What it means for us, as we suspected, is that the team news is sketchy at best. We know that Noni and Ebs are out, but we all pretty much knew that already, so that’s no surprise. The fact that Mikel confirmed that Madueke was ‘days’ is a boost, though; he’ll surely be available for Bournemouth, and that means our attacking pains are short-term in terms of options. Eze was a little sketchy on, and I just hope it is because he didn’t want to give too much away, and the player is not fit for the next week or so. The rumours have been Man City at best, which I think is what we have to hope for, but if it is Sporting at home, I think that takes us to around a month, which was the original prognosis, so we have to say that timeline played out as expected.

The other news in which there was definitely more clarity was Timber and Odegaard, which Arteta confirmed are ‘in contention’ to be in the squad today. That is the closest you’ll ever get to an Arteta press conference answer of ‘they’re fine’, so I hope we can see at least one of them tonight.

And that one is Martin Odegaard. Timber is somebody we need for Sporting and Bournemouth, and so giving White the minutes this evening, having made two appearances for England last week, helps to continue his return to form, so I think (and hope) that makes sense for Arteta to do so.

With that in mind, and having already stated some initial thoughts on social media yesterday on what lineup I think he might do, I think I’m flip-flopping a little on what the starting XI might be. I do think he’ll stick with Kepa (there was a bit of fun on naming his ‘keeper yesterday that I enjoyed from the manager), plus I think one of Gabriel or Saliba might play. My thinking on those two is predicated on the fact that Calafiori got 120 minutes for Italy in midweek, and Hincapie’s update from the manager was not good. All he gave us on the Ecuadorian was that it was a ‘serious’ one, and suddenly you start to think his season might be over. Hopefully not, but you hear things like that from the manager, and you wonder if we’ll see him again this season. And if that’s the case, we’ve once again had ourselves an international break in which a player comes back broken. It feels like every break for the last two years has been like that, going back to last season with Odegaard for Norway in the autumn internationals. And I find myself saying, once again, that international football can go f*ck itself.

With that update from Arteta in mind, I think he’ll give MLS a run out, and suddenly, you’re looking at a player who had found game time limited, to be a guy who may well suddenly get a lot more minutes this season. Calafiori can’t play two 90-minute games in a row, I don’t think, so that means you need to start looking at Myles as the de facto understudy again. Imagine if he finds himself playing regularly, as a late shout for England? Highly unlikely, I suspect, but still, he might well think that a door has opened up for him, and a game like today could be a perfect opportunity.

I think Arteta will surely give Norgaard a chance in the starting XI. The Dane can replace Zubi to give him extra time to recover for Sporting, but because Norgaard has been decent enough for us when he’s given the opportunity, this needs to be one that we get him in to continue his stable place in the team.

He will have a look at Odegaard for at least half, maybe 60 minutes, I would have thought. I also think that Gabriel Jesus will get the nod, given Big Vik played twice for Sweden and Kai still hasn’t completed 90 minutes for us. But the rest of the team will be, I think, up for grabs. So here’s my stab at a starting XI for tonight:

Kepa

White   –   Mosquera   –   Gabriel   –   MLS

Norgaard

Odegaard   –   Havertz

Dowman   –   Jesus   –   Martinelli

There are a few in there I’m not sure on, if I’m honest with you, especially in those attacking positions. Havertz and Odegaard together as attacking ‘eights’ could be a little too much of a gamble for a manager who is inherently more conservative in certain instances. Whilst Dowman on from the start, I think it is a big question mark too, given his age. I’d like to see it, and I don’t think many Arsenal fans would disagree with me. He’s exciting, he’s expressive, and he will have a go at a Southampton defence that, as I mentioned yesterday, has had challenges defensively this season. There may be space for him to operate, and I think that he could be a real ‘x-factor’ player with his dribbling ability if he’s given the space to do so by the Saints’ back line. Martinelli, on the other side, is one I’m not sure on either; Trossard is very likely to also be selected, given that Gabby Martinelli did a fair bit of travelling in midweek, getting back from Orlando on Thursday at some stage I’d imagine.

As I mentioned yesterday in the blog, I have the feeling that Southampton will come out and have a go at us tonight, because a) they have nothing to lose as the underdog, b) they still have plenty to play for at this stage of the season, and c) it’s a night game and their fans will have had a few beers and will be well up for it. We need to be ready for that, and Arteta will have told his players accordingly to treat this one like a Premier League game, I think. Next season, it could very well be one.

Amanda and I will be podding tomorrow, I think, so I will be back tomorrow with the blog and maybe some pod thoughts on what might transpire ahead. See you then.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

• Havertz
• Odegaard
• Saka
• Trossard

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

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

Raya

Timber   –   Saliba   –   Gabriel   –   Califiori

Zubimendi

Eze   –   Rice

Madueke   –   Gyokeres   –   Trossard

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Don’t play the badge. Play the team.

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

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

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

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

Time to do the business, Arsenal.

Back tomorrow with a match preview. See you then.

One the one hand, we have had a full week of training for the players, there are plenty of training pics that show key players are back in the squad and fit for tonight, plus we got an update from Mikel that Big Gabby is ‘pushing hard’ to be fit soon in his pre match press conference. We also have the fact that Everton will be without key players Ndiaye, Gana Gueye missing due to AFCON, as well as injuries to Branthwaite, Dewsbury-Hall, Coleman and Rohl are all out for them too. So there are a few signs there of positivity we could take into this game.

But…man…it’s Everton, you know? It’s the North West. It’s a team who we’ve only won once in seven up there. It’s a side with Jack Grealish fit and I feel like he’s always had good games against us. Plus, there seems to be so much that is pointing towards an Arsenal win, that it feels like the Football Gods will invariably look to scupper our plans somewhat. It just ‘feels’ like that, you know?

That’s the glass-half-empty part of me kicking in. Because the reality should be that this is a rejuvenated Arsenal side, an Arsenal side who have been able to work out some of those bad habits Arteta mentioned in his post-Wolves conference, a side who are top of the league until at least 5pm when West Ham inevitably get beat up by City at the soulless CityBowl for this afternoon’s 3pm kick off.

Arteta did get asked about the ‘habits’ in his press conference and he said that’s what they have been working on this week and that he hopes we’ll see an improvement. I think it simply has to be and the players know that too, so I think they’ll have some extra motivation tonight, which is what we need given the context of what is 100% going to happen in Manchester earlier in the day. We have options too; from what it sounded like in the press conference we are missing Big Gabby, Christian Mosquera, Ben White and Kai Havertz from the team, which feels like the bench should certainly be stocked with options if he needs it and that is a positive. And with that in mind, what sort of starting XI will we see today?

I have a feeling it’ll look like this:

Raya

Timber   –   Saliba   –   Hincapie   –   Calafiori

Zubimendi

Odegaard   –   Rice

Saka   –   Gyokeres   –   Trossard

I think the back four picks itself at this stage and given Hincapie has impressed, I don’t expect there will be too much shuffling going on by moving Calafiroi (back from suspension) into the middle and playing MLS. Despite having his workload managed in training this week, I think Zubi starts and when asked about it Arteta didn’t seem too fussed. Then, either side of him and just in front I think Arteta reverts back to what is his first choice midfield in Odegaard and Rice. Out of possession Rice slots in to a double pivot with Zubi, whereas in possession he is more furthr advanced occupying that space nearish to Trossard and trying to win the ball back higher up the pitch in that space just in front of the opposition D. Saka and Odegaard resume their normal partnership and I think Gyokeres and Trossard will be detailed to forge one. A few Arsenal fans have already noted that Gyokeres looked marginally better with Gyokeres on the pitch than Martinelli, but Trossard’s form is such that I don’t think you can keep him out and given that he’s had a week in training now, I don’t see how you can start anyone else. There was a question over whether Merino could be used in attack but I think Arteta will look at this game, look at the fact we’re away and there might be a bit more space than there was last weekend, then opt for the Swede over the Spaniard up top.

If he does go with that XI, the good news is that we have loads of options on the bench. We can name nine subs on the bench in the Premier League and if I roll off the names who are now fit, it looks like a strong bench to choose from if we need it:

1. Kepa
2. Lewis-Skelly
3. Norgaard
4. Nwaneri
5. Merino
6. Eze
7. Jesus
8. Martinelli
9. Madueke

You give me that bench and I’m saying “yep, there are definite options there to freshen up in the second half” and if it isn’t working, that’s what I want to see sooner rather than later today.

Hopefully it is working though. And hopefully we can get the first goal. It feels like that might be a telling sign between these two teams. We’ve conceded first in each of our last three away games and are yet to muster a win, whereas Everton have apparently lost eight of their last ten Premier League games in which they’ve been the first to concede, so it feels like that first goal might be telling in this encounter. The ending of the game needs to also not be as scary and frustrating as t’s been in our last three matches. Sunderland scored late, Villa scored late, Wolves scored late – albeit with us making an almost instant response. But those late goals are not great and if you’re doing that on a consistent basis, then there might be fair calls for some mentality questioning going on. My hope is that bad luck comes in threes and we’ve just had three of our last four in which we’ve had those 90-minute+ goals against us scored. So no more of that, please, Arsenal.

What I think we also need to see is more end product from our attacking line. The fact we are coming up to the halfway point in the season and we have our top scorers on just four goals isn’t really good enough. Yes, we have four of them – Saka, Gyokeres, Eze and Leo – but really we need to be bagging more in games and the fact that so many are predicting we win this as a one-nil or two-one tells you all you need to know about our challenges that remain in front of goal this season.

In Everton we come up against a side on 18 goals scored, which is joint fourth worst in the league, with 19 goals conceded – sitting them in a decent position in seventh, so you know that they will be difficult to breakdown, will remain resolute and I suspect given their injuries, Moyes might go for a a compact game in which a draw is a fine result. Yes they’re at home and yes, the crowd will be gee’d up given it’s the last game before Christmas and an evening kick off, but I don’t see Everton being expansive and having a go with a high press. They are a side that has six clean sheets all season and so they are well-versed in shutouts and when they have the ball in Pickford’s hands or feet, they’re going long (he launches the third most of any ‘keeper and his in-play passes have the second-highest average distance of any team in the league.

I think, having looked at some numbers on their defensive actions and seen they have the most number of blocks in the league this season so far, we’re going to get quite a difficult game to watch, if I’m honest. That’s why Leo and Saka and their tricky feet might be important today. And please, Martin Odegaard, none of those silly sand wedged lobbed passes; you seem to try them every game and they never come off.

It’s going to be tough, it’s going to probably be stodgy, but Arsenal need to find a way to get the first goal and I really hope that doesn’t mean we have another game where we essentially give up the first half to walking pace football. Given the week off for the players, there can be little excuse for ‘rest defence’ and so I want to see us moving the ball a lot quicker than we have all season.

Fingers crossed boys and girls. Because it really feels like we need this win to kick-start the Christmas period.

Catch you all tomorrow for a debrief.

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

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

Raya

White   –   Saliba   –   Hincapie   –   MLS

Zubimendi

Odegaard   –   Rice

Saka   –   Gyokeres   –   Eze

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Catch you tomorrow.

Arteta wouldn’t be drawn on Havertz and Gyokeres, saying that they are both close and whilst Nagelsmann’s comments the week before last suggested that Havertz would be somebody probably closer to Christmas playing for us, we’re still a little more in the dark about Big Vik. I do think it is weird; we haven’t really been told anything other than he picked up a muscular injury which was reported as a hamstring strain. A quick Google tells you that a hammy takes anything between a few days to months for a complete tear. We know it wasn’t a tear, it clearly wasn’t what they call a ‘Grade 1’ because that takes just a few days or a week or two. But there has been no mention of a ‘tear’ at all, which puts the recovery at between four to eight weeks. If we’re ok to assume it isn’t a tear of the hammy and just a strain, then as of Sunday Gyokeres has been out for essentially a month, because the Burnley game was on 1st November.

My hope is that he is surely in contention for Sunday, but I do find it interesting that nobody asked (unless they did and it hasn’t been picked up) about the two players in isolation, because surely Big Vik is more likely to be returning sooner than Havertz? I would have hope that we can see him this weekend but if not, you’d hope that we could see him on Wednesday against Brentford, surely?

In the meantime, it might mean Mikel Merino once again reprises his role in attack and Arteta was of course happy to give some flowers to a guy who I think almost all of us now are much more appreciative of than we were a year or so ago. I remember this time last year thinking we’d bought an okayish central midfielder who would be a backup if we needed it (and it turned out we bloody-well did need it). We ‘found’ ourselves an auxiliary centre forward last season and now that he’s bedded in, he’s been acting as a fantastic deputy for our injured guys. And in the meantime, we’ve shifted our playing style and I’ve noticed our Merino has adapted too, dropping on to the right at times, tucking in to midfield at times and then rotating with either Trossard moving into the central space, or Eze taking up those positions for which he scored his goals last weekend.

If Merino plays tomorrow it will be interesting to see what Chelsea do, because I suspect they might have seen how Merino is vacating those attacking spaces and they might put somebody on him to do a tracking job. I’ll save a little more tactical thinking about how the game might line up for tomorrow, but I do think this is going to be a fascinating tactical chess match between two of Guardiola’s disciples.

There was a question asked about Gabby Jesus, who along with Nwaneri played in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Watford this week (must be bloody handy to shout over a fence and see if the lads want a kick about) and whilst Arteta wouldn’t be drawn on how available he might be soon, I suspect we might see him in a match day squad or two in the next couple of weeks. If you remember what happened with Timber when he did his ACL, the club really took their time to bring him back and he only read made the return on the last game of the season, a full 10 months after he picked up his injury on the first day against Forest. Gabby J is a few years older, so the healing will take longer, but he’s done 11 months now and so I think Arteta might be thinking about maybe an additional week of training before he’s in for match day squad inclusion. He apparently came through that friendly unscathed, he’ll probably have some sore legs for a few days, so who knows? Maybe a cheeky subs appearance in midweek against Brentford isn’t off the table?

He was asked about Rice winning the Balon D’Or, which is the type of question I hate, plus about Estevao’s quality, which of course he didn’t want to talk on an individual, but I do wonder if we have a game plan for certain players if they play or not. For example, Maresca predictably said that Palmer is back in training, having said he had ‘no chance’ just over a week ago. He hasn’t played since September so it’s a little like Odegaard for us in that regard in that you wouldn’t think he could get a full 90 from Palmer, but does Arteta plan for Palmer from the start? Does he plan for Estevao from the start? Or the bench? We talk a lot about how our squad depth is immense – and it is – but Chelsea also have quite a deep squad, having spent the best part of three years stockpiling every player they could get their grubby mitts on. If you take their attack, for example, you’ve got the aforementioned two players, but also Delap, Joao Pedro, Garnacho, as well as Gittens. They’ve even been giving Tyrique George games too, so it isn’t as if they have a ‘bare bones’ team.

That’s a challenge Mikel is going to be set tomorrow but the good news is that we’ve seen how he can spot things and adapt in-game to them, evidenced by the second half against Bayern in which we just upped the gears and showed our power against the German champions. You feel like once the game kicks off and the patterns of play start to get set, we might need to see Arteta making similar tactical adjustments when he see’s what Chelsea and Maresca are doing.

But, as I said, perhaps that is for tomorrow’s blog, so I’ll leave it for today and hope you have a great Saturday and maybe we can get another splendid hate-watch day like last Saturday.

How ready they are to start remains the key question for Thomas Frank, but that’s the same for Arteta, who as usual gave nothing away on a single player. He simply said – as we all expected him to – that there was another training session today (Saturday) and they’d be able to assess who comes in to the match day squad. Standard Super Mik stuff. He was never going to give us anything and whilst Frank was a little more…erm…’frank’ about player availability, we still have to wait and see. But as I’ve already said, I’d be surprised if there were zero players available even from the bench. Noni is one I think most of us are pretty confident on, then probably Odegaard given some of the noises we’ve heard and not far behind him, I suspect Martinelli is one we’ve all got our eyes on.

There’s obviously no sign of any hints in the training pics, but I do wonder if there’s some psychological messaging going on with regards to the number of times Saliba and Mosquera appear to be pictured together. That’s us Arsenal fans, eh? If there’s an opportunity to read in to something, we’ll jolly well do it, that’s for sure. But having listened to a few more podcasts, watched a few more videos and listened to a few more Arsenal fans and their perspectives, I’m starting to think that Mosquera in there alongside Saliba is what he’ll do. I think if Hincapie had a few more minutes as an Arsenal player at this point, there would be an element of “you are the left-centre half understudy so you’re up” to the situation for tomorrow. I think Arteta will prize continuity of performance more than the side of where we have a weakness through injury in a game like tomorrow. If it was a Wolves or a Brentford at home, things might be different, but given the size and atmosphere of the game, I just have a Saturday morning sneaky suspicion that it’ll be the Spaniard.

The rest of the responses to the questions were played with the kind of straight bat that my old man would call ‘Geoff Boycott’. He’s an old cricketer for those that don’t know and my Dad used to say he would be so boring to watch, but so effective in test matches, as he’d just defensively straighten up his bat and block anything that was remotely dangerous. He’d then only pounce when a bowler made a mistake. Mikel is a bit like that with all of his questions he asks; it is boring for 90% of them, but if there’s one opportunity to say a little more knowing that it might not come back to bite him in the arse or give fuel for the opponents, referees or pundits, only then will he have a nibble at it.

He did say that “we have everybody healthy, or most of them healthy” and I think that means most of those players – Kai and Big Gabi aside – are all in training. We’ve even seen Gabriel Jesus in full training for a few days now and it was good to see him doing a piggy back with Mikel. It’s easy to have him as the forgotten man at the club having had us sign a new striker in the summer and him only just returning to training now, but I hope we can get some more juice squeezed from that particular lemon because it’s easy to forget just how good he’s been with us when fit.

Arteta said that he needs some behind-closed-doors games to play first, so I think unfortunately that rules him out for this weekend, but if he gets two or three of those in the next week or two, perhaps he might be able to make a bench come December? If Kai is going to be out for another month, for example, then that is a big bonus for us.

There’s also been a few words for Eze said as well, which I think most of us expected, given that The Scum were so close to signing him, with a good interview with Idris Elba that you can also watch here. It’s a really nice video and his smile is just so infectious. I don’t think he stopped smiling at all and now that the dust an excitement on the transfer has abated a little, it’s lovely to have videos like this to remind you just how much this means and just how proud he is to put on the shirt every time. The North London Derby is a big thing for him and you just know he’s going to give it his all this weekend. We’ll need that I think. I’ll touch on this a bit tomorrow on the preview blog, but I think this game is going to be a really stodgy one and so it might take a moment of magic to unlock it. That is what Eze has and if you think about the fact he won Palace the FA Cup, you know he is a player who is there for the big moments, which is why I am hoping that he does indeed step up tomorrow too.

But let’s leave it there for today I think. I’m going to do a little bit of analysis on the two teams tomorrow in an attempt to work out how the game will unfold, so I’ll catch you then, if you fancy checking back in ahead of the match.

Have a good one boys and girls.

Let’s start with some positive news, which is that yesterday afternoon Big Vik took to his Instagram to get pictures of himself in training. Given how Arsenal spend so much time trying not to give anything away by clearly selecting pictures they know won’t include any players who will have had question marks over them, this will have left Arteta absolutely FEWMIN’ I’ll wager. He loves every single marginal gain he can possibly grasp his mits on, so when he’s asked today about who is back, whilst he might still be coy and say “we have some players back who were injured” and not name names, I think a lot of us can guess who.

My original guess was Noni and Martinelli, but news also emerged yesterday that Odegaard was back in training and whilst I suspect the skipper doesn’t have a place from the start, having a bench that could include him, Noni and Martinelli to give us options, is a huge boost. In a week in which we lost Big Gabi to a needless and preventable injury (thanks Brazilian national team and Ancelotti, by the way), the boost of potentially Odegaard AND Gyokeres making the match day squad is EXACTLY what we all read right now.

And having listened to a couple more podcasts and videos yesterday looking at the North London Derby, where it might be won or lost, this was just what I needed as a bit of a boost going in to what is going to be a really tough weekend and subsequent week for us.

But how are those Scum fans feeling? Welp, as is my wont these days, I ventured well into enemy lines again to have a look. And I tell you what, they are not confident at all. There’s lots of talk of just making this a physical game, of giving it their best shot, ‘it’s a one-off game’ and the like. I’m really surprised actually. It’s funny that compared to the likes of Villa, Forest, Sunderland, etc, their fans are so negative. Maybe it’s a London thing because when we were in their shoes and coming up against Chelsea in their pomp I’m pretty sure that would have been the Arsenal forums, but I’d have expected more optimism given their away form. That’s what is doing me the most nerves this morning and has been all week. I had a look and going backwards from most recent it is an away win at Everton in which 3-0 really did flatter them, a tight 2-1 against Leeds in which again they had fewer shots, less possession, less passes, corners, etc. Then there was the 2-2 at Brighton in which it looks like they edged that one in terms of dominance, which came after the smash and grab at a struggling City side who had all the possession but didn’t really create too many chances for what you’d expect from City at home. I’ve just watched that game and Marmoush should have had two before they scored a counter attack from a long ball to Richarlison, a slip by the last man and then a tap in from wide runner Johnson. That is 100% what they want to do on Sunday, by the way. I’ll have a look at the style of play and approach in the pre match blog on Sunday, but the Blueprint for the Scum is to be compact and spring long balls to get the likes of Kudus and probably Johnson running three-on-three with Richarlison as well. The second goal was an absolute shocking from City playing out from the back and that came from them having seven of their ten outfield players in or around the penalty box. It came from City fannying around at the back and then making an absolute howler rather than spotting what the Scum were doing and going long into the middle of the park to contest longer balls. Within five minutes on Sunday we’ll be able to tell if the Scum are adopting the same tactic, so I expect Arteta to be aware of this and to be planning accordingly with Raya ready to go long if needed. City did create chances though and I’m stunned they didn’t score to be fair. But what I have seen is that when the Scum were ahead, it was all the bodies in their own box.

But what about the pundits? Well, for the second week in a row in the Premier League, Jones Knows on Sky has an Arsenal defeat in mind and I can understand why. Frank is a man who loves an ‘underdog’ tag as he points out and whilst that won’t be sustainable long-term with what their ambitions are, this is exactly the type of game he’ll fancy doing that and playing low-block, scabby football against us, which I will reiterate – I do fear.

Merse is going for a 1-0 and calls it right I think when he says he thinks it will be a cagey affair. Sutton thinks this has got 3-0 Arsenal stamped on it, saying that it is their front line he is worried about, which I get but I would say to be fair to them, they’ve had almost as many attacking injuries as we’ve had this season. I cannot see that in a million years becuase there’s no way we get three goals against a low block Spurs outfit. Olly Murs said he wasn’t impressed with Spurs last time out (he was the celeb doing the predictions) so he’s said 2-0 to The Arsenal. Finally, Alan Shearer has completed the (almost) full house by saying that we’ll ‘edge’ this game.

Heck – however it comes about, I’ll take any kind of win, but what we need now is some fighting talk from Arteta and some confirmation that we have some fresh, new bodies arriving to the match day squad come Sunday. Fingers crossed.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some post-press conference thoughts from both managers. See you then.

I don’t know how I feel about this one today, you know, because Sunderland are a strange ol’ team. I mentioned it a couple of days ago, but they don’t take tons of shots, their stats are such that they seem to have profited from whatever they’ve had, which means they’re in a purple patch right now that see’s them right up the top of the league as a newly promoted side.

They’re good. They’re confident. They’re at home.

Apart from the last point, the same can be said about us, though. So I don’t really know how this game is going to pan out. We’ve been dealing with low block sides all season, but I’m not sure Sunderland will start this one with the same mindset. Under the lights, in front of their fans, they’re going to be feeling like they could take another scalp here like they did against Chelsea a couple of weekend’s back. Which certainly could happen today. As much as we’re all having a laugh and a joke about how we don’t even allow shots on target any more, that run is going to end eventually and that certainly could be today. The clean sheet record has been immensely impressive, this is a rock-solid back line, but football has so many variables and it only takes one lose ball to fall awkwardly and a team can score against you. As I said this week already, I do wonder about what our response will be if that happened and I feel like the clean sheet record might be lost today.

The key will be whether we’ve scored first and how we’re going to respond to that first goal going in. If we’re three-goals up and it happens in the last five minutes, it’ll be annoying. But if the score is 0-0 and then we go one down, that probably will turn it in to a low-block siege mentality game. The question then becomes whether we can unpick that lock and my hope is that we have all of the tools if/when that happens.

For today, the key is Granit Xhaka. Sunderland build up via him. They leverage his ability and passing range to dictate their patterns of play and so if we want to stop them, we need to cut them off at the source, which is the Swiss international. Press him, don’t allow him to get on the ball, force the high turnovers and manoeuvre Sunderland into an unorganised defensive shape with those turnovers when Xhaka loses it. That’s where opportunities will come from and that’s where we pick up the three points.

There will be no Big Vik, as we know, so it’ll be Merino up top but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. He naturally drops deeper when we don’t have possession and so if he’s given the dual role of playing striker for The Arsenal, but also contesting the game and trying to put Xhaka under pressure, that might work for us. Either side I suspect it might be Trossard and Saka (we literally have nobody else) and the midfield three will be Eze, Rice and Zubimendi with the usual back five and Calafiori restored to left back I think. Arteta was a bit cryptic over the team news though, so I wonder if one of the injured attackers might make the bench. Could it be Noni or Martinelli? I hope so. Whilst they might not be ready for a start, having them as an option from the bench would be welcome at a time in which we’ve been finding ourselves getting down to the bare bones.

There were some other bits and bobs from the press conference that might be worth digging in to, like AI and Arteta talking about the use of it already, but I think I want to save that for another day and focus on this match. A match in which Sunderland will line up with a back five and a familiar face in Dan Ballard, who has become a regular for them at the back, but they will be man-to-man and aggressive in the press when they start. Apparently it’s been a feature of their play this season and when we have goal kicks they will most likely press us high and try to force mistakes. If we are accurate in our movement of the ball, that could see us get a fair bit of space today, or at least that’s what I’m hoping.

Their danger is also the long out ball to Isidor and they won the game at Chelsea through a long ball out from the back that was converted, so we need to be mindful of that, although our back line is a little more organised than Chelsea so I’d hope we have the matching of any countered balls like that.

I wouldn’t say I’m massively confident about today, but I do have positivity and hope, born out of the run we’ve been on and how imperious we’ve been at the back. We need to make sure we keep up the ‘foggin estandards’ that we’ve been doing for the last ten games and if we’re as good as we’ve been defensively then I think we hopefully should have enough. We just need to do the job at the sharp end of the pitch.

Right, I’m going to go and take some paracetamol, so I’ll catch you all tomorrow for a debrief.

Laters kids.

Firstly, we have to ponder who on earth is now going to be playing up front, after Big Vik succumbed to muscular injury, in which Arteta would not be drawn on how long he is out for. I think, given our luck both last season and this season, we could probably be forgiven for thinking the worst and whilst we have a hurdle to overcome this evening, I’m wondering when we are going catch a frigging break on injuries, because as Arteta pointed out in his press conference also talking about when we play Crystal Palace over the Christmas period, we now have a vast array of attacking players out injured as it stands in this point in time.

No Gyokeres.

No Kai.

No Gabriel Jesus.

No Madueke.

No Martinelli.

No Odegaard.

It’s honestly ridiculous that we have a situation where we stockpiled ourselves to guard against injury, yet we STILL find ourselves possibly calling on makeshift starting front lines as we enter into November. The footballing gods are really doing their best to test us and what’s also annoying is that in about a month’s time, you just know we’ll have everyone back fit and we’ll be wondering  how we are going to spread the game time out.

Fingers crossed it’s just this game and then potentially Sunderland away next weekend, which is looking all the more trickier with Gyokeres possibly missing from that too.

As for tonight, it’ll be Slavia Prague who we need to work out how to overcome, with Arteta admitting how they haven’t lost at home in an age. They’re sitting top of their domestic league as a result of form like that, but their Champions League form tells a different story, with a draw at home to Bodo/Glimt and an away point at Atalanta, whilst being roundly beaten in Milan to Inter on match week two of the Champions League. I haven’t watched the highlights of the games, but I did check out the formations and how they set up against each of their Champions League opponents and I certainly found it interesting, because they’ve never played the same formation twice in the admittedly small sample size that I’ve looked at. Google had them lining up in a 3-5-2 against Bodo, a 4-5-1 against Inter and a 4-3-3 against Atalanta. Now, whether that means they’ll be looking to flip to something different or not tonight remains to be seen, but it does mean that there might be some thinking to do for Arteta. Equally, perhaps there is little thinking to do at all, because whilst on paper formations can look quite different when handed in to the UEFA officials, the spaces that players occupy can quite often be very similar whether you’re in a 4-5-1 or a 4-3-3, so I might be talking a load of old b*llocks here.

What Arsenal need to do is ensure that we control possession and ensure that we are not transitioned on. The good thing about Champions League games is that teams are used to winning and being the dominant forces in their respective leagues, so they don’t usually turn up to a game of football thinking about camping in their own half. Sometimes that’s how the game can play out, but it doesn’t usually work out like that. So I don’t think we’ll see Slavia Prague low block the crap out of us this evening. I do think they will try to open up space a bit and if that happens, then we need to be able to capitalise.

What Arteta does in the front three will be the biggest question mark I think. With all of the above mentioned players out, I think it limits our options significantly, plus the absence of Zubimendi means that we’ll see rotation further back on the field and as a result, I think this team might have more than a whiff of the Carabao Cup side from last week. I think he’ll start Raya in goal, I suspect one of Gabriel or Saliba will come in and one will drop to the bench, then I wonder if he’ll think about rotating one of our full backs? I suspect we might see Norgaard but because of that I think that despite the fact Rice is on a yellow and that could be dangerous if he picks one up for when we play Bayern after the international break, I think Arteta will get him on the pitch, along with Eze too. Then across the front three I think he goes with the same three that ended the game on Saturday. So it’ll be Trossard, Merino and Saka in attack. And that attack needs to be able to deliver more of a threat than the second half against Burnley for sure. Some of that might have been game state and us happy to pick up the three points by shutting down any kind of football match against the clarets, but tonight we need to see more.

It does mean, I think, that we will have to see a different style too from our attack, because whereas we’ve been learning to play to Gyokeres’ strengths and his running of the channels and balls in behind, Merino just won’t do that tonight if he starts. He will drop in and connect with fellow midfielders, he will be an aerial threat into the box, but he isn’t going to put in the kinds of yards that Big Vik does. So creativity of approach might need to see Trossard and/or Saka make more central runs if Merino is dropping in at times. The good news is that I think both of those players are capable of that and Trossard in particular has been in good form, so that’s a positive for sure.

It’s three wins out of three and zero goals conceded in the Champions League as we stand, with the opportunity to set a new club record (I think) with another shut out this evening. That’s amazing, but it’s up the other end of the pitch that the focus needs to be and if we get that right, then I think we’re getting close to the point where automatic qualification for the next round is within our grasp. I’ve said previously that 15/16 points probably does it and a win tonight takes us to 12. That would be massive in the context of our season, because given there are eight games you have to play in this blasted big league format, if you win your next two (which includes that win against Bayern) then you could find yourself able to rotate for the final two games at least, at a time in which the season because very congested indeed.

That’s permutations for another day, but for today it is just about finding a way to win away from home to keep our momentum. Let’s hope the boys can do it.

Catch you all tomorrow for a post match review.

Me, I’m going to get myself out for a run, then I’m going to settle down to watch some football at home this afternoon, as the Management and the mother-in-law are in London watching Black Sabbath: The Ballet.

The hope is that there can be another weekend of hate watching with Chelsea up against Sunderland at three, United hopefully getting done at home to Brighton at five-thirty, then at eight-o-clock we’ve got Liverpool away at Brentford. I suspect in reality we won’t get anything go our way, but at this early stage of Saturday morning it’s nice to dream.

What isn’t a dream is the fact that whatever the results today, we shall still be top by the time our game kicks off against Palace at two and yesterday Mikel Arteta was of course all smiles and calm as the journos handed out their flowers about how well Arsenal are playing right now.

What a difference a month makes, eh? Because a month ago we were too passive in our attacking, we didn’t ’go for it’ enough against teams, we relied too heavily on set pieces and that was to be our downfall. Now everyone is queuing up to ask him what the secret of the success is on our marvellous set piece record. And of course, he divulged his secret sauce:

Hard work.

Who’d have thought it, hey? Arsenal and Mikel Arteta work really hard, on a consistent basis, at set piece routines and have been doing so for years. In fact, for around about a decade he said and given our record is so much more exemplary than any other Premier League side, I can believe it. This is elite football. This is a sport where the tiniest of marginal gains can make a difference, where all of the teams are really, really good, so to best them you have to be near perfect. And the way to do that? Practice. A lot.

I really enjoyed the conversation that the Arsenal Vision guys had in the aftermath of the Atlético Madrid game where they talked about how even if we don’t score from a set piece, the fear of conceding one to us is enough to make teams act differently. They were walking in reference to the MLS run and not wanting to foul him because then we get a set piece, so in a way they were dammed if they do and dammed if they don’t, which is a really valuable asset to have when you are competing at the top: unpredictability. It feels like we have that at the moment and with the squad depth we have, I feel happy that Mikel has all the tools he needs to get wins – including tomorrow.

That doesn’t mean we will win, but we have all the players and options available to put us in a good position, which is what the pundits and ex-players think too. Jones Knows has us down for a 2-0 on Sky Sports, Sutton over at BBC says the same, Merse has done the same and Shearer has also said we’ll win. It’s pretty much a full house across the board and with Palace having less rest time than us, as well as being away and having not won in their last three games in all comps, you can understand why.

Oliver Glasner’s press conference was interesting, because he sounded very bullish in it, of course saying that Arsenal were a good and efficient team. But for every bit of praise he dished out, there was a touch of the ‘yeah but we…’ about his responses, so he’s obviously confident that they are going to get chances to score against us. You can see why given the xG they create, the form of Mateta and the displays we’ve seen like their home game against Liverpool in which 2-1 was a flattering scoreline for the Scousers. Glasner conceded that he didn’t think they would get seven or eight big chances tomorrow, but maybe one or two, which would be more than one or two than most teams have got recently. But given how well they’ve played this season you can see why he’d be confident they will and I suspect that yes, they’ll get more than any other team has this season, so we need to be wary.

Talk of course inevitably shifted to Eze and his return to playing against his old club and Mikel said that he would be fine, as you’d expect, whilst Glasner simply spoke about how they are actually better off without him, citing that xG stat I used already, as well as yesterday. It wasn’t in a style that was a bitter “we didn’t want him any more anyway” or anything like that, but more just to big up his existing players. I do think Ebz will have an extra bit of impetus to impress tomorrow though. As a human it’s only natural to want to show your former club that you’ve moved on to bigger and better things, but if I’m in Arteta’s shoes I’m telling him not to force anything tomorrow, because we all have the recent cautionary tale of Declan Rice’s previous two season’s before this one when we played West Ham at home. He had such a nightmare one last season that he was hooked at halftime by Arteta, which I think is the only time he’s done that to Dec since he arrived at the club. The only other times he’s come off has been fitness related, so it wasn’t a shame to see that perhaps the game had gotten in to his head a bit.

I don’t think that we’ll get that tomorrow from Eze. For one thing I think our form is very good and I think he’ll have the support of a number of players around him to try to get the best possible outcome. But I do think he’ll start and I hope he can get on the scoresheet too, because it’d be grand for the ol’ #narrative.

Other than that I think there’s not too much to report from both respective conferences. We just have to hope that the knock that Big Gabi picked up against Atlei won’t rule him out of tomorrow’s match.

Back tomorrow for a bit more of a tactical look at how the game might play out.

I liked what Arteta said about how he had a frank and honest conversation with Saliba and Big Bill told Mikel that he definitely wanted to stay. I suspect Mikel can be quite blunt with things like this; he probably said that unless he’s got 100% commitment then all parties will move on and the fact that Saliba was like “nope, no chance I’m moving on” is absolutely amazing stuff. I did most of my talking on it yesterday so I won’t labour the point on it, but merely I’ll once again underline that I think it is fantastic news that we have this all but wrapped up and it means all eyes can be on Bukayo Saka and trying to get him nailed down.

Speaking of B, he’s one that Arteta confirmed yesterday is fine to face Newcastle and after the slight scare against Port Vale in which he had one of the Vale players tread on the top of his ankle, that’s positive to hear. We’re gonna need as many of our top boys out there tomorrow against Newcastle because it’s going to be a tough game, a physical game, a game in which we haven’t scored up their in our last matches and so I’m certainly not looking forward to this one.

And it could feel like the pressure is even more ratcheted up by the end of play today. Crystal Palace are up against Liverpool and as much as it’s great to see they’re on a 17 match unbeaten run going back to last season, this Liverpool seem once again seem to have absolutely everything going their way this season, so I’m expecting Palace to have a player sent off and then Liverpool to be gifted a goal off somebodies arse at some stage today. I’m just glad it’s a 3pm kick off so I don’t have to endure any of it, as I’m out and about in Birmingham doing cultural stuff today.

Anyway, I digress away from the real stuff which is The Arsenal, who I am fully expecting will find themselves eight points off Liverpool at this early stage of the season by the time we kick off against the Geordie’s and that means that Mikel will need to find a way to find three points in the North East. My ‘the good news’ hope is that we’ll at least have Odegaard back, because Mikel confirmed he was training yesterday and will train today. If we’d have been missing the Norwegian for a few months and he’d just got back in to full training then I’d probably say he has zero chance of being involved, but I suspect he’ll make the match day squad tomorrow.

The big question will be whether he is good enough to start and I suspect regardless of the answer to that, Arsenal will be cautious, but I’m going to save any of those thoughts for tomorrow when I do some kind of guesswork on how the team might set up. Spoiler alert: I think it will be similar to last weekend/Liverpool away.

We know Madueke is out, we know that Arteta rotated a fair few players against Port Vale and we know that there is going to be a loud atmosphere tomorrow afternoon. Mikel referenced it when talking about how he analysed Barcelona’s game against them and I think it is interesting that he referenced that game specifically. Newcastle have played Liverpool, they’ve played a number of other teams so far this season, but he called out that Barcelona game and I suspect it is because of the raucous atmosphere that he’s expecting tomorrow, but I also think it is because stylistically Barcelona might be more aligned to us. Possession-based, some quality talent and depth in their side, so seeing how Newcastle lined up against them could go some way to seeing how tactically Eddie Howe might set up against us.

Arteta talked about the first half an hour of the game and how different it could be and I suspect that’s what he’s banking on for tomorrow i.e. a Newcastle side that will try to Blitzkrieg us tomorrow (hence me thinking he will set up like Liverpool away), hence talking about how the game could have been very different had the first 30 minutes gone differently in the Champions League. Of course Arteta was full of his usual plaudits and platitudes for Howe and his Newcastle side; Arteta might increasingly seem a little imperial and bristly in his press conferences, but he knows full well not to serve up any ammunition to the upcoming opposition, so there was no surprises in him saying nice things about the club, the manager, the fans and the atmosphere.

Other than that there wasn’t too much from the press conference that is worth pulling out in too much detail. There was a little exchange about the whole ‘boot the ball into touch to gain territory’ trend that teams have been doing this season, but he wouldn’t be drawn too much on it, so I don’t think that there’s too much we can really discuss on it. Football has trends, fashionable things one coach tries and then everyone does it, then it dies down after a few months. I get the feeling this might be the same. The trend of doing long throws will, I think, stick around for a little longer. But I have my doubts on the kicking to touch thing.

Rifght, I’m off to do the Birmingham Back to Backs, whilst occasionally checking my phone and seeing that Isak has scored after the ball has hit the back of his head having had Marc Guehi booted against it.

Back tomorrow for a match preview.

It’s a little like the summer friendlies. You can watch, you can have your preferences for victory being The Arsenal, but it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, which is what I feel about the League Cup. Of course, there will be rival fans saying pathetic things like ‘warra trophy’ and all that nonsense which I just ignore and of course, it would be good to see Arsenal win something this season. The benefit of the League Cup is you can get one tucked under your metaphorical armpit in February if you get to the final and do the business, but Arsenal could – and should – have bigger fish to fry when we get to the new year. So I’m hoping that whilst I want us to go far in every competition, we’re doing this one in addition to our other exploits, not as a sole focus.

Mikel Arteta was asked about team news and not that we needed it but he made it pretty clear that there would be rotation tonight and, given the strength and depth we have in the squad (although judging by the Noni and Hincapie news one wonders how much longer we can have that – will talk about that in a bit), I suspect that we’ll see a fair few players who will get minutes that have been limited so far. We know that it’ll mean a start for Kepa because Mikel mentioned it, but I suspect there will be some for the likes of Mosquera, Norgaard and Myles Lewis-Skelly for sure. But beyond that, you just don’t know what Mikel wants to do, because we’ve once again been hit with another semi-lengthy injury to noni Madueke.

Honestly, at this point, I don’t know that to say. The Arteta Naysayers will say that he overworks them in training and that’s what causes the injuries. I’m not sure of that because a) we have no idea what their load is like compared to the likes of other Premier League teams, and b) we had a relatively injury-free season two and three seasons ago and I highly doubt the intensity of his training sessions have changed that dramatically by then. But here we are with Noni out for what Arteta described as ‘a few weeks’ but Ornstein said could be up to two months. We have to hope that we see Noni again in October but, once again, we have to try to manage load with an ever-increasing injury list. The hope was also to have good news on Kai in the not-too-distant future but Arteta said that was still ‘months’ and so I worry he’s going to be gone til’ November too. If we don’t see him until November then that’s one of our key potent attacking players that has missed just over a third of the season already.

Still, at least we got some good news about Odegaard, who Arteta said was back in training but I hope that we don’t see him tonight. Given how cursed we seem to be in every game so far this season, I just want to see all key players sat at home tonight. I mean no disrespect to PortVale, but we really can’t be seeing the likes of Gabriel, Saliba, Zubimendi, Saka, Gyokeres playing tonight. We simply can’t afford to lose those players. And with the news that Hincapie has picked up an injury too (a reminder of the Arsenal injury curse that afflicted Partey, who was never injured at Atletico Madrid before he put on an Arsenal shirt and spent half his time out) Arteta is going to have to think long and hard about how he sets up tonight.

With what we know from his press conference, my hope is that we see the following:

Kepa

White   –   Mosquera   –   Gabriel   –   MLS

Norgaard

Nwaneri   –   Merino

Dowman   –   Martinelli   –   Trossard

This is what I hope Arteta will do, although if I’m honest I’d rather not risk Big Gabi, but I can’t see what the other options are. Play Calafiori? Given his injury record I’d rather he sat this one out. I look at our midfield and I just think it would be better to see Merino and Nwaneri alongside each other. We all commented about how the midfield was a combative, duel-winning, midfield that we saw against City and that didn’t work against that opponent, but I think with merino and Nwaneri alongside each other you get the balance of the duel and the creative spark, so hopefully that’s what we see.

Then, up top, let’s have a Martinelli experiment as I mentioned in yesterday’s blog. Let’s see him and Trossard rotating in the centre and let’s see if we can pump up their confidence with a good display against lower league opposition. It is another opportunity for them to stake a claim and I think that’s what they should be seeing this as.

Normally I have a look at our opponent in these sorts of games but again, I think today is more about what we do and if you’ve got a team of first teamers out there like we should have, then you have to be just saying that we play our game and let our clear quality overcome our opponents. I know it doesn’t always work when you just rotate the whole team, but if the above side is selected as I’ve predicted above, you don’t have players who have been out in the cold suddenly being chucked into the first XI. With the exception of Kepa and Norgaard (because he’s been injured) every one of those players has got at least some minutes this season and so my expectation is that these guys slot into the team as if they are regulars. Play them, rest players for the battle on Sunday, to give us the best opportunity of picking up three points at a ground that has been incredibly hard for us to pick up points in recent seasons.

I’ll leave it there for today. Be back to more with a digest of what unfolded at Vale Park. have a good’un folks.

I’ve listened to podcasts, watched some YouTubes and read a few match reviews and almost universally, everyone has said that they thought Mikel got it wrong first half and we were far too passive. As I mentioned yesterday with my thoughts, a few have also echoed what I said by talking about how passive we were.

I find this interesting because normally we get a diversity of opinions in the fanbase. Normally you get some perspectives that are slightly different takes, different angles, different viewpoints on what went wrong. But in this instance almost everybody is aligned on the fact it was an incorrect first XI selection but for me, the more worrying thing is still the passive mentality of that first half. This got me to thinking – in the context of Arteta’s post-match press conference – whether Arteta and his coaches will have looked yesterday and perhaps hypothesised that yes, they did get it wrong and yes, there are approaches against certain teams that need to be applied differently.

The one thing I will say I’ve always loved about Arteta is his ability to learn and action quickly. Perhaps he even did this on Sunday with the halftime subs. He’s been labelled as a bit too stubborn, a bit too “I do this my way and I’ll prove you wrong” and I get that, perhaps I feel it a little myself, but I do think the halftime subs was a visual admission of his error, rather than a verbal confirmation which if I’m honest, I don’t think we would ever get from him. That’s because it might – in his mind perhaps – mean that he’s not reflecting his players well enough and therefore that’s why he has to protect them by not singling out anyone like Merino, Trossard, etc. I listened to his post match interview and the first thing he said was how proud he was with his players; he wants to send a message to the squad that he has their back, but what I think most of us want to see is that he now tries different things in those types of games. 

We have Port Vale tomorrow, he’ll surely have a press conference today and whilst I still expect him to double down on his decision making from the weekend, I do think the team line up he picks tomorrow evening will be instructive on what will happen at St James’ Park. I think a lot of what happens with our midfield will be predicated on odegaard’s availability. If the Norwegian is back fit, I think he comes in for Merino and the midfield looks like it has some more dynamism to it. If he isn’t ready, then against a physical opponent like Newcastle,  I think it’s almost a dead cert that he picks Merino for that physical battle. How does this impact tomorrow? Well, if Merino starts and plays most of the match, i trhink it is less likely that we see him from the off against Newcastle. If he is rested, or is just named as a sub, I think that it means Arteta is saving him for the weekend’s action and that Martin’s shoulder injury is a little worse than we feared. Of course if Martin is still injured against both Port Vale and Newcastle, but yet Merino still plays, I think that might be a sign that Arteta is willing to try Eze in that creative central role. 

He won’t give anything away today, but in 36 hours time I think we’ll know where his head is at.

We have the squad to give this League Cup competition a real go this season too, I think, which had me wondering about how the players selected would feel about starting against Port Vale. With all due respect to the West Midlander’s, it’s hardly a glamour tie for those Arsenal players selected unless we’re talking about a bunch of youth teamers making their debuts. But we have such a depth in team that you could literally field a squad of first team players tomorrow:

Kepa

White   –   Mosquera   –   Hincapie   –   Lewis-Skelly

Norgaard

Nwaneri   –   Merino

Dowman   –   Martinelli   –   Trossard

That’s a pretty good line up and if all of those players started, we’d have a whole other team ready for Newcastle. Notice how I also went for Martinelli through the middle and if there was one question I would get a journo to ask if they are in the press conference today, it would be whether Martinelli’s form and the fact he’s got two goals from those central positions in his last two games, should merit giving him the opportunity to play centrally as a bit of a trial run? What we’ve seen from Martinelli is his super power; out to in runs timed well in behind the last man to put him in on goal. When he gets those chances, he usually finishes them and I can think of about six or seven different instances like that which he has finished for us in big games from that similar position. 

I also think it is good for the team to try it too, if I think about the profile of Gyokeres, as well as the way in which we need to play with him in the side. The swede wants to be put in behind like that. He wants to be given the opportunity to win the battle against the last man in defence. So if we can rest him, but get the team continuing to work on how they can find Martinelli like that, then I think it would be good for all parties.

Let’s see what Arteta has to say.

Catch you all tomorrow. 

I do think both managers doing their team updates was funny. Mike, was talking about how he wasn’t sure about Saliba, how he was ‘pushing’ to be fit, but given he was on the bench in Tuesday I’d be surprised to not see him start. You’re up against Haaland who is arguably the world’s greatest finisher, so you need your best players and as amazing as Mosquera has been, let’s not forget how important it is to see Saliba and Big Gabi take on the Norwegian.

On the other side of the fence in Manchester, Pep was talking about how he’s not sure whether Rodri can play three games in a week, with very much a “we will have to see” narrative to the assembled press pack. Again, like Mikel, pull the other one Pep, it’s got bells on. Rodri was pulled on 60 minutes on Thursday night, clearly to preserve him for this weekend’s game, so he will 100% be playing from the start tomorrow.

On Ødegaard, Saka and White, Arteta talked about how they’ve been on modified training sessions and although he wouldn’t confirm they are out, he did admit they are doubts. As usual he said “let’s see how they are tomorrow (Saturday)” but I would be surprised if any of them are going to be fit tomorrow. Remember when Ødegaard was injured last season on international duty? I think we played the Scum away in the next game and Arteta said he wasn’t sure, but in reality he was very sure; there’s no way Ødegaard was going to get near the team bus back then and I think the same is true of certainly Saka tomorrow. He’s not played for about a month, he’s not trained, which means they’ll need to build his fitness back up. Same with Ben White, really, but perhaps Ødegaard we have a slim chance. He’s been training and playing recently, so the sharpness in his body should still be there. The question will really be about how much his mobility is impacted with his shoulder, rather than how fit he is in terms of match sharpness.

I do think it’s important he plays if he can though. I’ve listened to a couple of pods ask the question about Ødegaard, suggesting perhaps that Nwaneri is doing enough to take his place on a more permanent basis. I’m not so sure of that. Ethan has been great against Leeds and a Forest side working out who they are going to be under Ange, but Man City is a different beast. If Ødegaard isn’t fit I do wonder whether Arteta will go with the physicality option in Merino, rather than the creative dribbler in Nwaneri.

I’m not trying to bag on Nwaneri here by the way. I think he’s a sensational footballer and I really hope we can the rise of an Arsenal great in him. But he is still just 18 and he is a different type of footballer to Ødegaard. Martin is the relentless pressing trigger, but I don’t think that we saw that from Nwaneri when he came on last weekend, so I think what we have is a different set up when Nwaneri plays. In these games with the best teams in the country coming to your gaff, you need to have everyone know their role in the team precisely, because how one player behaves and reacts, impacts how other players interact with him on the pitch. Nwaneri will be a dribbler, a carrier of the ball, less of a pass-master through the lines kind of guy. So if Ødegaard isn’t fit to play, do Arsenal change their style and approach and try to be more direct with somebody like Merino? Or do they hand the keys to Ethan and lean into those strengths.

I don’t know, but regardless what happens, it is a relief to not be talking about injuries tanking our season. Gyokeres is doing well in Kai’s absence, same with Madueke for Saka and Mosquera for Saliba. But I’m not sure we’ve fully cracked the Ødegaard replacement just yet. So I’m hoping he’s fit and can start on Sunday.

Of course we could potentially use Eze in that central position, but I’m not sure Arteta will do that, nor do I think it will get the best out of him. Eze played centrally for England against Andorra and whilst I know it’s a very different game because they just played low block football – which City will not do tomorrow – I think Eze likes to start from wide positions and drift in, rather than to start from central positions when play starts to build up. Arteta could, probably should, be looking at our hybrid double pivot that we’ve been adopting with Rice and Zubimendi, but the question then remains on that final piece. Whether it’s Eze, whether it’s Ethan, or even Merino (which would probably be my least favourite approach, because I don’t think he has the creativity for that position that we’ve want), at least we have the options. That’s a positive.

The rest of the press conference didn’t really bring up too much that I think is worth deliberating over if I’m honest. Arteta said nice things about Tim Lewis departing, as you’d expect, but his message about how much it would impact him and the team was pretty much what you’d think he’d say “we move on”.

And so shall I for the day. It’s my last day in Crete before I fly back tomorrow afternoon so I’m going to see if I can relax and sit by the pool. Have a good one kids.

There’s a question to be asked about William Saliba, but given he was named on the bench in Bilbao, I suspect he’s fine and should come back in. It’s nice to know that we have Mosquera who has done so well, but when you’re up against somebody like Haaland, you need your big dogs ready for war.

As usual, I decided to go and do a ‘vibes check’ from City fans as to how they’re feeling ahead of this one. The first thread I read was from a City fan who used the words “dreading it”. That shocked me. What I see in this City side is yes, a side still forming it’s identity, but the bones of that team are there and they are still a very dangerous side. Foden, Silva, Haaland, I saw Doku had a really good game yesterday. The rest of the comments were talk of ‘taking a draw’ with the usual other wind up merchants calling us “Tarquins”, which I thought was funny, but they’re not sure whether there’ll be rotation or not. We’ll also find out from Pep later today what he’s going to do but for me this is all about how we are going to line up. We need a statement win after the defeat to Liverpool and a draw doesn’t do any good for us right now, because I think Liverpool will cruise past Everton at home. The only time that Everton have won at Anfield in recent memory was during the COVID period where things were behind closed doors and the results were all weird anyway. Before that it was 1999 that Everton won there so we will already be playing catch up on the weekend’s action by the time we kick off, which is why we desperately need the win on Sunday.

The other news ahead of this game is what the pundits are all saying. Merse goes for a 3-2 to us, which I think is weird given we’ve only conceded one goal all season, but sadly Haaland is inevitable and I think it’s a pretty much cast-iron guarantee he will score. The difference is how much we will get against a City side who have shown they are capable of conceding, but in Donnarumma have a ‘keeper who basically got PSG to the final with his two displays. No more of that Nightcrawler shit against us, eh Gigi?

Troy Deeney is going for a 2-1 win, whilst Chris Sutton is on a bit of a Positive Pete vibe with us, saying he’s pretty confident we’ll beat City. I’m never so sure, because I have more emotional skin in this game compared to him, but his rationale that they played a poor United side is true. But his prediction of Haaland being bullied out of the game I think is a stretch. As already mentioned, he gets his obligatory goal against us and like the kane’s and Vardy’s of the past, there’s always one guy who constantly comes back to hurt us – it will almost certainly be him on Sunday. So if you’re thinking about the predictions side of this, most pundits seem to agree as most go for City to at least score. It’s funny though, I look for fan reactions of opposition fans, as well as pundits predictions, by way of a bit of a coping mechanism, but the reality is that it ends up making me feel more nervous ahead of these big games. I also fear karma. We’ve had such an amazing record for the last couple of years in the big games, but against Liverpool that came to an end. The irrational side of my brain then kicks in and I tell myself “what if everything gets reversed for this season though?” which is silly, because it doesn’t seem to work in reverse – like how we always fail to beat City or Liverpool at their gaffs. So why can’t it be true that we can build up a run of games playing City and winning?

That’s the nervous football fan in me, you see, because I am a rational person in all things in life except my football team. I hold this stupid belief that things that I do or think can impact what happens with 22 men on a football pitch, sometimes miles and miles away from me. My irrational fear of angering the football gods by being too cocky or brash is what stops me from making bold predictions of overwhelming victory. In reality, it doesn’t work either way; I don’t get some kind of reverse-psychology advantage when I’m overly pessimistic, so perhaps I should just start saying it as I see it. And right now, with more than 48 hours to go until we play, it does feel like we’re in the better form, we’ve started the season well, we look defensively solid and the squad depth is showing that our bench can make an impact – just look at how it did that in Spain in midweek.

So I’ll end this blog by telling you that I feel confident ahead of this week’s game. Let’s hope that confidence remains come Sunday.

Back tomorrow.

It’s Forest at The Emirates, it’s Arteta’s press conference this afternoon and yesterday we heard from ‘Big Ange’ talking at his press conference ahead of the game. He once again talked about winning trophies his whole career and to be fair, he’s shown that he can do that, but this will be one heck of a challenge to deliver for Forest, with that challenge starting against us. As you’d expect his press conference didn’t really feel as much about the game tomorrow and more about what he’s going to do to Forest with his stylistic changes, but he did admit that it was only yesterday that he had his full squad together. They’ll most likely be travelling today so I suspect what we will see tomorrow is still a defensively structured team set up to contain, although he did repeatedly say he would attack, so maybe we’ll see some of that tomorrow?

As for Forest fans, well, as I do like to do I decided to go behind enemy lines and have a look at how they’re feeling ahead of this one. I found a decent site that had a poll on how they think the game will go and you’ve got just over a third thinking they’ll lose, a quarter thinking they’ll win and just under a third thinking that it will be a draw. So that’s a bit of a mixed bag. I guess they are as unsure what to make of Postecoglou and the way they will set up as we are. One fan suggested that if Madueke plays like he did against Andorra they’ll win, but that thread obviously aged like milk after what he did in Serbia, so that’s good to know. As for how they’re feeling about Age, well, it was hardly universal appreciation that’s for sure. Most of them – before the announcement – were advocating Pochettino, with comments like “it’s going to be that fraud Postecoglou, isn’t it?” or “If it was to be big Ange, sacking a manager who took you from 17th to 7th and hiring one who took a team from 5th to 17th, we’d be a f***ing meme.” – so I’m guessing some of those people from earlier in the week aren’t too happy right now!

I get it though; they’ve gone for a diametrically opposed manager, one who may have won something, but who did so with one heck of a fortunate set of teams on his way to winning that Europa League, whilst the Forest fans will have watched and laughed – like we did – as the Scum spiralled down the table with suicide football at times. All the while they were seeing Nuno deliver result after result which had them chasing Champions League spots for a big part of the season. So I can understand why some of them are a little miffed at what they might perceive as a downgrade.

The pundits are on our side too, with Jones Knows saying there will be some cards and a 3-1 for The Arsenal. Merse has gone for a 2-0 Arsenal and the most cantankerous man in sports broadcasting Chris Sutton has gone for a 2-0 win for us, saying that he doesn’t expect a big change and that Arsenal will probably need to grind out a result. It’s hard to disagree with that; Nuno’s Forest were built on defensive solidity and not the most expansive football and dropping in to a low block will not be a problem for those players at all. Then, with their rapid forward line they can counter at pace and that’ll be something we’ll need to be mindful of in transition, because there will be traps they’d like to spring on us I suspect. I’ll do a little more on the game and how it might play out tomorrow I think.

With that in mind, Sports Mole is usually the place that I often think is the most realistic – and detailed – in their previews and I tend to think that the way they’ve set it out is probably the most accurate as to how the game might go. They’ve said a 2-1 win to us, citing our lack of xG so far this season, which I think is a little bit of a misnomer. We’ve gone to Old Trafford before they’ve had the chance to look a little stodgy and with the home fans full of voice and hope. I’m convinced that if we were going there in a few weeks time the game would be very different. We’ve smashed a Leeds team who were newly promoted and who barely laid a glove on us, then we’ve gone to Anfield in which Liverpool created less xG than we did. So I think there’s some context to be had here. Having said that, if we’re getting Nuno’s Forest rock up tomorrow, they will be compact and make it difficult for us to create chances, so a narrow xG game and also hopefully an Arsenal win albeit by a narrow one, feels like it’s most likely to be on the cards for me.

The big decisions will be coming tomorrow morning as Arteta decides who is going to start and thankfully, unlike last season, the manager has a ton of different options and playing styles to pick from. More on that tomorrow after he’s said his piece in today’s press conference.

And I’ll be back tomorrow with some thoughts on what I would do if I was Arteta too. So I’ll catch you then.

Although Arteta was tight-lipped on that arrival, the Ornbomb has already dropped and it appears we’re loan-optioning him for the season and clearly we’ll drop the actual cash on Leverkusen’s lap in the summer of 2026, which makes sense given that we probably don’t have the cash lying around to make this deal a permanent one now. What it means is that Jakub Kiwior heads to Porto for what Ornstein says is a pretty much guaranteed £23million from Porto. A Polish international who starred for our team towards the end of the season and proved he is a very good left-centre half, leaves the club for about £3million more than we paid for him. It’s been said on social media, but if he’s a Chelsea player, he goes for around £10million more from that, I assure you. They’ve just sold Renato Veiga, who made seven appearances for them last season before being loaned to Juve, for €24.5million. That player is nowhere near as established or good as Kiwior, yet they’re getting a couple of million Euro’s less. We can all be happy with the superb work of Berta this summer in terms of incomings, but the sales continue to be under valued and that is an issue we need to address.

Apparently Marseille are after Zinchenko but wages are a sticking point and with just over a day and a bit left in the transfer window, Arsenal have to ship him, Nelson, Fabio Vieira and Sambi Lokonga. It’s a lot to ask to get those turned in to permanent deals. If Palace cough up £15million for Reiss then I think that’s good work. If Arsenal can get £15million for Zinchenko then I think at this stage you have to take it. But I suspect Lokonga and Vieira will be last minute loans from one club. Which would be a shame for them and us not to sort their respective futures out.

These are the problems we need Berta to fix, because ours attention – and certainly Arteta;s – has to be on how we win at Anfield for the first time in 13 years. He was asked the usual questions about player availability and of course we know all of the absentees that are guaranteed at the moment (Saka and Havertz) but I was encouraged by what he said about the skipper Odegaard. His words when asked if it was serious were “there’s an injury there, but hopefully, if everything goes well, he can cope with it. But we don’t know yet”. The fact he’s saying that he can cope with it suggests to me that I think he might be alright. That is a boost because although Ethan performed well last weekend at home to Leeds I thought, I think away at Anfield you need somebody with Odegaard’s experience on the pitch. There’s also the fact that Liverpool barely have any injury worries, with Mac Allister having trained and Bradley back in training too, as confirmed by Slot yesterday.

Arteta talked about the ‘aura’ of Eze in his press conference and I think this time tomorrow there’s going to be quite the clamour for Arsenal fans to see him from the start. I’ll touch on team news tomorrow, but whilst Arteta wouldn’t be drawn on that yesterday, I do think he’s not going to be tempted in to using him straight from the off. We have Martinelli who always seems to play well at Anfield and there’s Trossard too, so there are options there and at least of that we can be pleased.

I liked that he asked whether he wanted to play Liverpool later in the season, because it’s a question I’ve been flip-flopping over in my mind. On the one hand it’s good to get it out of the way early, when the damage doesn’t feel as terminal as if we had to go there in April and win to keep any title hopes alive. But on the other hand it could be seen as an early blow and then when you think we have City to play within two games after tomorrow, it puts a little more added pressure on that game if we get beat tomorrow. Arteta didn’t really properly answer the question, but I do wonder if he’s happy that we are getting it out of the way now? I wonder if he’d also rather play City away than home in a couple of weeks too, in that same vein, because that would have ticked off Old Trafford, Etihad and Anfield within the opening weeks of the season. Meaning later in the year you get the benefit of home soil advantage for the crunch games. People who say “you have to play everyone twice it doesn’t matter” I think miss the point; look at how gee’d up Man United were on the opening day. Now look at them having just lost to Grimsby and their fans are turning. I think they’ll beat Burnley next weekend, but the next ‘big game’ they’ve got, I think they’ll have been softened up a bit by some of these results and so you can’t say it’s the same United side that we played versus one that looks like it is on its knees.

Back to the press conference, in which Arteta was asked about keeping everyone happy and what problem that might cause and he rightfully said he doesn’t worry about that, more that players are as happy as they can be. I think that’s where the communication comes in. Arteta might have Trossard knocking on his door wanting to play, but if he communicates in an effective way that they needed to bolster based on last season, that he is still a great player and one we value, that he will get minutes but he needs to accept that we needed a bigger squad based on last season, I think even the likes of Trossard will understand. I remember back to that Leicester City game last season and we played with Sterling, Trossard and Nwaneri as the front three, with Merino coming on in that second half to break the deadlock. We can’t have that situation again. Plus, I think with the injuries we have already, we can all see that players are going to play. When we get in to mid September it is sometimes three games a week, so Arteta is 100% going to have to rotate players in for those midweek games. That also links in with the question he was asked about Martinelli, who he was pretty emphatic that he wouldn’t leave this summer, which also makes me think about whether he’ll sdtart tomorrow, but as I have said above I think Martinelli might just start tomorrow. Just a hunch I’ve got.

Other than that there’s not a ton else that came out from it. Tomorrow I’ll take a look ahead at the game, who I think might play and also how Liverpool might approach this one but for now, you have yourselves a great Saturday.

We talked about the magnitude of it on the Same Old Arsenal podcast last night and I think it is fair to say that James and I had a fair bit of fun. This has been a fun transfer turnaround, further encapsulated by the excellent Kimmo on social media:

These past 24 hours have shown us all the 4 stages of being a Spurs supporter. Let’s put it together
1⃣The fan fiction
2⃣The reality
3⃣The anger
4⃣The envypic.twitter.com/NkYf4AOSpx https://t.co/vNeZgjUsuW

— kimmoFC (@kimmoFC) August 21, 2025

We’ve had a swift resolution and decisiveness from The Arsenal, we’ve had fan meltdown from the Scum, then last night as the stories on how the deal came about started to emerge, we found out that what Tottenham thought was the reason for the delay – to let Eze play in their Europa Conference League game against Fredrikstad at Selhurst Park last night – was actually mostly likely a delaying tactic. Whether it is from the club or the player we don’t know, but the fact that Oliver Glasner admitted on Channel Five last night that Eze called him to say he was ‘not well’ and therefore couldn’t play in their first leg, shows that perhaps it might have been a delaying tactic in the first place.

Personally I think it is a shame. It would have been a lovely book end for Eze to start and star for Palace in their first European match ever, before waving a goodbye to the fans, but in the cold light of the next day I’m sitting here thinking that it makes sense that he pulled out. He’s supposedly got a medical today, he’s about to sign for the club he supported as a kid, his head will be a million miles away from Selhurst Park and just imagine if he’d have picked up a knock. There’s nothing in the world that is going to prevent him from making sure he can’t get through that medical and given the size of the transfer too – £60million+ add-ons (funny how add-ons never get included or reported when Liverpool sign anyone, eh?) – you can understand why playing in that game would probably not be the smartest move. Arsenal and Arteta may, or may not, have wanted him to pull out of last night. I am thinking not however, because Arsenal have always wanted to do the right thing by players, broadly speaking and so I suspect this is somebody from the agent side thinking that they should probably protect the player in this process.

If the deal can be done and medicals confirmed today, there’s every possibility he could be at the ground tomorrow, but knowing Arsenal as we do I suspect that the media team will want to have themselves a real kick-ass launch video. I think if we all know Arteta as I think we do, he won’t want a match day dominated by a transfer. He’ll want focus, attention and every detail observed for Leeds, which means he won’t like any circus around Eze. Let’s see what shakes out.

And what should be shaking out apart from Eze today is the focus on Leeds United. Amongst all the furore, we have a game against a Leeds side with a win already under their belt and with nothing to lose tomorrow, so we need to be focused on our opponents, who apparently have been dealt a blow because the guy who looked like the star in their team, the guy who made everything tick against Everton Ethan Ampadu, is reportedly out. Daniel Farke confirmed he’ll be out until after the international break and that is certainly a boost for us and blow for them.

So, how are their fans feeling, ahead of this one then? Well unsurprisingly most of them are predicting a loss, but quite a heavy one as well, which is quite unusual for this early stage in the season. Usually the hopes of fans – regardless of where they are or whether they are newly promoted or not, means that you see a few more of them predicting favourable results. But a quick scan of a couple of forums tells me they are thinking 3-1 losses, 3-0, 4-0, there’s a 1-1 in there I spotted and a smash and grab 1-0 victory from one person predicting Gnonto as the scorer (good player – I thought he was impressive for them last time they were in the league). You can understand why; newly promoted, but also they also have a style under Farke that he has apparently been criticised of when it comes to adapting it. Having marauding fullbacks like they did in the Championship is going to result in Saka and whoever plays left wing having a lot of space to work with. Against Everton Leeds dominated territory, possession and in the first half basically reduced Everton to nothing in an attacking sense, but Farke isn’t silly enough to think they’ll be getting that much time away from home against us. The challenge we and Arteta has, however, is that the sample size for analysis at this stage of the season is so small. I sit here today genuinely not sure if Farke is going to go balls out and try to attack Arsenal, or whether he’ll change his approach, sit in to a low block and see if he can frustrate. You’d have to think it’d be the latter, but the Premier League is an elite sporting division and just flipping your style within a week – a style in which you’ve basically played for two years in the Championship – isn’t going to be easy. You can’t really train a side in a few days to become a peak-Dyche Everton, can you?

I hope not, which is why I am hoping that we can take advantage tomorrow of the season being in it’s infancy, or Leeds missing their main man and captain, as well as us needing to make a statement victory after the questions of last weekend.

I’ll come back tomorrow with some more thoughts on how we line up, but for today, you have yourselves a good one and let’s stay glued to that timeline for Eze news.

He also spoke about those already in the door and you can tell he’s super pumped about Zubimendi above all. That was the one that we know he coveted and he talked about how it was a long process to get him, how the club did a great job of convincing him, but this signing feels like it has all the hallmarks of it being an Arteta deal. Sometimes you never know how much involvement Arteta has. Take Gyokeres, for example, who most people pretty much universally accept that it’s one of Berta’s guys. I’ve heard multiple journalists and podcasters talk about how Arsenal were hot on Sesko, Arteta was desperate for the Slovenian, that was ‘his guy’, yet Gyokeres is the one we’ve landed on, mainly because Berta is backing him big time and I think Arteta is like “ok cool”. Madueke feels like he’s Arteta going “you get Gyokeres, I get Madueke as my pick” in that forward line, but the Zubimendi deal was one that was really clear that everyone wants and Arteta clearly feels that he’s a guy who is going to take us to the next level.

The exit of Partey meant a hole needed to be filled and I think Arteta feels like he’s definitely got an upgrade in that respect. He was asked about the Partey situation and of course he said that he felt the club acted 100% correct and he can’t talk about it for legal reasons, but I suspect even Arteta is glad that sorry mess is behind him and now he can focus on Zubimendi, who he mentioned he was very excited about. It’s easy to see why – he himself adopted that position when he arrived at The Arsenal and I suspect Arteta see’s a lot to like from the way Martin plays and his style. He intimated that by saying that after 10 days of training now he’s been very impressed. He doesn’t have to say that; he could just say he’s very happy, glad he’s in, happy to have signed somebody with that level of experience. But he chose his words very carefully and when he’s talking about Zubimendi’s character and personality, you can tell he’s got a guy who is a perfect fit for the environment and culture that Arteta has built over these years.

He spoke positively too about Madueke and that one was more general soundbites I think. I think Arteta and the club know full well how it went down amongst the fanbase pre the announcement. They know there’s a bit of work to do and I don’t think talking too much will do anything any more. So what everyone needs to see is him on the pitch and making an impact – which I think is fair enough.

Apart from that there’s a little bit from Gabriel talking about how he wants to win things at The Arsenal, how he’s happy to have signed a new deal, etc. It’s nothing majorly ground-breaking in terms of what he said, but it’s nice to hear that he’s bought in for the long term. We need that energy from Bill Saliba now, as the second part of that double act, which will need to be the next thing Berta and his team get sorted once the transfers are done. In a way, you want us to get the Mosquera and Gyokeres sorted ASAP this week, because it will mean that he can focus attention on outgoings and also contracts, so hopefully that’s the second half of the summer that gets sorted for us. We need to hear that positive news on contracts as much as we need to hear the new signing news. Let’s hope Berta is on it. The initial signs have been positive though. MLS and Big Gabby seemed to be done with little fuss. The Nwaneri deal is – if all is to be believed – done and dusted too. So we need Saka and Saliba the focus of attention next and if that can be done by the time the summer is over, that will be hugely positive for all of us and the club too.

Hopefully we see a little movement this week, whilst the team get on with the process of bonding on the pitch with the upcoming friendlies.

Catch you all tomorrow.

Zubimendi’s goal was basically a tap in, so it’s hardly one he’ll remember until his dying days, but perhaps because he’s a guy who sits in that deeper lying number six role and he doesn’t really get too many goals, maybe he will remember it? He only got two goals in 48 games of Real Sociedad, so when he is on the scoresheet it becomes a bit of a collectors piece. Sadly for him and his Spanish teammates, however, it didn’t come to anything as Portugal won that pointless trophy. And sadly for us, there are more pointless international matches still going on. Italy play Moldova tonight, as well as Norway playing Estonia, England play Senegal on Tuesday, Zinchenko is in action for Ukraine in New Zealand, Brazil play on Wednesday against Paraguay, the Netherlands play against Malta. I think that’s pretty much it, so it means Arsenal players will all finally all get some rest towards the end of this week. They get a couple of weeks and then all return back to light training in July I think. That’s where the hard work starts but it makes you think about the life of a footballer. The Premier League season and competitive football may only be going on for three-quarters of the year, but in reality these guys get two weeks of holiday and that’s it.

It’s kind of mad when you put it in to a context of the average working person. You and I get anything between four to six weeks if you’re in full time employment (if you’re in the UK). The guys who are internationals get the second half of June off and that’s it. And they don’t get public holidays like Christmas or Easter; Arsenal played on 27th December and on Easter Sunday this year, so there aren’t any bank holidays to speak of for the players. Sure, they get paid crazy big money, but all the money in the world doesn’t heal the body after untold work and stress they are put through.

It’s worse for this Club World Cup abomination. This time next week Chelsea play in the competition and let’s take one or two of their players as an example. Marc Cucurella is rat-looking little SOB we all know that, but he’s just come off the back of a season in which he’s played 48 times and 3,700+ minutes for Chelsea. He played the full 120 minutes last night. He now has to report back to training and be out in the US on Monday for their game against Leon. Chelsea then play on the Friday against Flamengo, before having their final match of three against ES Tunis on 25th June. If they progress then it’ll be anything between two to five days later that they’ll be playing in the Round of 16, followed by a Quarter final three days after that, then a semi final another three or four days after that, then a final on 13th July.

The Premier League season starts on Saturday 16th August – less than a month later.

For my part, I hope it is a Chelsea v Man City final. There might be a ton of money on the table for Chelsea to cheat their way through PSR, but it means if they’ve been taking the competition seriously and they’ve been playing some of their best players in it, there’s no way it doesn’t come back to haunt them in the regular season, through fatigue or injuries. I heard somebody on a podcast suggest that the players might be a little better at the start of the season because there will be no rust from taking time off, but I can’t believe that having player all that football and had no break, that there won’t just be a mental hangover from the previous season. That’s what we have to hope for, at least. Maybe less so for Chelsea, but certainly for Man City, I’d like to see them as fatigued and knackered as possible because the moves they are making to sign new players – and good ones at that by the looks of it – means I think they will definitely be better than they were this season just gone.

As for our lads, well, after this set of irritating internationals has gone away, we need everyone with their feet up for a few weeks. Because next season the expectation is going to be ramped up again and we can’t afford not to start the season well I don’t think. We need to do our business this summer and ideally do it early, for sure, but we also need to have those already in at the club to come back with a freshness that see’s them ready to go that next step onwards – trophies.

Catch you all tomorrow.

Naturally he said that they would be lead by the medical team on whether he could play, but I don’t think you put a player like Kai in front of an open training session if you haven’t done more than enough tests, so I would be surprised if he isn’t in the squad at least for Sunday. He might only be good for 15 minutes, but that’s at least something, a boost for the squad and us as fans. There’s a little part of me that is kinda like “a bit late now, innit?” but I find myself having to check that line of questioning. This guy had a quite serious injury, it’s kept him out for three months and you never know how players’ bodies are going to react to any kind of injury. We’ve heard enough times in our lives that frustrating word ‘setback’ and so to see Havertz take part in training means that he’s almost there and that’s a good ting.

It also means that providing he can get a few minutes, perhaps a few minutes more against Southampton on the final day of the season, he’ll be able to go into the summer in decent shape and ready to kick off pre season when it comes around. Until you see or hear that players are back to full training, at this stage you have to assume that they might miss the beginning of next season, so seeing Havertz over that injury this season, is a bost for the next one.

Rice, Martinelli, Trossard and Timber have apparently all done partial sessions and so Arteta said he wasn’t sure, but I’d be surprised if all four are absent. If they are then we really are in trouble. This feels little like “once more unto the breach” type stuff on Sunday. If we get over the line and even manage to actually win a game of football in the league, then not only is Champions League secured, but second spot is 99% wrapped up too, as only Man City could get to 71 points and we have a nine goal swing in our favour compared to them. So A win on Sunday has a tiny bit of impact, or at least that’s what Arteta will be saying to his lads, I’m sure.

As you’d expect he was very complementary of Newcastle, of Eddie Howe and how he has different approaches in their game (attacking a low block, defending with a low block, transitional football) and I think Arteta will know from a tactical point of view what has to be done on Sunday. But as the man himself said, it’s about being clinical and it feels like with Newcastle over any other team this season (maybe PSG?) we have been guilty of not being clinical on multiple occasions, whilst they have been super clinical. As I mentioned yesterday we’ve pretty much dominated every aspect of the matches we’ve played against them, but they have been lethal in front of goal and we have been profligate. Arteta has on a couple of occasions referenced that in relation to Isaak and if we are on the wrong side of a result on Sunday, you can bet your bottom dollar that it will probably be a similar story he’ll be telling at full time.

That is a natural segue into the prevailing narrative we’ve had this season – that we haven’t got enough up top – which inevitably was referenced of sorts with the discussion around Andrea Berta and how aligned Arteta is with him. He’s hardly going to say “we’re already not speaking to each other” if that was the case, but there was enough in Arteta’s words to suggest this will be a very healthy environment for which the club’s officials are going to challenge themselves to do the best they possibly can this summer. I’ve already spoken about the cashola that the club got from the Champions League run, they’ll get more from the Premier League, those shirts are sexy enough to fly off the shelves and we’ve also got numerous sponsorship deals, so to my mind the money is there, it is just about using it wisely. That happens when you get Sporting Director, Manager, contracts people, intermediaries and agents all lined up. The Zubimendi noises are positive and it sounds like that is happening, unless something comes left of field, but more than anything else it shows the club are willing to act swiftly this summer (assuming it does get over the line quickly). The fact there’s a release clause of around £50million probably makes that a little easier than some deals that might require a little negotiation, but the signs are positive and Arteta seemed to be happy to talk about how everyone is aligned on the ambition, even if everything can’t be done. He said it, but I don’t think there’s a club in the world that get every bit of work done that they want, even the financially doped ones. Take Declan Rice, for example, who was the subject of a City bid but came to us. I remember Rio Ferdinand saying Rice had to go to City, but he came to us – we are super happy about that – and it shows that every club can have its plans derailed by another club. The most important factor is acting swiftly on other options. We didn’t do that in an attacking sense last summer and we ended up with the busted flush that is Raheem Sterling. We cannot make that mistake this summer.

I don’t think we will. I think the club know what they need to do, they do a lot of groundwork on these deals and I think Berta will be working super hard to deliver some early quick wins in his role. So I am optimistic. We just need to get over the line tomorrow with something against Newcastle.

Catch you then.

I saw that Jones Knows fella on Sky Sports suggest that he fancied a draw in our game on Sunday and, at this point, I’m a bit like “chuck another one on the fire, what difference is it going to make?” because a draw secures Champions League for us and for Newcastle it means they just have to beat Everton on the last day to get theirs. So maybe they’d take that too. Heck, we’ve had 14 draws, what’s another one really going to make? I don’t care about second, I don’t care about fans from other clubs going full banter and doing the whole “third in a two-horse race” nonsense. We know the reality of the situation, the season, how it panned out, so let’s just take our licks and wait for the club to take action in the summer.

I wonder if Mikel will be in reflective mood, or in fighting mood when he get’s asked his questions though? It could go either way. He was quite feisty at times pre Liverpool and of course when the game is on Sky TV you have to do those sanitise interviews that have been highly scripted inside one of the training ground sports hall complexes. This weekend he’ll no doubt be obliged to do the same thing, which will be taxing for him, but I’d imagine he can see to the horizon and the beautiful metaphorical sunshine that is no more talking about this season beyond next week. I feel ya, Mikel, I really do.

The club at least made us all happy yesterday by announcing the new kit and I have to say, it’s a very lovely one. Crisp, clean, looks good on the players, probably won’t look as great on me, but I’m going to get a version of it anyway. I suspect the club shop will be absolutely rammed on Sunday with people buying it. I’ll wait until the noise dies down before I pick mine up I think. But I do enjoy the nod between old and new that adidas leans in to. It’s the old Arsenal ‘A’ from the 90s badge (well, it’s longer than that, but that’s my frame of reference, being a 90s kid) and this kind of connection with the past is, I think, an important and clever approach that Adidas have always stuck with on our shirts. They recognise that Arsenal as a club may be a ‘brand’, but football is tribal and people value the traditions passed down of the history and success of the club, are what define us and our tribe. So speaking to that heritage, that tradition, that legacy, will resonate with all Arsenal fans of all ages and I for one am pleased that Adidas are embracing that legacy mindset.

In terms of team news for this weekend we’ll hear more specifically from Arteta, but I think most of us expect it to be mostly positive. We saw the open training session pics released by the club and various journo’s in midweek and we now know that we should – fingers crossed – be getting some key players back for what will be a Newcastle side who would probably find it quite amusing to make it four wins in a season against us. We need to make sure that doesn’t happen, but I think I might save some kind of tactical analysis or look at them for tomorrow. Suffice to say, having played them three times already this season, it feels like we know the approach we’re going to get from them. They’ll be physical, they’ll dig in, they look to spring transition counter attacks and do what they’ve done in every game against us this season – score with the few chances they get. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to suggest we didn’t deserve to get anything from the two cup games, but in the first game at the Emirates we had 23 shots to their seven and we dominated in basically every stat but the most important one. They had the clinical finishes and on more than one occasion Arteta has – rightly in my opinion – referenced that as the difference between the sides. Even in the League game at St James’ Park we outperformed them on every metric except the most important one, so I think the stage will be set and the difference between the two sides will be in the sharp end of the pitch. It has felt like Newcastle always seem to score with their first effort on goal against us, so we need to make sure that doesn’t happen this weekend.

More on all of that on tomorrow and Sunday’s ramblings though. For now, I’ve got a day of pencil-pushing so I’ll catch you in the AM.

What is ideal, is preparation and inspiration for the men’s team by watching the women qualify for the Champions League final yesterday with a 4-1 win over Lyon. Beat Real in the quarters, overcame a French side in the semi’s…I dunno…there’s some poetry and symmetry about it if The Arsenal men’s team can get over the line against PSG in the next week or so. Of course hopefully we can do it without the home loss; I’d prefer to see us win at home tomorrow night as I’ll be in the stadium, thank you very much!

Arteta will have his press conference today and thankfully because of the Champions League focus, he can bat away the talk of Liverpool lifting the league title. It will come back to him eventually, especially when we have to go up to Anfield to play them, but with nothing riding on it I’m sure we as fans will be a bit ‘meh’ about it. Arteta will need to use it as future motivation, but we can just give it the ol’ shoulder shrug emoji.

We can’t do that tomorrow night. We have to be ready. PSG warmed up for their game against us with a defeat on Friday night at home to Nice. That would normally come as somewhat  of a surprise and cause a few shockwaves across France and Europe, I suspect, but what I think it does show you is how PSG also have a similar mindset to us in our domestic campaign i.e. eyes are somewhere else. The played a pretty full and first choice XI too; Donnarumma, Hakimi, Marquinhos, Mendes, Jeves, Vitinha, Ruiz, Doue, Dembele and Kvaratskhelia all in the starting XI. They absolutely battered Nice on the stats (32 shots on goal and 13 on target!) and so it was clearly one of those Championship Manager style algorithm glitch games, but hopefully that might play some kind of minor psychological impact on the players who went out there and lost.

I don’t think it will be massive – they’re 20 points clear of Marseille and this was their first loss of the season – but if it gives them even the slightest of doubts in their minds going in to this massive tie against us, then I’ll take that.

There’s not really a lot else going on today, as you’d expect with the press conference later and the club understandably taking a bit of time this morning to congratulate the women for a well-won victory yesterday in Lyon. Having guided them to their first Champions League final since 2007, Renee Slegers appears to be doing a pretty impressive job with this Arsenal team, so let’s hope she and Arteta can make history together by being the first club to win both men’s and women’s Champions League’s in the same season. Of course what might be standing in the way for Arteta should we manage to overcome PSG is Barcelona men in the final (I think they’ll beat Inter over two legs) and for Slegers the women are imperious having smashed their league for the last two season’s and going for a third Champions League win in a row. So it’s an ‘odds against’ kind of goal, but this season may yet throw up a few more surprises, so let’s see what happens.

I’m goingt o leave it there for the day. Normally on a day like today I’d be looking at the opposition, their playing style and approach, but in Europe it feels a little different and weird to do that, because every team you come up against is the best in their respective leagues. There are no low blocks, PSG will come to dominate possession and use their rapid full backs to try to overload us, but you already know that. Everyone already knows so much more about European opposition, so I’m going to put a pin in any more thoughts and save it for tomorrow, when the real worrying starts in earnest.

Catch you guys and gals then.

Calafiori is still out, although he is close to a return according to Mikel, whilst Jorginho is apparently ‘still struggling’ with what happened to him at Brentford. With Thomas Partey now not able to play the first leg of the game anyway, I suspect that there’s not a lot of change from that position on Sunday or indeed against Palace on Wednesday too, so it’s not really too much of a challenge for us that he is out. It’s the same with Riccardo, to be fair, although that’s because of the scintillating form of Myles Lewis-Skelly since he broke in to the team. I’ve just watched another little comp of his from Wednesday night and in it there is one section in which he just blitzes through the Real Madrid midfield from deep. You know how we’re all starting to say that Nwaneri has that ‘trademark goal’ in which he cuts inside and curls it? Well Myles has his own signature move too, which is that driving through the middle of the park. He ain’t the tallest guy in the world, but his body strength and balance to stay upright with the ball at his feet amongst pressure from the opposition, certainly feels elite. I’m also thinking back to that Everton run he had before being poleaxed by Tarkowski a few weeks back. Mesmerising stuff.

Mikel did offer an interesting soundbite on Kai though, saying that although the semi finals would be too soon for him, but he suggested that he would potentially be back before the end of the season. I remember just before he picked up his injury Arteta was saying that Kai was an absolute machine in terms of his fitness and whilst at the time that had looked like he’d cursed him, if he does return then it does speak volumes about how his body is well suited to adapt to injury hits and also fatigue. Having Havertz back for the last few games of the season would be amazing; I think there’s a few of us looking at Big Gabi in a leg brace on Wednesday night (great video of him celebrating Arsenal scoring at home on Instagram if you want to search it out) and worrying about the start of next season, which for me given how Kai also had to have surgey, had me worried about him from the start. But even if he comes back for the final few games we at least know he’s ready to go for next season. That in itself offers comfort.

A lot of the other questions from the media were obviously more focused on talking about the game on Wednesday night and the semi final against PSG. Arteta’s comments about having to find alternative solutions to Partey’s European suspension were of course naturally vague and it was put to him that MLS could be that option. I guess when you see run’s like he has been making as part of my hypothesis of his ‘signature move’ you can see why people are saying that, but I seem to recall that Arteta doesn’t really like to move too many of his chess pieces around. It’s why two season’s ago we say Rob Holding against City rather than the more preferable option of having Ben White at centre half. It’s why we saw Kiwior come in for this run of games – although admittedly he’s been brilliant so that’s vindicated, but I saw people suggest moving White in there (he’s been injured so has been difficult), for example. So for me I think he’ll probably go with an option which keeps as many of his first teamers in their natural positions. Of course, if Calafiori is fit, then perhaps it becomes an option because you could play Riccardo as the left back and Myles centrally, but I suspect the most natural move we will see will be Declan dropping in to the six.

A lot of this is just speculation though and with us not knowing who exactly is fit it’s difficult to call. It’s also one for another day I think. For this weekend it is Ipswich and whilst Arteta dished out his usual platitudes for Kieran McKenna and his team, I think he’ll have earmarked this as one of the ‘we need this one to get over the line’ games. I’ve already said it a few times, I think I mentioned yesterday too, that I think we probably need to win four out of six of our last remaining games to finish second. Maybe even three. If we pick up three points this weekend and then can follow it up by beating Palace on Wednesday, then that might get us close enough to it.

And that’s about it really. That’s what we’ve got to do. Just get over the line. There’s nothing more to it, there’s no more real jeopardy in the league, we’re just trying to do enough to cement second (which Arteta kind of referenced yesterday as well) so we can all just move on with our lives and forget about the joke that this domestic season has been (and I mean that in terms of volume of injuries, PGMOL and the fortune of a certain other team sauntering their way to the Premier League).

Back tomorrow with some more pre-match thoughts.

Laters peeps.

Calafiori, Gabriel, White and Tomiyasu all out. Timber came off and if he’s missing you can replace Tomi with him for that ‘injured XI’. Now, of course I am stretching the truth a little bit, because we basically haven’t seen Takehiro all season, but it brings to light what has been a repeated issue for Arsenal this season.

I actually can’t remember a time it has been this bad, to be honest with you, because even if I look back over the last…say…20 years, it doesn’t feel like we’ve had as many problems as we do now. We’ve had injury crises before, sure, in one particular season I seem to recall us having two first-choice left backs and yet Pascal Cygan had to play there. But I don’t remember it being as consistent as this season from start to finish. If you think about it, every single game since the start of the season we’ve had key players missing. Right at the start of the season Gabriel Jesus was out. We signed Merino and he immediately broke his arm in training. Tomiyasu started the season injured, came on as a sub in one game, got injured again and will not be seen again.

In September we lost Odegaard (and Zinchenko). In October we still missed Odegaard, but we also lost Calafiori. In November it was White. In December it was Saka. In January Havertz was sick, so was Odegaard. February saw Martinelli and then Havertz go down with injuries. April will no doubt have Gabriel out of it. And these aren’t just one or two games, either, each of those were weeks/months at a time. In between the start of the season and now we’ve also had things like Nwaneri go down with injuries, MLS, little niggles to Trossard, etc. It’s been a horror of a season for Arteta in terms of player fitness. And the worst thing of all is that you can’t exactly legislate for it. You literally can’t have a team of more than 25 players, with youth players making up additional injuries, so stockpiling players on the event of the problems we’ve had this season just isn’t feasible.

Perhaps it was inevitable. We had a pretty decent run last season and the season before that too. I remember a few radio shows talking about how we hadn’t had any injuries and that was a reason for our fortune. Of course that’s not true because no team does what Forest appear to be doing this season (although admittedly they have no European football, went out of the League Cup relatively early and the way the FA Cup games are scheduled means you’re usually playing on a weekend so don’t get the extra complications on the schedule). I’ve spoken about Liverpool’s fortune this season and for sure, their key players have remained fit for the most part, but they’ve had a fair few injuries throughout the season too. There’s obviously a difference between a Nunez getting injured and a Salah getting injured, but every team goes through it. The difference between them and us is that all of our key players have gone down with lengthy injuries this season.

Like I say though, there’s not a lot more that Arteta can do I don’t think, other than what we should have done last summer and signed a proper out-and-out forward. If we’d have done that, we would certainly be in a better position points-wise than we are, but we still would have had the Saka injuries, the Odegaard injuries, the repeated Calafiori injuries and Gabriel out now too. Sometimes season’s just go that way.

My longer term worry is whether this is a sign that some of these younger players whose bodies were so robust two or three years ago, will now start to pick up more injuries. This is the first ‘big’ injury to Saka that he’s had in his career so far. Odegaard has been out for the odd game here or there, but not been as bad as this time around since he came to The Arsenal. Havertz was described as something like a ‘machine’ by his boss just before he got injured. So we’ve got a lot of players whose bodies have suggested that they would be available all the time, now not the case. Ben White I could through in to this now too. He missed a lot of time out injured, then missed the game this week on Tuesday. Is this a worrying sign of their future availability? We have to hope not.

There are some players with whom we will probably just need to accept are just injury prone players. Calafiori looks like he might be one. We’ve known Partey is, Gabriel Jesus is and of course there is the aforementioned Tomiyasu. I suspect next season at least two of those will almost be treated like ‘nice to haves’ and not expected to be relied on, one won’t be at the club and the other will be on season two at The Arsenal so that will be his chance to prove he can stay fit. But we’ve kind of just all accepted that players like Tomiyasu and Gabriel Jesus are not really in consideration any more. There’s an element of acceptance of that now so you almost discount them in your mind. But the others who have previously remained fit? That’s where my concern is right now. Can they shake off these longer-term injuries and return to the excellent form we’ve seen in the previous two seasons?

I guess if you’re going to go ‘glass half full’ on this discussion, you can point to Jurrien Timber as a positive case study. Picked up a pretty big ACL last season, missed the whole season, was eased back in at the end but this season has pretty much been an ever-present. That’s what we need to see from some of those normally robust players from the summer pre season. We need to see them all get good pre seasons under their belts and be ready to go. We also need to see some squad augmentation as well, but that’s for another day.

For now I will leave you with those thoughts of needing to see these players get back to their bests for next season. Let’s see what Arteta says when the teams news comes out from his press conference.

Catch you all tomorrow.