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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Raya

Timber   –   Saliba   –   Gabriel   –   Calafiori

Zubimendi

Eze   –   Rice

Gabriel Jesus   –   Havertz   –   Trossard

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today the managers will give their press conferences. A week ago, Arteta tried the rousing speech to get the home fans to bring the noise. In midweek, he talked about ‘fire’. I have a feeling today he will lean in to the ‘enjoy the ride’ narrative. He can’t get the home fans on side as this is obviously an away one, so it has to be a message to his players via a public medium, so I think that message is going to be “look at what you have achieved so far, embrace the challenge, show everyone what you are capable of”.

And let’s be honest, everyone is basically calling this a City win. I don’t blame them. They have the momentum. They have the recent results. They have the home advantage. They have the attacking talent. Conversely, our form has been poor, our performances have been patchy, and we are away from home. I had a look at what the pundits are saying, and it is no surprise that they are all basically backing City to win this. Chris Sutton says 1-0 City on BBC Sport, Merse goes for a 1-0 City, Shearer says a City win, Paul Scholes (unsurprisingly) thinks City will win ‘easily’, DAZN have said 3-1 to City Sports Mole goes for a 41% chance City do it, 34% chance we do it, 24% chance it is a draw. The only person who seems to think we could get something is Gary Neville and Lewis Jones on Sky Sports, who say they are thinking it’ll be a 1-1 draw.

That would be a dream scenario, let’s be honest, because the way I feel right now, even I’m struggling to make a case for us getting a point, let alone a win. We’ve scored three goals in our last five football matches for crying out loud.

I think we’re all just praying that some sort of good news on returning players is found out. I say “found out” rather than announced, because we all know Arteta will give us nothing, so we’ll be reliant on HandOfArsenal dropping some kind of news that certain players are back in training and have made the match-day squad for the weekend. Otherwise, we’re looking at probably Ben White against Doku and, like the cup final, that worries me.

What I am trying to find solace in is some of those interviews of the players, like Decaln Rice, who has said he and his teammates are ready for the ‘ultimate test‘ this weekend. I have no doubt he is. That man has prove time-and-time again that he is made for this type of match-up. But unfortunately, this season, our attackers have proved they are not. Just look at this goal return from the forwards on this chart:

• Bukayo Saka = 6 (26 Premier League appearances)
• Trossard = 5 (27 Premier League appearances)
• Madueke = 2 (21 Premier League appearances)
• Gabriel Jesus = 2 (12 Premier League appearances)
• Gabriel Martinelli = 1 (26 Premier League appearances)

Saka gets a bit of a pass because he’s been injured, but that’s pretty crappy across the whole team, it has to be said. I really want to dig in on Martinelli for that, but looking at his time on the pitch, he’s basically been a sub for most of the season. He’s played 900 minutes in total in the Premier League, coming on as a sub in 16 of those 26 appearances. But when you think about what he gave us away at Southampton and at home to Bournemouth, you can see why. It’s just not good enough at this stage of the season.

And it’s these stats that are the reason I am so worried about the weekend. These games always feel like a ‘first goal wins’ and when your attackers aren’t delivering the goals, it already feels like you are playing with one hand tied behind your back. I’m probably going to talk more about that over the weekend, I think, because it does feel like the first goal wins it and, annoyingly, more often than not it is City. I also feel like they seem to get that first goal really early, too. In the game in September, we started better, looked better, but Haaland scored within 10 minutes, and we were left chasing the game the whole afternoon. We did score very early in the 5-1 last season, with Odegaard bagging in two minutes, but in the 2-2 draw in September last year, it was Haaland again in nine minutes that put us on the back foot. When you look at games at the Etihad, other than the 2-2 just mentioned and the 0-0 from the season before, the wins City have had have had first goals scored:

• 2022/23 = 7 minutes – De Bruyne
• 2021/22 = 7 minutes – Gundogan
• 2020/21 = 23 minutes – Sterling
• 2019/20 = 45 minutes – Sterling
• 2018/19 = 1 minute – Aguero

That’s an appalling record in terms of early goal concession, pointing to a historic issue with keeping the temperature of a game down. And, once again, we’re going into this one in which those normally quiet City fans will be in full voice. You look at those numbers, and it doesn’t exactly feel like history won’t be repeating itself, eh?

If I’m going to try to find some positivity today, it is that if we score at their ground first (it hasn’t happened since 2015, guys and gals) then perhaps it opens the game up, or alternatively if we keep them out in the first half they might start to commit more bodies forward and leave even more space in behind, then maybe we can get something. But as of right now, looking ahead to this one, without any idea of player availability, I’m just not sure.

I’m really sorry, guys, I feel like I’ve been a proper neg this week, which doesn’t exactly make for fun reading. But let me assure you, I love this club as much as you, I want only the best for them, and I will spend the entire game in a praying position on Sunday. I am hoping for the football gods to smile down on us, but I’m a bit like Paul Ashworth in Fever Pitch; I tend to look at the glass half empty when it comes to The Arsenal, because I feel like any time I get a little too positive, something rocks me. The last time was when Villa defeat when we were on that amazing run in 2024.

Anyway, I’ll leave it there for today, then be back tomorrow when we can have a look at what the managers said. See you then.

I used to collect the match-day programmes back when I was a kid. It was usually for big games I’d ask for one (FA Cup final, etc), or for matches I was in attendance at. I don’t do it so much anymore, but when there is a potentially big game like Real Madrid at home last season, or PSG in the semi-finals, I pick one up. It probably shows where our performances are at (and maybe the opposition) that the thought never crossed my mind as I was heading into the ground.

I think part of it is to do with the fact that my eyes and mind have been worryingly fixated on the game in Manchester on Sunday, but also, I think we’ve had it rammed down our throats since the summer that the Portuguese league is akin to the Championship. In the summer, it was the gamble in relation to signing a killer in that league and whether it would translate to the Premier League (which has some truths about it), but last night it was in my mind as we thought about beating a side that plays in a league that is more like lining up against Wrexham, Oxford and Stoke.

The TIFO was out to bring the atmosphere nonetheless, and I thought overall, considering where a lot of us are right now with the Arsenal and the performances, the fans were in decent voice throughout.

Arteta named the same attacking line-up as Saturday, which was a slight worry, and in reality, whilst the stats will say we have eight attempts and one big chance, we were hardly peppering the Sporting keeper’s goal.

The ‘goal’ of the evening, however, was to progress. So we have to say that is a big ‘tick’ because overall Arsenal limited Sporting to barely anything. They hit the outside of the post towards the end of the half, but that was pretty much it. And in the second half, they offered very little threat overall. I think we have the key defensive components to thank for that; Gabriel and Saliba looked assured again, whilst Hincapie had an excellent game, I thought. He was strong and physical in defence, whilst in attack, he was getting forward and providing options on the wing in both halves.

If I’m seeming a little overly critical today, I think it is probably because I had hoped that this would be a bit of a ‘reset’ ahead of Sunday. I hope that Arsenal would come out all guns blazing, catch Sporting Lisbon out, control the game and maybe bag a goal or two. I do think we did come out well in the first half, but we were still found wanting on those wings. I do wonder how long we can let Madueke get away with these types of performances, but he came off with a knee problem in that second half, so Arteta’s hand might once again be forced, unfortunately. Throwing Max Dowman in for our biggest game of the season seems harsh, but we might be at the stage of saying “who else?” at this rate.

Let’s pull today’s musings back to some positivity, though, eh? And that positivity comes in the shape of Martin Zubimendi, who was excellent last night and picked up the man-of-the-match award.

The verticality of passing has returned!!!

I think a lot of that probably had something to do with the fact that Eze’s reintroduction into the team gave him an outlet to find further forward, and Eze himself looked lively and also played well, I thought. He was there to link up; he was further up the pitch in between the Sporting midfield and defence, and were he to have another forward in front of him who could receive the ball and make less static runs, we might have found ourselves ahead with a few chances. Having Ebs fit and with minutes under his belt for Sunday is certainly something that gave me cause for some optimism.

So too, did having Havertz come on for his cameo up front, because we haven’t seen that of late. Kai has been playing in that midfield role that doesn’t work for him at all, so when Gyokeres’ number came up for Havertz, a lot of the Block Fivers around me were very pleased. Kai has to start up top on Sunday, with Eze behind him.

Back to my ‘reset’ point, and I think a few players needed that, if we’re all honest. The back line needed another game in which the opposition’s xG was negligible. Zubimendi needed a game to remind us of his quality and passing range, and by picking up the man-of-the-match gong last night, his confidence will be flowing back in. Seeing him cut a sad and depressed figure on Saturday, as his teammates consoled him at times, was not fun. So if I could have chosen anyone to have a really good game and look a little more like the 2025 version of himself, it would have been Zubimendi.

Rice was his usual all-action self, and I thought Leo looked a little more spritely too, so hopefully he’s good to start at the weekend.

And if you think about that huge game at the weekend, there are some more overall positives we can take:

• Havertz only playing a cameo means he should be fresher
• Hincapie, with minutes under his belt following injury, means he will be ready
• Zubi’s good performance will give him confidence
• Eze getting 79 minutes means he should be good
• Trossard for Martinelli feels a bit of a no-brainer.

It would be lovely to hear news of Saka, Timber, Odegaard and Calafiori all being back for Sunday, but they won’t be fit enough to start, so let’s just take these positives for now and move on.

And move on we do. To the semi-final of the Champions League. Something that we’ve only managed three times in our history. That’s an impressive level of consistency that Arteta and his team should be applauded for. Can they go one better than last season and make it to the final?

Let’s get the small matter of Sunday and Newcastle at home out of the way first before we worry about that.

Catch you all tomorrow.

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

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

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

No Timber.

No Calafiori.

No Rice.

No Odegaard.

No Saka.

Great stuff.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you in the morning.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Catch you all tomorrow.

Well, having stood in Block Five yesterday, I will tell you this: Those Arsenal fans in my area of the stadium absolutely brought their dinner. By the time I got home yesterday, I had little voice left. Part of that was because I was screeching at the woeful performance in the second half, but before that, there was support and desire from the home fans to be that extra man for a very much makeshift Arsenal team.

And it felt like a very tired, leggy, and makeshift performance. Bournemouth may have had three weeks to prepare for this one, but that is no excuse for those Arsenal players to do just the basics all very wrong, as Arteta also admitted afterwards. White getting done in behind by the wide-forward (maybe Madueke should have tracked too) is one thing, but MLS just watching as Kroupi just ran past him to tap it in after a deflection as just bad defending. I don’t think that goal happens if you have Calafiori or Hincapie on the pitch. We all love MLS, but the performances of last season are a distant memory. He looked every bit the young and fallible player in that moment.

Overall, though, he didn’t actually have the worst game in comparison to some of his teammates. Martin Zubimendi, for one, has regressed so much that in my WhatsApp groups, there are genuine calls to change something now. Honestly, people, Zubi is starting to scare the sh*t out of me when he drops to collect the ball from Raya, which happens an alarming amount of times, I’m afraid. There was one moment in which it was a simple pass to Ben White in the first half that he just massively overcooked and knocked it out for a throw-in. Where’s the vertical line-breaker from the first half of the season? It can’t be down to fatigue when you’re doing that for 15-20 minutes. He’s just woefully out of form. I am wondering if some of my mates are right; perhaps we do need to drop him completely and get Rice into that six role.

Mind you, if he’s there, who is playing in the left eight spot? Maybe Eze, who wasn’t fit enough to do 90 yesterday, but certainly not Havertz. When he signed for us, Arteta tried him there, but it didn’t work, and as somebody has already pointed out on social media after the game yesterday, that’s three defeats out of four with Havertz playing in midfield. Of course, it’s not all his fault that the team has lost those three games – there’s a collective failing of multiple players that has led to this – but I think none of us believe him in that position is a viable one.

If you’re going to be kind to Arteta, you’ll say it’s because he has once again been robbed of key players. Still no Timber, Calafiori not in the squad having played on Tuesday, no Eze from the start, no Odegaard, no Saka, and a left-wing position with which whoever starts these days is utterly toilet. Honestly, Martinelli can get in the bin with performances like yesterday, then Trossard coming on did little else, unfortunately. But that’s being kind on Arteta, because he has to shoulder some of the blame after this one, too. After all, he’s the one who motivates them; he’s the one who needs to assess the opposition and set a team up to exploit our strengths and the opponent’s weaknesses, yet it felt like he just set up the team because of certain players being the ‘next one up’. For example, in Madueke, Martinelli, and Gyokeres, we have three runners. We’ve already seen that it doesn’t work. So why not go with Trossard? I know he’s been crap in 2026, but he has a better working relationship with Gyokeres than Martinelli does. Could we also have gone with Mosquera instead of Ben White? White has been playing a lot of football lately, and I just feel like Mosquera’s recovery pace is better than White’s. Could he have made a difference on that first goal? Maybe, maybe not, as I think the situation is still recoverable if the left back does his job.

But it wasn’t just players who were coming in a little colder. Gabriel and Saliba looked shaky, too. How Bournemouth were allowed to ghost in and just waltz through our defence for that second goal was ridiculous. It was pathetic. Spineless. Lacking in energy, cowardice. There are so many adjectives I could throw at such a shambolic performance.

Even after we went behind for the second time, there was still time for there to be a fightback, but this team looked inhibited. They ran out of ideas, and I saw the xG stats. We had 2.3 overall, but a big chunk of that was the Gyokeres penalty. In that second half, Big Vik was unlucky not to be onside with his run for the disallowed goal for offside (which it clearly was), but I don’t remember us forcing Petrovic into a load of saves.

This was an Arsenal performance for the ages, in a very bad way. It was not a performance of a team that is as far ahead on points in the league as we are right now. It was the performance of a team of players scared of their own shadows. And simply not acceptable.

I’m not really sure what else there is to say. Simply not good enough, City will beat Chelsea today, then next weekend looks like one of those that feels like a foregone conclusion based on that performance and effort from those players yesterday. We need some good news regarding some returning players now, because we can’t have that team, with that lack of balance and creativity, to play again in that set-up. We’ll fall apart if we see that again.

Doing a pod this morning with James. It won’t be fun. Then the football and social media are off for the day.

Catch you all tomorrow.

The players know it, our supporters know it, it’s an early kick-off, so get up early, have an early breakfast, bring your lunch, bring your dinner, and let’s all go together for it because it has to be a big day.

I went out and had a skinful last night, before and after watching Sue Perkins at the Soho Theatre, deep in enemy territory in Walthamstow. I’m up early because I couldn’t sleep. I’ve got a banging headache, but do you know what? Come 12.30 pm, I am going to be fully ‘game face on’, because those Arsenal players need all of us today.

I’ve talked about Bournemouth and the threat they pose already. I’ve had a look at how their fans have been feeling. I’ve perused what the media and pundits think about this game. The talking is almost done. Now it is time to do the business on the pitch.

The team news from Arteta’s press conference yesterday was mixed, but there are some positives in there from some of the people ‘in the know’, including the fact that Pierro Hincapie has been included in the preliminary squad for today, according to the well-known source ‘HandOf Arsenal’. That’s a big boost, because one of the question marks is Calafiori, and whilst we have Myles Lewis-Skelly there who can play if needed, it does feel as though we need that steel available in such a tense game as this.

And it is tense. It is scary. It is a worry, and it is a match I’ve been thinking about for a long time. Bournemouth are no mugs. They are on a long unbeaten run (again, as I’ve already mentioned on the blog this past week), and they still have Europe in their sights. A win for them, or even a draw, keeps them in contention, so we aren’t at the point in the season yet where a team in 13th has nothing to play for. They absolutely do. So we need to be ready for them.

So, to a possible starting XI, which I feel is going to be tough to predict, given the number of question marks we have over some of our players. Thankfully, as we’ve all seen, Eze is back, but Arteta wouldn’t really be drawn on who is fit out of Saka, Odegaard, Timber, and Calafiori. If I were to stab at a guess based on players out and trying to feed certain players back in to the team, this is the line up I ‘think’ Arteta will go with today:

Raya

Timber   –   Saliba   –   Gabriel   –   Hincapie

Zubimendi

Eze   –   Rice

Saka   –   Havertz   –   Martinelli

I think the fact that Bournemouth is a more open team, a team that does give up chances, means that Martinelli is preferred on the left. I also think that Arteta will be managing Trossard’s minutes, and I think Leo starts in the Champions League in midweek. I think Havertz being used as a sub was telling, because I think he’s been earmarked to start centrally, and I think that is the right call. Martinelli and Gyokeres haven’t really seemed to connect, but Havertz can do with the Brazilian, who, if given more space through a transitional game as Bournemouth presses forward, will give him space to open up his stride a bit more. Havertz feels like a player who will also be a little more effective in a game like this, plus he’s more rested than Big Vik. I think Saka comes in because I am hoping he’s rested enough from his injury. Let’s not forget that he wanted to play for England just over a week ago. He reported to training and was sent back like Rice. I have no evidence, no insider knowledge, but I just have a ‘feeling’ that he has been given extra time to rest and recuperate after carrying something, and I think he’s been earmarked to come back in for this game. Because it’s massive. It’s an opportunity to go temporarily 12-points clear and that, as an incentive to deal a psychological blow to Man City, is huge for the players. They have to be ready to take it.

In defence, I’ve gone with Timber and Hincapie to return, but perhaps Timber is the one I’m not sure about. He’s been out for a while now, he could be quite rusty, but I don’t think that means White comes in, so maybe I’m wavering on that one and it’ll be Mosquera who is given the nod. And if that happens, I think most of us are ok. Hincapie on the other side might be one that is more likely to start, because he’s been out for a shorter duration of time, and therefore he might be somebody who can pick up match fitness quicker.

For Bournemouth, they don’t have such injury question marks, as Iraola has said they are in a ‘good place’ with players returning from injury. Tyler Adams, Ben Gannon-Doak and Julio Soler are all back, as well as Alex Jimenez and Junior Kroupi, who has bagged goals this season from the bench, including against us in January. They have had time off, so they are well-rested, which I think means they are going to be intense in the press and put us under a fair bit of pressure today. So these Arsenal players need to be up for it. They need to move the ball quickly, smartly, with purpose and precision. And if we do that, this Bournemouth team might be able to be moved about a bit.

I don’t think any of us are under the illusion that this will be a walk in the park today. It’s going to be gruelling, it’s going to be scary, but that’s what this time of the season is all about. Those Arsenal players need to heed the words of their manager and embrace this challenge. We’re at the proper ‘business end’ of this season. We can’t afford not to show up today.

Right, that’s it from me I think, as I need to drag my sorry arse out of these PJs and get my game face on for this kick off.

See you all tomorrow.

Firstly, the training pics and team news, and the real positive from yesterday was the sight of Eze in full training. He’s been out for three-and-a-bit weeks so far, so having him back is timely. Especially so, given that Odegaard wasn’t pictured in the open training session that the club held yesterday. Now, that doesn’t mean he isn’t good for Saturday, because there were other players not there, and I have a feeling we’ll see a few line up against the Cherries. For example, in the video session, there was no Timber, Hincapie, Calafiori, or Saka in shot. They might have been doing work inside, and, given that Calafiori has played a lot of football lately, plus Odegaard has been out, my gut feeling tells me that this weekend we might see Timber, Calafiori, and Odegaard. Whether we see Saka remains to be seen. The general vibes we got from Tuchel, and then Arteta was that he wasn’t far away, so I suspect they are just managing his load in training.

The good news is that Noni looked decent against Sporting, and if they want to be super cautious tomorrow, they can just have Saka on the bench and give Noni the start. In a way, you’d probably say he earned it and, were the referee to actually have done his job on Tuesday night and booked Araujo, I’m pretty sure we’d have seen even more from him as he’d have had more licence to try to beat a man who would already have been on a (deserved) yellow. With Eze back, that kind of covers any concern about Odegaard starting back-to-back games, which just really leaves question marks over the full-backs. Ben White has been playing more football, but Arsenal must surely be getting to the point of concern re: his ability to complete consecutive 90s. The upside is that Mosquera could come in and deputise if White needs his minutes managed, but on the other side, Myles looked off the pace against Southampton, so Calafiori starting tomorrow is one I have my eye on in particular. I do think Myles would be better with more of the first-XI regulars on the pitch, but there’s no doubt Calafiori adds a spot of dynamism to that position, which we might need against Bournemouth. So, of all the players I hope the club is wrapping up in cotton wool, the Italian is top of my list to be protected and told to get out there tomorrow lunchtime.

We’ll know more from the manager later at his press conference, but for now, let’s turn our attention outwards and see what some of the pundits think about tomorrow, eh? I had a little look at how Bournemouth may play against us based on the numbers and some of the comments from their fans in yesterday’s blog, but I’m interested in knowing what the supposed ‘neutrals’ think.

Well, let’s start with that grumpy bar steward, Chris Sutton, who thinks we’ll get a 2-0 victory, but does admit in his commentary that Bournemouth will give us a good game. I didn’t realise that they were undefeated in the League since we played them in January! That’s 11 games and, whilst a lot of those matches have been draws, it shows they are a tough side to beat. Conversely, I guess, and for balance, we are also unbeaten in the league for our last eight in the Premier League since that defeat to United at home, although some have admittedly been anything but comfortable (Chelsea, Brighton and Everton the last three that we played and hardly convincing).

Merson has gone ‘balls out’ with his prediction, saying we’ll beat Bournemouth 3-0 and City getting a draw at Chelsea, which means the title is ‘over’. I can’t see any of these things happening. Firstly, I do think we might concede, given that Bournemouth are a side that knows how to get goals. I don’t think it will be an easy 3-0 for us, but nor do I see Chelsea getting anything against City; they’ve already handicapped themselves by sidelining Enzo Fernandez, and I think City will smell blood.

Lewis Jones on Sky Sports is an interesting one, though. I quite respect his opinion because he’s a guy who knows about the betting markets, and they make it their job to know absolutely everything that the data tells them. He’s talking about how Bournemouth are on a good run of 12 in all competitions unbeaten, but that in their last six matches, there has been regression. This is good. This is the kind of intel I need to soothe my worried heart. Apparently, their xG against in those games is nearly two goals per game. They are giving teams chances. So he’s gone for a 2-0.

And finally, to Sports Mole, who have said it will be a ‘winning ugly’ kind of 2-1 game for The Arsenal. At this stage, I think as all of us have said in the pubs, WhatsApp chats and on social media, we accept that this might just ‘be us’ for the rest of the season. We have to make peace with that. I would bite yer hand off for a 2-1, and that’s my gut feel on scoreline, as I mentioned above with Bournemouth’s form and yesterday with their chance creation. They put the probability of an Arsenal win at 64.7%, with the most likely score being 1-0 with a 13% probability. I don’t buy that, for the aforementioned reasons, but I do hope that some karma comes our way from last season, because to me that Evanilson winner at The Emirates was handball. It clearly came off his elbow, and if that happened to us, you’d bet VAR would have pulled it back. Not that I’m still bitter or anything, mind…

So that’s the view from the pundits. We’ll hear the team news and vibes from the managers later today, so now all we have to do is wait until kick-off to see what sort of Arsenal we’re going to get, and what sort of Bournemouth will show up as well.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a match preview. See you then.

The Premier League games just hit differently.

That’s why the nerves are already starting to ramp up.

Bournemouth is a good side. They are a well-coached side. On Saturday, they will be a well-rested side, too, and in the time since they last played on 20th March at home to Man United, we’ve played:

• Three Champions League games
• One League Cup final
• One FA Cup quarter-final

There are a lot more minutes in those Arsenal players’ legs than there are in those of the Bournemouth players.

They have a pretty strong and relatively injury-free injury squad to call from, too. We’ll hear more from Iraola tomorrow, but by my count, they might only be missing Justin Kluivert, Julio Soler, and perhaps Tyler Adams. They also have the benefit of UAE-favouring Michael Oliver and Darren England. Honestly, I don’t understand why at this stage in the season, they don’t just stick him in random mid-table games, because any contentious decision against us this weekend is just going to have more people questioning the man’s integrity. For what it’s worth, I don’t think he is corrupt, but I do think he has an unconscious bias against Arsenal in certain games. Namely, those against Man City, and if he’s the ref next weekend, I’ll probably be blowing my lid more than this weekend. He’s refereed us twice this season; one was the 0-0 draw in which he and his VAR officials decided that Olana’s blatant handball wasn’t a handball (which I put on VAR more than Oliver), as well as the 4-1 home win against the Scum. So this season has not been as bad as we might have worried. Indeed, Bournemouth fans feel the same about him, but their story is similar. I haven’t watched the games in question, but they have a 2-0 win away at Wolves, a 0-0 at home to Chelsea, and a 2-2 away at Leeds.

I got this sense from them whilst having a look at one of their fan forums – Up The Cherries – and they’re feeling like this, be more history repeating itself as the draw specialists. They have 15 in the League so far, which is almost half of their games, and the only club that comes close to that are Sunderland and Brighton, on 10 draws this season. Those 15 draws have stopped a promising start to the season from being a run like Forest had last season to try to get Champions League football, and I seem to recall Bournemouth being up in the top spots after eight games. Their current position of 13th isn’t where they’d want to be, but the very nature of this league this season means that it’s congested enough that a few wins could put them in contention for European spots. With the coefficient confirmed after our win on Tuesday, I think it means if you’re down in eighth, you could make it. If Chelsea or City win the FA Cup, I think it confirms a Europa League spot in the Premier League. Bournemouth are currently just four points off that position (currently occupied by Everton), so for sure they have something to play for this weekend.

Their fans are naturally feeling that we will be nervous, and there is an opportunity to smell blood. I can understand that; last season they picked up wins both home and away, whilst in the game at the beginning of January they went ahead through a Gabriel mistake really early, before going ahead to cruise 3-1, before Kroupi pulled out a wonder strike to make the game a little nervous at the end. In those last three games, there is enough there to make Bournemouth fans feel optimistic, because before then, we had a fabulous record against them – winning each of the previous five games, and winning eight of the previous nine going back to 2018. But Iraola has changed their fortunes somewhat, with two wins and three defeats since he joined. So we need to be ready for a really tough game.

From a statistical point of view, Bournemouth are a side who score goals and concede goals with a fairly even level of regularity – I guess, hence the draws they pick up! They are the sixth-highest goal scorers in the league, whilst also conceding the fifth-highest number of goals. They take a lot of shots (and get plenty on target), they create high levels of xG (again, sixth in the league), and they try to get in as many crosses as possible. They press the ball high; they’re only behind Brighton, City and Everton in the league, just ahead of us, and their attacks are direct – they have had more direct attacks than any other team in the league this season so far (just behind us).

So we’re starting to have the data give us a bit of intel about what we might come up against on Saturday:

• Higher press
• Plenty of shots
• Go direct, but try to get wide to get crosses in

If they play like they have done all season, they will create chances, but they will also give us space too. That rings true if you think about the game at their ground, when they managed to unsettle us on two occasions. I’ve had a look back on the stats from that day and Bournemouth had 15 shot attempts, with three on target, whilst we had 12 and five on target. They played a 4-2-3-1 and at least two players from that day won’t be playing – Semenyo and Kluivert. They’ve replaced Semenyo with the Brazilian Rayan, who is quick, likes to beat a man and in a game that might end up being end-to-end, he could be one that we need Calafiori to be concerned with.

I’ll do a little more on Bournemouth tomorrow, as we await team news, but for today I will leave you with this thought: I think we might get a good game on Saturday. It might be terrifying, but I don’t think we’re getting Low Block FC rocking up at The Emirates.

And were it not for David Raya, we may well have succumbed, but having him back in the side showed the difference you can make when you have a world-class keeper in between the sticks. I actually don’t think Kepa was that bad last weekend – he’s just not Raya, who exuded calmness and composure with the ball at his feet, but also followed it up with some fine saves too. His first, from a pretty splendid ‘Paul Merson Pass’ outside of the ball splitter by Diomande to put Araujo in, was finger-tippingly brilliant. It crashed the underside of the bar, but he had a vital touch, which enabled the ball to avoid rippling the net. And who knows what direction the match might have changed into, had that gone in?

As a quick aside, the shooter in that instance must have had something on the referee, because quite how Araujo managed to avoid a booking for accumulation despite making upwards of seven fouls last night is beyond me. He had obviously read the Jordan Ayew Book of Impunity with Refs, because even when players like Madueke exasperatedly asked “How many?”, he still got away with one or two more.

It felt like a game in which we really did have to ‘huff and puff’ last night. We were in control in terms of ball-dominance and xG chance creation, but Sporting did have their moments. When you look at the stats, it was pretty 50-50, and so as the clock ticked down to the end of the game, my nerves were more about avoiding a last-minute sucker-punch as we have on a number of occasions already this season, rather than winning it. So when Martinelli shimmied himself into enough space to dink it to Kai in the middle of the penalty box to slot home, I was over the moon. It was a rarely-seen Martinelli pass; we don’t usually expect to see him being the provider to that type of goal, but more the man running on to it. It was a really deft chip and quite impressive from the Brazilian. So too, was Havertz’s touch and finish, which was certainly very clinical, and you could see how pleased he was with his celebration. The run was the type of run that you expect from Havertz when Gyokeres is on the pitch; he is playing as a false nine as Gyokeres occupies another defender, he finds the space in between centre-halves, which enables him to be picked out with a run from the D to the penalty spot, completely unmarked. Kai will not give us the vision or passing range in midfield that Odegaard or Eze can, but as a second striker, he has a big impact.

Elsewhere in the team, we had some decent, if not spectacular, performances. I thought Rice was superb again in his midfield duel-winning role, winning his one tackle on the night, making four interceptions, and recovering the ball 13 times. Any nerves about his lingering fatigue were dispelled last night, and that was great. Big Gabi had his hands full with Luis Suarez, but he came through 90 minutes and, like Rice, I am just pleased we had no lingering effects from what was clearly a niggling knee injury on Saturday. I thought White looked shaky in some of the ‘big’ moments – like that chance from Diomande to Araujo – but if you look at his performance as a whole, he did alright I thought. Plus we got 70 minutes out of Odegaard, which is positive, although his performance felt like a pretty rusty guy. He wasn’t really able to impact the game at all, and of all of his 48 passes (out of 59) that came off, I’m struggling to remember how many really did any kind of significant damage. It’s tough when the guy you come on for does what Kai did, but this season has certainly been one in which substitutes have made the biggest impact. I can’t remember the exact number, but I think we’re close to 40-odd involvements from Arsenal players this season. I think that’s miles more than any other team, so it really does show the positive impact that Mikel Arteta’s changes have made this season.

Understandably, Mikel Arteta was delighted last night, but I do wonder if he will continue to analyse why we have found it so difficult to break teams down. It isn’t as if Sporting sat in a low block last night, I didn’t think. There was space there for us to exploit, but it felt like we chose safety first in ball retention, which, I guess, given this is the first of a two-legged affair, is understandable. But I did feel at times that we could have got more out of the likes of Trossard and Madueke, who blew hot and cold last night I thought. We all know that when Gyokeres doesn’t get service he is basically a passenger, which is why I wanted a little more from our wide forwards. And that left-hand wide-forward slot continues to be an enigma, because it feels like no player wants to step up and make it his own. Martinelli was pretty poor against Southampton, but then comes on and made a key impact last night. Trossard had an indifferent game, but if he doesn’t start at the weekend, I’d imagine that he’ll come on and play well from the bench against Bournemouth. It’s frustrating, but equally a bit of a relief that you know these guys can impact from the sidelines when coming on. Or maybe it is just that Martinelli loves the Champions League? That’s six goals and two assists in 512 minutes – he’s averaging a contribution every hour -Harry Kane averages one every 70 minutes, for context.

So it’s a victory, it’s a commanding position in the Champions League, but it’s back to domestic focus immediately now, because Bournemouth on Saturday lunchtime is already filling my stomach with a bit of dread/fear/butterflies. Catch you all tomorrow for some more thoughts as we build up to that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Be good.

So, given that I’ve watched very few Championship games this season, what’s in store for The Arsenal tomorrow night then, eh?

Well, it’s a side that I think I’ve already mentioned in recent days, which comes into this game in pretty good form. Unbeaten since January, have taken a scalp in the FA Cup, will be buoyed by their form, and will feel like this one tomorrow is a proper ‘free hit’. Their manager will not play it as I suspect, but i’m sure they are all feeling it.

A quick Google AI-search tells me that they are a possession-based side who will build from the back, and who have suffered a bit this season through silly goals, as a result of their build-up. That’s somewhat evidenced by their goals against tally; they are ninth in the Championship for goals conceded. Their xG against also puts them 14th in the table, so this is a side that has its defensive challenges. Where they make up for it is in goals scored, with only Coventry and Ipswich having scored more. Their xG puts them second in the table too; this isn’t a side who are going to low block us tomorrow.

And that gives me some comfort. On the Same Old Arsenal pod this season, I’ve said a few times that the Premier League has felt like it is a real grind. Teams come up against us and they play the deepest of low blocks, which has been shown in numerous graphs and charts that you and search for on social media. Put simply, Arsenal face the lowest of blocks compared to any other side. But the numbers suggest Southampton won’t do that. Perhaps more importantly, the numbers suggest they can’t do that. So let’s have a proper slugfest between two teams, eh?

Adam Armstrong was their main guy in the attacking equation, but he left for Wolves in the January transfer window, so they’ve been relying on Larin up top, who hasn’t proved to be too prolific. Instead, a lot of their recent goals have been coming from the three men behind them in a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Finn Azaz and Kuryu Matsuki getting on the scoresheet a few times in recent weeks. Again, a quick check on playing style for those guys tells me Azaz is their key playmaker, number ten who takes plenty of shots. He’s described as a ‘high-volume shooter’, so tomorrow evening I suspect he’ll be taking opportunities from outside of the box to make a name for himself. Matsuki is a high-energy box-to-boxer who is a relentless presser. I remember Wenger saying years ago that he was shocked at the relentless effort and running of the Japanese footballers, so it appears Matsuki is another one of those in that similar national mould.

So for Arteta today, as he preps his team, he will no doubt have a few dossiers on where they can do us damage, but from a very quick and dirty look from me today, it tells me that, providing we can control the space in front of our back four, we should/could be ok. Nothing is certain in football; that’s why we love the game so much, but even with what we expect to be a relatively heavily rotated squad, you have to be looking at our chances as being high.

That may well also depend on whether we can get our misfiring attack to work. Gabriel Jesus has failed to impress of late, and I think he must surely be in with a shout of starting, so if Southampton are a side that is going to press us and leave space, he will have room to work. He might need rapid wide-forwards around him, so it will be interesting to see what happens about who is available tomorrow. You’d have to think this could be a game for Gabriel Martinelli, but we’ll need to see if the manager thinks his fitness is ok. He scored against Croatia in stoppage time, but he only got on the pitch on 68 minutes, so hopefully that means he’s fine and is as refreshed and ready as possible.

I’ll leave the full review of who I think might play / who I want to play to tomorrow’s blog, because I think a lot will depend on how much information Arteta gives us. I’m not expecting him to give much, but even confirming players are definitely out would be even a little informative.

Have a great Friday boys and girls – catch you all tomorrow.

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

And Mikel Arteta is a fixer.

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

And I 100% back him to do that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back tomorrow with some more musings.

So I want to take this moment to offer a public apology to all of you guys who read my ramblings regularly: I have let you all down.

I went Uber-positive on Sunday’s blog. It was a break from the norm. I am an apprehensive Arsenal fan. I always have been since the 2006 Champions League final. I went into that so convinced we would win it. Then it broke me when we didn’t. So I turned to pessimism to protect myself and my emotions from that level of heartbreak. I figured if I think about the worst-case scenario in my head, then if/when it happens, I will be prepared for it anyway. If the best thing happens and Arsenal win, I am doubly happy about it because I didn’t expect it.

For the second time that happened to me, which is in my head, you have to fast-forward 13 years to the 2019 Europa League final. I was convinced that we were beating Chelsea. They had already qualified for the Champions League, they had that ridiculous EFL Cup final in which Kepa (I know, I know) had refused to come off, and then they lost on penalties. They, of course, wanted to win something, but our need was greater, so I was convinced our design would get us over the line. Oh, and we had MR Europa League in Unai Emery too.

We all know how that went.

On Sunday, I had that same conviction, but we all know how that went. And I don’t want to labour the point here too much, but as the dust was settling and we were starting to all think yesterday “it’s fine, we have three more competitions to go for”, the Football Gods decided to clearly read my blog and go “ooh man, we’re are screwing you royally for this”. By ‘the’, I of course mean my proclamation on yesterday’s blog:

My hope is that we don’t get any wind of news that any of the injuries that are sustained are long-term. If we’re talking players needing a solid 10 – 14 days rest to recover, then happy days – for once, an international break has come at the right time.

Famous last words, eh? Because yesterday Sami Mokbel dropped on us this afternoon, and I found myself thinking “for f*cks sake, why does this sort of sh*t always happen to us?”

I do feel like ever since we had the 2023/24 season of various media pundits saying things like “yeah, well, they haven’t had any injuries” in reference to our good form that season, we’ve had one after the other. It’s certainly coming on 18 months of injury after injury. And this one is a particularly bitter pill to swallow because:

1. Eze was starting to find some form
2. Odegaard was able to recover from injury without being rushed back
3. We have been told – and are seeing that with our own eyes – that Spring is when he comes alive.

If the timeframes are right, then we are looking at him being out until probably the Newcastle game at the earliest, and with two months of the season left, he’s missing half of it. It’s a massive blow for a player who has been so clutch for us in recent weeks and I feel has started to see his place in the team, delivering end-product with it as well.

The positive, as Sami says in the article, is that Odegaard appears to be back in training, and the club now has at least another 10 days with which to get minutes in his legs at London Colney. Whether or not he goes straight into the team for Southampton needs to be carefully looked at, though, because he’s hardly built up a cadence of games to suggest he’ll be fine to play on Saturday night and then Tuesday night against Sporting Lisbon. This season alone, according to TransferMarkt, he has missed:

• 37 days and seven matches due to a knee problem
• Eight days and two matches due to a knee problem
• 10 days and two matches due to a muscle injury
• 53 days and eight games due to a knee injury
• 13 days and six games due to a shoulder injury

Our captain has missed a total of 121 days, with five injuries and 22 games this season. Arsenal have played 50 matches so far. So Odegaard has missed 44% of ALL matches we’ve played this season. The worry now, with Eze’s injury, is that we are going to be reliant on a guy who has shown that he’s susceptible to injury all season for basically two seasons now. Last season, he missed 15 games in total. So whilst I love him, I think an Odegaard in top form is integral to the way we play, it does feel like we haven’t seen that very much at all this season and I also think it is going to take him time to get back any kind of form and rhythm.

If I’m trying to look at the positives here, I could say that we have other options. But they aren’t fully tested and, frankly, they haven’t exactly delivered amazing results. At the weekend, we had Kai in that midfield role, but after he signed and then switched to playing up front, we all spent the time saying that he wasn’t a midfielder and didn’t do that job as well. He wasn’t great on Sunday, although he’s still coming back from injury, so he’s building his fitness up after a year out. Saka centrally has the possibility of being exciting on paper, but his form is such that we haven’t seen too much of what his potential is for that role and on the weekend, he wasn’t great in it before Noni came on either. That could be the circumstance of that situation; we were just abject on Sunday in that second half anyway, so perhaps we just have to accept that and move on. Perhaps Saka could be something that works there, but with the season reaching a crescendo, it’s hardly optimal that we’re discussing untested options at such a crucial time.

As I said yesterday, and I’ve quoted above, perhaps the other good news is that Arteta and his coaching staff have the next 10 days to think of how they react to this Eze injury, and how they plan an approach that will get Martin Odegaard’s engine up and running again. We are going to need him, plus some of the other options I’ve mentioned, between now and the end of the season for sure.

Catch you all tomorrow.

We touched on this a bit yesterday in the Same Old Arsenal pod, but I wonder what the psychological impact of the recent results might be for those two respective teams in this title race? When Man City scored those two late goals at Anfield, the prevailing media narrative was that this was the momentum shift. ‘City were coming’, ‘City have done this before’, and ‘this is the moment they crank up the gears’ were what we heard. That match was on February 8th, and since then they’ve beaten Fulham at home, Newcastle at home, Leeds away, drawn with Forest, and drawn with West Ham in the Premier League. That’s not the same City as we’ve been told about, and certainly sides like the one that we faced in 2023/24 wouldn’t be at this stage in the season dropping points. I wonder if the psychology of dropping back-to-back points in the league, whilst we have picked up back-to-back wins, will impact them? Likewise, does a probable exit this week to Real Madrid (barring some almighty Madrid collapse with them 3-0 up) do more damage to them yet as they prep for us on Sunday next week?

Conversely, we have just gone and got a last-minute winner, before seeing City drop those points away. Does that point the dial in a positive direction for the psychological boost of this Arsenal team?

Maybe, maybe not. The fact that City have been patchy since that Liverpool win shows that things can swing very quickly in this league. Arsenal have done nothing yet, they’ve won nothing yet, but we are in a fabulously commanding position from where we sit. We can all continue to hope that this team drags itself over the line.

It’s weird, though, because we’re at the ‘business end’ of the season now, with seven games left to go, and yet we don’t actually play any Premier League football for just under a month. It’s the Champions League tomorrow, the League Cup on Sunday, then an international break, then the weekend after that is Easter, before we kick back up in the League against Bournemouth on 11th April. There’s a lot of football that will be played, but Premier League football takes a bit of a back seat. Which I kind of like, to be honest with you, because it feels like a little bit of a rest. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be nervous again tomorrow, but despite never having won the Champions League, and it being a massive trophy to win, it’s the Premier League that gets me the most. It’s the one I want to win the most, and if that meant sacrificing everything else, I would gladly do it. So whilst I would be sad to go out tomorrow against Leverkusen, whilst I want us to go deep and maybe even win it, I’m kind of looking at everything other than the Premier League as a bit of respite.

Mikel Arteta will have no time to dwell on such things, such is the hectic schedule. He’ll have given the lads yesterday off, then today it will be back in light training as they prep for Leverkusen. He’ll also have his press conference this evening, and I hope that we get some good news on the players who have question marks over them. I think, particularly, I’d like to see Trossard fit, not least because I had a weird dream about Martinelli last night. The Creative Services Manager who works at my company was playing on the opposition side, and Martinelli – clearly rattled by him – decided to come from behind, grab him in a wrestling sleeper hold move, then drag him down to the floor. He got himself sent off, and we were on the back foot from there. I hope that isn’t a weird sign or premonition for tomorrow. Mikel – play Trossard or Eze on the left – trust my spidey sense…

Other than that, I guess there’s not really much else to do today other than re-live that wonderful moment in which Max Dowman scored to secure the win. What a day for him, his family, the Arsenal players, and Arteta. I’ve watched clip after clip of that, with particular rewatching of Peter Drury’s beautifully hyperbolic commentary. When it is for your team, it really does feel like a work of art.

Right, I’m going to call it there, I think. Have yourselves a great day, and I’ll be back tomorrow as we do a match preview ahead of that Leverkusen match-up.

He comes to maybe one or two games a season, max, and so I could see where he was coming from. Heck, I even said beforehand that it would be an attritional game, and Mark – who helped me with the tickets – also said the same in the concourse before a ball was kicked. We all knew what Everton would bring; it was going to be a case of whether we could get over the line.

The line was well and truly ‘gotten over’ by the end, though, eh?

Effing football, eh? Effing Arsenal, eh? You will be the death of me, as much as you are the life of me.

I had mused on some way through the second half that the ball just doesn’t seem to be dropping to an Arsenal shirt when it comes to the loose ones. There seemed to be an Everton player there every time. That was, of course, until Big Vik Gyokeres was there inside the six-yard box to tap it home.

Pandemonium. Limbs. Hugging. Relief. Arsenal had done it. And all it took was a 16-year-old kid to send us wild. It was Arteta’s ‘Hail Mary’ and boy, did it work. I know we’ve been saying it for a while, but how has a 16-year-old got that much talent at that age? It’s extraordinary. He breathed fresh air into our attack; he unsettled Everton, so much so that I think Jordan Pickford’s flap for our first goal was a result of him being on the pitch. Maybe that’s a stretch, but it was a good ball; close enough to the keeper to entice him to come out, far enough away that he couldn’t get to it. Big Vik touches home on 89 minutes.

Football. In those moments, I love you.

There was still time for us to all be nervous as hell, though, and Everton – who had been pretty defensively resolute and not really an attacking threat in that second half – suddenly were here to spoil a party. But commeth the hour, commeth the…ma…erm…boy?

We now hold the record for having the youngest ever Premier League goal scorer to add to our record books for this season. It’s fair to say it wasn’t the hardest of goals at the end, but to get to that position, Dowman has to show composure, poise, and a fabulous header and touch to set himself off and us two points clear.

We had the joys at the end, and ultimately, the job has been done, but it wasn’t all sunshine and daisies overall, was it? We struggled to break down Everton; they created a few chances in the first half, and McNeil was unlucky not to score from his effort that hit the post. Raya also made a good save with his feet from Beto in the second half. I thought tactically Everton set up quite well; compact shape, difficult to break down, go long where you can, hit on transitional counter when you can. And we struggled in both halves. There was a period between the start of the second half and around the 60-minute mark where it felt like we were starting to exert pressure that might pay off, but after Everton rode that out, we started to look edgy. It wasn’t quite working, Arteta made the subs and, ultimately, I guess you have to say that it paid off.

We did create a few chances ourselves, but not loads and loads, with the Eze effort that just curled wide of the post being one that definitely sprung to mind. But our attack wasn’t clicking. Kai was ok, should have had a stonewall penalty and how VAR has given it I’m not really sure, but I guess it’s one of those that they probably looked at the ‘way’ in which Kai went down and thought he was over-egging it a little bit. We never got to see any replays in the stadium, and VAR seemed to say ‘no’ far too quickly for my liking, but I guess ultimately we got what we deserved, and that was the win. And I think it was a deserved win when you look at the stats. 25 shots, 65% possession, 2.59 xG toi Everton’s 1.07, 249 passes in Everton’s final third, compared to them having 85 in ours – this was a game that Arsenal should have won, and did, ultimately, win. 

We’re just in ‘win’ mode now. We’ve overcome the latest hurdle by hook or by crook. It wasn’t particularly convincing, but I think given all the context and given how deep we are into the season, I think we just have to accept ‘this is who we are’. We’ve probably got another seven of these types of performances to come in the Premier League. Bournemouth will be the same, as will Fulham, Newcastle, West Ham and Crystal Palace. 

The fabulous news kept coming, though, because City dropping points to West Ham was as awesome as it was surprising. That gives us a nine-point buffer, albeit with a game in hand, but that buffer gives us all a bit of relief as we head into a mini break away from the League with the Champions League and then the League Cup Final against Man City. Who knows, maybe the psychological blow from the Real Madrid first leg, then dropping points yesterday, then maybe an exit for them in midweek, can have an impact on how they play against us next weekend? Let’s hope so. 

James, Mark and I are doing the Same Old Arsenal pod this morning, so if you fancy it,  you can catch our thoughts here. Otherwise, I’ll be back tomorrow as the big games keep on coming – with Leverkusen in the Champions League to come on Tuesday. 

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.

It won’t be easy, of course, but when you think about the balance of probabilities, it’s a more favourable tie. As I went for my run yesterday, I was thinking about this: there are seven sides we could have been drawn against. That means 14 permutations (seven home, seven away). If I think about what would be the topfour or five permutations, it would have been Port Vale at home, then Port Vale away, then Southampton at home, then Southampton away. We got the fourth-best option out of 14 options, so that’s pretty good.

Of course, as is the way this season, the narratives already started to drop, with an article on Sky that I read last night saying that we haven’t played a Premier League side so far in the FA Cup. Of course, nobody is mentioning that neither have Chelsea, and they got the best possible draw to get into the semi-finals with their home tie to Port Vale. But there you go. They aren’t the story so far this season, we are.

Still, it could have been worse. We could have got the draw that City got – Liverpool, albeit at home for them. But that represents a really tough match-up that Pep is not exactly going to be able to rest players for. Liverpool will be looking at this as a competition in which they can win a trophy, despite a difficult season, so they will go strong. City will need to match that, which means their April is suddenly looking like quite the douzy of a month. They play Liverpool in the FA Cup, the Champions League quarter final probably against Bayern, Chelsea away (who will no doubt have rotated for Port Vale at home) in the Premier League, then the second leg of their quarter final in the Champions League, before they play us. Their last game is away to Burnley, which is the banker for them.

Now, none of us should be counting our chickens, of course, but our games at least on paper don’t look as scary. We have Southampton away, then the quarter final if we can overcome Leverkusen to either Sporting or Bodo/Glimt, before playing Bournemouth at home in the Premier League, then it’s the second leg of that Sporting/Bodo quarter final at home (again, if we make it), before we play them. Our last game is a tricky one at home to a Newcastle side that I am really hoping will have nothing to play for, but equally will give us a tough match-up.

Once again, we have to put a big asterisk against all of these matches, but you’d rather have our run of games than theirs. It means April may well turn out to be a pivotal one in the season; I really hope we rise to the occasion in our games, with City hopefully dropping points and not being knocked out. For example, I kind of want to see City win their games against Real Madrid. We want them to be playing quarter finals just before they play us in the League. If they’ve been knocked out to Real Madrid, they have a week off before they play us, whilst we’ll have played a home match if we beat Leverkusen. That’s the kind of marginal gain that could have a big swing in a match like that at the Emptihad.

But we still have to respect and do our jobs against Leverkusen. Arteta will be up in front of the press today to talk about that game, but tomorrow evening’s early kick-off is one that we will have to see Arsenal step up against a patchy Leverkusen side this season. Their last five matches in all competitions have been:

1. 3-3 draw away to Freiburg
2. 1-0 win away to Hamburg
3. 1-1 draw at home to Mainz
4. 0-0 home draw against Olympiacos
5. 1-0 defeat to Union Berlin

Like I say – patchy.

They still have players who can hurt us in the shape of Schick and Grimaldo, but I think the Czech centre-forward is currently injured for this one, so that might be a big advantage for us. That means they’ll likely turn to the pacey Christian Kofane as their attacking outlet, who has seven goals to his name this season, and I suspect the Cameroonian will make life difficult for our centre halves tomorrow night. They’re also missing Loic Bade, Arthur, Flekken and Lucas Vasquez – the latter being at Real Madrid last season and sucking on some sour grapes after the game by saying we did “almost nothing” in the game at the Bernabeu. It would have been nice to see if Martinelli can skin him again tomorrow night, but I guess it just isn’t meant to be.

For us, all eyes will be on those players who were rested from the weekend, plus whether Trossard and Calafiori’s knocks are longer-term than just a precaution, although I suspect we won’t really know, given how much we know Arteta likes to tell us almost nothing in his press conferences. Despite that, though, I am still hoping that he at least confirms that the two that came off at the weekend are fine for Everton on Saturday. We may not need them for tonight, but we do need to start rotating this team and not over-relying on players, given how quickly the matches are coming right now.

We’ll find out more later, I’m gutted I couldn’t get a ticket as I’d have flown over tonight, but let’s hope that The Arsenal are in good shapes for this one, because keeping the impossible dream alive of a quadruple would be mighty nice with a win tomorrow. I’ll catch you then, when we have a look at how we might line up.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kepa

Salmon   –   Mosquera   –   Calafiori   –   Hincapie

Norgaard

Dowman   –   Havertz

Madueke   –   Jesus   –   Martinelli

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

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

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

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

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

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

Much obliged.

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

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

He wasn’t very expectant of that:

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

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

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

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

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

— Sir Jenkinson (@theEpicGooner) March 5, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Laters kids.

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.

That Arsenal made it look a lot harder than it probably should have been after Neto’s sending off in the second half probably needs to be consigned to history, now that the points are in the bag. But it doesn’t help my general stress and anxiety levels when we make these types of games feel like such a slog.

The chatter in the Greek beforehand was about how this game would be a really tough one for Arteta’s men. Chelsea is a decent side, a side that, as I pointed out in yesterday’s blog, hadn’t lost away in the league for nearly three months. This is a side that went to the Emptihad with a caretaker manager and nicked a point off City. So we all knew they wouldn’t be a pushover. The question was how Arteta was going to line us up, given he has a near fully-fit squad to select from. Well, all except Odegaard, whose knee problems appear to have flared up again. When I saw the leaked team news before the official stuff came out, I suspected that it meant that Eze was keeping his place on merit, but it appears it is more of neccessity, because of this injury. Let’s hope it is nothing too serious for the captain.

The return of Kai to the bench made for good vibes as the tifo explained why the world had only come to see the Arsenal, and I thought we were in command in that first half for pretty much most of it, underlying the tifo message with our ball dominance. I don’t think Chelsea dropped off, but I do think they recognised we would be the ones to drive the narrative of the day, given we were the ones at home. And we did. I thought we might even get a nice early helping hand from Sanchez, too, with his miscontrol within a few minutes, but unfortunately, Gyokeres couldn’t profit from a ‘keeper who then had the crowd making excited noises every time he touched the ball thereafter. He is really not a good keeper, and I am very glad that Chelsea places little value in trying to get good keepers, too. He complained about the second goal, for what reason I have no idea, but despite how poor he is, there wasn’t really a lot he could do with our first goal.

Somebody said to me that it was Saliba’s first goal of the season, and that shocked me. I was like “no way! He scored when we…oh…wait,” and I think my mind has just grouped our centre-halves together in terms of their goalscoring prowess, when in fact it is Big Gabi who is ‘the guy’ when it comes to the opposition penalty box. In fact, when you look at Saliba’s stats, it reads thusly:

• 25/26 = one goal, one assist
• 24/25 = two goals
• 23/24 = two goals, one assist
• 22/23 = three goals, one assist

So Big Bill is not the guy who regularly notches up the goals. When you compare that to Gabriel, it’s chalk and cheese, because this season alone, the Brazilian has four goals and five assists. The latest assist of which was, of course, his knock back into the box for Saliba’s goal, and having watched it back again, trying to find out where Chelsea went wrong, I think I’m just inclined to say it was a superbly worked Arsenal goal. We can go whipped to the near post, we can get it right under the ‘keeper, we can go to the back post; this Arsenal team has so many different clubs in its set-piece bag that it keeps opponents guessing and continues to be such a massive threat for us as a team. Long may it continue.

And overall, it was fair in the balance of play. Chelsea were content to have a bit more of the ball in that first half, but there wasn’t a ton of chances created for either side. So when they scored right on the brink of halftime, it felt slightly against the run of play to me. I know there are a few people who have said we were lucky to get away with not conceding a penalty on Rice for the ‘handball’ on the goal kick before the one we conceded, but I’m not having that. It was on his shirt sleeve that the ball hit him, and if you’re a City fan (or another fan, given that so many seem to want that financially doped football club to win the league), crying about that this morning, go have a look at the Leeds v City game and see that handball. Bet you weren’t crying over that yesterday, were you?

It left a bad taste in the mouth at halftime, but thankfully, that bad taste only lasted around 20 minutes in the second half. Step forward, Set-Piece FC again, and step forward Jurrien Timber, who not only scored the winner but also gave my fantasy team the kind of boost it needed this weekend. Double bubble delight for me. Again, as mentioned already, Chelsea players complained about a push, but that’s a stretch. In both boxes throughout the game, players were grappling with each other all game, so this one was never going to get ruled out. And nor should it. But you always have those few seconds after the goal where you’re wondering what VAR will try to see to knock off a goal. Not this time, though.

So with the lead regained, you’re looking at Arsenal consolidating for five minutes and not conceding a silly goal or doing anything stupid. Thankfully, the same needs to be said for Chelsea, who obliged us via Pedro Neto’s utterly mental lunge on the floor at Martinelli to get himself sent off with a second yellow. Honestly, how on earth can somebody be so stupid? You’re on a yellow mate, you can’t go to ground like that, but we’ll take it.

And at that point, I think most of us were pretty happy. We could control the ball, make use of the extra man, move Chelsea around, and maybe go and get one more. But not for the first time this calendar year, we seem to just retreat into our shells again. And whilst we ultimately hung on (and we really did hang on, with Chelsea having the ball in our net only to be ruled rightly offside, then that Garnacho cross saved by Raya at the death), I think we are right to be a little concerned about how we didn’t manage the game well after we went up with a man advantage. It didn’t feel to me as though we had that advantage. Chelsea held the ball; they were starting to get forward, and by the end of the game, if you look at the stats, it felt like a very even one. They had more possession than us, the xG was practically the same (1.09 to their 1.07), they created an extra big chance than us, with our goalkeeper making one more save than theirs.

At the end of the day, the points were all that mattered, and with nine more cup finals to go, we have knocked down one of the hardest. But we have to be better than what we showed in the second half after we scored. We have to manage those key moments better, and Arteta referenced that in his post-match too. This is becoming a bit of a pattern, and we need to nip it in the bud. We need to see more like the North London Derby style of game, where the end of the match is more of a slow march to the whistle, feeling comfortable.

We play Brighton on Wednesday, and it is a Brighton team who have just had back-to-back wins and will be feeling themselves on a ground in which we’ve struggled for a few years. We will have to be better than the performance showed yesterday. But above all, we have to pick up all three points.

Right, I’ll leave it there. Amanda and James did a duet on the Same Old Arsenal podcast yesterday, so if you fancy a bit more of a debrief from them, you can do so via YouTube here. Otherwise, I’ll be back here tomorrow as we prepare for the quick turnaround against Brighton. 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.

It’s a pathway that I don’t think you’ll have found a single Gooner not happy with when they did the draw yesterday. And for me, with Leverkusen literally next to Koln, I am hoping I can find a way to get a ticket for the away game. I suspect it will be a tough one to get, but I’ll be keeping everything crossed that I can secure one.

And to those fans of other clubs bemoaning our luck, I’m sorry, but I have no time for such nonsense. Do you know how we got this ‘luck’? By winning every single game of the group stages. If – and it is an ‘if’, because all teams at this stage of the competition are very good teams – we get through this phase of play, you can’t exactly say we haven’t played good teams on our way. Bayern, Atletico Madrid, and Inter Milan – all good teams and two of whom are already into this stage of the competition. And Leverkusen will be no slouches either. We have a mixed record of going to Germany, so I am not counting my chickens, but am I glad that we weren’t on the other side of the draw? If I speak, I am in trouble…

The reality of the situation is that we are fighting on multiple fronts and, if we can get a draw that – hopefully – affords more rotation for Arteta at any stage, then that would be amazing. Imagine if we can go to Leverkusen and get the win. It would be massive for the context of our season, because we play the return fixture just before the League Cup final. Man City play Real Madrid in their double-header, which I would hope and imagine is not going to afford them much room for rotation. We may end up not being able to rotate depending on that first result, but upon guesswork and estimation, you’d imagine that we stand a higher probability than City do. We could have done with them travelling away to Madrid before the League Cup final, but there you go, not a lot that can be done.

That’s a ‘future us’ problem, though. The immediate and most pressing problem we have is how to overcome a Chelsea side who will have seen Villa lose to Wolves last night, and will be seeing an opportunity to go for those Champions League spots with the Villains wobbling. Rosenior had his presser yesterday and confirmed that Reece James is back, Cucurella is out, as well as Estevao and Fofana through suspension. The rest of their players who are long-term absentees remain out, but Rosenior seemed pretty confident ahead of this one, saying that “what I would say is that they also know it is going to be a very difficult game for them,” which is fair. Chelsea are no mugs. They have players who tipover the edge, borne out by the number of red cards they have this season (including that disgraceful one on Merino by Caicedo against us earlier in the season), but they have some very good technical players too. Enzo, Caicedo, James, and Pedro Neto – all of those are players that I think are very good on the ball, and we will have to be at our best at both ends of the pitch if we want to get something from this game tomorrow. He did point out – which is a familiar failing of ours recently too – that Chelsea have “we have just given goals away”. IF Chelsea are looking at a weakness in us of our ability to have a brain-fart moment, we might look to them for the same issues.

I had another look at the Burnley game, but I also watched the Sun Sports tactics exposed column to see what Chelsea might try to do to us with a bit of a low block, and the goal they scored kind of resonated with how they might look to catch us out on Sunday. They like to control the central space in their own half around the centre circle, apparently, and the goal they scored against Burnley came through a bit of an interchange in that space, followed by a quick back-to-front movement with a defence-splitting pass from Caicedo to Neto, then Neto across goal to Joao Pedro. Decent goal to be fair. The goal they conceded from a corner was shocking marking, though.

As for Arteta, well, I guess I’ve focused more on Chelsea’s press conference because, as usual, we didn’t really get much from the manager. Half of me doesn’t mind that, because you are giving no quarter to the opposition, but it doesn’t make for easy reviewing for a simple blogger like me!

The training pictures/video don’t give away much either. No sign of Timber, although there was no real comment about his availability or lackthereof. But he did say that Kai would train today, so that’s a positive. I suspect if he’s only training today, it’d be a long shot for tomorrow, but they must have Brighton in mind – perhaps for the bench – as a game he’s been earmarked for a return on.

One thing I did think was interesting was his comments on the mood in the camp. His response of “not too high, not too low” kind of reassured me, in some way. It feels almost as if the stench of the Wolves game was completely neutralised from the high of the North London Derby, which is fine, and you don’t want those players to get carried away. They are professionals, they have a job to do, so getting the game face on and not thinking too much about past successes is exactly how you prepare for another intense football match against a local and hated rival. What was also good – although expected – was his rhetoric around Chelsea. He said that their preparation remains the same, that they aren’t sure whether they will approach this game in the same way as the League Cup second round, but I would be surprised if they haven’t modelled some in-game scenarios for tomorrow based on the first five or ten minutes and how the game plays out. There was an interview with the guy from The Sun who does the tactics column with Declan Rice, and he said something that I’ll paraphrase, but it was essentially “if fans could come and see how the manager prepares us, they’d realise just how detailed our tactics are”. I believe him. Arteta is meticulous; he tries to leave no stone unturned. I’d imagine he only sleeps a couple of hours a night because he is so switched on. That only gets you so far, though; you need the players on the pitch to do it consistently, and that has to go again tomorrow.

Right, that’ll do for now, so I’ll put a pin in today’s musings and be back tomorrow with some more thoughts on how we might be able to collect three points tomorrow. Catch you then.

Today we’ll have the managers’ press conference, which will give us an update on team news, which won’t be very telling on our side. But as I sort of touched on yesterday, it is Chelsea’s team that I am more interested in knowing who is available. For us, the main question will centre around whether Havertz can make the match-day squad, with Mikel Arteta saying last week that he had the outside chance of making the game against the Scum. We’re a week later now and so my hopes are that we get some good news, although we need to be ready to hear a ‘not-a-lot’ update from Arteta; I think he’ll say the same as last week, which could mean anything. The reports of the Havertz injury came out around 12th February, so if he was due to miss a month, that puts him as possibly available next weekend at best, I would suggest. Let’s just hope for some good news, though, anyway, eh?

So, as we head into this weekend’s set of fixtures, what are the pundits saying about our hopes?

Well, Lewis Jones on Sky Sports thinks we’ll get a clean sheet in a 2-0 win, and whilst I’d love to say that it’s music to mine ears, he’s also predicted a West Ham win at Liverpool (never gonna happen), and a Man City draw away at Leeds. I was at a leaving do last night for a mate who is a Leeds fan. We had a chat about the game tomorrow, and I asked him what the chances are of Leeds doing us a favour. To my surprise, he said, “You never know – it’s under the lights as a 5.30 pm kick off, we have a team of big bastards you boot people around, the crowd get massively up for night games, so there might be a chance. Or we’ll be down 3-0 within 15 minutes” – so I liked what he said other than the last bit!

Lewis Jones also said we’d draw 1-1 away at the Scum last week, so I guess his predictions are there to be taken with a pinch of salt. Chris Sutton is going with a 2-0, but his guest – some dude from Neighbours – went for 2-2, and the BBC AI-generated predictor said 2-2 as well, which I thought was interesting because most people don’t really predict Arsenal conceding for obvious reasons. But when you stop and look at 2026, clean sheets have been harder to come by, so predicting that Chelsea will score is probably not too wide of the mark. In every game in 2026, it has felt as though the opposition have one wonder strike in them, or Arsenal have a shoot-oneself-in-the-foot moment, so you wouldn’t bank on that not happening this weekend, would you?

Merse has gone for a closer encounter with a 1-0 to The Arsenal, whereas Mark Lawrenson has gone with a 3-1 Arsenal. Of all of the scores, that’s the one I feel could be on the cards the most, for the aforementioned Arsenal, conceding silly goals or worldies rule. Could also be a 2-1, but obviously, the more we score, the better, and so I’m hoping for some manifestation of my prediction.

What about those Chelsea fans? though? How are they feeling ahead of this one?

Well, the first one I came across on a forum had this to say:

We’ll have no Cucu, no Estevao, no Fofana, a seriously off form Caicedo and a poorly off form Palmer. Only way we score is if Arse sh*t the bed themselves

Yes please! I’ll take that! I didn’t know about Estevao, but apparently, he missed Burnley with a hamstring issue, so let’s hope that remains true. Having scrolled through a couple of pages of fan comments, it’s fair to say they aren’t too happy with their new manager, Liam. The crux of what I’ve just read is:

• They really don’t rate that Tosin fella at the back, and shortly behind him, they don’t really fancy Badiashile
• They fear that Rosenior will just replicate the League Cup tactics
• They seem convinced somebody from Chelsea is getting sent off

One of the forums has a poll of the score and has it as 56% of Chelsea fans thinking it’ll be a win for us, 18% think a draw and 25% think they’ll win. So the odds, even with the Chelsea fans, seem to be stacked in our favour, but they were massively against United, Wolves, Brentford and Forest, and look how that turned out, so we need to be mindful of these prediction routines. Instead, let’s look to the data on Chelsea, which again is quite difficult, given that Rosenior is still forging the identity for his new team. The stats tell us that behind City and us, Chelsea have scored the most goals. It tells us that they haven’t, however, had a ton of shots and sit fifth in the table, having had 43 fewer shots than us this season, and 13 fewer on target. They average more possession than us and sit third in the league, whilst also having attempted 1,101 passes more than us so far. The picture is starting to form on them over the whole season – they want to keep more of the ball than us for sure. They lead the league for passes per defensive active (PPDA), which means they allow the least amount of time for an opponent to be on the ball before engaging them, but only just behind us. Defensively is where they have challenges, sitting firmly in mid-table with their xG allowed, whilst also having the highest average xG allowed per shot – so in other words, of every team in the Premier League, Chelsea do give their opposition high-quality chances.

So we have a bit of a picture here from the whole season. But what has Rosenior done for himself in the 11 or so games he’s managed for them? Well, apparently, he’s given more reigns to Andrey Santos to do the defensive midfield work, which means Caicedo can go hunting for the ball and pop up across different areas of the pitch with more regularity. Enzo Fernandez no longer sits alongside him, but in the left half-space. The teams do, apparently, also have less structure about them compared to Maresca, in which it was seen as a bit of a millstone around their neck at times. They appear to be good in patches, but I found what Merse said a couple of weeks back interesting on Sky Sports – that they couldn’t string a 90-minute match together. I don’t want to say that feels similar to us, because it clearly isn’t, but at times in 2026 so far, it has felt as though we kind of just give up first halves, expecting to then do the business in the second. That’s not how you qualify for the Champions League in Chelsea’s case, and it’s certainly not how you win a league title in ours, so my hope is that we won’t see that this weekend like we did in the League Cup – i.e. a cagey nothing game, certainly in that first half.

In that game, however, we didn’t have to go for it. This weekend, if we want those three points, we really do.

Right, that’s enough waffle from me for one day. I’m off to do some work. You have a great Friday, and I’ll be back tomorrow when we know the possible team updates, as well as who we’ll have in the Champions League draw, which will happen this morning at some stage no doubt.

We’ve all seen the stats about Timber and Zubimendi, as the first two cases in point, and both of them haven’t quite been their imperious selves as of late. Indeed, for the NLD, we learned afterwards that Timber was carrying something, hence being taen off during that second half. He had been clearly on ‘the edge’ in the Wolves game, with perhaps the adrenaline of the NLD getting him through it, and I will admit to having some very real concerns that a trigger-card happy Peter Banks would show him marching orders at some stage after he picked up his yellow in the first half. In fact, I breathed a sigh of relief for that reason when Mosquera came on; we have seen enough red cards and penalties in that fixture for a lifetime, so we didn’t need it that day.

It would have also have let Tottenham off the hook for what was, let’s be honest, a one-sided show. We pretty much battered them from start to finish and I can’t remember a North London Derby away from home being so one-sided. I didn’t mention it yesterday, but it was talked about in the build up, and Arsenal have now won away at The Scum four times in a row for the first time since the middle of last century.

That seems mad to me. I remember us basically going something like 10 years without a win before that first one we got four season’s ago. During that time The Scum were a regular in the top four, whereas we had to contend with the end of the Wenger era and the Emery reign, which hardly bore us too much fruit when going away from home to our arch rivals. But Arteta has made winning at the old enemies gaff a bit of a habit. Long may that continue.

And long may the good vibes from this win continue too. I will confess to you, whilst I fully intend on embracing the glorious glow of a North London Derby win away from home, I can’t help but admit to having a slight pang of nerves as I thought about our game at home to Chelsea next weekend, then Brighton away in midweek. Two really tough games for which Arsenal are going to have to absolutely bring their ‘A Game’ to win both and collect all six points.

Before the game on Sunday Arteta said there was no game better to play, and whilst I appreciated his bullish nature at the time, my mind immediately went to the metaphorical carcass that would be picked at unless we won. But he was right. Not only did we win, but we won so well, that I think that bad juju that may have been hanging around London Colney on Thursday morning and potentially Friday morning, has hopefully been completely replaced by good vibes after Sunday’s win. Imagine those players going into training today. I know this because I have spoken to a person or two in the back office before at The Arsenal (nothing to do with the team, just other functions), and they have told me that everyone (almost) who works for The Arsenal is an Arsenal fan. So whether you’re at Highbury House or London Colney, every man, woman and child will be smiling and saying pleasant things to you today. Imagine how positive that will make those players feel. Imagine being able to do a full week of training, get yourselves refreshed, whilst also having so much good vibes transmitted to you whilst you make your way along the corridors for some lunch. You can’t tell me that isn’t a good thing.

And perversely, although we didn’t know it at the time, perhaps the Wolves result also plays its part too. Imagine you’re Mikel Arteta this week and you’re in the briefing room having a chat to the lads. What are you saying to them? I know what my rhetoric would be:

“That feeling against Wolves. Wasn’t nice, eh? That feeling against Tottenham. Very nice, eh? Take that good feeling into every game this season from now on. Because if it allows you to play with more freedom, more joy, less stress and tension, then we are halfway there to achieving our aims”

The good news is that there are also plenty of games for which those players can feed off of those good vibes if they win. Those games are, of course, more difficult. Chelsea, Brighton, City in the League Cup, City in the Premier League – all really tough matches that we will have to be at our absolute best for. But if this Arsenal team overcome those, then do their jobs for the others, then we may just get over the line.

I am still not 100% there in feeling that yet though. We’ve been so good all season, but we still need to get properly out of the stuttering form funk of 2026, but my hope – as I said yesterday – is that this game last Sunday represents our Anfield moment that City had. If it kicks this team up a gear, then happy days, because if we continue to play like we did on Sunday then we may well be happy bunnies come May.

Too much football to be played to really think too far ahead though. But we’re back in a good place and so are those players. And that’s all we can ask for at this stage.

Back tomorrow with more thoughts.

But as the saying goes, “It’s always darkest before dawn,” and our dawning moment came yesterday at the Toilet Bowl Stadium.

I’ll get into the “whys” and “wherefores” of the game itself in a minute, but before that, I want to talk about what this means. Yes, Tottenham are terrible, yes they have a ton of injuries, and yes, they haven’t won a game in 2026. When you put it like that, a team at the top of the league should absolutely beat a side very much in the relegation mire. But this is a North London Derby. This is the most horrible fixture of the season. This is the one in which they get up for more than anything else. When you play The Scum at that Sh*thole, you’re not playing a team who are towards the bottom of the table, you are playing history, you are playing a cup final, you are playing a side who will perform much more than their league form suggests. So for Arsenal to go out and do what they did yesterday, in the way they did (and it wasn’t perfect, which I will come to), really speaks volumes for me on these players.

I hope that this is Arsenal’s “Anfield” moment, like City had a few weeks ago. I hope that the adrenaline and the stature of this big game, as well as the manner in which we dominated it, will have these players remembering what 2025 Arsenal looks like, not the one that has stuttered at the start of 2026. They will need to, because Chelsea at home next weekend is another massively tough game that they will have to overcome.

And so to the nuances of the game itself. And my-oh-my wasn’t it an interesting game to watch, eh? Arteta played it, I think, brilliantly with his team selection by bringing in Eze. One of the things we saw from him at Palace last season was how he a) is a big game player, and b) comes alive towards the latter part of the season. Well, here we are, and here he was, putting on what I think is arguably a man-of-the-match display, even though Viktor Gyokeres got it.

Eze was a key component of everything we did right yesterday. The time and space he found were devastating. Everyone rightly looks at the goals he scored at critical moments in the match, but it was other parts of his game that I loved. He was finding pockets of space in between lines and feeding the likes of Saka and Big Vik with ease. His heatmap looks like the archetypal ‘number 10’ in that his positions he took up were just outside of the D, but I also saw him on the left and the right linking with Trossard, Saka, Rice, as well as the aforementioned Gyokeres. He created one big chance, he had two key passes (a pass leading to a shot), and importantly, he felt a key part of the game with 41 touches in total. I really hope this is the point at which he really kicks on, and I think it must be giving Arteta food for thought for Chelsea next weekend.

But it was Big Vik who got the plaudits and the little yellow Premier League trophy at the end yesterday, and I guess with the two goals and all-around play he got, you could see why. That first one he bagged was the archetypal goal that we have seen on the highlight reels; he finds a bit of space, then absolutely leathers the ball into the net. It was a fine and clever pass from Timber to get it to him, but his first touch was good enough to set himself up, and then the finish was brilliant. We all know his flaws; he goes missing in lots of games, but this was a big game in which he stepped up, and I don’t think there will be many unhappy Arsenal fans with his performance yesterday. If you can just deliver that on a more regular basis, then we won’t care as much that you don’t seem too involved, your technique isn’t very aesthetic on the eye, and at times it feels like you are wading through treacle. Your job is goals, Viktor, and I’m pleased you did the business yesterday. What is also kind of weird is that whilst we have struggled in 2026, he seems to have found some form, with five goals in the last five Premier League games, eight in all competitions in 2026 so far, as well as getting himself up to 15 goals and two assists so far this season. I have said that what we need from him is at least 20 goals this season. He’s on course for that, but if he carries on with his 2026 form, he might end up with closer to 25 in all competitions. It seems weird to say this, given how, at times, we’ve wondered what we have actually brought, but if he ends up with 25 goals this season, you’d have to say that, despite all of our reservations, he’s absolutely done his job. There’s still a way to go, but this is a positive sign.

This wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, though. We should probably acknowledge that, even though we’re all feeling pretty happy this morning. For one example, we did shoot ourselves in the foot despite the total domination of the team in that first half. Tottenham offered nothing in the first 45, yet they still found themselves level after Rice’s uncharacteristic mistake. Quite what he was thinking dribbling the ball out from the back like he attempted is beyond me, but as Arteta pointed out afterwards, his character to step up and have another great game thereafter is a testament to his mentality. Trossard too was, I thought, rather poor overall and I was surprised he stayed on the pitch as long as he did. It just felt like he flitted in and out of the game, with some of his shot-selection efforts feeling rather poor, too.

I don’t really want to dwell on those moments, though, not on a day which has been ultimately very positive. Arsenal took the disappointment of not leading at halftime and doubled down on their total domination from almost the first minute of the second half. That has to be praised. And that’s where I think I want to leave it for today. It was a great win; the team now has a week off before Chelsea at home, which means they can rest up and prep themselves for what will be another really tough game. I wasn’t feeling great yesterday so I didn’t do the Same Old Arsenal pod, but you can check it out here if you want to get some more Arsenal content going. I know I will.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great saturday kids.