1. I predicted the line-up spot on
2. Max Dowman

Perhaps you could also point to the impact Viktor Gyokeres made from the bench, following up his goals for Sweden with a smartly taken finish to draw us level in that second half at St Mary’s Stadium, but the rest of the evening was pretty disastrous, if we’re all honest with ourselves.

There were some proper stinkers of performances. I mean, some really bad ones, that could effectively crystallise in Arteta’s mind who he will rely more and more on for the remainder of this season. For example, Gabriel Jesus, who was utterly anonymous on a day in which I had held some faint hope that he would seize this moment to have his manager ask questions. But the only questions anyone should be asking of Jesus right now are:

How on earth are you STILL earning that much money?

He and Martinelli stunk the place out from an attacking point of view. It was one of those Martinelli performances for which those who advocate that he’s a super sub and that’s about it, are people you can hardly argue with, because he made it quite obvious that he doesn’t deserve a start against Sporting on Tuesday.

But weirdly, unacceptably, whilst the misfiring attack (Dowman aside) is something we have seen a fair bit of, of late, what we haven’t seen is a shaky defence. Mistimed passes (Mosquera’s horizontal one in the second half that led to a chance springs to mind), unforced errors (Myles Lewis-Skelly massively overhitting another horizontal pass to the full back on the other side), and mistimed headers (Gabriel, then Ben White for their first goal) were rife in yesterday’s performance. That is very out of character.

I’ve taken a few pelters for a message I put on social media at the time of their first goal, but I will stick by it again this morning, because Alan Shearer had said Southampton deserved to be ahead. The numbers told a different story. It was their second shot, and first on target, when they scored. We’d had 11 shots and their keeper had made good saves. We were the better team up until that point. The only difference was that they took their opportunity, and you have to say that’s what it is all about, so fair play to them.

Arsenal’s response was not what we had wanted, and Southampton troubled us with long balls that we didn’t deal with. I thought that we were sloppy, half-hearted in the duels, and that is something that Arteta will be infuriated with this morning. You have to give Southampton credit, because their game plan was pretty spot on; get ahead, then tuck in and see if we could break them down. Even after we equalised, they were content to play on the break and that worked for them. They deserve to go to Wembley. We do not.

And we are left to lick our wounds again. For the second match in a row. I’m torn between being really worried about this performance, coupled with the one against City, and recognising the specifics behind it. No doubt we were poor against City in the League Cup, but some of our absences forced us to do something that City were able to counter. Last night, because of some of the absences, we were again forced to do something different, because I don’t think Arteta wanted to risk this competition, as he had his eyes on Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday.

One thing for certain, there are a few players out there who will only be used if there is injury or extreme fatigue now, I think. Kepa, White, MLS, Norgaard, Martinelli, Jesus – all of those players will, I think, be spending a fair bit of time on the bench now. We have two games left to play this season, and I think Arteta will obviously ring the changes for Tuesday and Bournemouth at home in the Premier League.

And that needs to bring about a change in performance, too. We can’t have that many errors from an Arsenal team going for big trophies. Yesterday showed us that when you do make that volume of mistakes, you get punished. It is even more acute in the Champions League and Premier League. Arsenal need to change a few things.

The Gabriel injury is a worry, too. I am crossing everything this morning that it is a “if you feel anything, just come off” situation, and he was rubbing that knee that has caused him some problems. Arteta invariably said afterwards, “I don’t know” when asked about the severity of it. If Gabriel is out for the season now, all our faith goes into Mosquera. He wasn’t amazing yesterday, but he’s shown how good he can be. The only worry is that with Hincapie also potentially injured for a while, we’re getting to a point where we’re going to have to rely on those understudies. Yesterday, they showed plenty of flaws for players who hadn’t played much.

Either side of the international break I had thoughts about how these few weeks could define our season. We’re 0/2 on season-defining results now. That has to change.

I feel sad that we are out of this competition. But I am going to feel a lot sadder if we put in another performance like that against Sporting, then follow that up again against Bournemouth next weekend. If I heard that some of the absent players yesterday were rested and will be back to 100% by Tuesday I’d probably start to feel a little easier about this result, because the Premier League is everything and the Champions League is the second jewel that we want to try to snaffle. But at this stage, there are still a lot of question marks over who will be available. Let’s hope that tomorrow, when Arteta talks to the press, he can provide some crumbs of comfort.

I’m going to try to end on a more positive note. Max Dowman. Wowsers. I know we need to temper our superlatives and let the boy grow in to this team, but he once again showed he’s ready to make an impact. He can play in that wide right position. He is ready. Southampton look like a Premier League team in waiting and he was great against them. Like he’s been great in all of the performances he’s had this season. He showed somebody like Martinelli what you should be doing as a wide forward. I think he needs to be considered as a ‘next one up’ if Arteta wants to change things in attack now. What a talent we have. Let’s hope we use him to more effect for the remainder of the season – it could be our ‘ace in the hole’, as they say in cards.

Catch you all tomorrow as we try to forget yesterday’s mess, and look towards Sporting Lisbon.

Another League Cup Final, another defeat in it, and at this point, it feels like that competition is as cursed for us as the European ones are.

Simply put, Arsenal only showed up for one half, on a day in which there were hopes that we could get a trophy monkey off our back.

I have lots of emotions going on right now; lots of thoughts that might be worth picking up, given that we now go into an interlull, but for today, let’s just pick on one or two of the key talking points from yesterday.

Firstly, I don’t think any is getting away from the fact that the goalkeeper question was a primary reason why we lost yesterday. Kepa is a fine backup. We discussed it in the pub before the game, and I said I was ok with him starting, but hindsight is a wonderful thing, and clearly it wasn’t the right move. The delta between Kepa and Raya is quite large, it seems, and I’m not only talking about the rick that our keeper made in the game to give City the lead. His passing range is not as wide as Raya’s, and his box presence isn’t the same, which I think also leads to a little bit less confidence in the back line. The first goal we conceded yesterday will be one that will give him nightmares. It was proper chocolate wrists stuff, and whereas at the other end, Trafford gave a decent account of himself in the first half with a couple of saves, when the pressure was on us in the second, our goalkeeper folded in that key moment. And that’s what we don’t get with Raya. Sure, he’s had his dodgy moments like the end of the Wolves away game, but in the main, he is solid, and even with little to do, he still has the concentration in key moments that Kepa just doesn’t have (think that great save against Leverkusen at the end of the game last week).

I don’t blame Arteta for starting Kepa, because as I said, I think this was one that he felt he could do. But I don’t think we’ll see the Spaniard in between the sticks if we get to the FA Cup final. And his error yesterday kind of gives Arteta the licence to sit him down if that happens and say “sorry mate, not after what happened last time.

This was one of those cliched ‘game of two halves’ kind of matches. I thought we bested Man City in the first; we limited their chance creation, whilst we got in behind at least once, and Kai probably should have scored. That’s what you occasionally get with Kai, though; he isn’t always the most clinical. Ironically, if Gyokeres had been in that position, it might have been different, but he was somewhere else on the pitch, not getting those chances. But it fell to Kai; Trafford did his job, which we didn’t see from Kepa in the second half, which was also the half in which we failed to respond to City’s approach. They pressed in the right spaces, they were able to control more of the ball, and whilst they hardly troubled Kepa until his mistake, they were definitely edging it. And I think Arteta will do a re-watch of this game and realise that he probably should have made the changes a little earlier than he did. Kai didn’t have a great game, Gyokeres was pretty anonymous, Saka’s poor form continues, and Trossard was left pretty much neutralised and quiet. In that second half in particular, the attack didn’t click, and we simply could not string together enough passes or get enough of a rhythm to cause City any problems.

That second half was woefully short of the ‘standards’ that Arteta and the team set, and unfortunately, in 2026, it’s not an isolated incident. There’s plenty made about the fact that not pressing Arsenal’s defenders is a good way of neutralising them. I think that’s only part of the story. History is always written by the victors, and City fans and the stats people have already been clipping up short videos of City sitting back whilst 1-0 up and us playing the ball across our back four. But game state is everything. I said yesterday morning that the first goal would be pivotal, and I think that’s exactly why yesterday felt so flat in the end, but that’s how it turned out to be. And I don’t want to make this all about Kepa, because so many other players didn’t play remotely to their potential, but in these tight games, there’s nothing more frustrating than a mistake leading to a goal. If a player puts the ball in the top bins from 30 yards, you just hold your hands up, but when the important goal you concede is entirely avoidable, it is doubly hard to take.

I do think the absence of Eze and Odegaard had somewhat of an impact, though. Eze has just found some form, and now he’s injured, which is really frustrating. Arteta said that we have to leave it seven days for a scan, but we have to pray that it is just a short-term thing, because whilst he can rest up for a week because of these internationals, ideally we want to see him on the road to recovery for Southampton in two weeks. In his place Havertz looked at first like he might link up well with Big Vik, and there were a couple of moments where, from my vantage point, I could see us almost playing with two up top, but he faded quickly after a good opening half an hour and the lack of that creative 8/10 hybrid felt like it began to take its toll.

So City draws first blood. Seeing the dejected Arsenal players wasn’t a fun sight afterwards, but the hope has to be that they use this as fuel, because after this international break, there is a great opportunity to get back on the wagon and on to winning ways with an away game against Southampton.

This was the least of our priorities, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t sting, for which I thought Declan Rice summed it up well when describing the mood after this match. Now there is an opportunity to just take a beat, for the players to go away with their respective international teams, which hopefully will provide enough of a reset, before we get back to the proper football over the Easter weekend.

As I said above, I might do a bit of a deeper dive into some of the problems we’ve had in attack over the coming days, given that I have no interest whatsoever in the international nonsense going on from now until the end of next week.

So I’ll catch up with you back on here tomorrow. Up the Arsenal.

Well, from a form perspective, they’re in pretty good nick. A win at home against Burnley the week before last was preceded by a win away at Newcastle, although they did lose at home to United before that, as well as Bournemouth at home with a man sent off. The form table tells us that they are seventh in terms of their last four games, ninth in their last six games, and then sixth in their last eight games. So it’s a bit of mixed form for a Toffees side who currently sit eighth in the table and have really stabilised themselves under David Moyes. West Ham fans wouldn’t like to admit it, but I bet they’d give their right arm to go back in time and have the Scot stay on as manager a little longer than he did after helping them lift the Europa Conference League a few years back.

I watched their game against Newcastle, and although Newcastle were poor, it gave a clear indication of what we’re going to see from Everton tomorrow. This will be low block, deep defence, transitional counter-attacking attempts. Or at least holding us for a shutout. They may have changed the manager from when they last came to the Emirates last season, but the aim remains the same: Low block the shizzle out of this one. That’s what they did against Newcastle, that’s what they did against us with Dyche, that’s what they’ll do once again – and the numbers feel like the support this:

• Fifth lowest xG in the whole league – they don’t create a lot of good chances
• Ninth highest xG against – they’re a solid mid-table team when it comes to conceding high-quality chances
• Fifth lowest average possession in the league – they don’t want the ball, they don’t keep the ball
• Fifth lowest ‘dangerous possession lost’ in the league (we are the lowest) – they don’t tend to make too many mistakes in their defensive positions.

I get these stats from MARKSTATS, by the way, which helps me to get an understanding of what we’re up against. But by all accounts, it feels like a defensively disciplined side who will sit in their shape and ask the likes of Gueye and Garner to tuck in and protect the defence, whilst McNeill and Ndiaye will be their counter-attacking wingers who will look to set the big man Beto in. They’ll look for set pieces to unsettle us (they have the third most shots from set pieces in the whole Premier League – we are fourth), because despite me saying that they’ll look for Beto, they actually have the lowest number of fast breaks in the league. Going on this initial assessment of some top-line data, this already feels like it is going to be a very attritional game for The Arsenal. I’m sure Arteta is ready for that, but are the media, when they once again accuse us of being boring when the opposition side has sat in their own half for most of the game?

Their fans are understandably buoyant after back-to-back wins, with a quick check on one of their fan forums giving us things like:

The pressure on them could work in our favour and let’s be honest they haven’t looked great lately.
I’m hoping our confidence will beat their nerves

And

We got battered there last year but somehow managed to get a 0-0 draw. I would take that again

And

Beto passes a sublime, curled injury time winner to start the Annual arsenal campaign rot. Followed by 15min delay as VAR team take the unusual step of a passport check to confirm it’s actually Beto.

0-1.

Jack Grealish has caused us problems over the years, but he’s injured, which is a bonus. I do think Ndiaye is a decent player. I had him in my FPL team at the start of the season, and he racked up a fair few points for me with his penalty goals and set pieces. He’s one to keep an eye on, I think. I also find it ironic that their fans are talking about Arsenal scrums in the penalty box, after we saw the game against Man United be probably even worse between those two sides. I do wonder if we’re getting to a point in the season, however, where a referee will select a game to make an example of. This feels like the sort of game where that might happen, be it a penalty for either side. I hope I’m wrong.

The pundits are – as you’d expect – giving Arsenal the edge in this one. Merse has gone for a 2-1 in which we edge it, Lewis Jones says it’ll be a 2-0, citing Moyes’ away form in these big games as not being that great. Sutton also thinks it’ll be 2-0, saying that Everton will make it difficult, there might be a chance of fatigue, but our squad should see us through. Which I kind of get. What’s interesting is that a lot of these guys are also predicting City to drop points away to West Ham. I’m not sure I see that. I get it, they will be down after Real Madrid, and they’ve had to travel back from Spain on Wednesday, before coming down to the capital, with West Ham having their feet up, but I just don’t see City dropping points tomorrow – that’s why we have to take care of our business first. If we slip up with a defeat or a draw, it gives City a boost before they even kick off. If they know that they cannot do anything other than win tomorrow night, maybe it makes those muscles a little more tense and tight. That’s the opportunity we have, and that’s what Mikel Arteta must be instructing on his players.

I’ll leave it there for now. I’m back as usual tomorrow, and I’ll catch you all then when we all know what the team news is, and can start the guesswork on how Arteta will set the team up.

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.

This morning I am thinking about Pierro Hincapie, who got on the pitch this weekend, after Trossard’s injury, to help us win at Mansfield and get our name in the hat for tonight’s draw. I’ll give some thoughts on the draw in a minute, but back to Hincapie for now, who yesterday we had a kind of ‘worst-kept-secret’ announcement from Fabrizio Romano, that Arsenal would trigger his £45 million loan clause to buy, meaning he’ll be an Arsenal player next season and sign a five-year deal.

We all knew that was the case; we knew that it was very much like the David Raya deal that took him from Brentford to us, but ol’ Fabrizio just wanted to rubber-stamp it by making his announcement yesterday. And I don’t think there’s an Arsenal fan around who wouldn’t say “good stuff” on that deal.

I don’t think that’s always been the case, though. I think a lot of us were wondering why we’d signed a deputy left-back/centre-half when we already had Myles Lewis-Skelly and Riccardo Calafiori, with a few fans I know jokingly suggesting that it was because Mikel collects left-backs. Forget collecting Gabby’s, it’s in that side of the pitch that he has a real penchant for…

But the Ecuadorian has grown in stature in 2026, to the point where I think a lot of us are wondering who, when fit, is Mikel’s first choice left back. Calafiori kicked off this season in fine form, even scoring on opening day, but as per last season (and pretty much his whole career), injury has hit him, and as a result, Hincapie has been able to get himself successive minutes for which he’s been able to establish himself as a regular.

I think it’s an interesting profile in the way in which he plays that position, too, because it isn’t the same as Myles and Riccy. He feels very much like a ‘defenders defender’; he doesn’t invert as much, he fits a more traditional position on the pitch for a left back, plus I can picture him in my mind’s eye as he overlaps his man, trying to get down the wing to put a ball in. Of course, that isn’t always the case, and his goal against Wolves shows that he can pop up in that insight channel at times, but to me, he offers a different way of playing that left-back role, and I wonder if Mikel is preferring that right now. I saw one of his press conferences recently in which he talked about how difficult the Premier League is, about how three to four years ago you could invert your left back and that would create space, but that space isn’t there any more, and it makes me think about the role that Hincapie is playing and how he has the starting jersey as it stands. Football is constantly evolving, tactics ebb and flow throughout the season as teams learn to adapt and shift their approach based on the opposition. Teams know about the inverted fullback approach Arteta brought with Zinchenko, so they have countered it, so perhaps we are shifting back to a more traditional look at left back?

Of course, this could all be nonsense on Wednesday or Saturday next week when Calafiori starts (hopefully his knock doesn’t keep him out), and he goes back to being that dynamic left-back who pops up in central midfield. But I just think it is an interesting talking point when thinking about Hincapie and how well he has done in this latter part of the season. Will he now go on to stake his claim like Timber has done on that right-hand side? I’m not sure about that, because I do think Arteta loves a bit of Calafiori, but Hincapie certainly seems like he’s in the driving seat right now.

Which is also interesting and timely, given who we play on Wednesday in the Champions League, as the Ecuadorian returns to his ‘old’ club Leverkusen. I would imagine that the reason he didn’t start on Saturday was that Arteta has him earmarked for that midweek fixture. I suspect it will be weird for him, though; just one year ago, he would have been pulling on that Leverkusen jersey and heading out in front of them to play Werder Bremen in a 2-0 defeat (technically, he was an unused sub, but you get my point). Now he could be up against them in a red and white shirt as Arsenal’s starting full back.

It’s not just him, though, as Kai also will be returning to a familiar haunt, as he had four years at Leverkusen before moving to Chelsea in 2020. So he will also be keen to get on that pitch I suspect. His 60-odd minutes on Saturday has hopefully given him a platform to get more minutes, but I suspect it will be Big Vik who starts in midweek, given that he didn’t get on the pitch on Saturday. There will no doubt be a role for Kai at some stage on his old stomping ground, but if I’m a betting man, I’m thinking that Arteta and his coaching staff are looking at that Everton game as one more likely to feature Havertz from the start.

We’ll know more tomorrow when Arteta does his press conference, but for today, all eyes are on that FA Cup draw tonight. The games are due to be played over the Easter weekend of 4th and 5th April, and given the upsets of Southampton and Port Vale yesterday, I’ve got a hankering for a return to Vale Park. That probably won’t happen, and it does feel as though we have a big tie coming up in the next round; Liverpool, Chelsea and Man City are all still in it, and it feels to me like we’re getting one of those away. I just have a feeling about it, you know?

If we’re mapping out a preferred/least preferred list, mine would be:

1. Port Vale
2. Southampton
3. Leeds
4. West Ham/Brentford
5. Chelsea
6. Liverpool
7. Man City

You just know we’re getting City away, don’t you? It feels almost destined, given we’re in a title race with them. We’ll know by 7.30pm this evening though, so I’ll come on here tomorrow and give some initial thoughts on that when we speak next.

And so for now, for today, I will wish you and yours a great day and I’ll catch you tomorrow. Ciao.

A huge one.

On a night in which Nottingham Forest amazingly managed to pick up a point at The Etihad (bonus hilarity watching can be had with Bernardo Silva’s whinge at the end of the game yesterday – mate, you’ve had all the decisions go your way week-after-week since Rodri moaned at Spurs), Arsenal found a way to ‘win ugly’ at a very difficult Brighton side, to extend our lead at the top and build back a mini cushion with eight games for us to go.

We should focus on the key moments of the game, of course, but before we do that, let’s talk Fabian Huerzeler. What a dislikeable and odious character he is. Much like what we see these days, where a narrative is spun in the media and it is pulled into the common vernacular by those within the game, Huerzeler used his post-match press conference and interviews to cry ‘foul’ over Arsenal’s supposed delaying tactics. He whined about it being ‘not football’ and how nobody wants to see a game like yesterday. He moaned about David Raya going down three times and said you never see a ‘keeper do that.

Yes, we do. Emi Martinez. Regularly. Jordan Pickford is known to stay down a little longer to take pressure off his defenders. Goalkeepers have been going down and time-wasting at The Emirates for decades. Tim Krul was a master of it.

Huerzeler’s deflection tactics about the quality of the game are laughable. Brighton played well, right up until our box, in which Gabriel, Hincapie, Timber, and Mosquera (replaced by Calafiori) were imperious in ensuring this game ended as a shutout for Brighton. Arsenal didn’t play well, our attack was once again not really functioning, and Martinelli and Gyokeres were pretty anonymous (the whole ‘Martinelli/Gyokeres can’t play with each other’ discourse feels like it is really starting to become a ‘thing’ now, unfortunately) throughout the game. But to call us ‘boring’ and ‘not football’ – as will be the case by all of the ‘pundits’ this morning and for the next few days – is disingenuous. Brighton are the first team to actually outplay us for a very long time; most teams just sit in a low block and counter. So Why don’t we focus on that and how Arsenal had to dig deep to secure the points today?

The team was pretty much as I think most of us would have predicted; Martinelli in for Trossard, who was poor on Sunday against Chelsea. Saliba picked up a knock, and so Mosquera came in, whilst the rest of the team remained unchanged. And we got off to the perfect start. Saka’s goal in the 9th minute made me think that we were in for an impressive Arsenal away day, but after that initial deflected goal, we never really managed to assert control on this game. Brighton were good. They popped the ball around well, had more possession than us, kept us pegged back into our own half, and we struggled to find outlets for our attacking players. Gyokeres had another one of those games where the ball didn’t stick, and by the time his number came up for Havertz, he’d registered just 20 touches and had lost the ball 13 times. Not good enough. He needs to shape up, and if I’m Arteta, I’m thinking about doing 45 minutes for him against Mansfield, as well as 45 minutes for Havertz, because I think we need to start looking at Havertz slowly taking over more of the work up top as we reach the crunch point in this Premier League season.

Martinelli did his bit to demonstrate that maybe he is just a really good impact player, offering practically nothing on the left flank, whilst Eze had another game that sort of half-passed him by. What I mean by that is that at times he looked like he couldn’t get on the ball, but I saw other times in which he was popping it round quite well. There was one moment in thefirst half, for example, in which his quick touch set Saka in behind, only for him to flash the ball across goal to where neither Big Vik or Martinelli were ready to pounce.

I thought Saka was quiet, but on his 300th game for the club, with the winning goal scored, you have to give him a pass in terms of performance. The front end of our team just didn’t function.

That’s certainly not true of the defence or the midfield, though, and one Raya brain-fart moment aside right at the beginning of the game, I thought to a man our back line and two anchoring midfielders were excellent. Declan Rice and Gabriel, in particular, were rocks for us and this game felt like a throwback to the earlier part of the season, in which the Arsenal team defended like their lives were at stake. It was the type of performance that has felt like we’ve forgotten how to do in 2026, so whilst I am disappointed in us going forward this morning, I am pleased that the muscle memory at the back appears to have kicked back in for our defensive line.

I’m not sure what else there is to say, really, because there wasn’t a ton of other stuff going on in the game. Raya only made two saves all evening, whilst Chris Kavanagh seemed to offer Brighton players just about every free kick they wanted. The yellow Mosquera got was fine, if you’re applying the same rules to all players, but Brighton players seemed to get away with a fair few more challenges than Arsenal’s did. Which is why the bitching by Huerzeler was so ironic.

But hey, we got the win, we got the three points, this midweek has turned out to be a bit of a blinder and we now have everything in our hands once again.

Let’s hope it stays that way for a long time yet.

Back tomorrow as we start to preview Mansfield away in the cup. See you then.

Arsenal are as much in control of their own destiny as 115 Charges FC are. So today is a huge game and a massive win.

And this is going to be really hard. I think we’re going to have to suffer through it because Chelsea is a decent side. Whatever about their last game against Burnley and the draw, it was done against the backdrop of once again being a man down, and I think if they are 11v11, then they don’t drop those points as they did. They have lost just two games since Rosenior took over – against us in the cup, and in the Premier League, you have to go back to 27th December, when Villa beat them on their own patch, to see when they tasted defeat away fromhome in the Premier League. That last away defeat was even further back, when Leeds beat them 3-1 at Elland Road in December. There are a fair few draws in there, sure, but it underlines that this side is decent and they will cause us problems today.

They will probably score too. The last time they didn’t in the league was the 0-0 away at Bournemouth on 6th December, and so we’re looking at a side who do create chances, which I sort of touched on towards the end of Friday’s blog, but looking at the results only today, has pretty much confirmed. And when you think that we have only had two clean sheets in games in which the opposition just shut down – and shut us down (Liverpool and Forest) – then you realise that we are in for a difficult afternoon, I fear. Rosenior said as much in his press conference, too. We can laugh at some of his David Brentisms, we can call him ‘LinkedIn Liam’ all we want, but he does know how to set his team up, and they do spend a fair portion of each game dominating possession and looking decent.

Which is horrible to say, because as a club, they are reprehensible. Everything from a history of racism within the fanbase, some players like Enzo and their chequered past, the fact they go around kicking people (rock bottom of the fair play table and have had 10 sendings off this season), as well as their business model of turning football transfers into a Monopoly money trading approach. They are almost as bad as the Scum. In fact, they might be worse, to tell the truth. They have at least won trophies with their ill-got gains, which is also a travesty, because it kind of underlines the fact that if you bin off the manager every six weeks, if you financially dope or game the system, you can actually benefit. The bad guys do sometimes win, unfortunately.

So today Arsenal need to prove their title credentials, they need to prove they are up for this fight, they need to prove they can handle the pressure of a massive London derby.

As for the team, I think there will be no real changes from the North London Derby, so:

Raya

Timber   –   Saliba   –   Gabriel   –   Hincapié

Zubimendi

Eze   –   – Rice

Saka   –   Gyokeres   –   Trossard

I think Arteta will want to try to keep the winning vibes from the players who played in the North London Derby, although this will be a different game completely. I think Chelsea will certainly have more of the ball; they’ll attack in spaces that the Scum simply couldn’t, but I also think they will defend in tighter spaces than Tottenham did. For example, I don’t think Andrey Santos and Caicedo give Eze the space in front of the D that he had for Gyokeres’ first goal last weekend (even though he didn’t touch the ball), nor do I think Gyokeres gets the time to get that shot off today. Chelsea will sit in a compact and better-structured defensive unit and congest the space when out of possession, which is why I’d have Trossard instead of Martinelli today. He’s one for the second half, I think. Trossard wasn’t great against Tottenham, but he has more magic in his feet, and I also think he works better with Big Vik, so that’s what I’d be doing.

And on big Vik, I really hope we have seen something click, and I hope he gets more on the ball like he did last weekend. Arteta teased us with the Eze comments about knowing how to get the best out of him, but I hope the Arsenal team have learned how to get the best out of Gyokeres, and I hope that means getting at least one guy in and around him when the ball is played up to him.

We’ve had a week off now, so I also hope that has helped Timber, who has looked like he’s showing signs of mental fatigue. I also think we’ll see Hincapie because he’s been in good form, but it also feels like this is a game in which we might need a solid defensive base. Last weekend Chelsea went with Cole Palmer on their right-hand side/our left, but he likes to float, so ordinarily I’d say let’s use that to get Calafiori in. But I think Arteta will lean in to the meritocracy thing and keep the Ecuadorian in at left back.

I’m nervous now, having written just over 900 words, because I really want to beat this Chelsea team. We should have beaten them at their place in the league, but we put in a bit of a stodgy performance, despite being a man up. It’s time to put that right today.

Amanda and James will be doing a post-game live pod at 9pm is you want to join in for an instant(ish) reaction. You can do that here. Otherwise, I’ll catch you here tomorrow for a review of what went down.

See you then.

I guess the club was also hoping that official announcements of star player signing a new deal would also appease us. Thankfully, because of my curated timeline, I have plenty of sensible people who could divorce themselves from one thing relating to another and there was plenty of love for Bukayo, whilst still being grumpy about that midweek draw to the worst Premier League Team in history.

Then on Sunday we play what some of their fans are calling the worst Spurs team in Premier League history. I don’t buy that for a second. They are better than the sum of their collective parts have shown and, with the NLD needing no motivation, they will show it against us on Sunday for sure. Perhaps Mikel can use that motivation to turn a corner for this Arsenal team? I certainly hope so. The pundits still think we’ll win, though. Sutton predicted 3-0 on Sunday, which I just cannot see in a million years, whilst his guest went for 3-2 to The Arsenal. Merse has gone for 2-1, but Lewis Jones has said 2-1 to them on Sky Sports.

The Opta supercomputer – which I’ll be honest and admit I’m starting to hate right now – is telling us that we have a 60.1% chance of winning that game. I don’t really buy that given our form, their home, as well as a new manager, bounce that has already hit us once this season with Michael-friggin’-Carrick at The Emirates.

Their fans are kind of seeing it as a free hit. I get that. They won’t go down, they’re too good I think, so all they probably ned is two or three wins this season and they’re fine. I think they’ll get that, but will one of them be this weekend? If ever there was an incentive for them, it would be to hand the title advantage to City, so I am expecting their fans to be massively up for that. That club lives for other teams; they focus on making sure we don’t win anything, as 2023/24 showed, so Arteta needs to be preparing for this game as if he’s playing a team and a fanbase who are challenging for the title with us.

So then, what about this new manager? What’s he going to do? Well, he does apparently like a bit of a ‘new manager bounce’, which I bet will be the prevailing narrative on Sunday pre-kick off. He’s been hired midway through a season seven out of his last eight times and has had success at Juve, Lazio and twice managed to avoid the drop for Udinese. He tends to go with a back three and wing-backs, so I expect that’s what we’ll see on Sunday, with man-to-man pressing. That could be interesting, because if he does that, it means there are individual battles that could be won and that will be intriguing for our wide-forwards. It’s also what completely knocked them out of the game at The Emirates, with us three-up at halftime before Frank switched to a back four.

The benefit Tudor has had is that he’s had enough time to drill positions and disciplines into their team. This isn’t going to be a case like it was with Big Ange where he joined and then two days later for Forest they played us and hadn’t quite adapted to the system. There’s certainly an element of ‘you have to do it in a game’, but they will have been training their arses off this last week to be drilled well-enough to execute Tudor’s vision. We also tend to do quite well against.

The data tells us one thing, but I don’t know that it is what we’re gonna get on Sunday. It tells us that the Scum have the fourth-worst xG in the whole league. But then again, so did Wolves and they still managed two against us. They have also taken the sixth-worst number of shots so far this season. Where they are good, like us, is through set-pieces and the Scum have the fourth-best goal conversion from set pieces of any team in the league – 13 all season (we have 16). They also don’t seem to be too great when it comes to fast breaks; they’ve had 13 all season and have only scored in two – this tells me they aren’t a transitional side that will hit us on the counter again and again.

But this is where the data belies the reality, because we just don’t know with Tudor what he will do. If his previous roles is anything to go by, I’ve sort of outlined what some of what we might see above, but if they are also pressing high and with a man-to-man approach, my hope is that it will favour our increased propensity this season for going direct. Maybe, just maybe, this could finally be a ‘Big Vik’ big game? Let’s hope so, because for at least 80% of games this season, his performances have left me feeling a little, well, ‘meh’. If he is fed the ball and has enough green grass to run into with a high man-to-man press by The Scum, then he just has to win his own battle for us to potentially profit.

I hate this fixture. You’re going to hear me say that a lot over the next 48 hours. It makes me more nervous than anything and with the unknown quantity being added in here, as well as our performance in midweek, where at the beginning of the week I said this could be season-defining for us, the first part already hasn’t gone to plan, which means that the ‘season-defining’ part could be for all the wrong reasons. Let’s hope not on Sunday.

The countdown to this game is well and truly on. Let’s hear what the managers say in their press conferences today.

Until tomorrow.

I am starting this blog the night of the game. I never do that.

This was an unprofessional Arsenal performance.

This was a disgraceful performance.

I am embarrassed.

This is falling apart.

Two wins in nine.

This is a football side who have spent two-thirds of the season being a dominant side, the best side in the league, the ‘Champions-Elect’.

Nope.

This team is crumbling and they are – collectively – falling apart.

That second half is one for the ages. In a bad way. Players lumping the ball. Players hiding in plain sight. A manager who – in his instence to keep Martinelli on the pitch – showed that maybe he is also feeling the pinch and not recognising when difficult decisions need to be made.

I don’t even want to go into details on this game. It was shit. Arsenal were shit. They played a Wolves side who spent most of the game passing the ball to us.

And yet they have found two goals to draw level with us.

Who cares about analysis at this stage? Arsenal just fell apart and our form is a real problem right now.

I don’t want to hear about the others. I don’t want to hear about the fact we are five points clear. City win their game in hand and beat us – which feels certainly feasible, nay – realistic given our record up there – and they are in the driving seat.

This Arsenal team could have turned this Premier League season into a procession. Instead they are delivering unto us torture.

Name me one player who has stepped up in that Wolves game. I can’t. I see scared little boys who played what might end up being the worst team in Premier League in history.

Shame on so many of you Arsenal players.

What’s the point in analysing it? Arsenal were awful. Wolves were awful. Two awful teams played out what felt like a relegation scrap.

Normally, I write 1,000 words for this blog. But what’s the point at this stage?

The North London Derby – against a terrible Tottenham team – could bring more misery. Because if Wolves can do that to us on their own patch, why can’t a Tottenham team with plenty of rest, as well as the incentive of seeing an Arsenal team falling apart.

It feels like a horror show waiting to happen. And right now – I feel like I don’t even want to watch it.

Sorry – you’ll get no positivity from me today.

I’m going to stop now. I’m going to save this as a draft. Then I’m going to wake up tomorrow and look at this again. I don’t think I’ll feel much different. But at least before I post I’ll have a night’s sleep. How much sleep I’ll get I don’t know.

Shambles.

************************************************

The dividing line is the difference a sleep makes. I didn’t get too much sleep. I am still utterly apoplectic with rage. I have re-read my semi-drunken ramblings from last night and I still feel the same. This Premier League season is imploding in front of our very eyes. It is pathetic.

It’s a football media and social media lock down for me now for at least 24 hours I think. SO it’s also debatable whether I’ll blog tomorrow morning too. I probably will, but right now, I just don’t feel like it. And the North London Derby on Sunday is the absolute WORST game to be playing right now.

Laters people.

But the really painful news was the Havertz stuff. Out for about a month. Having just come back and looking so slick too. We’ve seen this before when players come back; they have a few games, then pick up a muscular injury, and Arsenal were deliberately holding him back from games to avoid it. But I guess you just never know how the human body is going to react and clearly Havertz’s isn’t reacting amazingly. It’s funny (not funny) because Havertz has not had a lot of injuries in his career, but it seems like the second Arteta uttered the words along the lines of “he’s a machine” when it came to Havertz’s fitness, it feels like he’s had one injury after the other. His arrival back into the team was also co-inciding with some pretty imperious-looking performances. And now we’ve lost him again.

Honestly, are we not allowed nice things? Only a couple of weeks ago, we were saying that Arteta had a full squad at his disposal, bar Max Dowman. Now we’re looking at the possibility of not having the following available for tonight’s game to Brentford:

• Havertz
• Odegaard
• Saka
• Trossard

That’s a big chunk of our attacking threat, although what I will say is that this is a worst-case scenario, because Arteta would only say when asked yesterday, “we’ll see” about Odegaard and Saka. I suspect the “we’ll see” relates more to Odegaard than Saka, because the reporting from the sources saying they are targeting the Scum game weekend after next is usually quite accurate. So perhaps we get bolstered by Martin’s return, but given there was nothing in the written transcription on Trossard, hopefully he’s fine. I haven’t had the chance to look at any training pics yet.

So on the assumption of Trossard being fit and Odegaard being a ‘maybe’, this is what I have gone for as a starting XI that I’d like to see tonight at Brentford:

Raya

Timber   –   Saliba   –   Gabriel   –   Califiori

Zubimendi

Eze   –   Rice

Madueke   –   Gyokeres   –   Trossard

I toyed with the idea of Odegaard coming in, but I’m thinking he’ll do a job-share with Eze, perhaps either way around. I just think that Eze is more suited to get the best out of Big Vik, then on the left flank, Trossard seems to be on a similar wavelength to the Swede (think that sumptuous ball in behind that Gyokeres didn’t quite get the shot off against Leeds a couple of weeks back). I think we need to ‘lean in’ to the good form of the Swede and I’m just not sure that has come with Odegaard. He was the one I thought would be the guy to feed our number 14, but I feel like I just haven’t seen enough of it. But we have with Eze. So let’s go with that for an hour and see if it works. Gabby Jesus didn’t do enough to win his place, Merino is out, Gyokeres only got 30 minutes against Sunderland, so he should be fresher.

Regardless of the starting XI though, Arteta has been at pains this season to point out that the finishers can also be as important as the starters and, dare I say it, they are probably more important than those who get go kick off. Just think about the Sunderland game and the impact the subs had there – they turned it from a nervy 1-0, to what in the end looked like a comfy 3-0 victory at home.

And I do think tonight will be nervy. Brentford are a good team. A solid team. A team who know set pieces almost as well as we do and in Kayode get a de facto corner every time they get a throw in. They’ll be leaning into that, as well as a rapid counter and interestingly, they also might not deploy Thiago as I was thinking they might. On my run this morning I listened to the preview section of the Beesotted podcast and towards the end they had an interesting discussion about how Thiago plays the target man in some games, but in others he’s happy to drop deeper and feed the pacey wide men. If you think about how they might sit in tonight and rely on the counter, it’s something that I think Arteta has to be mindful of.

Last night City did their bit to ratchet up the pressure. Tonight the players need to be as cool, calm and collected, as Arteta seemed in his press conference.

Fingers crossed tomorrow we’re talking about a victory – by any means necessary.

Catch you all tomorrow morning for a de-brief, then I might see if I can get some peeps on for the Same Old Arsenal pod in the evening.

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

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

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

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

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

Everybody, be cool.

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

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

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

So to see one of their castaways, a guy who we all love and has become so integral to our squad, bag the winner to send us through to the League Cup Final, felt poetic to me. It felt like vindication. It was a visual manifestation of our superiority and having missed out on a few semi-finals in recent years, it felt like what we deserve for what this season has been so far.

We haven’t ‘won’ anything. We’ve got to a cup final. That’s it. But for some years now this team has been knocking down milestones. The final one has been to start winning trophies. And to do it against a team that really are quite odious and reprehensible as an entity – that was lovely.

There’s also nothing more lovely than a last second goal. Chelsea were pushing, they were probing, they left the back door open and Kai Havertz walked through it by rounding Sanchez. Oh, and Kai, the touching of the badge? “Chefs Kiss” my friend. Chef’s Kiss indeed.

I kind of predicted how this game was going to unfold yesterday morning, but I didn’t think it would be the level of cagey from Chelsea that essentially meant nothing. They offered basically nothing. We didn’t need to go and win this game. We had the goal advantage. We had the home advantage. We have the best defence in the country. So the onus wasn’t on us to go and force anything. Was I surprised that Chelsea were just happy to stay in their shape and offer little in that first half? Not really. We, of all fans, are aware from Anfield in 89 what you can do in a second half when the clock is ticking down. Rosenior had, I think, tried to invoke a little of that George Graham spirit; keeping it tight, make the first half a bit dull, let Arsenal force it, then pick them off on the counter.

The only problem with that, is that Arsenal were happy not to force it, we didn’t need to. So why turn this into an emotional game? Screw the neutrals. Screw people switching on to ITV and wanting to see a basketball match of end-to-end stuff. That’s not Arsenal – have you not been watching? We can – and do – have the ability to shut games down. Arteta has been trying to master this for some years now. Control, dominance, possession, minimise jeopardy. Sure, Enzo taking a shot from 30 yards produced a bit of something for Kepa to do, but if you’re relying on outside-of-the-box efforts from the likes of Marc Cucurella as your source of attempted joy, you’re going to be in a bit of trouble playing this Arsenal side.

We had our chances (Hincapie’s early effort was decent and maybe Martinelli could have made more of being put in behind in that first half), but this was a professional display that, personally, I loved. That’s because it felt like – and I put the Leeds game into this bracket when I say this – the Arsenal from earlier in the season. You know the one that just shut teams down and bagged themselves a clean sheet. Of late, we’ve seen us concede a few too many sloppy goals. Sure, there’s been some golazo‘s in there with the two United scored, or the second one from Kroupie at Bournemouth, but we’d let complacency creep in, and now it feels like those kinks have been ironed out. Arteta spoke about doing a bit of a reset a few weeks back. He talked about how some bad habits had started to emerge. But clearly this team has decided that our defensive identity, which has been such a feature of this season, needs to be restored, rather than the slightly helter-skelter results that we saw in parts in January.

It’s been a really testing period for these players, but they’ve come out of it with a cup final to look forward to. Declan Rice said in an interview afterwards that he’s ‘knackered’ and given Arteta went pretty strong with his starting XI yesterday, I can understand why. But I think we probably need to be mindful of that in the coming weeks and Arteta probably needs to be thinking about a bit of rotation. We now have four days until we play again on Saturday at home to Sunderland, so I think there is enough space there between matches for those players to refresh themselves. But after that it starts to pick back up again, because we play Brentford on Thursday, before Wigan on Sunday, which will 100% be the opportunity to sit some players down again. The good news thereafter is that we’ll have a solid week until we have to go to the Toilet Bowl to play the Scum, so I think that will be on Arteta’s mind as he and his staff start to plot the approach for the next block of games we have.

But for now it is job done, Kai the hero, Chelsea vanquished and another impressive Arsenal victory in what has – up until this point – been a great season so far for us. Let’s just hope it continues all the way to May.

I’ll be back with some more thoughts tomorrow as we prepare for the visit of the Mackems. Speak then.

This is a Forest side who currently sit 17th in the table, who have lost 12 of their 21 games this season (one being a 3-0 to us at the Emirates during the disastrous Postecoglou reign), who – as I pointed out yesterday – are in patchy form overall of late, and given our current form (Liverpool draw aside), you’d hope this is one in which Arsenal could win and win comfortably.

But you and I both know that is not how we roll. I am absolutely convinced that this will not be comfortable today – Sean Dyche wouldn’t allow it – and so Arsenal are really going to work hard if they want those three points this evening.

By a weird quirk of fate, we also have a pretty poor recent head-to-head versus Forest at the City ground, too. Last season was a draw 0-0, lumped in with about a billion other draws we picked up. The season before that we did win 2-1 around the same time as now, with goals from Gabby Jesus and Bukayo Saka in the last 20 minutes. But before that we played them in May as our title run essentially came to an end with a 1-0 defeat there, then the year before that I was up at the game as we lost 1-0 in the FA Cup, with the time before that being in 2018 in which we lost 4-2 with a rotated Arsenal side that was pretty terrible defensively on the day I seem to recall. So that’s one win in five, which means there might be some Forest fans on their way to the game tonight thinking that maybe they could give us a bit of a chinning this evening.

Hey, it’s the Premier League, so it’s not outside the realms of reality that it could happen. City went there, relied on a late goal, should have had a man sent off and really, were a little fortunate to get the win overall. So we can’t be too arrogant to think that form and the league table set us up for a nice evening. As I mentioned yesterday, Forest will go direct, they will attack our defensive final third, they will be aggressive, and we need to be ready for it.

That’s why I think Arteta will keep the same side as he did for Chelsea. He would have expected the aggression from Chelsea in the same way he will be expecting it from Forest, so for me that means you have to go with Timber left back, White right back. Arteta hinted at a return for one of Dowman, Mosquera or Calafiori, for which I think it might be Mosquera today. I don’t know why, but I just get that feeling that perhaps he’s back. If that happens, it is good news indeed; we’re playing both of our right backs if we go with what I have suggested, and Mosquera can fill in there, so if it means we can get one of them off – or maybe even both if the scoreline is favourable for us with 20 minutes to go – then that’s what we have to do. We have INter in midweek and I think Arteta simply has to rotate one or both of White/Timber for that one, because we don’t want to risk both of them, which means a return of Mosquera could result in him able to fill in there for INter, as well as MLS on the left, which allows for that rotation and rest we would need ahead of a big game at home to United.

Which is why I think he’ll go strong in the back four today.

I don’t think he changes midfield either for this one. Zubi-Rice-Odegaard feels like it’s a must for a midfield battle that I think will include Andersen and Sangaré, fresh from AFCON, so we need those first-choice players to be ready and willing to go for this one. I hope that Yates doesn’t get on, because every time I’ve seen him, he’s a clobbermeister who would happily leave one in on a player to pick up a yellow, so hopefully, if he plays, it is for the dying embers of this one.

Up top, again, I think the only question mark might be left wing, because I believe Saka is obviously locked in for this, with Gyokeres up top, having scored in midweek. Hopefully, Big Vik is given a little more space, too. He’s up against some burly defenders in Murrilo and six-foot-five Milenkovic. He’s not the quickest in the world, whilst Murillo is a little bit more of the muscle and apparently does have occasional lapses in concentration, so if Viktor can find a way to get some space against those two, who knows, maybe he can drop back-to-back goals?

So, who plays in that left-wing spot? You could argue the toss over some players, I think, so it’s tough to call. Do you go with the trickery and form this season of Trossard? Maybe. But he hasn’t been sparkling in the last couple of matches. He hasn’t been poor by any stretch of the imagination, but I just haven’t seen him in the same scintillating form he showed a couple of weeks back during the Christmas period. Martinelli is fresh off a hat-trick last weekend, so he might be a good option, but if Forest sit in a compact shape when we have the ball, Martinelli might be reduced to that kind of game we all dread for him: hugging the touchline, no space to run in behind, touch-touch-touch-byline-cross to nowhere. I think that space on the pitch will be taken up by Ola Aina, who is quick and good at ball recoveries, so it feels like you might need somebody good at beating the man today. I wouldn’t mind seeing Madueke in that regard, because he’s probably the best at beating a man in the whole club. Trossard, too, has the trickery more than Martinelli, so that’s another option. An outside bet might be Eze, but I just think Arteta is going off the idea of using him there, with the last time we saw that for any length of time being in the Villa loss at the beginning of December. So there are at least two options for Arteta, depending on how he thinks Forest will line up, which is a real positive in an attacking sense.

I do think this one is going to be a bit of a slog, though. The Forest fans will be raucous; they’ll have had a few beers, so it’ll be a lively atmosphere, which means we need to get on the ball and impose ourselves early. WE tend to start games slowly and control the ball, and given we played in midweek, I bet we try to slow this first half down with possession, whilst Forest might be more of aggressive at the start to try and get ahead and get the crowd on side. If that happens, we have to find solutions to just keep control of those first 30 minutes. Do that, then build on our game, and hopefully we can get the win.

We’ll need to, because City will have beaten a ragged United side who have only had a few days with Carrick in charge. I might watch the start of that one, until City score at least, but I’m not holding out much hope. So we need to do our job a few hours after that has finished.

Back tomorrow for a pod with James and Amanda, as well as the usual blog on here. Catch you then.

So why do I not feel completely sated this morning?

I think it’s probably the feeling that this tie could – and probably should – be practically over. We outshot them. We had more big chances. We won more duels. We had more corners. The only thing Chelsea had over Arsenal on the night was greater possession, but, as the eye test showed, that was a little more sterile for us. It felt like we gave Chelsea a bit of a lifeline with the goals we conceded to a Garnacho who I personally think is one of the most overrated players in the league. The goals he scored felt avoidable:

1. Garnacho at the back post, unmarked after Neto had been allowed to float the ball in from the other flank
2. A poorly contested corner that went through a sea of players as Garnacho semi-mis-hit his goal attempt.

This game felt like one that we should have taken a 3-1 lead back to the Emirates on, something I know Mikel Arteta also believed, based on his post-match comments. It felt like a game that – despite Chelsea getting a few chances throughout – was one that we were in control of. That feeling helps when you score early, and Ben White’s headed goal from one of the first corners of the game certainly did its bit to calm any initial lingering nerves I had. It was pretty shocking defending, though; if we’re going to say that we could – probably should – have done better on our conceded goals, I think Chelsea fans waking up this morning will be feeling a lot worse about the concession of their goals.

That applies to the second goal we scored as well. Sanchez won’t want to go back into the video room for this match this week, that’s for sure, because it was he who allowed the ball to slip through his palms for Big Vik to break his drought and put us two up on the night. And as I said on the ol’ socials, boy, did the Swede need that. He cut another solitary performance at first last night, and the stats guys who run the graphics on screen are never going to be his friend, with last night’s number on screen in that first half saying that he’d by far had the fewest touches of any player on the pitch.

It doesn’t matter if you score though

That’s what we’ve been saying for a while, so if I’m going to have choice words to say when he doesn’t score and looks forlorn like Liverpool this time last week, we have to hand out some flowers to the big guy when he does. Right place, right time, hopefully this helps his confidence.

And at that point, you’d expect Arsenal to shut up shop. We’ve been good for quite some time at closing down games, but Mikel Arteta will be a little disappointed in the concession of those two Garnacho goals. That’s happened a lot over the last six weeks or so. I think most of us Gooners have put it down to Big Gabi being out at the start, but he’s been back for a couple of weeks now. Yet, we’re still not keeping the back line completely water-tight, which is something I think Arteta will be looking at today and tomorrow when they do their analysis on this match ahead of Forest on Saturday.

From a tactical perspective, I really liked how high we pressured Chelsea in their half of the pitch. When Sanchez played the ball out from the back, it was never long, and Arsenal clearly knew this would happen, because there was always a guy in the midfield picking the ball up in their own half, which forced several high turnovers and presented a few opportunities. Rice, Odegaard and Zubi – all had their moments in which they did that, and you could tell it was clearly instructive. Arsenal had Chelsea’s number on the night, which is also why I guess I’m a wee bit frustrated, because it felt like we easily had the beating of them and were the better team on the night.

I definitely felt that when Zubi scored. What a player he is, eh? He does the six role to perfection, but he’s also been given the licence to go forward more than he ever did at Real Sociedad, which is resulting in goals for him too. He has four goals in all competitions this season already. Last season, he scored two. In fact, across his career, he has only ever managed a maximum of four in a season – he has only scored 10 goals in 236 games across seven seasons previously, so he’s already matched his best, and we’re only just halfway through the season. This is a guy who has very quickly become an integral cog in this Arteta machine, and you can see why Arsenal pursued him through such a long campaign as they did last year. He is a superstar, and I love that he plays in our red and white. I’ll also take this moment to say ‘props’ to the team themselves, who worked the ball really well for that goal, including Big Vik, who gets himself an assist on the night too.

The job isn’t done, as Arteta was pointing out afterwards, but we have ourselves a one-goal lead to take to our own gaff in a couple of weeks’ time, and that is good. Whether it will mean that players are rotated, I doubt, because that is quite a slender lead for you to be doing mass tinkering as we did against Pompey. But there is at least the breathing space, and Arteta was at least able to make a few subs last night too, bringing on Merino,Jesus and Havertz for Rice, Gyokeres and Odegaard. Martinelli got on too to keep his engine running as well and perhaps the subs made us a little less organised as those players came up to speed with the game, but I do just wonder if we just switched off a bit with their second goal.

Hey, I’m nit-picking though because let’s be honest, we’re in a good position, we scored three goals and should now be heavy favourites to go one better than last season. And you have to take that. All eyes now shift to Forest away on Saturday, which will be a really tricky game against a Sean Dyche who loves to spoil the mood, so let’s hope those players have those game-faces back on immediately, because we can’t afford any Premier League slip-ups, having had a bit of a hiatus from it over the last week.

Back tomorrow as we build up to that one.

To be fair to them, though, they have already done their part earlier in the season by beating City at the beginning of the season in August with an 89th-minute winner. So you have to give ‘thanks’ for that.

In the other games that have semi-relevance, we can hope to have a laugh at The Scum’s expense as they go to Bournemouth, and my hope is that the Cherries can have some end product before Semenyo departs for City. It’s a curious one, though, because whilst I always want the Tiny Totts to lose, we do want them to keep Frank in the job as long as possible, because it’s making them all so miserable. So they probably need to win some games. At some stage. Just maybe not today. Villa travel to Palace ad it goes without saying that we want Palace to try to do a number on Villa, whilst Chelsea’s new manager has the small matter of a West London derby against Fulham. I actually think Chelsea is a lucky team, with their derby, because let’s be honest it’s so low-key that the intensity just doesn’t really exist. It doesn’t matter how sh*t The Scum might be, those two fixtures in every season often have so much build-up, so much intensity, that there’s a lot of jeopardy with them even when they are playing pants. Yet Chelsea has none of that. Ahh, well, “it is what it i,s” as the saying goes.

Looking ahead of our game, we’ll have a press conference today at some stage, and the big thing we’ll probably want confirmed is that: a) we have no fresh injury concerns from Bournemouth, and b) maybe there could be a return for Havertz and/or Calafiori?

We’ll get a press conference from Slot this morning too, apparently at 9.45 am, so if you’re reading this later on in the day, you’ll know what he’s said with his update and whether Ekitike is fit or not. I’ve listened to a couple of podcasts over the last couple of days, and the talk has been about how Slot has spoken about Ekitike not playing against Fulham because of a hamstring issue. As the pods I have listened to have pointed out, no hamstring issue in the world recovers in a matter of days, so we’ll find out if he was just essentially lying to save him for this match. That’s my hunch, anyway.

So, about Liverpool then, what are their fans feeling ahead of this one? Well, I read one blog article this morning essentially saying that whilst they are on an impressive nine-game unbeaten run, it “feels like the worst nine-game unbeaten streak of all time“. Ouch. That article also highlights how they’re not too happy with the form, they think the team buckles under pressure, and they’re not as free-flowing as they were at the beginning of the season. I think that last comment is probably the most telling of what we’ll see tomorrow. I don’t think Liverpool will be open at all. I think they will set out to be solid defensively and offer us very little. This is a Liverpool side whose priorities have shifted this season, and they’re now just firmly in points accumulation for a top four/five place this season. If you are looking at it through that lens, then you’re probably thinking as a Liverpool fan, “yeah, we would love a scalp away at Arsenal, it would be a massive confidence boost, but a draw and then get back to winning ways after that is fine too”. For us, because we are in title-chasing mode, the margins aren’t as fine, and so my hope for tomorrow is that we have more desperation to lay down a marker than Liverpool.

I find it interesting that the above article talks about how Liverpool’s pressing is ‘non-existent at times’, which feels very uncharacteristic of Klopp’s team, or the team that won the title last season. A confidence thing? Maybe, which is why this game tomorrow needs to be treated by all of us with a little caution, because as the article points out, it would be very Liverpool to turn up and look great tomorrow. But we do ‘owe them’ a few, actually. At the beginning of the season, it was a nothing game, and they edged it with one moment in that free kick they scored. At The Emirates last season, we were by far the better team, yet we got done on a counter, with Liverpool exiting our gaff with a point they didn’t really deserve in a 2-2 draw. So I hope Arteta is using that today in training and the team talk as motivation ahead of this massive game.

How about the pundits then? What are they saying? Well, first up is Merse, who is predictably going for an Arsenal win and saying that we’ll win 3-1. I like the optimism, Merse, but I think it might be closer than that and went for a 2-1 when we did the post-Bournemouth show last weekend. Chris Sutton is predicting a 2-0 Arsenal, which again I can’t see, but interestingly, the BBC’s AI engine is going for 2-2. I can see that – this fixture had two of them last season and Liverpool have gone something crazy like 20 matches against us scoring. So I expect them to do that tomorrow too. Sports Mole has also gone for a 2-0, and you can read a little more about that preview here; I always find them valuable and interesting.

I’ll leave it there for today and be back tomorrow with a closer look at what we might do, but for now, have yourselves a great day.

• The Great Arsenal underperforming data machine
• The Great Aston Villa overperforming data engine

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, Villa have been a weird team from a data point of view, kind of defying the statistical models. Given they’d just gone through an 11-game winning streak, they rocked up at The Emirates in very good form and perhaps an expectation from their fans that they could very well cause an upset on our turf.

I felt it too, to be fair, because Villa had picked up a draw last season, and the season before that, they’d done us with a smash-and-grab, scoring two late goals. This could very well derail our season and I was very apprehensive ahead of it.

To add to that, the fact that the news emerged a few hours before kick-off that Rice wouldn’t be fit to play in this game, compounded the nerves. Arsenal would need to do this without our most in-form player of the season. But there was some positives that could be taken, with Big Gabi restored to the line-up, as well as Jurrien Timber and given that Hincapie was now getting into the team more regularly and had acquitted himself very well at both centre-half and left back this season, this was a back line that should be able to sure up any potential issues that Villa might pose.

But the absence of Rice was certainly felt in that first half and Villa caused us some challenges in midfield with one particularly impressive Tielemans ball through the middle of our team that Rogers nearly got the run on through on goal. Thankfully the back line spared our blushes, because in that first half Villa had the more presentable chances and, sadly, once again those half-decent chances fell to Big Viktor Gyokeres who didn’t take them. I’m not here to bag on him though; perhaps he could have done better with one of his headers, but he isn’t know as a striker who has a great scoring record with his head, so unlike the early chance against Brighton, I think those were a little tougher. But he’s still not getting into those positions and that continues to be a concern.

So was the gamesmanship from Villa players who, I thought, were playing from time and slowing the game down from the early parts of this game. I don’t blame them; they were content to frustrate a home team and crowd and given our record on our own patch, if they could slow everything down by taking time on the ball, going down a lot, then they’re entitled to do so. And let’s not forget that a fair bit has been made of Unai’s tactical subs in the second half and they certainly looked more impressive in the second half against Chelsea, so they obviously thought they had a blueprint they could adopt.

So Arsenal would have to change something in that second half and boy, did they, because we were out of the traps quickly and were ahead within three minutes of the restart. I’d read a Villa blog in the run-up to this game in which the author talked about how Martinez has some fantastic games, but he does get a little too preoccupied with opposition players and that sometimes causes him trouble. That happened against Chelsea and it happened last night too. His complaints about Big Gabi having fouled him were half-hearted at best and although it was hardly vintage stuff from the Brazilian, his mere presence unsettles all defenders and goalkeepers and he showed it last night. If you ask me, he’s the best central defender in the world not just because of his threat in the attacking box, but his presence at the heart of our defence too. You could tell the relief from the crowd when he came on as a sub against Brighton and today he showed his value at the attacking end too.

One goal hasn’t felt enough for Arsenal for a while now though, so the most important thing those Arsenal players needed to do was to get themselves a second and when you do that within a few minutes of the first, there’s always a big sense of relief and belief that this could go on to be a great game. What I liked about this goal was that it had everything the first half did not. I mentioned the Tielemans pass in the first half that split our midfield – well, this was an example of what happens if you press higher and win the ball back higher up the pitch to stop that kind of pass and move being made. Odegaard won the ball high – something that we know we are good at – his pass to Zubi was inch-perfect, the Spaniard’s flick over Martinez was done as if he was our centre-forward, it was 2-0 to The Arsenal and suddenly it felt like there could be more for us here. Villa, who had been getting away with it from a stats perspective for a few games now (if you listen to the data nerds), looked like the regression to the norm was upon us.

We were all over them from the beginning of the second half, but unlike in recent weeks, it was time to offer a beat-down to a team, and although we had to wait until the 69th minute for Leo to bag another goal and really seal this match up, we still created a ton of chances and I thought we were 100% value for that third goal. I have to confess I thought it would be ruled out for offside, but the good thing about offside is that it’s a little less subjective than things like a foul or a handball call, so once the technology had been checked and the goal was given, the relief could really set in.

And that relief just turned to joy with the goal from Gabby Jesus, who you could see was over the moon with his slot home to turn this in to a proper statement win. And it really was. The Watkins goal took a bit of the gloss off, but Arsenal played an in-form team (albeit missing a couple of key players) and took them apart. The narrative of recent weeks have been that Arsenal are wobbling, but this didn’t feel like it. This felt like an adrenaline shot for a team that is ready to go to the next level.

There’s no time to rest though. Bournemouth away was a place that we suffered last season, and so Arteta and his charges will be well-aware of the threat they pose, having lost last season. More on that in the coming days as we prep for that game on Saturday. For now, happy New Year’s Eve, with me off for a Cotswolds walk ahead of a boozy afternoon and evening.

Catch you tomorrow – hangover permitting.

Well, I say “happy” match day, but we all know that is predicated on whether Arsenal can collect all three points tonight against a red-hot Aston Villa on fine form at the moment, and going into this game feeling like they can beat anybody. And they have proven they can so far with 11 wins in a row, including against us, as well as having beaten City at home too. Arsenal must be super mindful of that, and as I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, Villa also have a pretty good record at our gaff, so they’ll be feeling it a bit tonight, I suspect.

I had a look back at that game and Villa’s star men on the day – according to SofaScore – were Emi Martinez, Matt Cash and Boubacar Kamara. Two of those three are not in the team this evening due to suspension, so that hopefully has to be good news for us. Cash is key to how Villa attack and was the goalscorer in the first half as Eze switched off at the back post, whilst Kamara is one of Villa’s key passing triggers; he ranks in the 80+ percentile of all footballers on Fbref for his passes attempted, pass completion and progressive passes from his deeper-lying position. He’s also in the 90th percentile for clearances and aerial duels won, so there’s no doubt they’re missing a key cog this evening against us. Their replacements – Bogarde and Onana offer me mixed insight. Onana has always felt like an impressive ball-winning midfielder, so it doesn’t feel like a massive drop down in quality, but Bogarde has only started three games in the Premier League and got himself just 331 minutes with two yellow cards. He’s a young defender and so that is an area tonight that I am hoping we can exploit.

And with Saka on the other flank, as an Arsenal fan, you have to be looking at our wings being the key to getting joy from what I think will be a mid-to-low block from Villa. I think they’ll view us and Chelsea in a similar light, and I’ve read a few comments from Villa fans stating that they weren’t great in the first half, as Chelsea put on the pressure. So I am expecting them to be cautious, to try to limit us in the first half, slow the game down and then look to replicate the approach by switching system and playing staff in the second half.

Which is why I think he’ll go with Trossard again, even though Martinelli might be a tempting option. But if somebody like Martinelli would be good in small patches, you think that having him come on to run at that full back with 20 minutes to go might be something that occupies Villa’s thoughts.

So my expected team line-up for tonight is:

Raya

Timber   –   Saliba   –   Gabriel   –   Calafiori

Zubimendi

Odegaard   –   Rice

Saka   –   Gyokeres   –   Trossard

There have been some questions about Gyokeres and in the Same Old Arsenal pod we did on Sunday James advocated bringing in Jesus, but I don’t think Arteta will do that just yet. I’m not 100% certain of that, but I think he might see if Gyokeres can give a little more against this Villa side. I think he was better against Brighton and got a couple of decent shots off, as well as a tame one in the opening minutes, but I think Arteta will be hoping that he can fashion a little more space and even if he doesn’t, his running and preoccupation of centre halves, could well be beneficial if the flanks are due to be a big part of this game.

The other question mark will be at the back, for which we haven’t been any news on Timber and Calafiori. My hope is that it has just been minor precautionary knocks and the players, with an extra couple of days, have recovered from them. Arteta spoke about them both after the Brighton game and it didn’t sound like he was overly worried, just a bit bemused, so I hope the coaching team just had some overly cautious thoughts given the volume of injuries we’ve had this season. If neither of those two are available, it does present somewhat of a challenge, mainly at right back, because on the left he could put either MLS or Hincapie in. But on the right, do you really want to drop in Rice again? He was great n’all against Brighton, but in a game like this against an opponent like Villa, you want as manby players playing in their natural positions as possible.

I said I had a look at this game last time out at Villa Park and I looked at both line ups and the stats. We fielded Timber and Hincapie as our centre halves and were in the process of running Ben White in to the ground. Eze started on the left and was caught napping for their first goal, whilst Merino up top offered basically close to nothing. Tonight’s team – if it resembles the one I have picked above – would be, you would hope, a lot more formidable for Villa and given we gave them such an even game away from home and the numbers suggest we were unlucky to lose in the dying seconds (it was pretty much even on most of the stats you look at), my hope for tonight is that we see an Arsenal side with their swagger back. We haven’t seen it for a while but it did feel like we had started to recover that feeling of being able to dominiate and suffocate teams against Brighton until they scored their goal against the run of play.

That’s what we have to get to tonight. Fingers crossed we can.

Right, I’ll call it a day there and will be back tomorrow with some more thoughts. Have yourselves a good one kids.

Firstly, a lot has been made of their overperformance of their xG. And for sure, they absolutely have when you look at games like the one this weekend that they just played against Chelsea. The Blues had 2.1xG according to Fbref, whereas Villa scored two goals from their 1.2 xG. But if you look at the actual shots on target, it points to a wasteful Chelsea who only got three of their 14 shots on target, versus Villa’s eight on target from 11 shots.

Villa are clearly a prolific team.

So I started to have a little look at how they perform, numbers-wise, and blimey they are not one for the data nerds.

In terms of xG in the league this season, they are 15th. For xG allowed, they are 14th. For goals scored, they are sixth. For goals against, they are fourth. For progressive carrying of the ball they are 14th and for progressive passing of the ball they are 10th.

They are just a weird side to try and work out.

They have the second-highest save percentage of shots they face, which points to their annoying but obviously quality keeper, they have in Martinez, and are roughly mid-table when it comes to the total number of shots they have faced.

In terms of attacking threat, they have taken the 12th most shots in the Premier League, but they’re sixth in the league for total number of shots on target. But I think herein lies the secret to their success this season: Villa have the highest shots on target percentage of any team in the league.

This is an Aston Villa side that takes quality shots. They are not a high-volume shooting machine; they simply take shots and take them from decent distances too, which explains their low xG compared to their position, I think. If you’re taking pot shots and getting them on target from 30 yards, there ain’t a lot of xG you’re hoovering up.

They also sit in the lower half of the table for total number of passes completed, which tells me they want to get the ball from back to front as quickly as is humanly possible to create chances. That’s what we’re going to have to contend with tomorrow night:

• Quick transitional counters from back to front
• Shots from distance
• Probable sh*thousery and time-wasting from Martinez

Perhaps that shouldn’t really surprise us though. Last season at home we were two-up on 60 minutes having got one in the second and one on 55 minutes one what was a game we were in total control of, before Villa hit back with two relatively quick goals from a counter on 60 and 68 minutes. The season before that we lost 2-0 at home in one of the games that cost us the title; again that was with two counter-attacking goals in the last 10 minutes of the game. Villa have played rope-a-dope on us for two season’s now; it is time we learned from it and dealt with what they will be coming to us with.

A lot of that will depend on the team news too, which we’ll get from Arteta and the defensively solidity with the return of Big Gabi will be massive for us. Who plays at full back will also be important and I’ve got everything crossed that Calafiori and Timber are back. Who knows, maybe even a cheeky “Ben White is training too” wouldn’t go amiss.

Other than that there isn’t really a lot going on at the moment. I was toying with the idea on what some of the Villa forums might be saying, but I suspect it will be full of some of their fans doing a fair bit of crowing and expectation of victory after their really good run they’re on at the moment, so I’m not sure I can be arsed with looking at a few pages of comments.

Instead, I’ll simply take my leave for today and be back to you tomorrow when we’re got a bit more team news and an idea of how we might line up.

See you then.

Yesterday the requirements were:

1. Play well
2. Win

Arsenal did both of those and yet I don’t think you’ll find an Arsenal fan alive today who will tell you that felt easy. It very much didn’t.

The first worry came with the absence of both Calafiori and Timber, as this season and the constant injury problems continue to plague Arteta and his squad. I mean, honestly, at this stage it is laughable the number of injuries this team has had. Every single week, something happens, to the point at which we’re no longer waiting on team news, we’ve just accepted that something bad will happen with somebody that we’ll find out about one hour before kick off.

The good news was that at least we had the positive squad news that big Gabi returned to the match day squad and he even got on the pitch for the last stages of the game, which was met with a racuous cheer from the home fans. We needed that at that moment, for reasons i’ll come to shortly.

Because before that cheer, we had gotten ourselves into a commanding position by the hour mark. We absolutely dominated Brighton in the first half and had 15 shots, six on target, a fabulous Odegaard finish from outside the box and some really presentable chances pretty much from the first minute; Big Vik will be pretty disappointed with his tame effort in the opening stages and I think most of us were pretty frustrated too – this was the kind of chance that we’d seen him tuck away time and time again in Portugal and whilst we can all ask questions about how the team need to feed him more, he has to do better with the chances he does get. That wasn’t the finish of an elite marksman and with Kai returning and Gabby J getting more and more minutes, he might start to find his chances starting to dwindle.

Thankfully, we were ahead pretty quickly in the game and Odegaard’s finish was like that of the Martin we saw from a few season’s back, which we need to see more of for the second half of the season if we’re going to have a successful end to it. But on this day he did his job, he got us off the mark and at halftime, the question was whether we’d be able to finish our chances in the second. we’d already had a brilliant opportunity with the Zubi flick and Trossard instant shot over the bar straight from that chance, Saka had flashed a ball across the goal, Merino had an effort blocked too. But we did need that second. So when Declan Rice got himself obliged by Ritter’s head to bag us yet another own goal, the fear of relaxation and relief in the stadium was palpable.

As a quick aside, how about that Declan Rice fella, eh? Honestly, he can play anywhere and be brilliant and filling in at right back yesterday, he played the role to perfection. If we have striker problems that continue, I feel like he could probably be the answer to our problems, because this guy is absolutely elite.

So it’s 2-0, we’re all happy and earlier in the season it would have been a case of “shut it down” and Arsenal would have suffocated a Brighton side who had created zero chances in the first half. But this current iteration of recent weeks hasn’t been able to keep games locked down like earlier in the season (some of that inevitably because of the personnel changes brought about by injuries) and so when Brighton got one back with basically their first chance of the game, there was a feeling of inevitability about a potential equaliser.

And there probably was going to be one, were it not for David Raya pulling off one of the saves of the season. It was a worldie and Minteh must have thought he’d scored. But Raya – who’d basically had nothing to do all game – earned his money with that one save alone and we were able to close out what was a tense encounter in the end.

We talked about this on the Same Old Arsenal pod this morning, but it’s funny (not funny) how we are all reacting to what is ostensibly a run of games where we’ve been winning. We won against Wolves, Everton and now a good Brighton team, are top of the league and at present managing to keep City at arms length. The Everton and Brighton performances have actually been really good too. But some of the battle scars of previous seasons, plus I think the late goals we were conceding of late have, I think, coloured the reality of the situation. And that is that Arsenal are holding firm at a time in which it isn’t 100% clicking. In addition, we’re looking at City and thinking they are ‘back’ but, as Amanda pointed out on the pod this morning, their fans are hardly crowing at how amazing City have been.

We do need a spark though. We need something. We need a statement win that has us scoring lots, winning well, performing like yesterday but doing it in a way that has people using words like “inevitable” or “imperious” and alike. It’s not quite there at the moment and that has us feeling a little bit like this is a slog that is unsustainable in the long term.

With Villa on the horizon I can’t see it being that game, but I do think we will need to be better than yesterday to overcome a team who won at Chelsea yesterday and continue to surprise a lot of people. I think the return of Big Gabi at the back will help us – but I also think that we need that attack to spark to life – sooner rather than later.

Back tomorrow for some more thoughts as we start to look ahead to Villa at home. See you then.

Arsenal came into this game having won one of the last seven at Goodison Park and the hope was that a depleted Everton, in their new stadium, with an Arsenal team who had a week of training under their belt, would control and dominate this encounter.

And when you look at those fist half stats it feels like we did. ‘Control’ is the operative word here rather than dominate, because it was back to an Arsenal team who gave their opponents precisely the square-root of naff all:

• Zero shots
• Zero big chances
• Restricted passing lanes
• Just two corners.

That was pretty much it from Everton as we dominated possession (65%) and snuffed out any kind of threat the Toffees posed.

The challenge we are seeing with this Arsenal team, however, is that we aren’t creating a ton of chances in attack. We can argue that perhaps that’s the game Moyes wanted and you could see this is an Everton team that restrict their opponents in terms of chance creation (something I spoke about in the blog preview yesterday morning), but I feel like every week we are having the same conversation about our opponents, I.e:

We came across a low block today and <insert team name> were determined to make it difficult for us.

We need to take our chances, that is clear and in the second half Everton were better, pressing a little higher and that enabled us to get a bit more space. Like the Saka chance that was blocked in the box, the Trossard effort he curled onto the post, or the Zubimendi chance that struck the outside, but it feels like that has been a symptom of our play in recent weeks: we just look a little stingy in attack and aren’t always taking our chances.

I think it probably doesn’t help that City are blowing teams away with their scorelines either, although I think they’ve been fortunate in a number of their wins in their current streak. The hope has to be that they falter sooner rather than later, but if you’re watching both of these team at the moment you’re probably saying that it’s more likely to be Arsenal that does that.

I’m sounding a little doom and gloom here I know, so let’s counter that by saying that we are still top and we even have a strikers goal to cheer about, with Gyokeres penalty never going to do anything but hit the back of the net. It is a much needed goal for the Swede and whilst there are still issues with the way he is connecting with his teammates, the one thing you can’t argue about is that he knows how to striker a ball and he knows how to do the business on penalties.

So we’re one-up going into the second half and I was expecting us to really kick on, but it did feel like we retreated a little more than was needed yesterday. However, perhaps that’s just the nervous fan point of view and the trauma of having conceded three 90+ minute goals in our last four matches, because I watched this game round my parents with my brother (West Ham fan) and with 20 minutes to play he was saying “Arsenal are in control” and “all I see is a team not losing the ball and restricting their opponents to basically nothing”. The numbers in that second half bear that out too:

• 65% possession for The Arsenal
• Zero big chances for Everton
• Five shots in total – zero on target
• Zero corner kicks
• 150 passes to Arsenal’s 300.

When you don’t get the second goal you always leave yourself open to drama and perhaps we were a little lucky on the Saliba kick that could have led to a VAR penalty, but perhaps this is one of those that could be argued either way and when that happens they do usually stick with the on field decision.

That was certainly a relief, because although the game still had the pattern of us creating the better chances after that incident, I suspect a penalty for Everton would have meant that they would have retreated into their box and made it an even more stodgy game.

Conversely, our penalty was pretty much as stonewall as you’re going to get, which was why I was surprised it took as long as it did. In real time you don’t really notice it, but the second the replay was shown, I think everyone knew what the outcome would be.

That win is the perfect tonic to go into this festive period now. We play Palace in the League Cup on Tuesday night and I really think Arteta needs to be rotating as much as is humanly possible, because the two upcoming league games at home to Brighton and Villa are going to be really, really tough. Arteta has the opportunity to tell a few players to make a case for them starting in the league and so hopefully we get some of that intention in two days time.

Hopefully we also get some good news on Big Gabby and maybe even Kai for Brighton? That would be a nice little post-Christmas metaphorical stocking filler, wouldn’t it?

Back tomorrow with some more thoughts as we build up to Palace in the cup. Speak then.

I spoke about Wolves’ form, about the problems they have, about the fact that they an injury to a key player and how defensively they don’t park the bus and play a higher line than you’d think. But unsurprisingly given the two positions in the league each side occupies, Wolves came to The Emirates with zero intention of playing the way they have been doing this season. And so the bus was parked and it was on Arsenal to put the keys in and drive it to one side.

Arteta made a few changes that surprised me personally; no reward for Madueke’s midweek heroics, no Odegaard from the start (which let’s face it Arteta NEVER does) and it was Hincapie at left back instead of MLS. What that message sends to Myles I don’t know, but whatever the line up and starting XI, this should have been a game won at a canter.

But it felt like a slog. A real grim one in that first half. Wolves shut it down with stoppages, niggly fouls drawn, the usual slow ‘keeper kicks and by halftime even though the stats sheet read that we’d had three big chances and six shots, I don’t really remember much to write home with. There was just too many players off it yesterday. Eze and Gyokeres were anonymous, Martinelli didn’t do very much and the back line were hardly tested. The only player who comes out of yesterday with major credit from the starting XI was Bukayo Saka, who once again looked the most lively and our biggest goal threat. It was his corner from which we scored from the goalkeeper knocking it in to his own net and at that point in which we’re one up against a team who struggles for goals, you’re just hoping that we can see the game out and say “not the best day at the office” and move on.

But Wolves suddenly started getting more of the ball. They were stringing passes together and conversely, we just weren’t. We looked edgy, nervous, more like the team who was low in confidence because they’d lost a bunch of games. And so inevitably the old Championship Manager 98 adage rang true – Wolves scored with basically their only shot. I am so glad that I don’t have to watch it on TV because that absolute twat ‘Fletch’ lapped it all up. You could hear it in his voice just as you could last weekend against Villa. He loved it. It was poor from Hincapie to lose his man though – that just doesn’t happen with Big Gabi and you can start to see just how much of a miss he is in this side. And it felt like the title was imploding in front of my very eyes. So when Gabriel Jesus had his impact just four minutes later, pandamonium set in. Of course ‘Fletch’ just showed his twatty colours; he was obliged to comment on it but then he just went silent. Absolute bell.

But we did the dirty late on just like we had it done to us against Villa and the points were secured. I think the impact Gabriel Jesus is already having is important and telling, but we should have never had needed to get to that desperate point in the first place. Afterwards Arteta was rightly raging, calling some of the play “horrible defensive habits” and it’s hard to disagree with him at all. We keep having to chop and change the back line and Arteta admitted that even Saliba probably shouldn’t have played 90, but White also limped off with a hammy in the first half and now we find ourselves with another injury we have to deal with. Perhaps you can argue that it was avoidable playing White in consecutive matches that he has, but we keep losing players every week and so as Arteta pointed out before this game this week, the players aren’t being given the opportunity for rest and rotation because of all these frigging injuries we keep picking up.

Defensively though I have to say I am getting a little bit worried. This is a team who went however many games without conceding earlier in the season, yet here we are finding ourselves conceding late goals, conceding set pieces, dropping defensive mistakes and given we aren’t a high-scoring, free-flowing football side, that is a worry because we do not look like we are going to keep out goals. Sunderland, Chelsea and Villa have all looked concerning and I’d imagine the work that Arteta wants to do on the training ground this week is looking at those “horrible defensive habits” and how he can counter them.

We should probably talk about Gyokeres and Eze. Neither worked in the slightest and the fact that Big Vik mustered a measly 0.04xG through one decent spin and shot in the second half just isn’t what you expect from a striker for the current best team in the league. He completed just three of a total of six passes in this whole match. Six. He was just a non-entity and with Gabriel Jesus looking busier and busier in this Arsenal team, you have to wonder how long it might be before the Swede loses his place to the Brazilian. I know we do need to feed him more, he needs to be played in when he’s making the runs and perhaps I didn’t see enough of it because i’d been on the beers all day, but I just didn’t see him do as many sprints as usual and it felt like he was so heavy-legged.

But Eze too just didn’t impact the game at all. He had 35 touches in total which is what you don’t want from your chief creative playmaker and I can’t really remember any incision  or cutting edge to his play. I don’t know whether it was an off day, or the fact that he doesn’t quite work in that right eight position, but it felt to me with the benefit of hindsight, that opting for even an Nwaneri if you want to rest Odegaard, would have been a better option.

Ultimately though what we need to fix on is three points. It’s a win and it means we start today off five points clear of City and a hope that Palace can maybe even pick up a point when they host City at 2pm today. Arteta gives the lads a couple of days off now, they can spend some time on the training ground and prep properly for Everton away.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some more thoughts and fallout from the weekend’s results. Speak then.

I also think that we might see Saliba too because although the boss was all “I don’t know, we have another training session” yesterday, he admitted that he will be fine for Everton and so I reckon Saliba is ok for tonight. Whether or not they decide to be 100% on him remains to be seen because, with all due respect to Wolves, it is in attack that you would expect we will be spending most of our time. So even if they also want to rest up Timber (which will bugger up my FPL team but there you go) for this evening so he can be fine for Everton away next weekend, it remains to be seen. We do have Norgaard who played admirably as a centre half in midweek and I think the guys on the Arsenal Vision Pod made a really good point that Wolves and Club Brugge are probably of the same level in terms of opponent difficulty. So if Arteta is happy to play Norgaard in that game, he may well be happy to do the same again.

Personally, I suspect we might see a line up like this though:

Raya

White   –   Saliba   –   Hincapie   –   MLS

Zubimendi

Odegaard   –   Rice

Saka   –   Gyokeres   –   Eze

Here’s my thinking on the attacking side of it:

1. Odegaard is Arteta’s captain and when he is fit he plays
2. Saka got midweek rest and he’s another ‘first on the teamsheet’ kinda guy
3. Gyokeres needs more minutes and I think Arteta will want him in there tonight to get at least 70
4. Eze didn’t even get on the pitch and I think against what will invariably be a low block from Wolves, we have to have players who can dance their way around defenders.

On that last point, I suspect not getting on the pitch for Eze in midweek might also have a little something to do with his performance at Villa. He was ignominiously hooked at halftime for being asleep for the Cash goal and he had a bit of a stinker in Birmingham. If you let your foggin estandards drop then Arteta will let you know. So he saw zero minutes in the Champions League. But a home game against a team who will set up with a back five and holding midfielders and somebody like Martinelli just doesn’t really work. So I have a hunch it might be Eze asked to start from the left and drift in field to be involved centrally, as well as get shots off.

From Wolves’ perspective we got the good news that they will be missing Jean-Ricner Bellegarde through a hamstring injury. He’s been one of their best players this season and a key part of their midfield as an eight, so they will miss him, although Joao Gomes comes in from suspension, so he’ll slot back in to their midfield for sure. As I mentioned yesterday in the blog we know that Wolves will try to go long, they will try to get crosses in as their threat but we have to control everything tonight. Territory, possession, shots, the lot. This needs to be a game in which Arsenal have to show their quality. But there can’t be complacency. The longer it stays 0-0 the longer we’ll all get a bit antsy in the crowd of a smash and grab from the Black Country Boys – we’ve seen those over the years; one shot, one goal, but if Arsenal bag in the first half, the hope will be that the floodgates will open.

Wolves don’t usually park the bus, but I think they will today. I can’t see them sticking with their approach of trying to win tackles higher up the pitch and in some instances in the opposition half; if they try to do that they we will be able to cut through them so I think Rob Edwards will be pragmatic, he’ll stick his 11 men behind the ball and do a bit of “come on then – come and have a go” to us. Feels preordained that it will be the case today. So we need to find the answers, because if you want to win leagues then you have to find answers to every kind of opponent in every kind of way.

A lot of the pundits are obviously backing The Arsenal, but I’m with Lewis Jones from Sky Sports on this one. I don’t think this will be a battering – not in terms of the scoreline – because of the way Wolves might set up, but also because we always struggle to break down these types of teams. So I’d definitely plump for a 2-0 kind of score line. It’s the kind of score line you have seen us deliver already; we did it against Brentford, against Burnley, against West Ham, against Olympiajos, against Port Vale and against Athletic Bilbao. We get the first goal, we get the second goal, then that’s about it. And hey, I’d love that today because as bad as Wolves have been, they are still a Premier League outfit and they still have players on that pitch capable of causing an upset. Remember in 2020? They had themselves a victory during COVID and n February 2022 Hwang put them ahead on 10 minutes, only for us to come back in the last 10 minutes with goals from Pepe and an OG from Jose Sa. Hwang is still at Wolves and he’s still capable of magic, so we need to be mindful of that, because if we are complacent even Wolves can capitalise.

I’ll be there as usual and then tomorrow morning back on here for a debrief, as well as with Amanda and James for the Same Old Arsenal podcast. So until then, I’ll take my leave and wish you all the most happiest of Saturday’s, which of course can only happen if Arsenal win tonight.

Catch you tomorrow.

Arteta rang the changes yesterday as Jurrien Timber, Eze, Calafiori, Rice and Saka all dropped out of the starting XI, with some not even on the bench (although apparently Timber did travel with the squad so that’s a positive in terms of his fitness I hope). Rice was supposedly ‘ill’ but if it’s just a bit of a cold then that’s fine and these guys are such highly-tuned athletes, that their recovery time for colds and coughs is probably 24-48 hours. Hopefully the midweek rest gives him the opportunity to be ready for Wolves and we see some of those players returning.

But what will please Arteta more than anything else is the manner in which this rotated side played, because it didn’t look too disjointed at all. I do think we were more open defensively and given Raya had to make a number of saves in the game it kind of shows; Arsenal don’t usually concede too many shots but it felt like it was one of his more busy nights if you look at all of the numbers other than the scoreline.

That’s ultimately the one that matters though and that scoreline does all but mathematically guarantee us safe passage – I was looking at the table this morning and it’s Liverpool and Atletico Madrid who are towards the bottom of the top eight qualifiers on 12 points. The maximum they can get is 18 (what we’re on) and the swing they’d have to both have on goal difference is +13 – so there would need to be an almighty battering we’d have to take, plus they’d have to crank up big scorelines, for us to drop into the territory of being really worried.

So back to the game then, in which Arsenal showed that they were just a class ahead of their opponents, albeit still seeing Brugge take some heart in some decent chances. But after 25 minutes we were ahead and it is the kind of goal that deserves to win any game. Madueke’s solo run from just inside Brugge’s half was an example of what people have said he is capable of his whole career – he’s just not had the consistency to deliver on it. But it was one of those that you just let out a little screech when you see it go in and my “what a goal!” was enough to get The Management coming in to the lounge from the other side of the house to see what had unfolded.

I thought Madueke was brilliant last night. Last season we suffered when we lost Saka and until we found Nwaneri towards the end of the season, we didn’t really have an answer in one of our most attacking threat parts of the pitch. In Madueke we have somebody who when he comes in, the opposition aren’t going “yeah, we’re alright on that side, let’s just shut it down and focus on other areas. He was a threat and willing to go at his man all night and he caused problems throughout, including right at the start of the second half in which he bagged his second goal with the most easy of headers you’ll ever get as a player. A penny for Big Vik’s thoughts for not being there to bag one of them (thought he had another quiet one and it might be an ever-so-slight cause for concern there, but let’s park that for now), but Noni was and we were two-up, which even the Club Brugge captain admitted afterwards was pretty much game over.

They still created chances, Raya still had to make some very smart saves, but the psychological damage was done and it was a case of how Arteta managed the rotations of his team thereafter. He brought on Saka for ‘ticking over’ minutes, he even gave 60 to Gabby Jesus which was lovely to see and even though he nearly scored by hitting the bar, he’ll just be pleased to be getting a feel for the ball and covering the ground he did. I thought he looked lively and Mikel Arteta will be very pleased that he has that option now available to him for this particular moment in time.

Not to be outdone by the man on the opposite flank though, Martinelli wanted a headline or two and his – the first Arsenal player to score in five consecutive Champions League matches – was written the second his curling shot left his boot. It was a fabulous finish and he will be very pleased with his efforts on the night, especially given he was the player in the pre match press conferences talking about low-block ‘park the bus’ teams in the Premier League. It’s true, but you don’t want to manifest a jinx in those situations, but although I worried he might have tested footballing fate, it was not to be the case and I think that little boost of confidence will be good for him too.

There are so many positives to take from last night. Like Christian Norgaard, for example, who slotted in at centre-half and was pretty good I thought. Or how about Zubimendi, whose cross for Madueke’s headed second goal did all of the heavy-lifting. That Spaniard is a little magician. He anchors our midfield, sure, but he also covers so much ground, his passing range is immense and he just knits everything we do together so well. I love watching him.

Merino was solid in midfield, the back line had a couple of moments in which we were breached, but Brugge couldn’t capitalise, and it’s six from six, just one goal conceded and 17 scored. It’s an impressive haul that now gives Arteta the option of rotating players in future games and in the new year when we might need to sit a few players down to rest, he’ll be able to do that. It’s brilliant stuff.

And I am just glad we now have the bad taste of Villa out of our mouths and can look ahead towards domestic action and hopefully getting a result against Wolves on Saturday night.

Back tomorrow with some more 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.

If you’re taking Arteta by his word, then you’ve got to make the assumption that it’s the same with Kai, as Arteta used the same words to describe his arrival. He spoke glowingly about how much he loves him and how he is desperate to have him back in the squad, but as he also alluded to in his press conference, this has been the worst period for injuries he’s ever experienced. Certainly in his five years in charge I don’t remember us suffering as many injuries as we have this season and whilst Arteta referenced “especially in attack”, the reality is that we’ve had players out all over the pitch. Now it appears to be hitting the defence with both our main central defenders out at the weekend and whilst I – like you – am desperate to get Bug Bill back on the pitch, I wonder if they’ll play it safe tonight against Brentford and keep Mosquera and Hincapié on from the start.

I don’t there’s many of us who would have a problem with that, to be honest, because both players have come in and looked really good every time they’ve been asked to play. For our Ecuadorean, he’s played the intensity of a North London Derby and the physicality of a Chelsea game in which he was certainly tested more and came through it. This is a central defensive partnership that is still in its infancy and that is really impressive that they went to Chelsea and were able to hold their own and I think given that context, Arteta will probably feel more comfortable about getting them in tonight, so perhaps there’s no need to rush Big Bill back and have him ready for Villa on Saturday.

It’s the same with Trossard and given we now have Gyokeres and Gabby J available from the bench, there’s no need to risk him tonight. The one question mark that emerged yesterday was the availability of Saka, because he wasn’t spotted in training or in any of the training pictures. There was no mention of it yesterday but I think that’s because Arteta wasn’t asked and given how he likes to mislead everyone (think Odegaard on team walks, or Saka turning up to the Emirates with the team in his tracksuit when he was clearly injured), it wouldn’t surprise me if Saka wasn’t available tonight. Or perhaps he’s just on the bench and Arteta gives Noni the nod in his preferred position.

There are still plenty of decisions he needs to make though, not least up front and in those attacking wide positions. Martinelli hardly set the world alight at Stamford Bridge and as I referenced yesterday on Brentford’s playing style, this doesn’t quite feel like the kind of game he will excel in. Of course we may not get the choice; if Trossard and Saka are both out tonight, then it’ll be Martinelli wide left, Madueke wide right and I wonder if Arteta will rotate in Odegaard and Gyokeres for Eze and Merino. Both of those players have played a fair bit of football recently and so to give them some bench time might be good from a fatigue perspective. He could of course opt for Eze wide left, but given he was pretty anonymous at Stamford Bridge, my guess would be more on the Brazilian than Ebs.

Given Zubimendi came off relatively early against Chelsea to protect him from a second yellow, plus Calafiori came off at halftime because of his yellow, you could argue that both could play, but given Calafiori has been nursing an injury since the international break and there’s Villa to come at the weekend, I wonder if Myles will be given the nod to protect the Italian. I wonder if the same will be said of Saka too. 

So I suspect we’ll see a line up that looks a little like this:

Raya

Timber   –   Mosquera   –   Hincapie   –   Lewis-Skelly

Zubimendi   –   Rice

Odegaard

Saka   –   Gyokeres   –   Martinelli

That team is still a very strong side and as we’ve been saying all season it really hits home the depth we have, because in this scenario the bench includes Kepa, White, Norgaard, Eze, Madueke and Merino all available to be called on if needed. And I think given the load on the players there will be a few of those that will be called upon. I did wonder whether to suggest whether White might get a go, but Timber is proving so valuable and he’s so in form right now, that I don’t think Arteta drops him given there’s no Saliba or Gabriel. 

Brentford look like they have a pretty fully fit squad and their danger man is obviously Thiago with his goals, Damsgaard with his eye for that pass from deep, plus Kayode with the long throws. Brentford are a side that – as I said yesterday – will not want too much of the ball, but they will want to make the most of those set pieces, so we’ll need to be strong and physical in the duels to win this one methinks. 

I don’t think this will be pretty tonight, but you have to find ways to answer those questions asked if you want to be top of the league. City may have wobbled a bit yesterday in that second half, but they ultimately got the win and narrowed the gap to two points, so we need to be looking at getting a win here by hook or by crook. I don’t care if it’s scrappy, I don’t care if it’s ugly, we need to do our jobs against a decent Brentford side. 

Go out and prove your title credentials once again, Arsenal.

Back tomorrow with a review of what will unfold later this evening.

At the beginning of the day if you’d have offered me a draw I’d have taken it; another tough away ground ticked off, with an injury-hit team, against an in-form Chelsea side who with home advantage would have had their tails up. But when you are up against a side who are down to ten men for two-thirds of a game, you have to be looking at it as one that should be won. This article is a little old, but look what a difference it makes to the probability of winning a football match when your team has a man advantage. Your likelihood of winning goes on average from 23.5% to 57.4%. Of course I know there are caveats; if you play against 10 men for the last two minutes of a game it is different, plus if you are already losing it is different, plus the quality of your opposition makes it different. But as a general rule when you have that advantage that we had, you have to try to go for the game.

And I feel like we perhaps weren’t quite at it enough yesterday to ‘go for it’. I think there’s a culmination of factors there:

1. Very intense week of football in which we’ve played three intense football matches against fierce rivals in one way or another
2. Injuries to yet more players meaning more rotation needed
3. Playing against a team who have had plenty of practice being down to ten men
4. Sometimes things just don’t click

And on that last point, I don’t think you’ll see any Arsenal fan disagreeing that it didn’t quite click yesterday. There was plenty of misplaced passes in that first half and in the second when we had control and the dominance you’d expect, we just didn’t pick the right pass, find the right angle or deliver the right moments to win it. We did at least have one moment to bring us back level after Chelsea scored from a corner (they’re good at that too, by the way), but other than that I don’t feel like Sanchez was really tested enough in the second half. On Chelsea’s goal, it’s a flick on that evades everyone and I know I’m old fashioned, but come on, put a man on the bloody post. We never do it, we will never do it, we are so good at set-pieces that who am I to be moaning about something like putting players on posts, but were there somebody there, they’d have nodded it away relatively easily.

Having the ignominy of being behind to ten men was bad enough, but the fact it was that horrible football club Chelsea was maddening, because those horrible home fans suddenly found their voices. And we had to find a moment of magic to bring ourselves level, which we did just 11 minutes later. Saka’s ball to Merino’s head was perfect and this guy Mikel proved once again just how valuable he is. Honestly guys and gals, we might just be at the point in which he has to start ahead of Big Vik, even though the Swede got on and is now fit enough to play more minutes. In the middle third of the pitch I find Merino a bit ‘meh’, but when he is in the opposition penalty box he comes alive. To be fair to him he’s good in our box as well, often heading away balls in on things like corners and free kicks, so his value is clear for all to see at the point ends of the pitch.

He was the guy involved a fair bit on the day, as it was he who had the Caicedo reducer on him in that first half to get himself sent off. It was a nasty one, it could have been an ankle-breaker, but eventually the right decision was reached and thankfully, Merino was fine afterwards. Taylor, having spent most of the first half happily dishing out yellows to Arsenal players in a bitty first half that was start-stop because of the fouls, finally had to send off a Chelsea player – Marc Cucurella seemingly a guy who had an invulnerability chip that he’d played to the ref before kick off.

So at that point you’re tuning in to the second half expecting us to press our feet down on Chelsea’s necks. But it never really happened. I suppose we should give some credit to them because they were a threat on the counter and I thought Reece James was a big part of that (as did most who watched), but Arsenal should have done more with the ball. We just had too many players who let the game pass them by, like Martinelli, Eze and I think Saka too had his radar off. He got the assist for the goal, which is great (especially for my Fantasy Premier League team), but I expected us to press home that advantage more than we did, with Sanchez making a couple fo smart saves but nothing major that sticks out to me. The main one that will really frustrate Arsenal fans this morning is the one in injury time, in which Timber took a Hincapie cross off Gyokeres’ head to potentially seal what would have been an amazing comeback and blow the title race apart. Could there have been a call? Was there a call at all? Regardless of that, when they re-watch, I think Timber will be frustrated with that one, but having scored against Bayern in midweek, you can imagine that a god-fearing man like Jurrien would have thought that there was some divine work going on for him to be in that position to score and win the match for his team yesterday.

So I’m back to the start of where I started today’s blog, which is that I still don’t know if I am happy or annoyed at a point. I guess we’ll know more in the fullness of time and if we beat Brentford on Wednesday and then can go to a really tough place in Villa and get a result (Villa, who are in good form too, by the way), then this will be happily consigned to the history books and we can move on. But what the performance did show is that this Arsenal team does have the occasional ‘off game’ in them. Let’s just hope it’s kept to a minimal for the rest of this season.

Catch you all tomorrow with more thoughts, or you can come and join us at 6.15pm tonight for The Same Old Arsenal pod.

I want to start with a convo we had on the Same Old Arsenal pod last night as we were re-living the loveliness of Sunday’s Hammering of Them. Well, actually, there are two bits I want to start on, but the first is the question as to whether the weekend’s win was a ‘Statement’ win. Amanda argued that it wasn’t a statement win, which I feel completely the opposite. Her argument centred around the fact that it was one of the worst Tottenham teams to visit our home ground since she can remember. No arguments from me on that one; it was negative, it was ill-thought-out from a tactical perspective and Arteta gave Frank a schooling with some of his approaches (dropping Merino deeper so that he wasn’t playing as a battling nine up against their centre halves was good – it led to our first goal with our runners from wide positions in, as an example).

But for me it was absolutely that. A quick Google search of ‘statement win’ as a definition gives me this:

A ‘statement win’ is a victory in sports where a team defeats a strong opponent in a convincing or dominant manner, effectively “laying down a marker” to signal their quality, strength, or serious intent to competitors

Now, you can certainly argue the toss over whether Tottenham are a ‘strong opponent’ and absolutely they weren’t on Sunday, but we didn’t go in to the game thinking that. We went in to it looking at their away form (undefeated), the fact they’d beaten Man City on their own turf, the fact they had the best away defensive record and the fact that it felt like this could be the type of game Frank and his team might thrive in.

Before a ball was kicked, The Scum were ‘a tough opponent’.

But this is where I believe Sunday’s win was a statement win, because we made them look ordinary. We made an organised and difficult-to-break-down Tottenham team look anything but a ‘strong opponent’. We made it a convincing and dominant manner and we certainly did ‘lay down a marker’ for the rest of the league with that game. Do you think that any of our rivals went in to the game thinking “oh that’s an easy three points to Arsenal there”. Absolutely not. Just look at all of the pre match predictions. It was all about how it would be tight, a test, tough, yet that Arsenal team turned it in to something in which Amanda argued it wasn’t a ‘statement win’.

It absolutely was.

I do wonder if she missed my point I was trying to make yesterday, because she grouped in my comment with talking about winning the league which, to be fair, I did say it in the same discussion point and sentence (“this could be a ‘statement win’ that we look on come the end of the season if we win it” was what I said – or words to that effect), but I think she focused too much on the context of the season bit and not enough of the game in isolation and of its own merits. This was a big victory, it was a massive victory, it will have given those Arsenal players such a big lift more than any other game this season when they got in to the dressing room. They will have been buzzing yesterday and they’ll take that in to the Bayern game tomorrow, in which we’ll get some thoughts of Mikel Arteta today no doubt.

But this also leads me on to the second thing I wanted to talk about today, which was the motivation, belief and form of these players. Last night I posed the question to Amanda and Carl: “Who is our player of the season so far? There are so many candidates” and I think that speaks to what we’ve seen up until this point. I know, I know, caveats aside – haven’t won anything in November, etc, etc – but up until this point what we have seen is a number of players hitting such a high bar for performance, that it has manifested itself in the six point lead we have at the top of the division right now. of course it could all be quickly whittled away, of course it could still result in us winning nothing, but based on what we have seen up until this point, with the games that have already been played and so we can speak about what has happened rather than what is to come, it would be so hard to pick a ‘player of the season’ based on a quarter of it gone.

Jurrien Timber – absolutely immense at right back. He is consistency personified, but not only that, he’s also adding end-product to his game and has a couple of goals, as well as a few assists too, with another one for Eze’s second on Sunday.

Big Gabi – another one who, whilst injured at the moment, has come up with clutch moments and been an absolute rock at the back.

Riccardo Calafiori – his fitness and form have been superb. Chipped in with our first goal in the season and the way he plays left back has enabled us to find space for him in the final third and when that happens, he’s pretty unmarkabkle to be fair,

Declan Rice – an absolute machine. He is a unicorn player now, able to contribute with goals, has an engine that is phenomenal and with him operating as both an attacking eight and defensive pivot with Zubimendi this season, we are so difficult to break down when we don’t have possession.

Martin Zubimendi – transformative midfielder. He has goals, he is a metronome with the way he keeps us ticking over, he’s rarely troubled to the point at which I think most of us were stunned he got robbed by Paulinha at the weekend.

Eberechi Eze – people has said he’s had a slow start, but he’s bagged assists and already has five goals in all competitions to his name. Hat-trick hero on Derby Day puts you in the running for sure.

Leandro Trossard – perhaps the most unsung hero of the lot. He’s leading the way for us for combined goals and assists and once again came up trumps in a big game by getting the opening goal. Thinking we could possibly offload him in the summer is looking very silly now – I hold my hands up to that as well as many of you guys do too, I suspect.

I’ve just reeled off seven contenders, but there could also be shouts for Merino for sure, whilst Saka is our star player, Raya has made some good saves, Saliba is always up there, Odegaard hasn’t got started and Big Vik looks like he might be starting to click. That’s the reason we’re doing so well at the moment and that’s the reason we have put ourselves in such a great position.

There’s still much of the season to play, there are still so many tough games coming up, but with the form of these players at the moment, we’re all in dreamland as fans when we see them deliver what they did at the weekend.

Long may it continue.

Catch you all tomorrow for a pre match preview ahead of Bayern.

*A few moments later…*

Yeah, that was basically me last night as, post making and eating dinner, I had a little scroll on my timeline to see:

Arsenal continuing to assess Gabriel amid concerns 27yo could miss 1-2 months through injury sustained on international duty. Initial indications suggest #AFC centre-back set for spell out but tests ongoing
W/ @gunnerblog.bsky.social for @theathleticfc.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/athletic/681…

[image or embed]

— David Ornstein (@david-ornstein.bsky.social) 18 November 2025 at 17:18

“Great” I thought. And just bloody predictable. But the night wasn’t done there, with Fabrizio then appearing on my timeline with:

Nagelsmann: “Kai Havertz had minor relapse on his injury, but overall he’s doing well”. “He is expected to return towards the end of the year”.

[image or embed]

— Fabrizio Romano (MIRROR) (@fabrizioromano.yopro20.com) 18 November 2025 at 17:29

Super stuff, if true and to be fair, he’s just repeating the words of the German national team coach. But honestly, this news bloody sucks. I think a lot of us were hoping to have some exciting news regarding a number of players, but this Havertz stuff is a massive blow and as my mate Cookie pointed out on his social media last night  the amount of time Havertz has missed in 2025 is mental. Given that about a week before he picked up his first big injury at the beginning of the year we had Arteta talking about how Havertz is a ‘genetic powerhouse‘ it makes me feel like sometimes we are bloody cursed. It’s like we’re not allowed to say anything, or think anything, because it could literally manifest itself into existence. The injuries we’ve had in the last year and a bit have been crazy and by the sounds of this – as yet to be confirmed by the club – series of setbacks, it shows no sign of abating just yet.

Just let us play football with our players. Please. It’s getting mental now.

Let’s not sugar goat this either; Big Gabi out for one, or two months, is huge. We’re on 19th November now, if it is worse-case scenario, he misses out until mid-bloody-January. There’s so many games during that time, it’s crazy to think that he’ll probably have missed the equivalent of a third of a season’s games if it’s the worst-case scenario.

It means that we need to find a solution and that solution, thankfully, comes in different guises. Piero Hincapie – who I’ll admit I wondered where and when he’s get game time – is suddenly a guy we’re all looking at and by the sounds of it he had a bit of a blinder for Ecuador last night. He played the full 90 so hopefully he’s back and ready to go for the North London Derby and given he comes across as a guy all built up as a warrior centre half, there can probably be no better option than having him in our defence on Sunday. I wonder if that’ll be as a left centre-half, or as a left back?

I seem to recall Arteta saying that he prefers not to disturb too many positions and shuffle people around (back when he said that I think it was related to Ben White playing centre half instead of right back) and given the positive news about Calafiori, perhaps the Italian will stick in at left back and we’ll have either Hincapie or Mosquera in to replace Gabi?

The good news is that I don’t think any of us could remotely predict who, but equally that either would be a very able deputy for the Brazilian. Mosquera has come in on a number of occasions, filled in on the left and the right of the centre half pairings. He’s proved good on the ball, with good distribution, an ability to ride tackles and a strong presence about him. Hincapie looks every bit the ‘warrior’ I already mentioned and whilst Mosquera might get the nod, I do have a sneaky suspicion that Hincapie will be the one. It kind of sets the right message too; he’s the left centre half understudy and Mosquera is nominally the right. He’s the guy who ‘feels’ like the better option to me, although I wouldn’t be unhappy with either. And that’s the good thing, right? Big Gabi is out, yet we have two defenders who look ace and who will see this as an opportunity to step up and prove their credentials. I don’t think we’ll be as solid as we are with Big Gabi, we’ll certainly not have the same goal threat in the opposition penalty box I don’t think, but I think defensively it hopefully won’t be as big a step down as the dark ol’ days of poor ol’ Rob Holding, bless him.

And so for today’s wrap up I think I’ll say only this: I am nervous as I always am with the North London Derby, I am rueful about the injuries sustained and the ‘setbacks’ again from another ludicrous international break, but I am hopeful and positive for a response this Sunday. We will need it.

Back tomorrow with more musings.

He’s such a colossus, isn’t he, eh? I remember when we signed him in September of 2020. I, like you I’m sure, Googled and YouTubed a bit of this young lad we were just bringing in for something around the £23million mark plus add-ons. I don’t scour the French league, I don’t watch any matches, so this had to be a bit of a punt on a guy who himself had only been in Lille for a couple of season’s and before that spent time on a number of loans in France and Croatia. One of the things I read about him at the time that I absolutely loved was that he wins a lot of ground duels. The prevailing narrative was that he doesn’t go to ground too often and prefers to stay on his feet, but he wins a lot of ground duels standing up, which was what we needed in a recent era of Mustafi and David Luiz’s.

In fact, Luiz acted as a bit of a mentor for him in that first season, with the two often playing together and having a fellow Brazilian at the back must have been beneficial for him in those early months. He played 32 times in that first season and racked up 2,807 minutes in a decent opening season, although I remember him not being 100% the rock he is today. In fact, I seem to recall a couple of iffy moments and a red card in the Premier League there somewhere, such was a slightly erratic, but younger version of Big Gabi that had the inevitable young defender mistake in him.

But for every season he’s been at The Arsenal, he’s been every bit the ‘monster’ David Luiz described him as back then. He has grown in stature year-on-year and when Saliba broke through, Big Gabi was already established. I’ve read a few things from Arsenal fans, listened to a few pods, talking about how he has probably even surpassed Saliba in terms of his importance and as much as I absolutely adore Big Bill, I have to agree to that. When Saliba broke on to the scene he was flavour of the month. His following season he was seen as the cool, calm and collected cultured centre half, whereas Big Gabi was the roaring lion. Fire and Ice, if you will. But particularly this season and I’d probably say for the end of last season when he was out injured for so long, his presence has been felt more keenly than anyone else I think. He’s a defender first and foremost and we all love his chest-thumping tackles or gee’ing up the crowd at times at The Emirates, but his prowess in the box is crazy now. Every time we get a corner the cameras pan to where he is. He’s become an unstoppable force and his reputation is becoming such that people think he scores every game. But he’s only (HA! ‘ONLY!) got two goals so far this season. That’s in 17 games and 1,300+minutes. So it’s not as if he’s always on the scoresheet.

But that doesn’t matter. If the reputation that surrounds him means that more attention is placed on him more than the other players for set pieces, then it gives other players the opportunity to make an impact, whether that’s Big Vik, Saliba or Calafiori. It doesn’t matter to him who scores, it doesn’t matter to us who scores, as long as we keep getting those corner goals and clean sheets (minus last weekend, obviously). It’s kind of the same with Saka too. Teams double up on him in that right wing spot, so that means that’s one less player on another part of the pitch and it frees up more space for our other attackers which, if we move the ball quickly enough then it can be another way in which we can fashion chances by occupying left backs and central midfielders in our right wing position. If Big Gabi can take a couple of defenders with him on a corner, there’s other spaces for other players to hopefully profit from.

We just need him to stay fit all season and I do wonder if that means Arteta needs to think about a little more rotation with him over the coming months. There are some players he just does not rotate much at all – Raya, Saka, Odegaard (when fit) and Big Gabi. We do need to think of a solution in that regard and I do wonder whether we need to see more of Hincapie and Calafiori there. Both have played in that central position before – albeit nominally as left centre-backs in a three – and even yesterday against Canada Hincapie started as a left back. I do think they’ll both be fighting for spots in that left back slot, but we do need to also protect Big Gabi by managing his minutes I think. He had a pretty big injury last season that kept him out for a long time, we don’t want that happening again this season. I’m not sure whether we can afford it to be honest.

But that sounds like I’m tiptoeing into ‘worry’ territory, whereas today is about giving our Number six and King of Brazil some flowers.

Keep at it Big Gabi. Have a good game on your own pitch tonight – but stay fresh and don’t get injured.

Back tomorrow with some more musings.

I have a few feelings on this. Firstly, the lad is 19-years-old. This isn’t a season pro who has starred for a decade in the first team. He broke through, was excellent, we all love him and he’s found game time a little more difficult to come by due to the ongoing fitness of Riccardo Calafiori and the fact that Hincapie has emerged as a left back option this season. Naturally Thomas Tuchel is going to say that he wants players in his squad who play regularly to make the final. He has his job for England and he’s going to say that. But for Sky Sports to go in on reporting this feels a little like a major media outlet trying to flame any potential fans of discontent.

Of course clubs will be interested in Myles. He has shown an electric burst of pace, he can beat players and glide past them with ease (as evidenced by the goal he set up for Martinelli against Atletico) and all of us feel like he has a bright future at the club. Who wouldn’t want to be interested in him? The report does say Arsenal aren’t looking to sell and I do think this has been designed to get the player and representatives to perhaps make some uneasy noises towards the club.

Here’s the thing though – Myles is VERY well represented. We all know about how his mum has been such an influence on his career, how she places high value on mapping a path which is right for him at his age and how she also helps young players and their families in helping to develop careers with their kids. She will be well aware of the situation and I would be surprised if, having just worked with Myles and others to secure a five-year-deal in the summer, she will suddenly be knocking on the door for ‘showdown talks’ on his Arsenal future.

He has an Arsenal future. It will be a bright one. He will find plenty of minutes and now, with a quarter of the season gone, he’s played 463 in all competitions. Last season he made 2,543 in all competitions – 237 of those were in the Premier League 2 and EFL Trophy – which are youth team competitions. So first team minutes last season was around 2,300+. He’s currently on track to hit around 1,850 minutes for the season. That’s probably a little lower than he would have ideally have had, but we haven’t really faced any injury problems at the back so far. We are about to go into a period in which we play A LOT of really tough matches and there’s no way that he doesn’t see more minutes. Myles and his mum will know that.

I also think they’ll be well aware of his trajectory and how in his own career pathway, he’s probably about a year or two ahead of schedule. Last season, because of the injuries, he broke through and I think that was a surprise, because he wasn’t playing at all for the first half of the season. Last season will have been a “see if you can get to 500 – 1,000 minutes in total” season. He made almost triple that. I suspect if all would have gone to plan, this season would have been a “get to between 1,800 to 2,000 minutes” season – which he’s on track for. Then next season would have been a “be a first team regular” – which he’s already on course for. Finally, that “get in to the England team” final step might have been in 2027/28 thing. He was fast-tracked through all of that process in about six months. It’s a massively rapid ascension and that sort of stuff can scupper a career if not managed properly. Emile Smith Rowe made his England debut at 21 years old. He’s played a total of three times and never quite kicked on from the height of his situation back in 2021. Eddie has just the one cap, as does Carl Jenkinson. Making the England squad is not the end game here – making a career is – so trying to search for that admittedly lofty and exciting opportunity does not have to come at the expense of making rash career moves.

For what it’s worth, I doubt anyone at Arsenal or Myles and his camp are worried too much about this. They will know he’s at a club who are fighting towards the top of the league. That comes with competition for places and they will have been well aware of that when they signed the new five-year-deal in the summer. He is an Arsenal boy, he will want to succeed at Arsenal first and foremost, which will also mean he’s more-than likely to also want to give it the best possible shot. At 19 year’s of age he probably has a solid three more World Cup’s after this one as well. He could still get to 100 England caps with ease at this rate. David Beckham was 31 when he got to 100 caps and he made his debut at age 21. Harry Kane too. Steven Gerrard was 20, but he got to 34 before reaching 100 caps. So some of the best England footballers of recent generations didn’t really even kick off their England careers until they were in their 20s. Myles doesn’t hit 20 until next September. So he will be well aware of the fact he has time on his hands.

Where he’s at will be good for him. It will inspire the fight in him, to drive him to improve, which will be good for us if he only gets better and better. He’s already operating at a high level, but if he can go supernova, there isn’t an Arsenal fan alive who wouldn’t be delighted to see another Hale-Ender make it. But he has to put the work in, he has to suffer the sting of not playing, to make him stronger. I think by the sounds of his character that’s exactly what will happen and I for one couldn’t be more happy about that. It means we have yet another winner in our ranks who will do everything to make this season a success for The Arsenal.

I’ll leave it there for today and be back tomorrow. I was going to say some words about this rumoured Italian scout from Napoli that we’re supposedly in for, but perhaps that can wait for tomorrow and i’ll do some digging in the absence of any other real football going on.

See you then.