

Zubimendi

Eze – Rice

Saka – Gyokeres – Martinelli

I personally wouldn’t be starting Martinelli, but I think Arteta will lean in to the ‘vibes’ of how the Brazilian likes this competition, so I think that’s what Mikel will plump for. I also think he’ll be wary of White having played a lot of football and got a fair few minutes in on Saturday against Fulham, so I think the Spaniard gets the nod. It’s the same with Calafiori; we can’t be having him break down by playing back-to-back games in such a short period of time, so I think the Ecuadorian comes in to stabilise and battle whoever plays right wing for Atleti tonight.

I think Kai has a role to play tonight, but not from the start, so there will be a job-share with Gyokeres this evening I’ll bet. That situation will also be mirrored for Eze and Odegaard too, I suspect, although Arteta will need to be mindful of Saka’s minutes. He got 45 against Fulham and at halftime we had the luxury of being able to bring him off. I suspect tonight the manager will be looking at an hour for our Starboy, so there will need to be some minutes for Madueke too.

But the good news is that we have options all over the pitch. If the team I’ve selected above does indeed start, we’ve got White, Calafiori, Odegaard, Trossard, Lewis-Skelly, Havertz, Madueke – all able to come on and impact the game. That’s a luxury Arteta hasn’t been able to call on too much this season, but I’m glad he’s able to do it in one of our biggest match ups.

The prize is there for all to see. It’s a Champions League final in Budapest. It’s the psychological boost of knowing that’s in your back pocket as you try to then win your first Premier League in 22 years.

The atmosphere tonight should be rocking. The home fans, buoyed by the weekend win and City also dropping points, will be well up for this. We’ll get the usual histrionics from the likes of Simeone, but after the outrageous performance of the Atleti manager in re-refereeing the game, I think the home fans are going to bring the noise and howl for absolutely everything this evening. Every foul. Every tackle. Every decision against Arsenal. Everything needs to be treated as an injustice and should be met with howls of derision. I know I will be where I stand.

From a tactical perspective, it feels like we probably need to start fast again like we did in Madrid last week. Simeone made reference to the fact that they speculated that Arsenal would tire in the second half, and inevitably they would get chances. They will get opportunities – with players like Alvarez, Griezmann and Lookman, there’s no way they wouldn’t – but we have to assert an early control on the game. That has often manifested itself this season as Arsenal slowing the game down and keeping it at the back. I don’t think we can afford to do that this time. We need to move the ball quicker, with poise, and get the ballers in our team on it. Feed Eze in between the lines, get the ball to Saka quickly to isolate his man, then look to the channels for the early runs of Gyokeres. That’s how we overcome a formidable opponent in the shape of Atletico Madrid.

They might try to replicate their three man defence and pushing their fullbacks high, but I’d be surprised if they do that from the off, because it will leave a fair bit of space. In the first leg they were one down at halftime, on their own patch, and needed to chase the game. Tonight they can probably afford for the game to start off a little more cagey. The more the sting is taken out of this match, the more it suits the away team, and the more the crowd might start to get nervous and antsy.

I’m making my way back from Portugal this morning, so will be spending the early part of the day on a flight with nothing more to do than worry about what’s going to go down tonight.

I hope it’s an Arsenal win. That would be massive.

Catch you tomorrow for some post match thoughts on how it all played out.

With Unai Emery going ‘Full Unai’ with his team ahead of their home game against Forest on Thursday, Villa put in the kind of performance you expect from an end-of-season team that really are mentally on the beach. That was frustrating from an Arsenal fan perspective because:

1. The Scum won and will probably now stay clear of relegation
2. West Ham will now be doubly motivated next Sunday when we play them.

That second point will be one to worry about. Over the years, West Ham have given us tough games on their patch, and with the threat of relegation now very real with just three games to go, they will be more fired up for this one than we could imagine.

West Ham got battered by an improved Brentford side on Saturday, which had mixed blessings for us overall, because:

1. It means that Brentford are closing down a European spot and next weekend they will go to City, knowing a win could be huge for them
2. West Ham are probably going to need to beat Arsenal next weekend – their heavy defeat doesn’t help the goal difference either.

Before that match yesterday, we also saw Bournemouth pick up a big win at home to Palace, which was certainly a better scoreline for us, because:

1. Bournemouth will be buoyed, and to qualify for Europe, will probably need to beat City in a week and a half at home on their own patch
2. Palace losing heavily shows us that there’s a team that has all eyes on a possible European final, which will happen just after they play us on the final day, when hopefully we are fighting to win the title.

The complexities and permutations of this season are not lost on a single Arsenal fan, I don’t think, and in pubs and homes all over the Arsenal-supporting world, we’re all doing the mental gymnastics to see chinks of light or opportunities to build out a little more hope, through the actions of others.

But it will be Arsenal’s actions that define this season. If we beat West Ham, then we hopefully have two games in which you’d hope Arsenal can rack up plenty of goals. If we do that, then the goal difference thing would swing from City’s favour to ours. I can’t see City hammering all of the teams they are playing by fours and fives. So there is a chink of light and hope that we might have a bit of an advantage.

Tonight, all eyes will be on Merseyside. Can Everton do something against City? I’m not so sure. They’ve lost their last two games to Liverpool at home and West Ham away. Before that, they picked up a 2-2 draw away at Brentford, but before that, they won at home 3-0 against a shockingly bad Chelsea side. Their record at home this season is mixed; I just had a look, and there are defeats to United, Brentford, Tottenham, and Newcastle, whilst also draws against Leeds, West Ham and Villa. They are a patchy side. But the good thing about tonight, one would hope, is that today’s game means that if they lose it, their outside chance of Europe is basically gone. That’s what most Arsenal fans will be hoping for this evening – that this ‘last chance saloon’ inspires them to do something special in front of their own fans.

Mind you, the same could have been said about Fulham at the weekend, and yet we absolutely rinsed them in that first half on Saturday. To be fair, that was at home for us, whereas this is away for Man City, so perhaps that swings the balance back a little, but I still think that Everton probably won’t have too much for a City side who are in form at the moment. Despite their bitching through the back channels about their impending fixture congestion, they’ve also just had over a week off, so they will be fresh now, too.

As for us, we have our eyes trained on that Champions League semi-final, and Arteta will be making his way to The Emirates this evening to deliver his pre-match press conference ahead of the game. The noises we’re hearing are that Kai is pushing to be fit to play a part, which would be massive not just for tomorrow, but also in the context of the remainder of the domestic season. Having him as an option when we’re facing a low block in the league might be very important, although tomorrow night I think you do still have to go with Big Vik, given his two goals and confidence will be up after one of the best performances for him this season.

The big question I have is around Timber. Like, are we actually going to see him this season, or nah? I really would love to have him back, or even news of him back, but what we’ve had over the last couple of weeks is Arteta saying “a few more days” and yet not even a sniff of a return. Odegaard too, we need to get a good update on, but I suspect his absence from the weekend was precautionary and there to manage the knocks he’s had that have kept him out of that difficult period of April that we’ve just overcome. If he’s back, if Timber can even just be seen in full training this week at some stage (even if it is not possible to be in the squad for tomorrow), then I will take that as a big positive. Having him available at right back for a game like West Ham feels like it would be a huge boost, although at this stage, given how long he’s been out, I’m not sure even then how viable it would be.

Let’s wait and see what Arteta says later. As for me, I’m going to take the opportunity to enjoy the rest of my bank holiday weekend in Portugal, before I fly back tomorrow morning. I hope whatever you are doing you have a great day too. Catch you all tomorrow.

I read comments like “Fulham have never won at The Emirates,” and that only makes it worse. Because you just know there is a first time for everything. And unlike our situation at City, in which we basically NEVER win up there, today could very easily end up with Arsenal dropping points and opening the door to City having a clear path to the Premier League title.

Arsenal, Arteta, and all of those Arsenal players simply MUST be ready for today. Fulham have had a week off, we have been in Madrid on Wednesday, then have a huge game on Tuesday night, but if one single eye is on that midweek match-up against Atleti, you worry that it will be enough for Fulham to get something from today.

They are not in what I call “Charlton territory,” unfortunately. Back in the 90s, I think there were about four or five seasons in which Charlton, under Alan Curbishley, would get to a set number of points, then the foot would come off the gas, and they’d coast their way to the end of the season, losing pretty much most of the games they played. That is not the case this season for a side that sits in 10th with four games to go. The concertina’d nature of this division means that Fulham very much have everything to play for and, having beaten Villa last weekend to give them a sniff of Europe, they have a little bit of confidence going into this game. They will be up for it. They will be looking for a scalp.

And as I talked about yesterday in the blog, Marco Silva will be looking to use every tactical and emotional advantage he can get his hands on. He’s said as much in his pre-match preview, alluding to the potential worry of the home crowd and how he will be hoping they can draw on that tonight. I think that means his approach today is about keeping things tight for the first 45. He’s done this in other games, but Silva is not against a tight back five with his central midfielders tucking in to a lower block, then relying on diagonal directness to spring forward. His ‘utopia’ football game today is Arsenal dominating possession and territory, which creates space as we look to penetrate a stubborn back line, for his players to spring traps when the ball turns over.

My hope is that Arteta has an idea for that. My hope is also that this idea finally involves dropping the Madueke-Gyokeres-Martinelli approach. Don’t do it, Mikel. You need technical security on the ball in attack. This ain’t gonna be no ‘green grass and space’ game. This will be tight, cagey, and will require ballers who work in small spaces.

So for me, my ‘hoping for’ lineup is:

Raya

White   –   Saliba   –   Gabriel   –   Calafiori

Rice

Odegaard   –   Eze

Saka   –   Gyokeres   –   Trossard

That team has an attacking line-up of players who are all good with the ball at their feet. They are not runners in behind; they are more suited to quick interplay. I’ve gone with Ben White, despite the fact he played in midweek, because I look at that right-hand side with Saka back in (I think given he’s now been in training over a week, played a part against Newcastle, as well as Atletico Madrid, he should be able to do a solid 60 minutes) and I am hoping for a “We’re getting the band back together” automatism or two between White, Saka and Odegaard. White overlaps to create space for Bukayo, with Martin gravitating towards him.

I’ve suggested Rice as the six because he was really good there in midweek, so why not lean in to it more, whilst allowing Eze to float into those left-hand spaces, where Trossard and Gyokeres overlap? You have yourself a right-hand side ‘pod’ that is familiar, but how about stocking a left-hand side one too?

And then, for good measure, get Calafiori in there to cause a little bit of chaos in those pockets on the left-hand side? Yes, please, ma’am.

I also think that lineup helps Gyokeres. He can’t trap the ball. He won’t be able to run in behind of a deep-lying defence. But if he’s got players who have the eye for a pass and the ability to thread the needle with their distribution, maybe he can find pockets to get some shots off. The alternative would be Gabriel Jesus, which would be interesting, but we just don’t get enough from him these days for me to think he’s anything other than a 20-minute cameo player.

Do I think Arteta will go for that? Possibly not really. You could potentially see Mosquera instead of White, as Arteta looks to split the minutes between some of his fatigued players, plus he’s played Zubimendi basically every time he’s fit. So my gut tells me that he’s going to play the Spaniard once more. I also wonder whether Trossard is on the naughty step and Eze might play again on the left-hand side. I think it’s more likely that Eze starts and Odegaard is rested, given he started in midweek and Arteta will want to be careful with his captain’s minutes. So the likelihood of me getting my wish today is probably slim.

But it would make for an exciting opportunity to see if we can recapture some more technical control, ball dominance and chance creation, plus trying something a little different, wouldn’t it? And given some of the performances we’ve had at home, maybe leaning into something different could just be the ‘unlock’ that sees Arsenal ‘click’ at the perfect moment in the season.

G’wan Mikel, give it a go. I dares ya.

Let’s see. I’m in Portugal today visiting the parental units, so it’ll be a watching brief from the sofa for me this evening. I just hope I’m smiling by the end of today.

Back tomorrow with a blog and pod first thing. Let’s hope it’s a happy one.

Until then.

I am convinced of it.

Diego Simeone was waving his arms around like a lunatic. He was encroaching on the referee. He was barking and hollering, and so was the crowd. And last night’s referee just played to that gallery.

Let’s look at the facts here, boys and girls:

1. Eze gets to the ball first
2. There is contact by the Atletico Madrid defender
3. It is inside the box

It. Is. A. Penalty. Now, what you could argue is that the contact was, indeed, minimal. And because of that, if the referee doesn’t give it, you’d have me saying things like “tight call, but it’s not a stonewaller of a penalty”. And then you go with the on-field decision. But when the referee gives the penalty, there is ZERO chance that it shouldn’t be given. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Nothing. No way should that have been re-refereed in the way it was.

And yet here we are. Simeone is a prick. Afterwards, he supposedly (can’t find the exact quote but some journalists mention it on social media) laughably tried to claim Gyokeres’ penalty shouldn’t have stood because he backed into the Atletico player. Utter deflection, because his side had been edged out in the second half, and I thought we’d played really well to go one-up in the break. Their home fans were loud and raucous for the opening exchanges. Atleti started well and fed off that, but once we rallied and started getting on the ball, I thought we looked composed and in control. You could tell that Atletico Madrid were going to show us respect; this is a swashbuckling Spanish side who bag a lot of goals, but they were remaining tight and compact in their shape, and at times I was watching this game seeing a back five from the home side. That is a compliment to what we were doing in possession, and I thought the back four, particularly, were good.

Arteta changed it a bit, and I think it is a blueprint we need to think about moving forward, because Rice was playing the deeper of the two midfielders, with Zubi just in front of him, and that also enabled us to move to a back three at times and give us more passing lanes. It was good from the manager, and even though we still had that dreaded front three, we had a few chances. I still think between them, Martinelli and Trossard, when he came on, didn’t offer enough on that left-hand side, but Madueke was better.

And so too was Gyokeres, who notched his 19th of the season, and never in my life have I been more convinced that a player would score penalties than the big Swede. We all have our issues with Gyokeres; he’s been frustrating at times this season, but when it comes to finishing and penalties, the ball stays hit, and you know we are going to score.

That’s why the Eze penalty is also such a disgrace, because Gyokeres absolutely would have tucked it away to win us the game, and then you’re talking about bringing a one-goal lead back to your own turf. We’ve been robbed of that, and it’s a real shame because although Atletico were better in the second half, there was still so much positive to take from the way Arsenal handled the game overall.

On the Ben White penalty, I think Arteta handled that perfectly too, afterwards, admitting that it isn’t given in the Premier League, but it is in Europe, so we have to stomach it. Atletico had other chances too. Raya made a couple of good saves, Griezmann hit the bar, plus big Gabi made a tremendous block to deny the Frenchman. We rode our luck at points, but there’s no doubt in my mind, the luck was more with the home side than ours by the time the final whistle came along.

So where do we find ourselves now? How am I feeling this morning?

Actually, pretty good, if truth be told. We went to a tough ground, with a partisan home crowd and a barking manager, we came away with a draw. We can all be annoyed by the end, but before a ball would have kicked, I’d have taken an away draw to turn our home game into a knockout. Away goals mean nothing anymore, so this match next week is effectively one in which all is decided on the night. And having home advantage has to make you feel more confident.

I also think Arteta has some ammo now. We got minutes into Saka’s legs, Calafiori is available, Eze also got on the pitch so he should be fine for Saturday, Rice and Zubi had great games. The only question is with Odegaard, who came off and I read that he was getting some treatment on the sideline. We have to just hope that it’s nothing massive and he can have a day or two off and be ready for the game against the Cottagers on Saturday evening, because we need everyone now.

Arteta can use this injustice on the Atletico game, but he can also use the performance for Saturdaay too. The team can take confidence from the game and given that Saturday’s game is an evening kick off and hopefully the weather is good like last weekend, the home fans might just be feeling a little more boistrous than we would have done if we’d have lost last night.

We didn’t lose. we played pretty good. There is some confidence that can get built back up now. And so on to Saturday, in which another big match looms and Arsenal simple MUST win.

Back tomorrow as we start to prep for that one. See you then.

This could be the biggest game for Arsenal football club in over two decades.

In 2022/23, we had to go to the City and win. That was an Arsenal team that was a surprise challenger, who were up against a City team in their peak, that ended up winning a treble. Arsenal had lost William Saliba a few weeks earlier and had to go with Rob Holding at the back. It was always an outside bet.

Today, the situation is different. As usual, Arsenal have a load of injury questions to consider, but rather than “have to win”, this game still leaves things in the balance, regardless of the result.

But a result that sees Arsenal anything but it means that we are in the driving seat to win our first title in 22 years. Just typing that has me shaking with nerves this morning.

The problem we have is that rather than going into this game with swagger and confidence, we go into it having lost three of our last four games, with one of those being against 115 Charges FC at Wembley in a cup final. The momentum is with the financially doped football club, and Arsenal’s is patchy, to be generous.

My normal approach to talking about these matches pre-game is to do a bit of a data look at the situation, but that feels a little futile right now; we know that these games always throw up tactical nuances that change throughout the match. We know that Guardiola and Arteta are masters of tactical adaptability, so looking at the data for patterns of play, to my untrained eyes, feels a little spurious. So instead, today is more of a ‘feelings’ and ‘vibes’ blog, with some thoughts on which Arsenal players I want to see in the starting line-up today.

HandOfArsenal posted last night that Odegaard was with the travelling Arsenal squad, but a decision will be made tomorrow morning if he makes the match-day line-up. I doubt he will from the start, but if he can do 20-30 minutes, then that would be a huge welcome boost. He adds a layer of technical security on the ball, and with Saka already ruled out, it feels like every body we can get into that squad who can keep the ball and give us more security, is vital.

And with that in mind, if I’m picking a starting XI I am hoping will play today that has the right level of technical quality on and off the ball, here’s what I am going for:

Raya

Timber   –   Saliba   –   Gabriel   –   Calafiori

Zubimendi

Eze   –   Rice

Gabriel Jesus   –   Havertz   –   Trossard

Gabriel Jesus is the weirdest one out of that lot, but he is good on the ball, he has a massive incentive to up his game on a former home ground, he will chase, harry and defend as well as getting forward, plus he looked alright for his Sporting cameo in midweek. I think it is too much to ask Dowman to start. Madueke has been poor in his last couple of games, as has Martinelli, so throwing a little bit of a curveball could be something that surprises City. And if it doesn’t work, if he’s terrible, then you can decide to get Dowman, or Madueke, or even Martinelli, on the pitch at some stage.

If Odegaard is available, that’s where this is also interesting, because suddenly, for that second half, we have options. If we need to Hincapie can sure us up at the back, I doubt Timber (I’ve made a wild hoping gesture that he’s fit today) could do the full 90, so I’d have Mosquera ready, you have Odegaard in midfield, Martineli/Madueke/Dowman as your wide attacking options, plus, if you really need to go for it, you give Gyokeres 20 minutes and tell him to get into those box spaces and being ready. In theory, we could have a very strong bench.

But that’s not the problem today. The problem is Arsenal needing to stay mentally on it and up for it, because I don’t want to have to think about the fallout if we take a pasting today. And that could happen. We are TERRIBLE at that stadium:

• No win in 11 years
• Seven defeats in 10 games.
• 25 goals conceded.
• Eight goals scored.
• Five goals conceded in five of those games in the first 25 minutes.

We just don’t have any kind of historical backing behind us in this fixture since the oil money came in. That 2-0 win, in which Cazorla starred, is the lone island of green amongst a sea of red, dating back to 2010, since City received their ill-got gains. If you go back to 2010 for the numbers, it reads two wins in 25 years, with nine defeats and four draws, and it is a rather depressing tale of an Arsenal side that has never really been able to consistently deliver blows against the best team of the last decade.

Which is why I’m not super confident about today. How can I be? I have hope. I am praying that Arsenal show up. But form, history, injuries and the situation dictate that today, unfortunately, I fear the worst. I am hoping to see something different, I really am, but there’s a reason most people are predicting a City win, and it’s not just because so much of the footballing world seems to have a vendetta against The Arsenal. It’s because City are good. Very good at attack. Cherki, Doku, Haaland, Semenyo, Savinho, Foden, Marmoush, and Rejinders – all have goals in them. And we’ve struggled for that of late. I hope that we have more space than usual and that some of our out-of-form attackers realise who they are, but I am worried about how this game might unfold, especially if they score their customary early goal against us.

We need every player, to a man, for Arsenal to be 100% on their game today. We simply cannot afford any lapses in concentration on passing or a lack of tracking runners. It will result in disaster if we have even two or three passengers today. That’s why I am hoping Arteta goes with the full complement of technically gifted footballers. We can’t be having any eight-touch Gyokeres games, or 10-touch hugging the touchline Martinelli games. Nope, we need guys stepping up, showing for the ball, finding space, delivering in the right moments.

I’m absolutely sh*tting myself today. So I’m going to fill my morning and right up until kick off with jobs and other things, in an attempt to take my mind off of what is unfolding later.

Amanda, James and I will hopefully be doing a post-match reaction to the result on the Same Old Arsenal pod after kick off, so join us there at some stage – we’re still working out exact times.

Mikel Arteta

• Perspective before performance – Mikel started with humanity. A reminder that context matters, and that leadership isn’t just about the next result – it’s about grounding people before asking more of them.
• Adaptability is the real constant – He talked about how injuries aren’t drama, they’re data. The message is simple: we’ve dealt with it all season, we’ll deal with it again. No noise, just solutions.
• Control the controllables – No chat about draws, permutations, or what others might do. He was very binary about the preparation – you play to win the next game, full stop.
• Mindset isn’t fluffy – it’s decisive – Talent gets you in the conversation. Mentality keeps you there. Arteta was explicit that this is an area they’ve worked hard on – and now have to prove again.
• Pressure reframed as privilege – Instead of fearing the moment, he reframes it. Being here is earned. That mindset shift matters when the stakes are high.
• Learn fast, don’t linger – Past losses and external noise aren’t baggage – they’re fuel. Take the lesson, feel it briefly, then channel it productively into what’s next.

I think it’s the right approach ahead of a huge game and, unlike last weekend, there wasn’t any need to do the whole ‘fire’ or ‘bring your dinner’ stuff. He knows that this game is already being built up so much by everyone that we need to dial it down a bit. I do wonder if the players are feeling that, though. We heard from Eze ahead of Sporting, and he was chill; Rice was also very focused but saying all the right things in a Sky Sports interview. But I worry that the actions of the players of late have shown a different side, a side that is feeling the weight of expectation, a side that is running out of gas whilst also dropping like flies on the injury front.

To that end, the absence of Saka is a real blow, and I think at this stage, we probably have to start thinking about him as an optional extra now, for the rest of this season. He’s struggling with an Achilles injury, and he won’t be in the squad tomorrow, meaning his last game was over a month ago. There’s no way he’s going to be back in the starting XI next Saturday against Newcastle, which means we’ll probably also only see him as a bit-part player for the first leg of the semi-final of the Champions League. It means we need to see more from Noni, who, at least, Arteta confirmed, should be ok. As usual, he wouldn’t be drawn on which players are fit, saying that some players are ‘close’, but he said that last weekend and ahead of Sporting, so whether they are fit remains to be seen. I think all of us are desperate to see Timber back, for sure, because Doku might be licking his lips if he’s up against White or Mosquera. Equally, having Calafiori available would be a big boost, even if he’s not fit to start, with Hincapie and him able to share minutes. Hincapie was restricted in the League Cup Final because of that ridiculous yellow card that wouldn’t have been a yellow, but I wonder if this time, if that were to happen again, Arteta would bring on Riccardo earlier if he had to. I certainly hope so.

Pep Guardiola

• Calm realism, not drama – Pep was a little matter-of-fact about injuries and circumstances. Players will be missing, that’s the season. No emotional charge, just acceptance and adjustment.
• Success is contextual, not emotional – He was clear that winning the title this season wouldn’t be framed as his “greatest achievement”. That’s telling. Perspective matters when you’ve been there before.
• Respect without obsession – He acknowledged that Arsenal are the benchmark this season – consistently strong, improving year on year. Respect is clear, but it doesn’t tip into fixation.
• Big games are still just games – Even with the stakes obvious, he strips the occasion back to performance basics. Execute well, compete properly, and control what you can.
• Pressure reframed as opportunity – Six points is a gap, not a crisis. Home crowd, sold-out stadium, everything aligned to try – not to panic. His was a message of readiness over rhetoric.
• Clarity on what will decide it – Guardiola was precise about the challenge: physical duels, aggression, second balls, build-up quality. No vague talk of “desire” – just clear performance realities.

For them, the requirement is clear, and I wonder if ‘the title is over if we don’t win’ will work in their favour tomorrow or not. I think it will certainly fire everyone up, and I think those first 15 – 20 minutes or so tomorrow will be a bit of a cauldron, as their fans are unusually loud, whilst their players will be massively aggressive in trying to get ahead early, I suspect. As I said yesterday, the numbers favour that early goal, so we have to make sure we don’t go behind. As I was on my run yesterday, I was listening to the always excellent Arsenal Opinion Podcast, and the lads were quite bullish about our chances. But what Matt said on his ‘hot take’ really resonated with me: The first goal wins the league. It’s a deliberately provocative take, which is kind of the point, but it does feel significant. When Arsenal go behind, we tend not to win football matches, and City have a history of scoring early against us and going on to win. But even against other teams, we know we’re not a side that goes on to win football matches if we score first. This season, we’ve beaten Newcastle when going behind, but that’s all I could find for this season. In 2024/25 it was three wins in total. In 23/24 it was three times again. So we don’t exactly have a habit of making comebacks. The data tells us City scores first, and we don’t do well coming from behind. If we’re going to get anything from this game, it does feel like we’re going to need to score first.

And that is what I will leave you to ponder on today, my friends, so have a good one, and I’ll be back tomorrow with a match preview.

Laters.

Honestly, this Premier League race has infected my brain at this stage.

I can just hope that tonight proves to be a different tonic for the players, that they use this as an adrenaline booster, ahead of the weekend’s match. Because we need it after that disastrous Bournemouth result last weekend.

That result came about because of a poor tactical setup, as well as some pretty bad basics being missing from some players, but also because of the wrong players out there on the field for the type of opponent we were up against, due to a lack of the right type of players available. So when I saw that there was ANOTHER open training session, and ANOTHER one that had a host of players missing…well…let’s just say I was hardly filled with comfort.

No Timber.

No Calafiori.

No Rice.

No Odegaard.

No Saka.

Great stuff.

Even if those players were just doing light training, there are some in there that you’d have to say probably won’t make tonight. And if they don’t make it tonight, that means they are certainly doubtful to be fit at the weekend, for the most important domestic game, certainly this season, but perhaps since Arteta took over this team.

I saw somebody on social media saying we are doing this season on ‘hard mode’. Certainly feels like it, eh?

For his part, Arteta once again came out swinging in his press conference, interrupting one of the journo’s asking him how he is feeling with the phrase “I am opn fire”. That Basque passion certainly shone through in his press conference. I saw a Chelsea fan online – yep, that’s right, A CHELSEA fan – say that if he were a player and he heard this from his manager, he’d want to run through bricks walls for him. We’ll park the metaphor that would inevitably mean those Arsenal players would shatter into a million pieces if that happened, due to our rotten injury luck, but the sentiment there is one that I hope rubs off on those Arsenal players. Because they need to be at it tonight. I dread to think what might happen at the weekend if we’re knocked out of the Champions League on our own patch this evening.

Sporting will be missing Fresnada, who I thought looked very impressive at right back in the first leg, but they do have ‘Diplomatic Immunity’ Araujo at left back, who one would hope is not gievn the same freedom for fouling away from home as he was at home. Other than that, they have pretty much a similar side that lined up against us, which means we will need to be mindful of those balls in behind the fullbacks for the channel running that caught out White a week ago.

It is for that reason that I would seriously consider Mosquera at right back tonight, because White has played a lot of football recently. Mosquera has the recovery pace (think his recovery tackle when Southampton had a man through on goal in the FA Cup a couple of weekends back), so let’s get him in there. At left back, you’d hope that because Hincapie was left on the bench on Saturday, he’s back and in contention to start, and that’s what I would opt for. Even if Calafiori is fit, I kind of feel we need the Italian on Sunday – assuming he ever gets fit again. Arteta was asked about Timber and Saka and said “maybe one of them” could make the match day squad, and given he said Saka was suffering from an Achilles problem, my gut feel is that at best we get Timber for the bench.

I’d also be considering Norgaard as the holding midfielder at this stage, too, because Zubimendi’s form is in the toilet right now. Norgaard will not do anything fancy, we won’t get those progressive passes we have seen from Zubimendi towards the start of the season, but the Spaniard hasn’t been doing that for ages now anyway, so we might as well lean in to a traditional six that is going to break up play and sit in front of the back four, for protection.

And then, to the attacking side of the pitch, for which I need to see some of those wide forwards grow some f*cking cajones and put in a display. Martinelli, Madueke and Trossard were all shambolic against Bournemouth. Fix up. Step up. Do your job. Take your men on. Have shots. Link up with your centre forward. Track your runners. Yeah, we’re looking at you from last weekend, Noni.

I think Arteta will go with Gyokeres up top, and I hope he does, because the man is about the only one with end product these days. Plus, I’d be looking at Kai as the number nine on Sunday because let’s face it, in those sort of games Gyokeres is basically a passenger. So save the German for the weekend.

And please, Arsenal, get this done in 90 minutes. The thought of 120 minutes and then having a couple of days off before we travel to Mancchester fills me with as much dread as everything else has this week. At this crunch time, where the players need to be able to prove they are worthy of where they have got to, we need back-to-back results. No excuses. Tonight, go out there and prove the watching world that you are ready to grasp the opportunity. The coach has done his bit, his staff have done their bit, but now it is up to you players to do yours. So go and do it.

I’ll be back tomorrow, hopefully in a more cheery mood, so let’s keep out fingers crossed for a good Arsenal performance under the lights.

See you in the morning.

I think my biggest issue is that I am worried that nothing will change in a short period of time. As I said to somebody in the comments from yesterday’s blog, I was convinced – clearly misplaced – that we would see the likes of Timber, Calafiori, Odegaard, etc. But none were in attendance, and the result was the dross we got served up. My worry now is that, ahead of the Sporting Lisbon game, we’re not going to get from Arteta any difference in terms of the ability to change the team around much. We should, hopefully, have an Eze who can at least start, given that he got minutes on Saturday. But to me, it feels like that is not enough.

Hincapie being on the bench on Saturday would, I hope, mean that he can start tomorrow night. He hasn’t been out that long, so the ability to return to a better level of match sharpness should be there. That is good. Myles showed that whilst he’s still a good, young player who we all love, he still switches off where perhaps the Ecuadorian doesn’t.

I think the other thing that has me really worried about this week is that with every day that passes with certain players out, getting them back to a ‘best version’ of themselves takes longer. Odegaard was out for a while, came back against Sporting, and got injured again, which means his ability to be back up to match fitness has been diminished. If he’d have come back to Sporting and got 60 minutes, then played at least 30 minutes against Bournemouth, then you could be looking at the Sporting game tomorrow as another 60 – 70 minutes, to which the City game would be one that you’d hope he’d have enough minutes under his belt to be a better version of himself. But by picking up that knock against Sporting, then missing the Bournemouth game and having to find our information from that bloody Norway manager, it feels like it is two steps forward, one step back with him.

It’s worse with Saka. When he wasn’t featured against Southampton, having reported for England duty, I was thinking “that’s absolutely fine – he’ll get the rest and be a better version of himself for some of these massive matches coming up”. But by missing Sporting away, then Bournemouth at the weekend, it is nearly a month since he last played. That means his ability to be the Saka that we all NEED on Sunday is further diminished. Do you believe that if he’s in the squad, he’ll be able to have the impact we would need? I don’t. Not having just returned from injury, anyway.

It’s the same with Timber. He trudged off on 39 minutes against Everton on 14th March – exactly one month ago. With a month out, do we really believe that he can be back to full fitness for Sunday? To line up against a Doku who has just run Gusto ragged at Stamford Bridge? I don’t. If he’s ok to be in training, then Arteta can’t risk him tonight. Maybe he can give him 20 minutes, but then throw him in for the biggest domestic game of the season? That would worry me, if I’m honest with you.

And that’s why I’m so down right now, because the way this has all unfolded just feels like there is some kind of domestic curse that is enveloping us at this time of the season. The injuries, like last season, have been constant. The form has been pretty poor, but the performances have been dire, and when grouped all together, it just makes you feel a little weary, you know?

I guess you could say that City had the same problem in March. They drew to Forest, they lost to Real Madrid twice, and then also drew away at West Ham. But then they had that League Cup win and have been looking in great form ever since. One could argue that the very same could happen to us, and maybe a win tomorrow night against Sporting could help to boost those players ahead of Sunday. But it just doesn’t feel like it right now. As I’ve already said on the socials and in the blog yesterday, our record at City is utterly grim, so I don’t really hold up much hope for us.

Do you know what’s mental? Tomorrow night we play a Champions League quarter-final, at home, with a one-goal advantage, and I’ve spent most of today’s blog talking and thinking about that City game at the weekend. This is a Champions League quarter-final. We’ve got to the semi-final three times in our history so far, so a win or draw tomorrow means it’s only be the fourth time. Ever. But that Premier League title is the one that I’ve always wanted the most, and to see it slipping away as it has is, frankly, destroying. It’s one that I am going to feel the saddest about and, and even if by some miracle we were to then get ourselves into a Champions League final and win it, I STILL don’t think that will stop the feeling of the Premier League slipping away, if indeed that does happen.

Arteta will have his press conference this evening, and if I’m honest, all I want to hear from him is that some players are back and available for the squad. Even if not ready to start, I just want good news on Timber, Calafiori, Odegaard, Eze, and Saka. If we get some of that, then maybe tomorrow’s match preview blog will be a little lighter and airier one from me.

Catch you all tomorrow.

The Arsenal players have no such luxury, as they face Sporting Lisbon tomorrow and are likely to head to Portugal today ahead of that Champions League game. And suddenly, whereas a week ago we were looking at this tie, as well as Southampton, as one in which we’ll be potentially in two semi-finals if we beat opposition that we are favourites to overcome, we’re all getting a little nervous about this. After all, Sporting beat us over two legs last time we played them in the knockout stages. That goal they scored to lob Ramsdale at The Emirates, then going on to win on penalties, still haunts me. And when you learn that Sporting have replaced Gyokeres with a guy named Luis Suarez, one starts to wonder if the Footballing Gods’ sense of humour and desire to chuckle at Arsenal fans frequently is actually just cruel. We have a pretty bad record at Southampton, and the footballing gods decided that they like a bit of narrative being perpetuated. We have faced Sporting Lisbon for the last few season’s and they’ve made life dificult for us, so the footballing Gods have decided to drop some more narrative in there by pairing us up, with us having their former striker lining up, whilst they’ve got a guy whose name evokes a certain kind of narrative when you think about failed bids and goals scored against us.

But as I said on the Same Old Arsenal pod this morning with James, I’m kind of getting over the Southampton poor result, and I think the quick turnaround is good for all of us. It means that we can put all of our efforts into these final two competitions, which were the ‘main’ ones anyway. And, where we were talking about fixture congestion to us, the same will befall Man City, because our game against Newcastle at home won’t be moved, but their game away to Burnley will be. That means they’ll have to play it in midweek, possibly when we’re playing in the Champions League, so they have their own challenges with the schedule as much as we do.

For me, my dream has always been the Premier League. My ‘hope’ is the Champions League too, or at least progressing to the semi-final, but I want that Premier League title, and so if being out of the FA Cup means we approach games like that Newcastle one without it having been moved because of the FA Cup to a midweek game, then that’s fine. The absence of our involvement in that competition means there is a solid week between Man City away and Newcastle at home. That can’t be a bad thing.

What we do need from Mikel Arteta today is a confirmation that Gabriel Magalhaes is ok. That’s the one I am still worried about, but I am choosing to be positive with the mantra that No news is good news, as the saying goes. Again, I mentioned this on the pod, but by now, if there was a serious injury, somebody like The Athletic would have gotten wind of it and would have published a story on it. We haven’t had that yet, so I am hopeful that his exit on Saturday was purely as a risk-aversion opportunity.

He won’t give us updates, but there is an open training session literally going on as I’m typing this. We know that it means little in reality; Arteta loves to be able to pull everyone away from those sessions if there are any doubts over any of them, so we have to take it with a pinch of salt. But maybe we’ll see a Timber, or a Saka, which will at least give us some hope that their rest has been well-received by their bodies and they are ready for their trip to Portugal.

The next clue will come with the pictures of the players as they board the plane. The club’s social media team normally drop some snaps of the players, so that’ll give us an idea, but it will then be Arteta’s press conference that will be the interesting one to see who he says can play. He’ll give little away – he never does – but even just some crumbs of positive injury news would be welcome right now.

There’s not really a lot else to take from today, to be honest, so I think I’ll leave it for this one, be back tomorrow as we start to look ahead at Sporting Lisbon, then I’ll catch you all then.

Be good.

Instead, what I want to focus on today is the consequences of what happened last Sunday, specifically with regard to Mikel Arteta, who I think will be delighted that there is an international break. That’s because it affords him time to analyse what went wrong and how to fix it.

And Mikel Arteta is a fixer.

There are plenty of people outside of Arsenal circles who don’t like him. They don’t like his demeanour, they don’t like his arm-waving on the touchline, or the fact that he strays outside of his technical area (which is, frankly, bloody weird given that every Premier League manager does it). There are a minority INSIDE Arsenal circles who don’t like him. This isn’t a referendum blog on his character, though; this is a blog for me to state my point of view on how he is going to sort out what went wrong against Man City.

And I 100% back him to do that.

Arteta will be using this week, with his coaching team, to pore over every detail. Every Arsenal fan knows that. He will watch, re-watch, have the analysts watch, get one or two of the players till at home and not on international duty to watch (probably Clockwork Orange-style, too), all with the intention of learning how to answer the questions that Pep and his City side posed on the day. Forget what he says in the post-match, forget what he will say in his pre-match, because as Arsenal fans we all know that he doesn’t give even 10% of the detail that he goes through, out to the media or public for consumption. Practically every player, past and present, has said that the level of detail and analysis that he does on his own team, but the opposition too, is crazy. We hear that from them, so we all know that when he gets a period like we’re in now, there’s absolutely no way he’s sitting in garden (might be a bit too cold for that in London right now, to be fair) with bis feet up trying to mentally get away from it all. No way. He’s looking at our next opponents, he’s looking at our past opponents, he’s thinking about different ways in whcih we overcome Southampton, Sporting and Bournemouth, when the proper stuff kicks off again.

Arteta is a learner. He will 100% be learning from what happened last weekend.

And that fills me with positivity. It gives me confidence that he’ll have a plan when the players return from international duty and he’ll know how to approach the upcoming games. It doesn’t mean we’ll win them; football is a game of variables and it only takes one moment where a player slips, or a ref gives a dodgy pen against us, and suddenly his best laid plans go out the window. But as Arsenal fans we must take comfort in the fact that our manager has answers to the questions that have been most recently posed.

The response to defeats this season have shown this (in all competitions):

• Our record after the defeat to Liverpool at the start of the season = Win, win, draw, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win.
• Our record after the defeat away to Villa = Win, win, win, win, win, win, win.
• Our record after the defeat at home to Man United = Win, win, win, win, draw, win, draw, win, win.

That’s a lot of ‘W’s there kids. So my hope for this defeat is that it is the galvaniser that Arsenal use to spearhead a multi-winning streak. If, for example, we win our next five games in a row, that last one will be away at City, and I think we’re all looking at the close to the season being a very exciting one.

Now, I know that what has been, doesn’t not reflect on what is to come, but we have enough data from this season to suggest that Arteta will learn, he will work his arse off to change a few things, and hopefully we will get back on track after what was an admittedly very tough afternoon at Wembley to take.

We are not perfect. We have flaws. We have injuries. Southampton are in a good run of form. We could very easily be looking at being dumped out of the cup in back-to-back matches and that could have an impact on subsequent games. But at this point in time, I am looking at where we are at, and I’m putting my faith in the hope that Arteta will be able to course-correct what went wrong with the City non-press. Heck, if anything, maybe we learned more about what City might do against us at The Etihad. What did they learn from us? I would wager ‘not a lot’. Because as many have pointed out on other tactical blogs and podcasts, this fabled ‘Man City four-man offensive non-press wall’ that was lauded, doesn’t work with Raya in goal. He clips over that wall and we have four of their players out of the game. I doubt Pep will do that again, but if he does, then it will be very interesting to see how much space we get.

So I find myself this morning in quite good spirits. I think Arsenal are in good hands with Mikel Arteta, tucked away at London Colney with time on his hands, working out our plan of attack for the remaining games of the season. The international break might not give time for some of the players to rest and reset, but for Arteta, he will use this time well. I am sure of it.

Back tomorrow with some more musings.

Arteta, as usual, gave basically nothing away, saying that Odegaard and Timber are a ‘we’ll see’, using the smokescreen of an additional training session to avoid giving the media – and City – anything conclusive. Weirdly with Odegaard, the best source of news seems to be his national team manager, Ståle Solbakken, who has been quoted as saying:

If he ends up making the League Cup final squad, we’ll reassess…I would prefer that he builds up his physical condition and gets a proper training period. He can have the opportunity to do that during this international break. So if he calls and says he’s fit, I’m not sure I would include him

I think that is a perfectly sensible approach from a coach who is clearly mindful that he needs his captain at his best for the upcoming World Cup. If only Thomas Tuchel took the same approach. He’s called Up Noni, Saka, Rice and Eze, and whilst Noni and Ebs haven’t had as many minutes this season, Saka has had injuries and plays all the time when fit, as does Rice, so I’m disappointed to see them travel. They should have been told to rest up. Somebody said to me they aren’t joining the eam for the first game, but will be there for the second. I can’t find anything online (haven’t looked too hard, to be fair) that gives any indication of that, but if it’s true, that’s a small blessing, I guess. Likewise, calls to have Dowman in the squad were rightly responded to by Tuchel as “no need to give him that pressure” – at least he’s got that bit right.

As for the other international bits of news, Mosqeura got his first call-up, which is nice, and given he hasn’t played much, I think that’s fine. I’m less happy about Zubi being called up and his situation should be treated the same as Rice’s – neither should be seeing minutes next week. That should also go for Gabriel (especially after what happened to him earlier in the season), Saliba, Trossard, Gyokeres and Havertz – who has only just started to come back. Use them sparingly…..please…

Back to Arteta, though, who cut an understanably confident tone as he looked ahead to this game. I didn’t realise this, but he has a 100% record at Wembley. That’s good, although I hate stats like that, because they are always there to be broken. I remember a stat coming up after we scored in the Man United home game earlier this year, that said something mental like “when Arsenal take the lead, they’ve won 26 out of 27 of their last games”. I don’t know if that was home only, but we promptly lost that game to the worldies that United scored, so what I’m worried about with stats like that is the football gods come a-knocking on our door. Let’s hope not.

The journalists also tried a little bit of tomfoolery by asking questions like “is it about beating Pep” but clearly Arteta was not going to bite there, batting it away as he should. Still, it’s not as bad as those Manchester-based journalists, one of whom asked Pep yesterday whether he was still ‘best frriends and go to dinner’ and if they are still talking after last season, when City players accused Arsenal players of ‘dark arts’. It was a pathetic attempt to get a soundbite ahead of this game and Pep clearly just thought the journalist was being a bit of a dick. He clearly was – this sort of stuff is designed to stir up some kind of Mourinho/Wenger-style rivalry that just isn’t there, and never will be there. They have both been in the game long enough, they’ve managed against each other long enough, they know each other so well, that they aren’t going to suddenly fall out. Or if they do on the side of the pitch, they’re both going to kiss and make up pretty quickly afterwards. That’s just life. People have disagreements, then they get over it, then the friendship endures longer than any short-term passionate situation in the heat of the moment.

The rest of the questions were a bit bland, if you ask me, because it was all about whether getting to cup finals is important, on viewing this game in isolation, or if he uses this situation to motivate his players. All pretty easy stuff to respond to; Pep got a few of the same too and naturally just batted them away. He was asked things like “why are Arsenal so good?” or “will this define your season?” and of course, he just gave out some flowers to our approach and strengths, then stated that it won’t define their season. And I think that’s right, in the same way that it won’t – and shouldn’t – define our season. We have ourselves a great opportunity to win a trophy, but it isn’t THE trophy. It’s a positive situation, but it can’t be something that impacts the players after Sunday. That’s where I don’t know if it is a good thing that there’s an international break or not. Perhaps, if we lose, it’ll act as a bit of a palate cleanser. We then have the FA Cup straight after that, then Sporting away, and given the most stressful games recently have been the Premier League ones, and that’s the main prize, perhaps it is good there is a bit of distance between this League Cup final and the Premier League. Maybe that even makes it a bit of a ‘win-win’; i.e. if we win it, we get the boost, but if we lose it, there is enough space between then and our next game in the league, that the players have time to respond positively.

Of course, I could, as always, be overthinking it WAAAAY too much, but that’s just me, right?

I think that’s probably about all there is worth talking about from the press conferences, so I’ll leave it there and catch you all tomorrow for the full match preview, including my probable/possible line-up, as well as how this game might play out. Catch you all then.

And the thing that I keep going backwards and forwards on, in my mind, is “What sort of state will this Man City team be in?”

There are obviously two schools of thought on this one:

1. Confidence sapped, psychologically wounded, fearful of the season imploding
2. Compartmentalising and recognising that this is the perfect game for them to show up against the current Premier League leaders.

Obviously, we all hope that it’s option A, but I was curious to see where their fans’ heads are at right now. If you watch the YouTubers, you see a very arrogant fanbase that just talk about how City are inevitable, how they have the muscle memory, how it is always ‘in the bag’, but some might say that about the Arsenal fans. In reality, your average Arsenal fan is like me: Nervous, worried, doesn’t want to jinx anything. We’re not all YouTubers vying for clicks with extreme opinions.

But can the same be said for City fans?

Well, here are the first few comments on a thread that I read this morning for City fans:

Don’t care how, just get us a win and that trophy. Going to have to fight for this.

and:

A must win in an otherwise awful campaign of uninspired football.

and:

100% right mate it’s been fuckin atrocious

Now, I think it is fair to say that those fans are probably reacting in the wake of being knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid, but I guess if you’re looking at it from their perspective, they’ve just seen their side go away to a Real Madrid who they expected to beat up on, plus back-to-back draws in the Premier League. In their last six home games, they have won three and drawn three, and in their last six away games, it is two wins, three draws and one defeat. In the thread I mentioned above, there are also comments like “First time going to Wembley expecting us to lose” and “We won’t win on Sunday, Arsenal are too physical, and our players will run off hiding”. I have to say, it’s a real surprise to see this level of apprehension from a fanbase who have pretty much had it their own way for trophies in the last seven-odd years.

I welcome it at this moment in time, but I’m also wary of the fact that we haven’t exactly been sparkling, with our games being more attritional than anything else. In the game at The Emirates, City scored first, scored early, after we made a couple of mistakes to set Haaland in behind. I doubt we’ll be as open and attacking as we were that day when it was 0-0, but I do wonder what Arteta has in store. We’ll find out tomorrow on team news, but he has lots of options to switch it up from even the game on Tuesday, so it will be fascinating to see what he says about the press conference tomorrow.

I wonder also if he’ll be a lot more jovial about this one, too. After all, this is selection number four of four for the trophies we want to win. All of us want it, we want to lay down a marker, we also don’t want to hear the media narrative about how “now the wobble begins” after a loss to City at Wembley, that we have an extended period of listening to because of internationals and the FA Cup after that. But in reality, even if we lose on Sunday, if we right ourselves by the time Southampton, Sporting Lisbon and Bournemouth come around, then we could still be on for a glorious season if things keep ticking over as they have done already.

Their fans are talking about how Pep doesn’t seem to know his best team, which I think is interesting given that it has, for so many seasons, been the thing that has made them unpredictable. We’ve also heard a lot about him ‘saving’ players for the second half of the season; I’m pretty sure that happened with Foden and/or Grealish for a few seasons. But now they need a settled side that Pep knows and can rely on; that side does appear, by the sounds of a few of them, to be involving Cherki, who I will admit impresses me whenever I see him play.

I wonder if, in that ‘saving players’ regard, we’re seeing the fruits of such an approach with Eze? He has played well in the last three matches, I thought, with the goal on Tuesday night being a cherry on top of the performance, and there’s been lots of talk about how he really comes alive in the back end of the season. Whether or not Arteta has planned this by action or design, I’m not so sure, though. Were Odegaard not struggling for fitness, I’m not sure Eze would have been given the games he has of late to build up the head of steam he now has. Hey, sometimes you need a little bit of fortune dressed as misfortune to allow you to stumble upon something. We all saw how the introduction of Emile Smith Rowe in Arteta’s first season effectively salvaged something for the manager over that Christmas period and that win at home to Chelsea. That came about because he had no other options, and Emile was the ‘Hail Mary’ that paid off. Eze is not that; the whole “save him for the Spring” could be revisionism, but if it works, none of us will give a flying fudge, will we?

Right, I’ll leave it there for today, I think. Have yourselves a great Thursday and I’ll be back tomorrow as the countdown to the big weekend intensifies even more.

Tottingham Popspurs, my-oh-my, what on earth? Even during the most banterous of Banter Era moments, I don’t remember us doing what they did last night. Three Champions League goals conceded in the first 15 minutes for the first time ever, I believe. A goalkeeper subbed off after 15 minutes for the first time ever. A Spurs side who have now lost six on the bounce in all competitions. And a manager who was supposed to be the short term ‘fixer’, now being heckled by a fanbase who in the last month have talked about ending the season, but now all believe that there is a massive chance they go down.

I can’t remember if I’ve talked about it on here, but I would love it if they went down. Love it. There are Arsenal fans talking about how we’d lose a guaranteed six points, about the joys of the North London Derby being unmatched, and about how it is good to have them in the Premier League for us. Not for me. Whack them down to the Championship, please.

That’s 245 words of today’s match day musings that I’ve wasted on that club, so let’s get to The Arsenal now, shall we? Arteta and Havertz (understandably, given his history with Leverkusen) were the ones up in front of the media yesterday, and thankfully, it appears as though some of the knocks from the weekend and players missing from training were exactly as we’d all hoped – nothing serious and rest has been had. So we have Gabriel, Saliba, Raya, Zubimendi, Rice, Calafiori and Trossard all available for selection tonight. Charles Watts also reported that Ben White travelled with the squad, so that’s great news as well. Hopefully, he can get some minutes today, because I do think Arteta is going to have to keep Jurrien Timber from breaking down by limiting his minutes if he can. White is a good player, has been a great servant for us in his time so far, but he’s already shown his body can’t handle being the sole breadwinner on that right hand side, so Arteta needs to make sure he keeps both players as fresh as possible by giving them minutes.

I think the rest of the team is going to be largely easy to predict, with just a question on left wing and left back. I’m thinking Arteta will go for:

Raya

Timber   –   Saliba   –   Gabriel   –   Hincapie

Zubimendi

Eze   –   Rice

Saka   –   Gyokeres   –   Trossard

I think Hincapie’s form, plus Arteta not wanting to risk Calafiori, suggests the Ecuadorian might get the nod. He’s not cup-tied, given that technically Leverkusen are still his club, but that’s all the more reason to start him, I think. He’ll have some extra impetus and incentive to demonstrate how his career is kicking on, and his form is such that he deserves that start. On the left this is a tricky one. In the Champions League, Martinelli has been bagging goals, and with teams often pressing high (especially at home) it feels as though there’s more space for him to exploit. But I’ve gone with Trossard because:

1. I think he works better with Gyokeres
2. I think Leverkusen are going to go more compact tonight and look to contain Arsenal

They may be at home, but if they are solid defensively and can limit us in a lower block, then the pressure switches to us at The Emirates. Thankfully, the away goal rule is done, so it does mean that Leverkusen can’t do the ol’ “draw 0-0 at home and 1-1 away and go through” that felt like it was one of the more rubbish things about the 90s and 2000s Champions League. But the gameplan can still be similar; stay in the tie in the first leg, then see if the supposed ‘favourites’ crack under the pressure on their own turf. It’s how I would set up tonight.

I’ve watched a couple of good tactical videos, including this one here, so it appears as though we’re going to get a back three from Leverkusen with two floating 10s supporting their front man. They’ll rely on their wing-backs for width and in Grimaldo, they have a quality player who this season is their second top scorer in all competitions with 12 goals. Not bad for a left wing-back, eh? There’s a question mark over their main man, Patrik Schick, who has been out with a muscular injury for the last couple of games, but their coach confirmed he trained yesterday and so will be in the squad. I talked about the strengths of the guy who might replace him yesterday, but if Schick is available and starts, it will be a different prospect for Gabriel and Salba. He’s about six foot three and is good in the air; he’ll be a strong link-up man for them in bringing those two tens in place, and if they utilise their wing-backs as we think they might.

Apparently, one of the challenges Bayer has is that they haven’t really rotated their first XI much this season, so I have read, with one report saying that Grimaldo has openly talked about how fatigued he is. We have to hope that is the case tonight, especially given that Saka only came on as a sub at the weekend. I hope he’s fresher than the Spaniard and that his penchant for venturing forward leaves space in behind, becaus eit feels like that might be an area of the pitch we could take advantage of.

Nothing is decided tonight, but we know full well, having seen Bayern smash Atalanta and Atletico dispatch the Scum, that you can very well put yourself with one foot out of Europe if you don’t get the duels right and the tactics spot on. Leverkusen have already beaten Man City away (something we haven’t done in about 10 years!), as well as drawn at home to Newcastle and beaten Villareal on their own patch too. They are a decent side in their own ground, so Mikel Arteta needs tobe very wary of that.

Catch you all tomorrow for the usual debrief.

Indeed, if the training pictures and video are anything to go by, we’re definitely going to get that, because there was no sign of Gabriel, Saliba, White, Timber, Zubimendi, Rice or Odegaard. All of which I don’t think you’ll find a single Arsenal fan unhappy about their possible absence today. We simply have to give some of those players a rest. And I guess there are two types of ‘rest’, really:

1. Rest from the matchday squad and playing, and going through the usual warm-up
2. Complete rest from everything – including training

I hope those players have all been given the latter. It will have meant a tiny little ‘Spring break’ for them, and if it helps them for the Leverkusen game and the Everton game next week, then happy days. I want them rested, reset and ready to go. Of course, some of them are possibly injured, with White and Odegaard sure to tick that box, but there’s a question mark over Saliba (which Arteta confirmed in his press conference), and there’s no way you want to risk him with this kind of game.

Especially with the rumoured state of the Mansfield pitch, which some of the journalists commented on in the press conference as having “not a lot of grass”. Arteta isn’t outfoxed for a soundbite to clip upin these types of moments, however, so of course he played a perfectly straight bat with his response. As you’d expect. We’re going to get a ‘good ol’ fashioned cup tie’ this lunchtime, and I’m expecting the footballing cliches to be busted out left, right, and centre by TNT Sports today. So Arsenal’s modus operandi is to be professional, control possession, not allow the game to get bogged down (excuse the pun) in a slog fest, demonstrating their quality to the Mansfield team – even with such a rotated squad.

The good thing so far this season is that even when Arteta has rotated his team, we’ve still seen plenty of professionalism on display, so I am expecting nothing less this lunchtime. But who will take their place in the Arsenal starting XI and on the bench?

Here’s my stab at a starting XI for Mansfield away:

Kepa

Salmon   –   Mosquera   –   Calafiori   –   Hincapie

Norgaard

Dowman   –   Havertz

Madueke   –   Jesus   –   Martinelli

My thinking here is that Hincapie has played the least of all the ‘regulars’ this season, so he might be the freshest, and with Myles suspended, it makes sense. It’s a shame because if Myles were able to start, then you could rotate almost the entire team, ready for Leverkusen. But his suspension as a result of yellow card accumulation means that Arteta has a little bit of thinking to do. I think Havertz in from the start makes sense, as the club tries to build his fitness back up, but I’d be tempted to give it just the 45 minutes, and when he gets through that, have him off regardless of the score. I think Madueke and Jesus therefore pick themselves, although I see that Harriman-Annous was training with the first team, so perhaps he can do a bit of a job share with Gabby J? Alternatively, Arteta could look at this match as an opportunity for Big Vik to bag a goal or two, although I’d be surprised if he started. Then I think you have to give Martinelli a chance to overcome his poor performance away at Brighton by getting in and amongst the action today. That’s certainly what my hope is.

The bench will, I hope, be littered with youngsters. Let’s have Josh Nicholas, let’s give Evan Mooney a place, let him sit alongside Brando Bailey-Joseph – I want to be scratching my head when I see that Arsenal bench.

Of course, I suspect there will be a few more established players ready to come on if the situation dictates, but with all due respect to Mansfield, this should be a game in which Arsenal take the opportunity to catch a breath at a point in the season in which every moment feels ultra-intense. Even last night, I woke up at 3 am and was thinking about what the psychological impact would be of another horrible home game against Everton like last season, so it shows you just how much this end of the season is hitting the average Joe fan like me.

As for Mansfield, well, even Nigel Clough (that’s a blast from my Panini sticker album past!) knows it is an uphill battle, as well as admitting that their league form is more important than this right now. Of course, their players will be up for it, and the chance to test themselves against a Premier League team is massive, but the manager has hardly sounded a rally cry for his team. He’s said he’s not looking forward to playing against Arteta, that there’s not a lot they can do other than focus on themselves, as well as the fact our squad will “frighten the life out of our lads” – so he’s hardly sounding optimistic. We have to use that. We have to make sure there are no upsets. I was nine when we lost to Wrexham – that pain of going into school on the Monday has never left me – I don’t want that again on Monday for work as an adult!

I’m not going to pretend to know anything about them tactically, but if Adrian Clarke’s words of wisdom are anything to go by, it sounds to me like another low-block afternoon might be on the cards. Who knows – they might surprise us and come out a little, but I would be very surprised if that happens, because they don’t want to be on the end of an absolute slap down.

Right, I’ll leave it there for today. James and I will do a post-match review tomorrow on the Same Old Arsenal pod, so join us then if you want a little more Arsenal in your life.

Much obliged.

My brother is a West Ham fan. On my Dad’s side of the family, they are all Hammers. He’s been pretty down of late. But I messaged him when they beat The Scum and said:

The dream scenario. We win the league. Your mob stay up. The Scum go down.

He wasn’t very expectant of that:

I’ll take winning the FA Cup too while we’re at it. But it won’t happen.

I still think Tottenham will, unfortunately, avoid the drop. But it is fun to see them flailing. I also have a Spurs mate I went to school with who, upon them winning the Europa League last season by being the least-sh*t side in the competition, sent me a video of himself swaggering around the Tottenham stadium. That video is being brought out if they go down and we win the league.

But….there is STILL loads of football to play. We can’t count our chickens-on-basketballs just yet. We are in a fabulous position, and we have a little respite from the relentlessness of the Premier League this weekend, but that win at Brighton and the subsequent City draw will have been a huge shot of confidence and adrenaline into the arms of those Arsenal players. Whatever about us playing poorly for the performance, the win and the grind of three points was all that mattered. We leave the bitching and moaning to the pundits, media, and rival fans.

And there’s been a fair bit of it of late. I see Pardew has said this Premier League season will have an ‘asterisk’ next to it because of gamesmanship and time-wasting. But you don’t have to look far to see that it’s a self-fulfilling media narrative that is driving that kind of nonsense statement:

Hurzeler will never be a winner. He will always remain that manager who likes to be an underdog and crib about everything. Always salty and insecure who will never appreciate his colleagues. pic.twitter.com/mO116AC7vN

— Sir Jenkinson (@theEpicGooner) March 5, 2026

You can put asterisks against any title win if you like:

• Liverpool 2024/25* = Injuries to rivals and favourable refereeing helped them
• Man City 2023/24* = 115 Charges
• Man City 2022/23* = 115 Charges

I mean, I could go on and on with the City charges stuff…

Thankfully, despite some of the hollow and, frankly, factually incorrect nonsense that we have seen from some corners of the online world (here’s another one if you fancy it), we are starting to see some counter-punches being thrown in the media, including this one from Sam Dean in the Telegraph which I quite liked. It’s behind a paywall, but the jist is that we tried playing better football in 2022/23 and we got lambasted for not having the guile or experience of the City side. We are not here to make friends, we have to use this outside noise to create a siege mentality, and we must continue to grind out results between now and May if we want to win this thing. We don’t know whether Everton, in just over a week, will end up being the opposite of what we are feeling right now with our jubilation (remember the 0-0 with Dyche’s Everton last season at The Emirates, anyone?), but as it stands we can be pleased with where the team is at and letr’s keep our feet on the ground and our hopes in the sky.

Arteta will be up in front of the microphones today to talk Mansfield, which I suspect the team will then immediately hop on a coach up to Yorkshire for the game tomorrow lunchtime. It’s a press conference in which I sincerely hope he admits that there will be some players who will just not even be on the coach to head up. The likes of Zubi and Rice I want at home. Maybe Saka, Saliba and Gabriel too, although I suspect you can’t ground too many of your first teamers in case things go a little Pete Tong at Field Mill. It will be a hopefully very well-rotated side, because it’s up against a Mansfield team who currently sit 16th in League One and whose only win in their last 10 games came away at Burnley in the previous round.

I make no excuses for my little knowledge about them, but a quick look at WhoScored can give a wee overview of the type of game we might get. Their strengths are in defending set pieces, which will hopefully be tested tomorrow, whilst their weaknesses show a side that isn’t ball-dominant, isn’t great at aerial duels, and isn’t good at defending against through-balls. They are also described as a ‘non-aggressive’ side, which amuses me when you think about some of the aforementioned characteristics, because we are described as a side who are powerful, strong, a dominating presence, which isn’t too good to watch. Normally, when you think about these kinds of games, you think that a tight ground, lower-league opposition, will make it a tough and physical battle. But the way Mansfield are described by WhoScored, it feels like we’re the ones who might bring more of that to the table tomorrow!

We’ll have to see what Arteta says in his press conference today, but I’m looking forward to seeing what some of the rotated players can do in this one tomorrow, because there are a few players that do need minutes, but we might also get to see the likes of Dowman play too. I’ll do more of an in-depth look at us and what we might do tomorrow as the match preview.

But until then, I shall bid you adieu, and hope you have a fab Friday.

Laters kids.

Firstly, it’s because this feels like a game that, unless we win, we may very well be on the verge of being out of a title race that three week’s ago the bookies were paying out on us securing. But some shoddy performances, some lacklustre displays, have meant that when City beat Newcatsle tonight (and it is a ‘when’, because you only have to look at Newcastle record at Man City – one 0-0 draw is all they have to show for 26 years of Premier League games going back to 2000), it’s going to feel like the pressure is all on us in one of the most intense periods of the season, as well as one of the most intense games of the season.

Which leads me to my second point, which is the way this team has handled the pressure in 2026, and the answer is ‘not great’. Two wins in seven is the kind of form we saw in 2007/8 when we led the league until the Eduardo leg break derailed our season. That was on 23rd February 2008. Two days from now. If you read my blogs regularly, you’ll know that when it comes to football, I am a deeply superstitious man. So finding out that date this morning as I’m typing away today’s thoughts, doesn’t help me.

Thirdly, I worry about Mikel Arteta and his reluctance to utilise the full might of his squad. We have never had such an impressive array of talent and depth, yet some of the well-documented and spoken about lack of minutes for some players, is really troubling. He needs to recognise when some players look dead on their feet and he needs to develop that skill Pep always had of sitting some players down – no matter how talented – for a few weeks. Timber is the obvious candidate from midweek, but I doubt we’ll see that.

But given that yesterday we had Declan Rice issuing a rally call to the fans to stick behind the team, and given Arteta reiterated that they need the fans with them now more than ever, I’m going to try to be as positive as possible and send as many positive vibes to this Arsenal team as I can possibly transmit.

I’ll admit that seeing Arteta’s post-match Wolves interview had me worried, because he looked quite shaken by what he’d seen, but yesterday he was the epitome of calm, which reassured me. There are press conferences I’ve seen over the years where he’s looked spikey, he’s bristled at questions, he has looked rattled. It didn’t look like it to me yesterday. Given the magnitude of the game, given how from a supporter perspective it feels like we are standing ona precipice, given our recent form, it is heartening to see a manager talk about how he didn’t lay into the team, but he was delighted with the way they have been speaking in the aftermath of that disappointing Wolves performance.

I do think, however, that when the players had their ‘talk, they needed to have spoken about the mindset after we’ve been going ahead. The retreat towards our own box just simply isn’t sustainable. It invites pressure. It encourages inferior opponents. It makes us look weak. There needs to be some bravery from those players, and this weekend will hopefully provide that. I’ll admit I am still ultra-nervous right now, I’ll be worse tomorrow morning and by kick off I’ll be a bit of a wreck, but if those players are feeling relaxed and loose as they step off that bus into the heartland of the Scum, then that may at least dial down my worry by at least a percentage point or two.

Igor Tudor also gave his press conference, saying that he’s been working with only 13 fit first team players, whilst also confirming that nobody new is back fit, but then I’ve seen a video in which he’s said Richarlison is back fit. There were some training pictures that showed that, so I guess it was to be expected, but that little rat-bag even being available is a shame. He’s the archetypal Scum player; dislikable, annoying, snide and having him available from the bench might prove problematic. Let’s just hope that Big Bill Saliba and Big Gabi have his number if he does get minutes on the pitch.

For us, the team news seems pretty positive. Based on what Arteta said (which admittedly, and predictably, was sketchy and not definitive), I would hazard a guess that both Havertz and Odegaard make the match-day squad. Whether they are fit to start remains to be seen; Havertz is a weird one because you’d think that he wouldn’t be fit to start, but Arteta had no trouble starting him against both Leeds and Sunderland, and the rumours are that his injury has been more about managing load when he felt something. If he’s been back in training for a few days, having played 3 week’s ago, maybe he could be an option from the start tomorrow? It’s the same with Odegaard, who went off against Brentford nine days ago, so his knock has hopefully recovered, and that means he could be ready.

Having that full complement of attacking players to choose from could be huge. With The Scum looking at their team as being just about those players who can get on to the pitch, maybe (hopefully) it means their options to change it are limited. But our options are (hopefully) plentiful. Let’s hope that we don’t need them to ‘make a difference’ in the second half, but at least having those players ready to play is a boost.

Right, I’m going to leave it there. I want to leave you with a bit more positivity, because tomorrow is when the nerves really do kick in.

Have a great saturday kids.

We were all certainly blessed with mostly good news yesterday, as it was all but confirmed that Bukayo Saka has signed his new bumper contract. I was asked to give some comments on that for the BBC so rather than repeat what I said there, here is a link if you want to see a few words from me on that deal.

There was also good news on the injury front, as Riccardo Calafiori has been confirmed as fit following his withdrawal from the squad at the weekend against Wigan. When you hear that kind of news, there is often a worry that it’ll end up being a prolonged absence, as was the case over Christmas when he pulled up in a warm-up game, but this time it appears the club is focused on making sure they don’t take any precautions with players like Riccy. That’s EXACTLY what we all want to hear; he’s a very talented player, and we need him available, not out for weeks and weeks at a time. Whether he starts tonight will be interesting. Personally, I’d be tempted not to risk it, to give Hincapie the starting jersey, then see if Calafiori comes through the last 30 minutes unscathed. If he does, you’ve got him as a viable option for the game against The Scum at the weekend.

Ben White is also fine, having limped off, but it appears that was just a bit of fatigue, so having him available is good. Jurrien Timber probably needs to do a little more job sharing in my opinion, because he’s looked leggy in the latter stages of games recently, so having White available to come on is important for us and keeping it tight at the back, I believe.

The other good news on the injury front was that Kai Havertz has an outside chance of being fit for this evening, according to Mikel Arteta, but he has also said he is a possibility for the weekend. I think the club won’t risk Kai tonight, but I think they’ll have him training this week and maybe he can be a bench option on Sunday, which is fantastic news.

Odegaard, however, won’t make it this evening, which I think means Arteta has two options for a replacement, and I’ll be interested to see what he goes for. He either puts Eze in there in the hope that the Wigan game has been the spark that the Englishman needs, or he can continue with the Saka-central experiment, in the hope that this could be something that unlocks our scoring firepower for the remainder of the season, where we will continue to come up against low blocks.

I really don’t know which option he’ll go for. Of course, what he could do is play Eze in the left eight, then tell Rice to switch to right eight and do the same role, but on a slightly different pivot to normal. We’re going to have more of the ball, we’re going to do most of the attacking tonight, you’d expect, so giving those progressive passes and attacking players like Eze the natural zones and spaces they like to operate in makes sense to me. Rice is also quality enough that he could do just as good a job at right eight as he does on the left, so that’s what I’d be leaning towards if I were Arteta.

I also think that Wolves are going to sit into a low block and congest the defensive third; they have the lowest field tilt of any team in the Premier League (meaning most of the ball is played in their half), they have made the second most tackles of any team (suggesting they are often on the back foot trying to wrestle back control), although interestingly they are not the worst when it comes to things like xG – Burnley, West Ham, Leeds and Forest are all worse for xG allowed, which says to me that whilst Wolves have trouble up the attacking end and sit deep, they don’t give up as many chances as those sides.

With some of that data in mind, it does feel like somebody like Eze would be useful in this match. If Wolves are sitting deep in their own box, maybe we do need to unsettle them by peppering a few shots from distance? I think we also need those trickery players, so Trossard on the left feels natural, but should we be looking at Madueke on the right? Probably not. You can’t not have Saka in this Arsenal team. He’s the main man, and whilst his form hasn’t been amazing, this is the sort of day and game that he could well come alive in on that right-hand side. So, for me, I’d go with this as a starting XI:

Raya

Timber   –   Saliba   –   Gabriel   –   Hincapie

Zubimendi

Rice   –   Eze

Saka   –   Gyokeres   –   Trossard

If that’s the side, then you still have Martinelli and Madueke to be impact players in the second half. If the game feels like one in which Big Vik isn’t getting a sniff because of a low-block back line, then Gabby J is also there as somebody who can come o,n too. If the game is (hopefully) sewn up, maybe you can also think about Norgaard for the closing stages, as he impressed against Wigan, and I think he is deserving of more Premier League minutes than he’s had so far.

Wolves are expected to line up with a back three, which will move to a back five when out of possession and dropping deep, which might mean that they look to double up on our wide men. They are missing Hwang, but they have that tricky kid, Mane, who has impressed me on the few times I’ve seen him. If he plays, he’s one to keep an eye on. Like us, they rotated practically all of their team, although their back line remained the same, so maybe/hopefully there’s some fatigue that creeps in there for us to take advantage of. But this should be a game that we are doing anyway. There is a reason Wolves have eight points all season. There is a reason they have just one win against West Ham all season. There is a reason they are at the bottom of the league, and if we want to win this thing, this is the sort of game that you need to do the business in. Wolves proved in the game at The Emirates that they are not as terrible as their results suggest, and I think Mikel will be acutely aware of the need for his team to be on it tonight.

That’s it from me. I’ll be back tomorrow for a review, in which hopefully we’re talking about three points for The Arsenal.

Catch you then.

When you get to that part of the season you’re looking for ways in which you can involve the whole squad, so this opportunity will, I think, afford Mikel Arteta the chance to rest and rotate some of those key players who have been playing all the minutes. I think it also feels like some sort of football karma; we’ve had a fair few years of playing all Premier League opposition, so to be able to play teams with whom we rarely come up against feels quite nice, I would say.

City go away to Newcastel and you’d hope that means Pep has some thinking to do around that time about how he lines up his team for that one. They too will have it sandwiched in between Premier League and Champions League games, so if it helps to contribute towards their fatigue as he’s forced to field a stronger side, then I think we’re all good with that, as Arsenal fans.

But for now, attention moves to Wolves away tomorrow night, for which I do wonder how tempted Arteta might be to play some of the faces that played against Wigan, in some of the positions they play in as well. For example, could we see Saka and Madueke both in the starting line-up? It felt good to me; both seemed to have a good connection, good passing combinations and good rapport between them, with Madueke and Saka combining for the own goal that was scored. My hope is that Arteta is asked about it today and that he doesn’t dismiss it. In fact, if we get a little smile and a vanilla response that you can’t quite work out what he’s saying, I think that means he’s got it seriously in contention as an option tomorrow. With Odegaard potentially not fit, it does feel like it could be worth a try. Alternatively, maybe Eze in the 10 is the choice, with Rice and Zubi slotting into more of a double pivot? Eze’s performance will be such that Arteta must be thinking about ways in which he can unlock him and against a Wolves side sure to sit back into a low block, having the guy who is willing to take those pot shots to try to unlock something might be worth consideration.

As for Wolves, having looked like they might be on the comeback trail over the turn of the new year with a draw away at United and a 3-0 home win against West Ham, they’ve slipped back into defeat mode, so my hope for tomorrow is that the initial confidence that looked like it was sweeping through following the arrival of Rob Edwards, is now extinguished for tomorrow. They’ve picked up a point away at Forest in their last game, but before that it was a 3-1 defeat at home to Chelsea, which came before a 2-0 home defeat to Bournemouth. Before that it was a 2-0 away defeat at Man City, with the game before that being a 0-0 at home to a Newcastle side who have struggled a bit on the road this season (victory at the Scum aside). So it’s not exactly a massive swing in form and we have to use that to press down on the necks of them tomorrow evening. In their last game against Forest I think it is fair to say they got away with one a bit; Forest had 34 attempts at goal! There’s no Strand Larsson in their team any more, replacing him with Armstrong from Southampton, whilst they’ll have no Hwang through injury either.

Their fans are hardly optimistic either. I’ve just had a quick look on a Wolves Forum and not a single fan even predicted their team to score a goal, let alone win the match. The scorelines ranged from 0-2 to 0-4 and that tells you a lot about how they are feeling. You can understand why; they’ve scored 16 goals in 26 games, they have one win and six draws with 19 defeats, they’ve conceded 48 goals (nearly two per game on average) and they are looking like they will be going down within the coming weeks.

But all of that was true when we played them at The Emirates, and it didn’t stop us needing a stoppage-time winner to save our blushes. This is a difficult league, it is an unpredictable league; you never quite know what is going to happen once the first ball is kicked. Arteta should be stressing that to his players. I hope he is also stressing the importance of not wasting up a whole half. I’ll expand on it a little bit more tomorrow, but we need to be going for the jugular from the first minute tomorrow evening. No more walking pace first-half football, please, Arsenal. I don’t want to see Big Gabi and Big Bill Saliba exchanging passes whilst we rest defence our way through a first half. Get the job done early like you did against Wigan. Then you can start thinking about that nausea-inducing North London Derby on Saturday.

We’ll have some press conferences today, which we can have a look at tomorrow, but for now, I’ll leave you all be and be back tomorrow with more of a match preview once we know the team news. Catch you all then.

Tottenham Hotspur.

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

I fully realise their next game is against us. I fully realise that there is absolutely zero chance they are as dire as they have been at home all season. I fully realise that there’s no way they will be as terrible – conceding 2.48xG to Newcastle, 21 shots, five on target, two big chances missed for the Geordies – against us. I also realise that we may have to face our old foe, New Manager bounce, because Thomas Frank sounded like a beaten man in his post-match presser. But if you can’t laugh at this situation, when can you?

I saw somebody on Sky Sports say it would be so Spurs to get relegated – or finish close to it this season – and go on to win the Champions League. That made my heart skip a beat for a second, but then I had to remind myself about their ‘run’ to winning that thing:

• Woeful Man United last season in the final
• Bodo/Glimt in the semi-final
• Frankfurt in the quarters
• AZ Alkmaar in the round of 16

The Champions League will throw up tougher challenges, so hopefully they can get knocked out of that as soon as possible, and Thomas Frank remains in charge for the foreseeable future. Please.

The only downside – which also has an impact on the relegation situation – is that West Ham were denied a win against Man United; a Man United side who, I was reading yesterday, are quietly confident that they can make a late charge for the title. Yesterday I thought ‘stranger things have happened’ and they’re ONLY 12 points off us. It’s 11 now, but if we can beat Brentford tomorrow night, it moves to 1,4 and that should be that for any notion that they are a competitor. I’d prefer it to be City in their position and United to be in City’s position, but there you go.

There was some amusement for the Chelsea draw at home to Leeds, but with them 12 points off us, see Man United for where they are at and what their possible title charge could look like.

Tonight, our title challenge gets a little more squeaky bum as Fulham get dispatched at the Emptihad as they perennially do, but as I said yesterday and the day before, we just have to handle our business. That business will be Igor Thiago first and foremost, and whilst all season I’ve enjoyed his goals for Brentford as he’s in my FPL team, this match week I hope he is as quiet as a mouse.

That’s not how the fans are feeling, for obvious reasons, because Brentford are flying, sitting fifth in the form table guide – above us in seventh! They’ve won their last two games, which included two really impressive away wins at Newcastle and Villa. I saw some of the highlights from that game at St James’ Park and they probably could have had a penalty before Newcastle initially went ahead through some poor set-piece corner defending, but they should have been two-up before Brentford got their good first, and then their penalty, which looked a bit of a dodgy and fortunate one for me. So Newcastle created plenty of chances, and you’d hope that we can also do the same. The thing we will have to watch is Outtara. He is rapid, he’s a good finisher (as that game showed), and he is the kind of guy who works perfectly in a system where his team doesn’t have a lot of the ball and goes from back-to-front very quickly. There will be plenty of pondering over the next 24-36 hours as to who starts for Arsenal tomorrow, but with that in mind, I don’t think you can look beyond Jurrien Timber at right back. He’s the guy who is think is probably better suited to tackle somebody like Outtara.

Anyway, I mentioned their fans, so what are they saying? Here’s a few select quotes from one of their forums – Griffin Park Grapevine:

They are not going to know what’s hit them.

And:

I have a good feeling…

And:

Only Arsenal have more points than us in the last 10 games, we’re playing some of the best football we’ve ever played, we’re at home and the team spirit is unbelievable. KA is proving he can mix it up with unexpected changes so let LegoHead worry about how they can contain us.

There are other comments in there that, dare I say it, are pretty level-headed and respectful about us. I have seen none of that from Wolves, Forest, Leeds, Aston Villa threads, but the Brentford fans in the thread I watched talked about our squad depth and how we will certainly field a strong team tomorrow night. That goes without saying, but it’s interesting to see them acting pretty normal and not just chucking insults our way like most of these threads do from other teams. I’ve always liked Brenrford. Just not tomorrow night.

Bit of bonus reading that I did beforehand on the official site – nice interview with Eze talking about his first six months at the club. It’s a nice read, but a common thread for a new player, much like we heard from Rice. He talks about the level of information he’s had to take in compared to the rest of his career; he is working under a manager who demands a lot and drills so much tactical insight into his team, that we see on the pitch how versatile this Arsenal side is. I think a few of us have voiced very minor concerns about his lack of game time of late, but if you take it in the context of a player who is having to learn and adapt to a completely new way of training, playing, taking on info and instructions, perhaps it makes more sense. Arsenal and Arteta are also in a position where they have a deep squad and many players who have been in that environment for some time, so to have the luxury of being able to give a player like Eze points in the season in which he can take a beat, might be better for his long-term adaptation to The Arsenal way.

I do think he’s got a massive part to play in the latter part of this season. Not least because last season he came alive in the run-in, but also when you look at where he seems to come alive, it is in big games. He scored for Palace in the FA Cup Final and Community Shield. He’s scored a hat-trick for us against the Scum – he’s a player who relishes the limelight I think and every game is going to start getting massive if you think about how we’re now at what is known as the slightly cliched ‘business end of the season’.

I back him to get more minutes, as well as more important moments, for us still to come this season.

Back tomorrow after both press conferences have been done and we can start to think about how we might line up.

Or does it? I’ve seen times at which we’ve had an extended period in between matches because we’ve been knocked out of the FA Cup earlish like they were to Villa, but then you lose a bit of the rhythm and cadence of regular football.

I think for us it’s probably better that we’re playing later in the week. I mean, the whole ‘City could be just three points off Arsenal by the time they kick off’ adds a little bit of a psychological edge to proceedings, but given the narrative and way in which Arteta has addressed the talk of the title race up until this point, I think those Arsenal players will also be set up with the right conditions to block out a lot of the noise. The media manifesting this as if it is neck-and-neck is one thing, but those players need to be looking at the cold, hard facts and see where they have come and where they are at.

As fans, we have the licence to fret – of which we do – but those players are professionals, and they need to just cut it all out. I have to admit that I thought they were being burdened by the weight of expectation and worry after that United game, but since then, the focus appears to have returned. Of course, that means nothing if you slip up at these stages, but I have hope that this Arsenal team will do what the manager says and go into these games with a view to ‘enjoying it’.

If that is the case, then I think a tough and physical game against Brentford should be something they relish, because we know that Brentford are going to give us a run for our money on Thursday. We talked a bit about them at the end of the Same Old Arsenal pod we recorded last night, and I reeled off a few stats to try to work out what’s ahead of us for Brentford. Interestingly, they are the most efficient in front of the goal of any team in the league when you compare the number of shots they have compared to the number of goals they’ve scored. They don’t take many chances, but when they do, they have been scoring them, and we know that they are a good set-piece side. They are a clever side; they know just as well as we that the percentages when you get the ball into certain positions with corners, free-kicks, and throw-ins (of which they have a guy who has a bullet throw, as we know), then your probability of unsettling defences increases massively.

They also make some of the fewest final-third passes in the league, in the bottom half, and only Wolves, Leeds and West Ham make fewer. So this side goes back to front quickly; they are very efficient when they do, and they are very good with set pieces. I don’t know about you, but a pattern in how this game is potentially unfolding is really starting to become clear to me. They also make some of the most average blocks per game – this is a side who will be compact defensively, then look to spring traps with pacey wide-forwards and an in-form striker in Igor Thiago.

So what Arsenal needs to do is control some of the controllables. Winning the first few big battles in our box will be key, but we need to acknowledge that when Brentford are in their defensive shape, we’ll have possession and territory and we’ll need to – at times – show levels of patience. And I need to remind myself as well that we’ve started scoring more goals, whilst also keeping shut-outs, so maybe the team will lean more into their own form, rather than looking at what City will be doing.

I’m saying all of this as if we’re playing tonight, maybe because of the staggered match week. The interest tonight would be more ‘funny’ than anything else, because it would be funny to see Chelsea, the Scum and Man United all lose. Then tomorrow, the hopes are pinned on Brighton doing something at Villa, but I hold nothing in terms of hopes for Fulham at City. I watched Sky Sports last night, and the stats are shocking. Fulham have lost all of their last 19 games to City in all competitions. That includes 16 in a row in the Premier League and Marcos Silva for all the clubs he’s been in charge of in England? Zero wins from the last 13. They aren’t even picking up a point tomorrow night, so let’s forget about that and focus on the fact that The Arsenal need to do what they need to do on Thursday.

I might take some time tomorrow to start looking at how the Brentford fans are feeling ahead of this one, as well as what some of the other pundits are saying about how this one will unfold. But until then, I shall bid you a fine Tuesday and catch you all tomorrow for some more ramblings. Speak then.

Yesterday I touched on it, but it’s one of those games in which everything – and everyone – is calling this a routine home win. The stats back it up, again, as I mentioned yesterday. Sundewrland aren’t amazing away from home. And yet….AND YET…there’s that nagging feeling that when we’ve really had the opportunity to start really – and I mean REALLY – pull away from the chasing pack, it’s felt like we haven’t quite been able to do it.

Remember the Declan Rice “every F*cking time” comment captured after Forest? Or the feeling post-United? I remember seeing a stat from Sky during the United game, which was that in 24 of our previous 24 that we’d gone ahead, we’d won – I think it was at home. And what happened? The odds went against us on that occasion. So I just worry that the data seems to be pointing in such a way that we might end up getting ‘against-the-run-of-pplay’ chinned today.

It just feels like there’s jeopardy lurking around every corner.

But I guess that’s just the nature of a title run-in. We’ve sort of been doing this for a few years now, so you’d think we’d be attuned to it by now, but it feels somehow different this season. We’ve been leading for so long. We’ve been the best team for so long. We’ve been waiting for a title as fams for so long, that we’re extra stressed about this, I feel like more than ever. In 2022/23 it was the ‘surprise package’ gig. In 2023/24, it was ‘blown it at Christmas,’ but then we went on a mega-surge at the end, so we were still underdogs and chasing. Last season was the season of injury hell and a squad not big enough to respond. This season it has – up until this point – been all there for us. And so far we’ve taken our chances. Heck, we’re six points clear as it stands. And yet…AND YET…it does feel like we’re on a knife-edge between being reeled back in.

So today’s home game against Sunderland represents an opportunity to keep on keeping on. To keep up the efforts, intensity, and relentlessness of the Premier League.

Sunderland’s game plan today will be clear: Keep it tight, congest the central spaces, look for free kicks, corners, etc, then see if you cvan ‘nick’ a goal. Arsenal – having played in midweek – may well start off with that controlled possession that so many of us worry about. you know, the stuff where Gabriel and Saliba are exchanging passes at walking pace? That may well be the first half we watch today. So as fans in the stadium, or those like me watching from afar whilst on my final day of holiday today, we probably need to, in the words of George Clooney in From Dusk til Dawn, ‘be cool’.

We don’t have to worry about Granit Xhaka, so that’s one thing we don’t need to worry about. Then there are players like Masuaku, but Xhaka being out is the main one for them. They still have Le Fee, Brobbey, Diarra, who can all cause us issues. We’ll dominate the ball, but we need to dominate more than just ball and territory, which is where picking players with incision is key.

For me, that means I think we should line up today with this team:

Raya

Timber   –   Saliba  –   Gabriel   –   Calafiori

Zubimendi

Eze   –   Rice

Madueke  –   Gyokeres   –   Trossard

I tinkered with the preference being Havertz up top, given that he only had a cameo against Chelsea, but he’s played a lot recently, and given the goalscoring exploits last weekend of Big Vik, I just wonder if Arteta might go for him. I personally think we might need a bit more guile, but when you have a striker who is bagging, you probably need to lean in to that a little more. Madueke for Saka is the natural replacement, whilst Leo for his close ball control feels obvious. But if Odegaard is, as we expect, still out, then you also need to lean into the ‘X-Factor’ of somebody like Eze. This game – for me – feels really similar to the one against Palace earlier in the season in the league. A good team, a solid unit, a side that will be tough to break down, in which you need a ‘difference maker’. That boy Ebs is one of those, so let’s lean in to it.

I will be watching at 9 pm local time, hoping that I have a flight home tomorrow, which is nice and not grumpy, which will depend entirely on whether Arsenal can do the business today. Let’s hope they can.

Catch you all tomorrow.

From a fitness point of view, the news we have all unofficially heard is that Saka is out until probably the Spurs game, which is a real pain in the arse because as much as Noni was good against Leeds, I do worry about his consistency. He’ll get an extended opportunity to impress this time around, so let’s hope he can continue to add some G’s and A’s to his positive tally from Leeds. Odegaard too is supposedly a bit of a doubt, but we’ll have to see what Arteta says in a bit. It might be a good opportunity to give Eze a set of starts so he can start to build some momentum as we reach the crunch point in the season. I thought he showed some positive signs in the League Cup game in midweek, including sliding the ball in for what should have been a penalty on Martinelli. Let’s hope that if he does start tomorrow, he’s getting back to the earlier season form that saw goals against Palace and the Scum.

Sunderland are a weird team. Imperious at home, the opposite away from home, with the kind of metrics that make the data nerds blush. They are massively out-performing in terms of team form, but things like goals scored has them second from bottom behind Wolves with just 24 all season. They’re fourth from bottom on shots on target this season, they’ve conceded more shots than anyone bar West Ham and Burnley in the league, they put the second-fewest crosses in compared to any other team, they have the second-lowest xG for….I could on forever, baby…

What they have done well at is clean sheets. This is a well-drilled side. And, as we saw ourselves at The Stadium of Light earlier in the season, they have a playing style that is physical and industrial; they have no problem going long and deep into your box, which I expect we’ll see tomorrow. It’s also how they got their first goal against us earlier in the season, then they used their other weapon – the strength and physicality of Brobbey – for their equaliser in injury time.

Arsenal and Arteta will be well-aware of what they are coming up against.

Their fans are understandably feeling themselves. Lots of talk on the message boards of cheeky away wins, plenty of them predicting a draw, not a lot of chatter about a possible defeat. I can understand that; they have had a great season, they beat Burnley comprehensively on Monday, they’ve basically secured their place for next season with their home form, so there’s an element of ‘free hit’ about this one. For Arsenal, that is certainly not the case. We need this win. This weekend feels like it could be massive, and with us going first, there’s a real opportunity to open up a significant lead at the top. We haven’t quite been able to get there yet, though. What I mean by that is that it feels like every time we get six or seven points clear, we have a slip-up, so what I’m hoping for from this weekend is that we do our job, Liverpool do theirs, so we can start to feel like a bit of a buffer is appearing. If that happened this weekend, it would start to also feel like a psychological barrier would start to creep up between us and the rest, too. But every time it’s felt like we might start to pull away, something has gone against us. For example, the Liverpool game, the Forest game, the United defeat – each of those felt to me like ‘the moment’ in which we would pull away. Yet each time we’ve been dragged back to the chasing pack. Arteta must be very clear with his lads tomorrow – we need to handle OUR business.

The pundits clearly favour us too. Lewis Jones on Sky Sports goes with a 2-0, Merse goes with the same scoreline, Sutton reckons it’s 2-0 as well, although all of these pundits do acknowledge that this will be a tough one for us. It’ll be a hard watch, too, I suspect. For Sunderland a drab 0-0 would be perfect to take back to the North East, so they’ll play with a deep, low-block, they’ll congest central spaces and metaphorically say to Arsenal “go on then, break us down, because we’re not moving”. Then, when they do have the ball, it will be long and up to Brobbey to have himself a battle with our big two stoppers at centre half. I’m already not looking forward to this as a spectacle.

And do you know what everyone will say? “Man, Arsenal are not fun to watch”. Sorry, but it’s the other side you need to focus on guys, because it’s difficult to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, and we get sows’ ears regularly trotting their way on to the Emirates pitch against us each week. You bring a fight to us and we’ll show you a good game. And if you don’t, then don’t complain to us when we nod one in from a set piece.

Right, I’m off to have some lunch, so I’ll catch you tomorrow when we know more detail about the team news. Speak then.

We heard from Mikel Arteta yesterday and I guess the first thing to be happy about is that Hincapie and Calafiori are back in training. I suspect that tomorrow will come too soon for them, although you never know with defenders and given that Hincapie has only been out a few weeks, his recency in match fitness might mean he makes his way back into the starting line-up.

I also think that with defenders, they tend to be able to be moved back into action a little quicker than attackers do, probably on account of the fact that there are more times in which they are not stretching those muscle sinuses as much as attackers might. If you think about the whole ‘rest defence’ thing – where teams deliberately set up in phases of play so they can control and rebuild whilst controlling possession – it kind of lends itself to the fact that defenders probably come back quicker than attackers. Big Gabi, for example, was brought on as a sub before Christmas for 20+ minutes, then he was in from the start the next game. That just doesn’t happen with a wide forward like Saka, for example.

Mikel Arteta was asked some questions about Arsenal’s form, about how Pep Guardiola has once again been singing our praises as the best team in the world right now and predictably, Arteta was thankful for the positivity, but equally magnanimous over the team and how we are playing. I think all of us are going out of our way to remind each other, rival fans, the media and pundits that we know that we haven’t won anything yet. Arteta, as the captain steering our Good Ship Arsenal leads that charge and narrative just as much as anyone. I think that’s because he, like we, know that it doesn’t take a lot to find yourself burned. We have seen that for a few seasons now and as a result, we all have our guard up when we get questions like that, or comments about the fact that the league is wrapped up. You only have to see City’s three draws and a defeat as an example of how things can swing, and Mikel Arteta will be acutely aware of this, especially given we’re on back-to-back draws ourselves. Lose tomorrow, or even draw, and it will feel like we might ourselves be in a little bit of a funk too.

And as I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, the nature of this United team being somewhat of an unknown quantity under Carrick, doesn’t help. Arteta admitted that planning for tomorrow has been somewhat altered as a result of the change; he doesn’t know what version Michael Carrick’s United are and one game is not a big enough sample size to be sure.

What I think we can all be sure of, though, is that United won’t come for us tomorrow. They’ll come to counter, they’ll have ways to hurt us for sure, but they will know we have the depth, we have talent, we are top of the league for a reason. We have to show it tomorrow. I said it yesterday, I’ll say it again and I’ll repeat tomorrow:

Don’t play the badge. Play the team.

I think we’ve got enough weapons to hurt them, we’ve got enough bench options, but it’s about us taking our chances. That’s something we didn’t do last Saturday, or the previous week against Liverpool.

That will fall on the attacking players, and Arteta was asked a few questions on Kai and Viktor on it, as you’d expect. He was complimentary on both, but also stressed that the club are taking their time with Kai’s return. I don’t think there was anything groundbreaking in what he said, but I do think it is interesting that when he was asked about Big Vik, he specifically referenced Kai, but that he could also play in a few attacking positions. I do think we are going to see a time this season when both are on the pitch; that may be because we are chasing the game, but the very fact these options now appear to be becoming available to the manager, as we reach the run in and the crunch point in the season, could be massive for us. I really hope it is.

I’ve been thinking about what we need to reach our ambitions between now and the end of the season with our three attackers. I really do think we probably need a minimum of 20 goals between all of them. If we’re assuming that Bukayo, Martinelli, Trossard et al will all also be on the scoresheet, having those three players getting six each at least should be what we hope for. And I think if we do manage that, I do think we will be picking up silverware. Midweek was a great confidence-booster for two out of the three attackers, but we need to now show that form domestically too. Starting tomorrow would go a long way.

And we still have a long way to go. It’s back to the slog that is the Premier League tomorrow, in which we’ll have to show a ruthlessness that hasn’t been there in our last two Premier League teams.

Time to do the business, Arsenal.

Back tomorrow with a match preview. See you then.

Instead, I’ll share some thoughts on the impending game against United. I have to say, I feel very differently about this one compared to three weeks ago. At the end of December/beginning of January, United was still bumbling around with Amorim. They were about to play out a 1-1 draw at Leeds, and their manager was picking fights internally, it seems. I always look at seasons as ‘blocks,’ and once the Christmas period had finished with the win away at Bournemouth, I looked at our hectic January schedule, and this United game felt like a very winnable one at the time. Fast-forward to now, and I’m looking at the game on Sunday, with somewhat trepidation. It’s the narratives, you see, those little pesky narratives that have me saying things in my head like:

• Why do we always have to face a new manager bounce?
• Why is it that Carrick already has to have a win over us?
• Why does Man United always get ‘up for it’ against us?

On the first point, I guess there’s not really a lot you can do about it, and perhaps, we can hope that United used up all of their good juju on smashing City last weekend. Hey, I’m a superstitious man, so I’ll look for any kind of angle to cling on to.

With regards to point two, that day we probably edged it, I think United got a silly penalty from an Odegaard foul, and Ronaldo slotted home to make it all about him. It was also at their gaff, which I think changes the game state from minute one, so I’m hoping that because it’s at our place, we will have the edge and hopefully too much for them.

On the third point, I think this is also relevant for Liverpool as well, in which I feel like far too often we play ‘the badge’ rather than ‘the team in front of us. Liverpool did sit in for their first half recently, then also flooded the midfield, and we played poorly in the second for our 0-0, but it really felt like we gave them far too much respect. And if I’m honest, that’s also what I worry about on Sunday. We really shouldn’t be playing the legacy of United; we need to play like we have done for most of this season at home, taking down a decent – but not amazing – team who will almost certainly look to hit us on the counter.

United away from home this season have played 11, won three, drawn five, and lost three, with a negative goal difference of one. They have, however, beaten Liverpool with a bit of a smash-and-grab earlier in the season. I watched parts of that game and Liverpool hardly gave them a battering, but they did succumb to United on the counter and a set-piece goal, if I remember rightly. We need to not fall foul of any motivation and morale-boosting they’ve had, though. More on a tactical look and vibes on what we need to do tomorrow, because ideally, today I wanted to look at where United have been this season from a playing style perspective. But the problem is, with Carrick coming in, we have few data points to call on. Amorim’s three at the back looks dead, although United will slot into a back five at times on Sunday, when we have the ball in their half. They have also recalled Kobie Mainoo, who was frozen out under the Portuguese manager.

With him and Casemiro anchoring the midfield, they stayed in a compact shape and then used rapid counters to bloody City’s metaphorical noses on a frequent basis; I wonder if Carrick witll do a “same again lads” on Sunday? We are, as we all know, a better defensive unit than City, but as Erling Haaland’s goal against us at home earlier in the season showed, in big games like this, sometimes we can be really aggressive in our team positions. Remember Wolves getting Hwang through on goal in the first half before Christmas, as a result of the same Arsenal high press of all bodies? If United get those chances, I suspect they would take them more than Wolves did.

So there are some nerves for me ahead of this one. But what about those United fans? How are they feeling? Let’s have a quick check….

*Does some basic Google searches*

Some initial comments include:

This’ll be a horrible game, Arsenal haven’t lost at home yet.

Would snap your hand off for a draw right now, but it’ll be tough. Can see another annoying set piece focused game. Maybe Mazraoui back though?

We need another pragmatic line up, if we can nick a win it will somewhat make up for stupid points dropped to Burnley, Wolves, Everton and WHU.

But after today’s performance and with the players likely to be available for this one, we have nothing to lose by going there with the audacity to try and cause an upset.

There’s a lot more confidence than a lot of the different fans forums I’ve been reading of our opponents over the last five weeks or so, but I guess that is reflective of the performance and the result against City. There are a lot of United fans who are feeling themselves at the moment and after that game in which they really schooled a City side challenging for the title, I can kind of see why. I’ll do a little more on the match preview side tomorrow and Sunday, but it’s why I do think we need to get in to them early and move the ball really quickly, because I can see them tucking in to that compact shape again and making it frustrating for us.

Arteta will have his press conference today, from which I’m hoping we get some kind of good news about either Hincapie or Calafiori, but I suspect we will probably get confirmation that we’re dealing with the same squad as we had for Inter, for which Arteta still has some selection decisions to make. That’s a ponder-job for me for tomorrow I think, based on what he says today in the presser. So for now, for today, I’ll say cheerio and I’ll catch you tomorrow.

I was going to start looking ahead to the United game on Sunday, but given Ethan Nwaneri has essentially signed for Marseille on loan for the rest of this season, I figured we need to say something about that.

It appears Big Bill Saliba has had his say before departing to the South of France, calling them one of the ‘best clubs in the world’ and certainly, he’ll get a vociferous home support that will no doubt back him. Big Bill had a very impressive loan spell there a few years back, so much so that I think Marseille were quite open about the fact they would love to sign him, but Arsenal were steadfast in their view that he must return to the club. Didn’t that turn out to be a shrewd decision, eh?

Another key part of this puzzle is Roberto Di Zerbi and Nwaneri soecifically mentioned him too, for good reason, I suspect. We saw how Di Zerbi could adapt his tactics, would play on the front-foot, as well as improving a number of the Brighton players in his time, so he will have probably sought the council of somebody like Leo Trossard before making the move too, I suspect.

For Arsenal and Nwaneri, it also represents a bit of a U-turn. The noises coming out of the credible sources online were that he wanted to stay and learn what it is like to be part of a title challenge. That suggested that whilst we were all worried about his lack of minutes, the club and the player were probably a little more realistic; he’s 18 years old, he’s had a breakthrough season last season, sure, but that was built on a heavy injury crisis, as well as less depth than Arsenal have today. He is a guy whom I think Arsenal have massive hopes for, so I suspect that the conversation about the remainder of this season was open, positive, and focused on his development. The hope he – and we – all have is that Arsenal will be competing for the top honours for many years to come, so there will hopefully be other title run-ins that he will be part of. But at his formative age, he needed minutes, which was clear when they had the conversation at the training ground, probably ended with a collective acknowledgement that he just wasn’t going to get them this season. He’s missed a few of the match-day squads of late, which shows the level of competition that there is this season, as we fight on multiple fronts.

The benefit of keeping him was because of the fear of the injury crisis going nuclear this season; we’ve already had a ton of injuries, but they have all been in the same position, which hasn’t tended to be where Arsenal want him to play. Had we lost Saka, Madueke, Martinelli and Trossard all at once this season, I suspect he might have played in the wide positions, even though Arsenal supposedly don’t want to see that. But he can do that job, and I wonder if he’ll be asked to once or twice by Di Zerbi? Part of me hopes so, because it will mean that Arsenal might just reconsider their viewpoint that he isn’t quite suited to the flanks, with next season in mind.

According to Romano, there are clauses in there which mean the fee for the loan changes depending on game time. That makes sense; both the player and the club need him to play. We can’t have a West Brom/Pulis/Gnabry situation on our hands. So if the club have set a structure, something like the below, it makes sense for all parties to get him minutes:

• Plays less than 10 games = £4million
• Plays less than 15 games = £3million
• Plays less than 20 games = £2million
• Plays 21 or over = £1million

Of course, it’ll probably be mapped out a little more precise than my ‘ignorant fan who doesn’t know the inner workings of football finances’ example above, but this loan is designed to get us a player back in the summer who has grown and improved and can come back next season ready to challenge, so having clauses that reward the game-time investment Marseille put in, absolutely work for us, him and them too, I suspect.

I think the different culture and style of football might also allow him to grow as a man, too. Maybe he’ll pick up some French, maybe he’ll find sides to his game he didn’t know he had, maybe he’ll even be able to iron out some of the kinks that have meant Arteta will be much more willing to use him than he has this season? Who knows? But in William Saliba, we have a case study that shows that this pathway has been trodden before and done so to great success in our Rolls-Royce centre-half we have. Let’s hope the same happens for Ethan.

I’ve seen some speculate that we might go into the market for somebody now, but frankly, I just don’t see that. The reason we let Ethan go is that he wasn’t making match day squads. Why bring somebody else in to have the same situation? Plus, if we’re talking about him as a future star, why put another barrier in the way by signing somebody?

The jittery amongst us might worry that another injury crisis is bound to come up around the corner, but these are human beings with careers, so we can’t just stockpile to the extent they are not even making match-day squads. And you can’t do it on the ‘off-chance’ of injury ravaging this team. At the start of the season we had injuries, but some of those were long term like Jesus and Havertz (who can also play in at eight – where Ethan was earmarked), but those guys are back now, so the pathway is even more crowded for the youngster.

So for me, this is a good move for all involved, and I hope he absolutely smashes it and comes back ready to fight for The Arsenal next season.

Back tomorrow as we start to stare down united on Sunday. See you then.

But please, for the love of all that is holy, Mikel, please rotate the key players out for this game.

At Forest at the weekend, Declan Rice aside, we looked off it. Some of that was due to our inability to deal with the mid-block; some of it was due to poor form from some players, but I saw a few assertions online that some of it may well have been due to fatigue. Three away games in a row, with the fourth taking place this evening, means a fair bit of travel (even if one of them was just across London to Chelsea) and who knows, maybe that plays a part. But these players are all seasoned pro’s now; they’re used to playing twice/three times a week, and they’re used to the Champions League by now. Fatigue is a factor, but it shouldn’t be a deciding factor with performances like the weekend just gone.

But if it is, if it is even the ‘slightest’ of concerns ahead of a potentially resurgent Man United at home this coming Sunday, then Mikel Arteta simply HAS to rotate tonight. And rotate well. Personally, I’d rotate the shizzle out of the team, but I doubt Mikel will do that; he is a pupil of the school of “winning all the time” and we’ve heard him in the past say things like (paraphrasing here) “big players need to be able to play 60 games a season”, so my big fear this evening is that Mikel brings out all of the big guns to play against an Italian side who got one over on us last season.

That game was decided by a frankly farcical penalty, as well as (and this will shock you) a number of missed chances by us. But I also seem to recall that it was a pretty turgid game, which is also what I am expecting tonight. Inter have the second-best defensive record in this competition. We have the best. We have two defensive juggernauts going against each other, which sometimes means a cancellation of the actual ‘football’, with a tactical battle that makes it tough to watch.

Don’t care though. 

If this game ends 0-0, if it’s played at walking pace, if the players leave plenty in the tank for Sunday, then I am a-ok with that. But even if that is the case this evening, I still don’t want to see some of our big-name players playing. Maybe you give them 15 minutes at the end to keep their well-oiled engine-like machines ticking over, but that’s it.

So, who should be the ones to start for this one then, eh?

Well, for me, I think we probably need to see at least one of White or Timber drop to the bench. Given he broke down after we played him for three/four games in a row before Christmas, that would be Ben White. Perhaps there’s an argument to say he can start this one, then job share with Timber for that last 30 minutes, which means Jurrien comes in fresher for United on Sunday, but personally, I just want to make sure we don’t lose either of them, and that to me means we don’t really want to be seeing them both starting. So I’d have MLS in at left back. If this is going to be a game of low incident, then getting Myles to build up some minutes and form in a game like tonight feels perfect. 

As for the rest of the defence, if Mosquera is fit, I’d give him 60 minutes and sit down Saliba. Big Gabby is our big player, but he’s also the leader in that defence, plus he’s missed more of the season pre-Christmas, so Big Bill getting a rest feels about right for me.

Midfield is where I’d start to ramp up the rotation. Get Nwaneri in there for Odegaard, who was poor against Forest, as well as Norgaard anchoring the midfield. Every time the Dane has played for us, he’s been solid, stable, ‘no frills’ and that’s what we need tonight. It gives Zubi a rest, and it means we’re giving Christian a Champions League night in a big stadium. Feels obvious to me. In at left, I’d have Eze, and if this is going to be a game where you need some trickery to unlock things, why not have two creative and attacking eights given the chance? I’m not sure Arteta will do that; he might go for Merino, but I just hope to at least season Nwaneri at some stage. We don’t need Rice tonight; sit yourself down, Declan, get those feet up, then be the best version of yourself on Sunday (not that we haven’t already had that – he was the best player for us against Forest).

Then, up top…now…what to do…?

For me, I’d play Jesus from the start. The Italian defence will probably lap up a player like Big Vik, so let’s see if Gabriel Jesus can do something in the Champions League, which is a competition he’s always enjoyed playing in. And similarly, I’d also say that Martinelli can get the nod, too. I want Trossard for United, so I’d be telling him that he gets the jersey in the more important game this week. For the subs, let’s give Havertz another 20 minutes up top; I can see that he might be instrumental on Sunday, and we need to start building up those minutes for a player with whom we’re all so desperate to see get some proper minutes now. He’s being managed – the sensible thing to do – but we need to start unleashing him now because the games are only going to get more intense and we need him. On the left, I think he will go for Saka, but personally I hope he choose Noni Madueke and tells him “here you go, two games in a row, so show me what you can do”, and with a few goals in this competition already, maybe he’s just suited for this kind of competition like Gabriel Martinelli is?

Mikel gave us an insight into how he thinks Inter will approach this game, by being aggressive early, but this team – regardless of rotation or not – is a physical one, so I don’t think I’m too worried about the press of Inter from the start tonight. 

It feels like a bit of a ‘free hit’ tonight, so I just want to see an Arsenal team unscathed, ready for Man United. We can still finish top by a good win over Kairat next week, so let’s go into this one wanting to win, putting our best foot forward, but not if it means somebody is going to tread on said foot.

As always I’ll be back tomorrow, so I’ll catch you wonderful people then, when we’ll know if we’ve got ourselves into the top two with this game or not.

Ciao.

That’s a lot of football.

And given our injury record this season, I totally get that he might be training indoors, on a ‘light’ set of training sessions this week because as the games come thick and fast over Christmas, losing him is not something we want to countenance. And he’s also going to have to do something he’ll have never done before having never played outside of Spain until this season: no winter break. La Liga shuts down on Tuesday until 2nd January and under normal circumstances Zubi might be back home and resting up any weary bones. But this season in that same period he could feasibly play four matches:

• Palace in the League Cup
• Brighton in the Premier League
• Villa in the Premier League
• Bournemouth in the Premier League

Alright, technically Bournemouth is on 3rd January, but this is still quite a schedule and not something the Spaniard will be used to. So for him to be taking it easy and the club being mindful of the change at this time of year is a sensible one. I do wonder if they will manage his minutes at all over Christmas too. If – crossing everything as I say this and hoping for Christmas miracles – we can be winning games by a sdecent margin, I suspect he might be a candidate for an early exit in games. We have Norgaard, we have Rice, it kind of makes sense. But these matches will all be tight affairs I suspect, so I am just hoping that we can be sensible and if players look like they are struggling, we get them off.

We need some to come back though. I thought I heard some rumours that Havertz is targeting the remaining December games to be fit and of course there are still opportunities for him to train this week, but I doubt he’ll make Everton. If we’re lucky he might be good for a cameo at home to Brighton on 27th December, but given he’s barely played any football in 2025 as a whole, I suspect his minutes will be managed until the new year. That means an opportunity still remains with Gyokeres and Gabriel Jesus and they have to see this period as an opportunity they have to take. We can’t be seeing games in which Gyokeres is having five or ten touches and barely any attempts on target. Yes, we need to feed him, but he also needs to be in those positions to be fed. And he needs to anticipate better like the Saka opportunity that came across the goal in the first half against Wolves.

There’s an onus on him, there’s an onus on our creative players to spot the runs, which I hope is one of the things they are looking at this week. I’ll start to do my previews of the Everton game tomorrow, but you’d expect Everton aren’t going to play “park the bus” football at home in front of their own fans on Saturday evening. They’ll want to show that they can mix it with anyone and with 24 points and sitting ninth in the table at the moment, they’ve shown they are no slouch as a team. They’ve beaten Forest, Bournemouth, United (with a man down), The Scum, as well as Brighton at home. There’s some decent results against decent teams in there so we will need to be properly wary of their threat.

We’ve also got a pretty terrible record there of late too. Last season it was a 1-1 draw, the season before that we picked up a scrappy 1-0, but in the five before that we’ve lost four and drew one. Everton have a good record at home against us and we need to address that on Saturday – won’t be easy with the evening kick off getting the home fans all riled up and intoxicated with the last league game before Christmas.

But Arsenal and Arteta have themselves another two days of prep before they travel up on Friday, so my hope is that they’ve done all their homework, some of those things that Arteta had said had “deteriorated” through not training can be reset, then we’re in the best possible shape to do the business come Saturday evening.

I’ll be back tomorrow as we start to look ahead in a little more detail on what Everton will bring to the table from a tactical and statistical perspective.

Catch you all then.

I have to admit, I was kind of sad that I didn’t watch the batshit-mental football match last night that was Man United 4 – 4 Bournemouth. Looks like a Christmas hum-dinger of a game and one in which I saw Jamie Carragher describe it as “the best of the season”.

Of course it was. It had lots of goals, one team winning, then the other team, then the other team again before settling on a draw. For the neutral (no such thing) it was a barnstormer and for Sky it’s exactly what they want from a football match to advertise “The Barclays”.

But for both Bournemouth and United fans I bet it was a bit of a nightmare. Both teams will leave that game feeling like they should have won and both of those teams will probably come away with an unsatisfied feeling in their mouths and minds.

And I thought about our 4-4 against The Scum and I tried to put myself back in that position when it happened to us and how I felt. And it was even maddening now thinking about it. There are other matches, like the 4-4 at Newcastle, but that had the whiff of dodgy refereeing in it. There was the 4-4 at Anfield in which Arshavin but I feel like by then both teams weren’t really in the running for anything so it didn’t have the jeopardy about it. So it’s that 4-4 against Them that sprang to mind.

Now I fast forward to today and to how Arsenal really haven’t been a team who the likes of Sky Sports and TNT Sport want to hang their ‘great advert for the Premier League’ Schtick on, because other than the last few weeks, we aren’t exactly a team who are playing basketball matches are we? Last weekend had late drama, but that was because Arsenal were complacent for one moment. Villa Park had great drama and was described a ‘great match’, but that’s because it was a bit of an anomaly; Arsenal don’t usually play the way the opponent wants and Villa always want that type of game, where it’s a little end-to-end. It’s why they’re on this great run; nobody is actually low-blocking Villa from what I’m seeing. Wolves didn’t when they played them. We didn’t. West Ham didn’t. So you get those games. I think as well to an extent, it is the same with City, because Palace had a go at them last weekend, Fulham did in the 5-4, plus Leeds nearly snatched a draw too.

That’s what happened to us in our first season we competed for the title in 2023/24. Teams came at us because they saw a side who had two years prior been still a work in progress. Now they see a side who doesn’t let up too much, but also one that if you low block, there is an outside chance that you might be able to frustrate a draw, or score with your one chance you get. So the evolution of this Arsenal team is to take that ‘next step’ and to really push down the metaphorical boot on the neck of opponents.

I think that has to be in finding a way to score more first half goals. We’ve got 30 in the Premier League this season, with 13 of those coming in the first half. Not bad, nearly half, but City have scored eight more than us and six of those eight have come in the first half. When you score first, especially against so-called weaker opponents, it stands to reason that you are more than likely to go on to win the game (this blog is a few years old but goes into a little more detail and I still think is relevant). But Arsenal are such a good defensive unit (albeit we’ve seen some cracks appearing recently, I think we can all admit) that when we score first, the game more often than not feels like it’s almost there in terms of being won. If the psychological blow is dealt early, then it totally changes the complexion of the match. This season we have scored first in nearly half of our matches (seven). Conversely, Man City have scored in 12 of their 16 matches so far. That means the game opens up, they have an opponent who has to come out, so they get more chances to rack up more goals. This is what Arteta needs to unlock.

I’m a simple football fan. I’m not one of your in-depth deep analytical fans who can pour over hours and hours of data and come up with some hyper-intelligent answer. If you want that, check out the amazing Billy Carpenter on Substack – he’s great. I like to dabble and have a bit of a look on FBref to see if some numbers give me a bit of a story, but it’s only top line. But to my simple eyes and with my simple feelings, I do feel like the only way Arsenal unlock this league and win it the way I’d like us to win it – like Liverpool did last season – is if we find a way to unlock games. The simple eye test that I have and some of those around me in Block Five that I go to the games with, tells me/us that we start games too slow, too methodical in our build up. There’s too often that we shadow-box out opponents. It’s almost as if Arteta sometimes says “just suss the other guys out there for 15 minutes so I can see how they are set up tactically, then we’ll tweak it accordingly to see if we can win the game”. I know that’s clearly not what Arteta is telling them, but again, it’s just the way it feels as a fan when you’re in the stands watching it play out with the raw emotion and nerves of needing to win the game. It feels to me that there is an inherent caution in this Arsenal team in first halves of matches and if there’s something I’d like to see a little more, it’s that we perhaps push the boundaries of that caution a little bit more.

It won’t happen, I don’t think, because I think we would see a few more instances like that moment in the first half on Saturday when Hwang was suddenly through on goal because we had every player bar-Raya on the edge of their box. I will bet anyone hard cash (not that we’d ever truly find out) that Arteta has re-watched that moment about 50 times and will be replaying it to his team this week in training for sure. There will be a “if you feckers EVER do anything like that again, Imma whip yo’ asses so hard…” talking to at London Colney this way for sure.

The positive I did take from reading this Telegraph article yesterday was that it appears the players are self-serving now when it comes to critical analysis. Arteta will be mad, but he’ll also be internally pleased that the players know when the standards haven’t been met and reading this gave me comfort that they will all be doubling down their efforts this week to ensure there isn’t a repeat of the Wolves situation.

But that doesn’t quite put what I believe is the final puzzle piece in place to take Arsenal to the level where even City are shrugging their shoulders in disbelief that they can catch us. We had it about six weeks ago without the volume of injuries and the clean sheets were being racked up. But that was never sustainable. So I do think we need to find a way to unlock more first half goals. And that’s something I hope Arteta, the coaching staff and the analysts, are all working on trying to fix.

Right, that’ll be it for today I think, so have a good one and I’ll catch you all tomorrow.

Wolves have picked up just two points this season, have scored eight goals in their 15 matches they’ve played, they’ve let in 33 and one look at one Wolves fans forum gives you and idea on what they think will happen – this prediction forum here has their fans saying it’ll be an Arsenal win with an aggregate score of 69 – 15 and an average rating of 5-0 Arsenal from 15 responses – not one thinking Wolves will win. They’re at the point where they are just happy when they score and that’s a bit sad really when the Gallow’s Humour kicks in.

You can see why – there aren’t many stats at all that are in favour of Wolves this season, albeit they aren’t comfortably the worst, so I don’t think we’re going to get the battering that many think we might dish out tomorrow. They’re in the bottom three for xG created and xG allowed, although they aren’t bottom of that one with West Ham and Burnley both delivering shockers in that regard. Weirdly too, they aren’t bottom of the shots on target faced either; Burnley take that crown with West Ham also ahead of them. Where they are rock bottom is their percentage of shots they save; which isn’t a stat a ‘keeper ever wants to see but it appears as though they don’t have a good time of it when teams get shots on target.

Their ‘keeper is a launcher of the ball from goal kicks and from a defensive point of view they top the league with the number of tackles they make in their own defensive third with 156 – no other Premier League team has to make as much. I read that stat and think that they might play in a low block, but weirdly, in terms of the average distance from their goal that Wolves make a defensive action (tackle, blocked shot, etc), it’s actually quite hjigh at 15 yards from their own goal. Arsenal are the highest with 18.6 because obviously opposition teams don’t get as close to our goal as much, so you’d think a low block team would have lower average distances (again, West Ham and Burnley are in the bottom two there), but Wolves are actually sixth in the league for average distance on defensive action. So, what does that mean? If I go amateur data nerd on you for a second (as I like to do), that tells me that Wolves are a team who play a higher line than you’d expect and that there might be some opportunities to get in behind tomorrow evening – I’d certainly hope so.

You’d also hope that defensively we’d be able to keep them quiet, because they have the lowest number of shots they’ve taken this season of any team, the lowest number of shots on target per 90 and the fifth highest distance that they’re taking their shots from at 17.4 yards. So this is a team that is struggling to penetrate opposition back lines up until this point and who don’t create many chances or shots at all. This will be a Wolves team that goes long as often as possible – they have the highest number of attempted long balls in the league – and this is a team who when the ball does go long it goes into the channels and they look to cross the ball in (they have the highest number of crosses into the penalty area of any team this season.

Arsenal will be aware of this, Arteta will be aware of this, they need to be ready for this and they need to be in the mindset of scoring early because if we do (and I’ll do more of a match preview tomorrow), then I think this game could run up a few goals.

But football is weird and even though there won’t be too many brave men betting on Wolves winning at The Emirates tomorrow night, I still feel like we need to be wary of any threat or potential banana-skin. You only need to look back a couple of weeks to see how Villa nearly came a-cropper; Wolves looked good, scored a good goal that was ruled out, forced Martinez into some great saves (including tipping one onto the bar) and Villa had to rely on a wonder strike from the edge of the box to seal the win. We know what good form Villa are in so for Wolves to give them the type of game they did, should serve as ample warning for Arteta and his coaching staff.

But if you want to win league titles then you have to win your home games like tomorrow, so Arsenal have a job to do and that’s what Arteta will be telling those players in training today.

More on how Arsenal will line up tomorrow, as well as any interesting titbits from the press conference today but for now, I hope you have a great Friday and I’ll be back tomorrow with more pre-match thoughts.

Of course they are.

Isn’t that just typical of this season, one in which I read somewhere we’ve had 13 injuries in 21 games.

That’s insane.

The jokes about stockpiling players in the summer are now well and truly being rowed back on, because we are getting to the stage where this injury crisis that Arsenal have had will far surpass anything I think any of us have known as Arsenal supporters.

The difference this season is that we have such a deep squad, that even if Saliba isn’t fit enough for today (Arteta was a bit vague on hism coming back, saying it was ‘days’ until he and Leo are back – which was yesterday when he said it so the plural nature would suggest not), we still have quality players who can step up. On Wednesday night for the last part of the game it was Timber at centre half and as one of the lads next to me in Block Five reminded me, he plays centre half for The Netherlands, so he isn’t exactly completely new to this.

That would mean Ben White reprising his role at right back and given he had a man-of-the-match performance against Brentford in midweek, you’d hope he’d be back and ready to contribute well again if asked upon. I suspect Arteta would prefer he didn’t though; not because he isn’t quality or capable, but having not played a lot of football this season, throwing him in to what will be another high intensity game away at in-form Villa isn’t exactly ideal for a gradual re-itegration to first team football.

But I guess we forced Odegaard into a 90 in midweek and he might start again today, so perhaps the same can be said for Benny Blanco.

So, how might we line up today given the injuries, Rice of which was also a question mark, if you believe Arteta. In the immediate aftermath of the game in midweek he said he was ‘fine’ and so I don’t know if Arteta was using the possibility of him being injured as a smokescreen to keep the Villa coaching team guessing on what might come up today, or if Arteta really is going to have him benched or completely out of the squad. I read somewhere that he’s travelled, but as we know, that doesn’t really mean anything these days. He could just be there cheering on his teammates.

I hope he is there, like we all do, but I also think if you’ve got a game to think about resting him in, it’s Club Brugge next week. We already have our 15 points, we probably just need one more win from the next three to secure automatic qualification, so if he’s fit enough to play and not carrying anything today, you play him today, you sit him at home in midweek for rest, then you get him on the pitch next weekend against Wolves.

So with that context in mind, I would think/hope we get:

Raya

Timber   –   Saliba   –   Hincapie   –   Calafiori

Zubimendi   –   Rice

Eze

Saka   –   Merino   –   Madueke

My thinking on the attacking end of the pitch is that Odegaard came back and did the full 90 in midweek and you probably want to manage his load coming back from injury, whilst Eze was on the bench, so you can rotate the two and get them to do a job-share for the next week or so. Then I’m thinking that Martinelli wasn’t exactly immense on the left, so Noni needs to be given a go on that side, having provided cover support to rest Saka in midweek. Then, up top, you surely have to just look at Merino given his form. Again, perhaps he can job-share with Gyokeres for this one, maybe giving the Swede 30 minutes, before giving him 60 – 70 minutes against Brugge on Wednesday. Merino has forced his way into the manager’s thinking and that is great and if he can do the business again today, then we’ll go a long way to winning this football match.

But to win this match we’re going to have to do something a lot of teams haven’t and nobody has since Palace did towards the beginning of the season by winning at Villa Park. We’re an in-form team, but we are second in the form table to Aston Villa, who have won all of their last six games going back to the defeat to Liverpool at the beginning of November. So there will be a swagger of confidence about them today. The hope from an Arsenal perspective is that it will mean they play a more open and expansive game, because that means we will get chances and if we do, we have to take them.

What’s weird about Villa from a numbers point of view is that their home xG is actually pretty bad, given how well they are doing in the league, with them 13th out of 20 in the league for xG produced at home at 6.9. But I guess you could say they are producing the goods because from nearly seven goals they’ve got 11 at home. Their opponents both home and away have created 18.5xG this season and that puts them 11th in the table. So pretty average for a team flying high at the top. Where they do perform like a team towards the top of the table is:

• Shots conceded – they’re fifth behind us, City, Palace and Chelsea
• Post shot expected goals – they’re third behind us and Chelsea

That’s pretty much it. They have the most passes in their own penalty area of anyone in the league, which doesn’t really tell me much other than classic Unai Emery playing the ball out from the back, with a lot of their underlying metrics looking pretty average overall. Which is why I don’t think you can underestimate the value of confidence and momentum and it feels like Villa will once again ride the way of it against us for this early kick off.

Arsenal need to quieten the crowd down pretty quickly, in that sense and although I personally hate those 12.30pm kick offs, if we can start well then maybe it takes the home crowd a little while to get going and by the time it is we have done our work.

That’s the hope, although if they start quickly and give us something to worry about early it could feel like a long afternoon.

This is a tough game, we all know that, but a win here would be massive for the season. It would mean we remain five clear at least by the end of the weekend, having already struck first as City play Sunderland at home this weekend, whilst we would then also have Wolves at home next weekend so another great opportunity to try to rack up some more points.

Come on Arsenal – do the business.

Catch you all tomorrow for some post match thoughts.