I didn’t watch the game (because why would I bother?), but having listened to Tuchel on Thursday, I think most of us knew the sort of treatment he’d get. The media have played their part in this, too, big time, I’m afraid. It’s people like Henry Winter who have felt compelled to make comments like this, or Martin Samuel of The Times, quoting:

England fans like winning, but they still don’t like players who walk out on the team at a World Cup.

Well, Martin, you of all people know the story behind the reasons for Ben’s exodus, and you know very well that Ben White just didn’t suddenly wake up one day and decide he didn’t like England anymore. The good folks over at The Daily Cannon have reposted this yesterday, which I think is worth a link to. Steve Holland is clearly an idiotic, archaic, “Proper Football Man” the likes Yer Da would love. Go back to the late 80s, mate, football ain’t for you anymore.

That Telegraph article from the time leaves a few bits out, but there are also rumours that White didn’t want to discuss tactics of Arsenal whilst in an England camp, whilst the City players didn’t mind, which also sounds very plausible. But the very fact that Ben has come back into this England team and scored that goal, you’d hope that everyone will just drop it. But let’s just see, shall we?

AS for our other involvement on the night, of course we have another injury as a result of f*cking international football, as Madueke was seen after the game in a knee brace, having gone off on 39 minutes. Honestly, these f*cking internationals during the season can just f*ck the f*ck off. I’m sick of them. Players get chewed up and spat back to their clubs to deal with the fallout. With Eze likely to be out for at least another three weeks according to reports, it means that once again we’ll have to become over-reliant on players. And that has been happening all season. Odegaard is out, so Eze comes in. Eze gets injured just as Odegaard goes down. Timber plays all the time and gets injured, then White comes in and gets overplayed. It’s a never-ending cycle when you have players who keep going down. I was wondering about whether this is now worse than last season or not, so I took a little look at the ‘absences’ chart on TransferMarkt for last season and this season. I’m not counting what I would call ‘youth’ players, but perhaps any player who has played more than three times in a season. Last season we had a total squad absence of 196 match-day absences across the squad in the Premier League alone. This season so far we have lost 144 absences. From last year 37 of those 196 were because of Tomiyasu who was basically in the squad on registration only. So if you take him out, last season we had 159 by the end of the season. Depending on how long some of the current injured players are out for, we could eclipse last season, which I dubbed “The Cursed Season,” when we were in it by the end. It’s so frustrating. We just can’t catch a break and, from a position about a week ago where we had an almost fit squad bar Odegaard and Merino, the current list of players absent who have an injury is:

1. Saliba
2. Gabriel
3. Merino
4. Odegaard
5. Eze
6. Trossard

Hopefully, some of those are just knocks, and we see players returning next week, and the noises are that Odegaard will be back, but still, this is silly now.

Elsewhere, Havertz got 63 minutes and came off along with Leroy Sane on 63 minutes, as Germany beat Switzerland 4-3, so that says to me, I think he’s fine. Hopefully, Nagelsmann is sensible and keeps him on the bench for their next game. Rodri played 77 minutes in their 3-0 win over Serbia, and Zubimendi came on for the Man City knobhead, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see that switch around for their game against Egypt on Tuesday. Ideally, you want him to play no part, but clearly, he’s getting on the pitch. Kudos, though, for Cristhian Mosquera, who made his international debut last night as an 83-minute sub. 100% deserved for a player who has stunned us all with just how good he is this season, and I don’t think many Arsenal fans aren’t delighted for him this morning.

There was no place for Raya, though, which I have to say, is a bit bloody weird if you ask me. I know I don’t watch enough football, but the little I have seen of Unai Simon kind of baffles me, that our chap isn’t the main man between the sticks. I know Simon is good with the ball, but better than Raya? And in terms of shot-stopping? Is he really as elite as Raya has shown himself to be? A quick search online tells me his weaknesses are that he has lapses of concentration, technical errors in ball control and his handling is at times questioned. There’s also this article here that suggests that many believe Raya or Garcia should be the number one.

Still, at least it reduces the chances of injury to David, which is important given how much of a delta we’ve seen between him and Kepa very recently, of course.

The other guy that got minutes from our squad yesterday was Pierro Hincapie, who came off on 72 minutes, in clearly an effort from the Ecuadorian boss to appease Arteta. Good man management because the way things are going right now with injuries, I fully expect to hear that Calafiori didn’t last the first 45 in Italy’s play-off game on Tuesday night.

Look at that – I’ve managed to write 1,000 words about Arsenal players, and now I’m grumpy. I should probably leave it there. Hopefully, some kind of good news story can come out from the Athletic or somewhere, because it feels like we need it.

Catch you all tomorrow kids.

Of course, there are two sides to this coin, with an upside and a possible downside. I don’t believe that Arsenal could get away with just chatting to international managers this close to the World Cup, and having an almost unanimous verdict from most that they will leave players at home because their World Cup places are secured. So, whilst the tone of today’s blog will be “good, players will get some rest”, I do think we have some knocks to be worried about.

For example, Big Gabi is not going to Brazil, good stuff. But the statement from the Brazilian FA, which talked about imaging showing that he has a problem in his knee, that’s bad stuff. I’m going to choose the upside, though, which is that the statement from the Brazilian FA also said that what is required is a period of rest to recover, and we certainly have that.

Our next ‘big’ game is against Sporting. Southampton in the FA Cup is important, but let’s get some real talk going here; if we have to, we have to play a heavily rotated team to get those first-teamers rested. The Southampton game is Saturday, 4th April. As of today, that is 11 days away. Sporting Lisbon is 14 days away. A solid two weeks stand between us and our next big one. I want to win the FA Cup; I love going to Wembley for the semi and the final, but if it means we are risking players, then as of right now, I’m saying “nope” to players who are carrying knocks.

I want to see a myriad of warm-weather Instagram snaps from all of the players who have withdrawn from international duty this week. These players have all looked fatigued, Declan Rice even admitted to it post-Leverkusen, as I’ve already mentioned in a previous blog, so we just have to sit as many down on deck chairs and sun loungers as possible. No training, no heavy lifting of furniture or anything like that – tell the wife that the trip to Ikea will have to wait, as there are bodies that need healing ahead of the final part of this season.

Trossard, Eze, and Odegaard are all out. Big Gabi is out. Saliba has withdrawn from the French team. This ain’t no Fergie situation though; these days you have to provide evidence to support issues, so Arsenal and these respective players will have done just that. So the order of the day right now is that every single one of those players needs to stay at home, or get themselves on a plane to somewhere like Portugal – it’s 21 degrees and sunny in the Algarve this week – get yer arses on the golf course!

The worry from the weekend was the clear lack of a creative eight to collect the ball from the back four, but I’m less worried about that, because it sounds like Odegaard was back in training, so I suspect he’ll be staying in London Colney to build up his fitness. But I’m already thinking about that rotated XI over the Easter weekend and, based on needing to sit players down and rest them, here are my initial thoughts based on the little we know:

Kepa

White   –   Mosquera   –   Calafiori   –   Lewis-Skelly

Norgaard

Odegaard   –   Dowman

Madueke   –   Jesus   –   Martinelli

Give Kepa a chance to still feel part of the team after his howler and overall poor performance on Sunday. Ben White needs minutes; he’s not going to play all of the football for the international team, but he does need some minutes, and so this call-up will boost him, so that’s all good. Mosquera, too, hasn’t played a ton of football, plus he’ll have got his first international call-up, so he’ll be buzzing as well. Calafiiro need to build up his cadence and momentum, whilst we all know Myles hasn’t played enough. The same is true for Norgaard. Dowman is an X-factor player, and playing against a team a division down would be good for him, whilst Odegaard getting a solid 60 would be useful. Madueke for Saka feels like the right move, whilst Jesus in so you can have Gyokeres as full power against his old club, feels about right for me. Martinelli hasn’t been favoured for Trossard of late, but he and Jesus have those connections, so it makes sense.

I know it is just under two weeks away, but that lineup for 70 minutes means you don’t put too much into the legs of Zubi, Rice, Saka, Gyokeres, Saliba and Big Gabi. It means you keep Timber out, who hasn’t gone to the Netherlands, and so will also have had more than two weeks out by the time the Sporting game comes along.

My hope is that we don’t get any wind of news that any of the injuries that are sustained are long-term. If we’re talking players needing a solid 10 – 14 days rest to recover, then happy days – for once, an international break has come at the right time. But we need those players who are going – the likes of White, Calafiori, Saka, Rice, Zubimendi, Norgaard, etc – to all come back in one piece. Get through this set of international games, then come back and sit yerselves on the bench for the FA Cup.

It feels a little scary hearing those announcements of players withdrawing from international duty, but none of them feels like they are ‘big’ injuries. Areta’s diagnosis on Eze didn’t sound great, but even if he’s out for two weeks, as I’ve said above, the return of Odegaard is timely for our current situation and the current period we have for the next two weeks, including Southampton.

As the dust settles, I’m going to do more ‘vibes check’ posts about how I’m feeling, and sure, I need to see those Instagram snaps of players resting up. Until we get those, or rumours of players being ‘fine’ from Athletic articles where an agent has fed them some info, there will always be nerves. But as it stands, I’m pretty chilled about the situation.

Back tomorrow with some more thoughts.

This is a weird fixture for me. When the draw was announced, there was relief about a possibly easier passage through the competition. WhatsApp groups were awash with ‘take that’ and ‘lovely’ comments. Then you get to the first leg kick off, and you’re thinking, ‘hopefully we can make a statement tonight and put one foot in the final’. Then at the end of the game, after Arsenal haven’t been great, Leverkusen have shown a blueprint on how to counter and hit us on the break, the mind thinks ‘got away with that one, but we have the home leg to finish the job’, as well as ‘the game at home now becomes a one-off cup tie – lovely’.

And yet, here I find myself, Tuesday morning, apprehensive about the match. Yes, it IS a one-off cup game, for sure. And yes, we WILL be heavily favourites to go through, most definitely. But all it takes tonight is one good low block, one transitional counter, and we could find ourselves out of a competition that so many Arsenal fans have coveted for years. We’re all looking over at City’s daunting tie at home to Real Madrid, but if we aren’t careful, we could have our own psychological blow tonight against a Leverkusen side who drew with Bayern at the weekend. Of course, the caveat remains that they played over half the match against ten men, but they still got a draw, and that will still fill them with some confidence, I would have thought.

Arteta did his press conference, and the bad news is that Odegaard and Timber are out. The good news is that it sounds like Leo is back, and whilst Arteta confirmed White is back up and in full training, I’m not sure whether he’ll start in place of the absent Dutchman. Mosquera was preferred against Everton, and I suspect it might be the same tonight. Of course, it may be that Arteta selected Mosquera for that game because he knew he could only get White playing the majority of one match out of these two, so he’s prioritised the Englishman for his overlapping runs today. Maybe I’m talking myself into something that won’t happen, but that does make sense to me, especially after Saka’s performance in the first leg. He wasn’t great; he was hooked on 60 minutes in favour of Noni, but if Arteta wants to create more space for Saka up against Grimaldo tonight, then playing a guy with whom he has a clear connection would make sense to me.

The rest of the team picks itself largely, I think; Raya, Saliba, and Gabriel will all play. I suspect Hincapie comes in at left back. At the base of the midfield, it’ll be Zubi, with Rice on the left and Eze on the right. Up top, I doubt they’ll risk back-to-back starts for Havertz, so it’ll be Gyokeres, with possibly Trossard and Saka flanking him. I certainly think that dynamic works better than Martinelli wide left, plus I’m not sure that Noni on the left really worked against Everton. You could ask the question about whether he deserves a start on the right, but I think Arteta sticks with one of his most trusted players in Saka tonight, so for me, it should be Trossard.

The game plan has to be about control tonight, which I suspect makes for a tetchy start to the game, probably a little shadow-boxing from Arsenal as they look to maintain the control of the ball, with Leverkusen tucking in deep and maintaining a tight shape throughout. They want to hit us on the counter and get a goal up so they can sit deep and see us deliver the horseshoe of death aka The Arc of boredom, so if we can score in that first half, maybe it draws them out a bit, and a little more space opens up.

I suspect patience will be the name of the game today; it is not going to be a pretty one, unfortunately.

Leverkusen will look to Grimaldo to find space in that left-hand-side pocket, and particularly with Timber out, they’ll want to see if they can stress either White or Mosquera, so if we can keep them pinned back as much as possible, then I think we can nullify him somewhat. They have Schick back, which will be a different kind of physical threat, but I wonder if they look at the likes of Kofane as a viable option, because he really tested our two centre halves all game last week, so it will be interesting to see how the Leverkusen boss goes about his starting selection dilemma up top. Of course, if they are behind in the tie and he needs to throw a Hail Mary, then both Kofane and Schick up top could be an option. We need to be wary and ready for that possibility.

The good thing is that if Leverkusen go down that route, then it means they are behind, and in that situation, we would all back our defensive line to be able to hold out.

We’ve gotten used to this season – and particularly ‘The Business End’ of it being quite uncomfortable, nervy and at times downright stressful. But Arsenal keep finding ways – even when leaving it late – to win these football matches. Nothing is guaranteed; those ‘finding ways’ could very well end tonight, but we’re in a good spot as it stands and I am hopeful that we have the players to see us through this evening. Fingers crossed I’m right.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a debrief, as always. Catch you then.

So why do I not feel completely sated this morning?

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

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

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

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

It doesn’t matter if you score though

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back tomorrow as we build up to that one.

Arsenal had a job to do. They needed to avoid a banana skin. They needed to de-risk the whole evening. They needed to make this a perfunctory three points.

Brentford are not a team to be trifled with. Yes, they have a pretty shoddy away record, yes, they sit in mid table and dispatching teams like that is exactly what you do if you want to be champions. We’ve seen Pep’s City do it for years. Yet when I reflect on this 2-0 victory courtesy of Merino and Saka’s goals, I can’t help but breathe a big sigh of relief, because this was anything but ‘simple’.

Mikel knew he had to shuffle his deck a little bit. We’ve lost so many players to injury this season that ‘loading’ must be one of the first things he thinks of when he wakes up in the morning. So he rang ‘some’ changes; White in, Madueke in, Odegaard in. Zubimendi and Rice remained and given how awesome both of them are, I don’t think there was an Arsenal fan on this planet who didn’t think “yep – they have to start”.

And given his form, Mikel Merino is another one that, at this stage, has to keep his place too.

And given he helped us open the scoring in this game, it’s hard to argue otherwise, even if Gyokeres might have also feasted on such a sumptuous ball from White’s delivery. But the feasting was for our Basque makeshift forward and at some stage, I think we’re going to just have to change his Football Manager position, because he is every bit the striker and his headed goal was superbly taken to get us up and running. Mikel also referenced the fact he was all over the pitch and for a guy who most of us were a little like “wait. What is he?” his form has been so good that I don’t think Arteta can keep him out. Two goals in two games and he’s looking every bit the number nine. What a time to show your technical and physical qualities when so many around him have gone down with injuries.

The timing of the goal was enough to settle nerves, but Brentford are a tough but to crack and I thought this was a game that played out exactly how many of us would have predicted; they are organised, they don’t give away a lot of chances, they are physical and they have a guy who basically bullets in a throw in if you give him half a chance. And to be fair to them, they had a few of those chances, as well as a fair few corners as well – one of which nearly got an opening for them with basically their first shot. The mark of a great ‘keeper is to do very little all game, yet when called upon, do the hard yards and Raya was superb for Schade’s smart header that he flicked onto the bar with his hands.

If we win the title, he will have 100% have played his part, despite the fact that so often he is a bystander in these types of games. But he was alert, he was quick with his reflexes, he earned his clean sheet bonus. I do have a question about the defending though and I recall hearing somewhere that we weren’t that great with set pieces last season when Big Gabi was out. Now it is him and Saliba and when I watched a replay of that chance this morning, Schade has a little too much time and space for me on the six yard box and afterwards Mikel did reference that we conceded against Chelsea for a set piece and Sunderland’s first goal came as a result of a set piece via a long kick from the ‘keeper. So perhaps it is something that we need to be mindful of and the fact that Arteta referenced it in his post-game interview suggests he’s going to be thinking about it too when he gets them into training next. Which won’t be until tomorrow and will mean not a lot of time to work out the kinks with the early kick off against Villa looming on the horizon at the weekend.

For now though, thinking about the midweek games, we’ve had a very good one if you consider that Chelsea lost, Liverpool and Sunderland drew with each other and whilst Villa did win, they were hardly water-tight at the back. Our game felt like it was a difficult one, but as I re-watched the highlights this morning, I realised that in that second half we probably should have finished the game off and forced Kelleher into a fair few smart saves. The one that really sticks out as the goal we should have scored was Saka’s chance on 89 minutes and at that point in the ground I was thinking we’ll just need to get out of it with an old-skool ‘one-nil to The Arsenal’. But Bukayo was not to be undone on this night and his goal a few minutes later felt like footballing karma gods telling him he could have one. His shot on 89 was scuffed and gratefully received by the ‘keeper, but the shot two minutes later was certainly pure enough, but with a dash of fortune favouring the brave as it looped underneath the bar after Kelleher had parried it in to the air.

So the points were secure, the five point lead has been restored, the players, fans and manager can all go home happy. But as usual we aren’t just allowed a simple day at the office and for the next 24-48 hours we’ll all be sweating on the fitness of Mosquera and Rice for Villa on Saturday. The saving grace with the Mosquera injury is that Arteta said on Tuesday ‘a few days’ with regards to Saliba’s injury and you have to hope that he is available for Saturday to replace Mosquera. Timber came in and did well, White put in a man-of-the-match performance at right back (which I think everyone associated with The Arsenal will be delighted with), but we need to get these players back. I don’t even want to think of the possibility that Rice could be out for any length of time right now, so I’m going to park those thoughts and words at this moment. 

Arsenal move on, Merino moves on, three points down, 24 games to go. Let’s see what the weekend has in store for us.

Catch you all tomorrow for some more thoughts and a look at Villa and how they are getting on.

Or are you as bemused as I was yesterday. No, I’m not talking about Liverpool being knocked out of the FA Cup to Plymouth, but rather the images that have emerged from Dubai which seem to suggest that Martinelli is in part taking some part of training out there. This comes after Ornstein has stated that he faces at least a month out just last week, which had us all lamenting our luck that we’re going to be missing another player for a prolonged period of time.

But as you can see from this picture below, it doesn’t look like there’s any strapping and clearly he’s with the team and in his training top, which you wouldn’t expect if he’s fully out for the next month:

Gabriel Martinelli already in training. pic.twitter.com/du6Elpcmg6

— (@333ccoco) February 9, 2025

Now, to be fair, he could still be injured and in the video that the club released of players training yesterday, which I’ve watched this morning, doesn’t show him or Saka in training despite two of them very publicly being pic’d on the way out. So perhaps I’m reading too much in to it. But even if Martinelli is injured but it isn’t as worse as it was initially feared, that will be a bit of a boost to us at a time in which we seem to lose a different player each week.

In that training video I also couldn’t quite see whether Ben White was there in full training and so perhaps there are different sets of sessions going on for players who are on the way way back. White was also pic’d in the above snap and there’s a general acceptance that he’s back in training and building his fitness up. But I’m inferring from the Martinelli pictures that he’s hopefully not as bad as a month out and maybe we’ll get him back sooner. If he is back within a couple of week’s it’ll certainly have Ornstein asking some of his sources within the club whether they’re ‘sure sure’ in future, I’ll bet!

The other news that was emerging yesterday, which again is unconfirmed, is that there is an expectation that Bukayo Saka is ahead of schedule and could be back in to training and with the team at the beginning of March. That would be a huge boost to us if true because I think most of us expected that he’d not be seen until the beginning of April for the final six weeks of the season, but if Arteta can have his Starboy back – even coming on from the bench for a a game or two – that would be huge for us.

I’ve seen a few people rightly question whether we should be rushing back Saka and yes, I absolutely agree that his fitness should not be sacrificed for any short term gain, but in a period in which we seem to be hit with bad news after bad news for the last three months, something like this along with a White return and maybe Martinelli not being as bad as first feared, would be welcome respite indeed.

It won’t solve the challenges of the ‘now’ though and Arteta is still going to be heavily reliant on that small band of brothers who are fit and play in attack. Trossard, Kai and Ethan are going to need to play plenty of minutes and we have to hope that Sterling can actually do something in an Arsenal shirt rather than not beat his man and run in to blind alleys, for the next few weeks at least. The return to form of Trossard of late is definitely welcome and the fact that Kai has 20 goal involvements is a relief given how we were looking at the beginning of January as a collective attacking unit. Ethan has been a bright spark but we’ll need to acknowledge that he is still just a kid and putting all your faith in a kid – no matter how much talent he has in his boots – is a big ask and probably an unfair one. He’s shown he can make an impact and I’d back him to continue to do that, but we also need to be prepared to see him have quiet games too, as he comes to terms with a lot more regular first team football than I think anyone thought he would have this season.

But hopefully we have enough for the immediate future. We’re entering a working week knowing it’s a trip to Leicester on Saturday lunchtime that the players need to be ready for and as we know that Liverpool will inevitably be smashing Everton (having rested key players yesterday in their FA Cup defeat) on Wednesday to make the gap nine points, then go to a pretty pants Wolves team who absolutely leak goals, we’re going to have to do the business and take all three points against the Foxes this weekend just to save par I suspect. But that’s a conversation as we head in towards the end of this week. For now I’m going to sup on that little bit of Hopium that we will have our key attacking players back within a few weeks and that we might still be hanging on to a title charge when they come back in to the team.

Catch you bunch of wonderful humans tomorrow. Be good.

For this game Arsenal are the favourites, but it seems quite universal that these pundits are all predicting a tight game, which I think it will be, because Forest are a well-drilled, well-coached side who will look to be compact and give us little by way of space. They’ll sit in a mid-block and they will look to hit us on the counter as I mentioned in yesterday’s musings. They have a couple of players out in Danilo and Sangare and, perhaps unusually, they also have to consider players who went away on international duty too. Murillo was off with Brazil and Gibbs-White with England, so whereas in the past this sort of fixture will have seen Forest with a side who have been rested for a couple of weeks, they have similar challenges to us in terms of managing players coming back from international duty.

The good news from Arteta’s press conference is that we have some players returning and as opposed to what I think most of us would have expected, which was that Arteta would say there are doubts over a wealth of players like Trossard, Calafiori, Saka, Rice, etc, yesterday he seemed quite open. He seemed really buoyant in the press conference and you could tell that there is some relief kicking in after what feels like the whole season so far being without a number of players. It will have felt to him like one problem after another; as soon as one player comes back, another goes and even yesterday’s news wasn’t plain sailing with the news that White will be out and still no Tomiyasu return date (I’ll come back to White in a bit). But for tomorrow there are some good news with the likes of Calafiori for starters. The Italian is back, trained the last week and was with the physio’s last week too so I’d expect he’ll be in on the pitch from the off today. So too, I expect, will Rice and Saka be there, because they are two players that Arteta plays every minute he can. Trossard provides depth from the bench and I think that’s where he’ll be today, because it will surely be a front three of Martinelli (having scored in his last game), Havertz up top and Saka wide right. With Odegaard not playing for Norway you’d expect him to be fit and firing today and as already mentioned Rice’s availability means that Arteta’s main question from midfield will probably be who plays in that third position.

Does he go with Rice further forward and Partey in the six? Does he drop Rice in to the six and play Merino left eight? Regardless I will probably be happy with whatever Arteta goes for if it is one of those two combinations; Partey has been in superb form and Merino – having looked at the Chelsea game again – showed some really positive signs of progress as he beds in to the team. If I had a gun to my head I’d probably say he’ll play Partey because of form, which would mean Rice further forward.

The back five (including Raya) I think picks itself I think, because Timber Arteta said was doing fine and we know that White is out for what Arteta described as ‘months’. The initial rumours were an expected six to eight week period. So if Arteta is saying ‘months’ he’s not technically lying and that ambiguity probably buys him some time to not be asked about it. I have no intel, I’m not a doctor or sports injury specialist, but I suspect they’ll be looking at a mid-January return for White. Which means Jurrien is going to be needed for the immediate future and I think we will also need to see Tomiyasu return at some stage soon. It doesn’t sound like it by all accounts, so the ‘Partey at right back’ experiment may not be fully dead, unfortunately. I think Partey has equipped himself fine in that position, but his form has been such that having him at the six feels like we are a lot better in our functioning, than him in in the back four.

Nuno was asked about set pieces in his press conference, which makes sense given our potency, but he didn’t really give much up. He did talk about the fact they need to use their speed and the wide areas to hurt us, so that’s a clear indication again to what we’re up against. Forest to be compact, to try to frustrate, then to spring traps rapidly from front to back. So the name of the game today cannot be to push too hard, too fast, for that opener. But, also, we can’t commit too many forward if the game is goalless after a period of time (say 60 minutes, for example). If you’re Nuno or Forest fans today their blueprint is clear: get to halftime 0-0, or, if we can, a goal on the counter. Then frustrate Arsenal, then as the game starts to reach it’s final 15 – 30 minutes, look to hit on the counter if Arsenal are frustrated and pushing for goals.

That’s enough to make me nervous and I am well aware this will be a tough game today, especially seeing as what they did against Liverpool away, but there can be no excuses for an Arsenal team with lofty ambitions. It’s win or bust today. Let’s hope we don’t bust.

Back tomorrow morning for the blog, plus I think we’re gonna do an early morning Same Old Arsenal pod, so look out for that one from 9.30am.

Catch you then.

If he’s coming off on 37 minutes then it doesn’t sound like a ‘he felt something so we took a precaution’-type move. We’ll have to wait and see what Arteta says towards the end of this week, but I’d be surprised if he’s available for Forest now, so when you add that to the news that Ben White is going to be out for at least six weeks. This is another international break that has proved costly for us. Yes, I know White doesn’t go away with England, but it has still come during this period.

And it really seems like we can’t catch a break this season. As soon as one player returns, it seems another one goes down. Arteta even referenced how brutal the injury setbacks have been pre the international break, so I bet he’ll not be thinking his luck is changing with this latest round of news, that’s for sure.

So by my reckoning – and using the Premier League in isolation via TransferMarkt – we’ve now missed a total number of 51 absences across 11 games this season. An ‘absence’ is counted as one player, missing one game, of which I’ve counted those who are listed as first teamers for Arsenal. I’ve got KT in there although clearly he is not in the plans, but he is part of the 25-man squad for this season.

Let’s let that sink in for a second, because if you work that out as an average, it is that Arsenal have missed just under five first team players for every single game this season on average. To put that in context, Liverpool have had 30 absences and City – who I have seen a lot of news about in the press and their injuries right now, have had 41 absences – that’s a player less on average this season.

And this data only shows what has happened. If we have bad news on Saka and Rice, then this weekend could be White, Calafiori, Tomiyasu, Rice, Saka, Trossard – all could realistically be out this weekend coming.

It is bitterly disappointing at a time in which we are just looking to crack on and get our season started. We’ve all been frustrated with the form, it has been annoying to have to keep fielding mix and match sides, but unless we get some good news on the immediate horizon (and so far this season we’ve hardly had that, eh?) then we’ve still got more time to wait before we can start to see this Arsenal team feel a little more whole again. Arteta, to his credit, has tried his best to avoid being over melancholy about it and has regularly talked up the fact it is not an excuse and the team just needs to get on with it. He’s sought to find solutions with these problems like playing Timber in at left back, Partey at right back, as well as having Trossard and Havertz job swap as the roaming left eight/false nine, but it is no real substitute for having players like Calafiori playing in at left back, Partey in at six (which he has been very good at this season), as well as Odegaard in at right eight. But that can only get you so far and I think Arteta was probably looking at the return of Odegaard as the opportunity to start getting the more regularly recognised XI back together and playing regularly to see if we can go on a run.

If you’re going to go glass half full you might say that Trossard’s form has been such that he probably wouldn’t start anyway against Forest, but any injury that may be confirmed by Arteta this week does rob us of options. We have Gabriel Jesus and Sterling who can play in those positions and perhaps they might see this an opportunity for them to get more minutes and be that first name to be called from the bench, but we haven’t exactly seen inspirational cameos from them so far, have we?

The good news is that we now have until the new year before we have to deal with another round of these horrendous international matches and I for one couldn’t be happier about that. Get in the effing sea, international football.

There doesn’t appear to be any other noises of players going down so hopefully that is a good sign, but I suspect Arteta is definitely looking at his options at the moment and wondering what jiggery-pokery he’s going to have to deal with this weekend when every player returns from international duty. Brazil play in the early hours of the morning tonight against Uruguay at home, so Gabriel Martinelli and Big Gabby won’t be back until Thursday at the earliest, so we still have to cross everything that something doesn’t happy to one of them. I really pray we’re ok on that front but given the luck we’ve had so far this season nothing would surprise me less than to see one of those guys break down. Hold on to whatever lucky charm you’ve got folks.

That’ll do me for today I think. Back tomorrow to see if we’ve lost anyone else from the squad to injury.

As Arteta said in the wake of the Chelsea game, it’s been eight weeks of consistent players going down with niggles, so we need to just get through this final international window and then get some flipping players back!

Famous last words, eh?

And as if the Footballing Gods themselves were having a read and sniggering to themselves as to how they could land a couple of eggs square on my Chevy Chase, up pops another injury issue for us, this time in the shape of Ben White. He’s undergone what the media have reported as a ‘minor’ surgical procedure to help cure a problem with his knee and what’s being reported is that he’ll be out from between six to eight weeks. Six week’s takes him to Christmas and that’s when it starts to get busy, but as we know having just seen Martin out for a couple of months, you don’t just walk back in to the team. You have to build up your fitness.

I suppose you could say that a few of us saw it coming, because he’s been in and out of the team and Arteta himself has spoken about how White would run through brick walls and never tells you when he’s injured, so him being in and out of the team and also playing within himself a bit, suggests to me he’s been carrying this for a while. It clearly got so bad that the club thought they couldn’t just play him until he broke and have taken this step now given it’s the international break. That knocks off one of the six-to-eight and so I guess that’s something, but it means during this period of the season we are going to rely on the likes of Timber to stay fit. The hope is also that Calafiori is back after the international break, but as I’ve previously said on here, I have worries about him and his injury record. He’s a fantastic player, he improves us immensely when on the field, but we’ve played just over a quarter of the season and he’s already missed games over two spells with two injuries.

Then there’s Tomiyasu, who has played a total of six minutes at the end of the Southampton game. He’s the forgotten man it seems and I can’t even remember the last time Arteta even spoke about him. I think we have to rule him out as any kind of reliable full back option and to me it means either that Arteta is going to lean in to Lewis-Skelly a bit more than he thought, or he’s going to have to bring Zinchenko back in to the fold a little more.

On the right side we’ll need to be crossing everything to hope that Timber remains fit, because the Thomas Partey at right back experiment is ok in small doses, but I don’t think many of us want it to be a more regular occurrence. His form this season – particularly when playing in midfield – has been great and we need to be seeing him there, not rucking in to fill because we have another defender injured.

And White’s injury does feel like this season is setting up to be a cursed one in terms of trying to reach our objectives of winning the Premier League. I think it was James from Gunnerblog who said on an Arsecast that he felt like this season ‘feels’ like one in which we’re not going to win the league; dodgy red cards against us, injuries, certain players out of form, etc – it does feel like we are having everything go against us. And to win the Premier League in the era of 115 Charges FC, you have to have a bit of luck in all departments: injuries, suspensions, form of players, but also catching teams at the right time. For example, playing a side who is beset with injuries, or a side like Man United under Ten Haag, who were rudderless but now are stringing together wins and they will have an Amorim ‘new manager bounce’ just in time to play us, whereas Liverpool played them earlier in the season and they were terrible. I’m not trying to make this about Liverpool by the way, I’m just using it as the example. Last season I think there were a few games where things went our way in matches, where we played teams decimated with injuries, etc, but this season it just feels like the rub of the green isn’t happening for us.

This Ben White injury is a perfect example of that. I just hope…nay…PRAY…that we can get the core of first teamers available for the run up to this Christmas period. That starts with hoping that Rice and Saka are not too serious. I saw Harry Kane calling out players withdrawing from international duty, but if he’s looking in Rice and Saka’s direction, I’d point him to the fact that neither players could finish the game against Chelsea. And those are two players that Arteta ALWAYS plays the whole game in. They don’t come off. So for both of them to be sat down towards the closing stages of that game, shows that they aren’t quite right. Harry Kane and his ENG-GER-LAND mentality can ‘do one’, as far as I am concerned.

Right, I’m going to leave it there for today I think. Off for an early one in the office and a bit of an office anniversary party later. You make sure you have a good one and I’ll be back tomorrow to see what else is cooking in the world of football.

Laters peeps.

Arsenal players; don’t give him any excuse – even the most marginal of calls – to make a crap call. Because if he’s given the chance, he will.

But parking any potential conspiracies aside, let’s have a look at this game and what the manager’s said ahead of it, eh? Let’s start with The Arsenal, in which Arteta said Ben White was a question mark for today, but Gabriel should be fine if he trains. That is massive. The sight of him limping off last Sunday – coupled with the fact we’ve had injury after injury this season – made me think that we wouldn’t be seeing him on a pitch for quite some time. So the fact it wasn’t serious, the fact he has been cleared to train and the fact that a lot of the more respected journo’s out there are saying he’s likely to start, is huge. Timber too is back and fine after another 45 minutes in midweek.

So if Ben White made it through training yesterday that will mean we have a very strong back four to kick off the game. Which is good because we will need it. It looks like there’s a good chance Ben will make it too; there’s a video on the official site with the squad coming together for a minute silence and he is in it in his training gear. Odegaard is there too, so maybe we can’t read too much in to it, but I have my hopes.

If that’s the back four sorted (we hope), then the next question Mikel needs to consider is what he’s going to do with his midfield, because it is starting to feel like we’ve got some real options now at last. By my reckoning we have Partey, Rice, Merino, Nwaneri, Jorginho, Havertz/Trossard all as options for that midfield. I suspect it’s unlikely he’ll go with Nwaneri – even if he did play so well in midweek – and I think it’s fairly obvious Jorginho is further down the pecking order, so for me the decision is whether the Trossard/Havertz axis outweighs the possible desire to go Merino left eight, Rice right eight and Partey sitting deep. I think given the midfield we’re likely to be up against – Joelinton, Tonali and Bruno – physicality is the aim of the game today. That and winning duels. So I personally would go with Partey, Rice and Merino. Big players, physical players, duel winners. Then you stick Havertz up top and have him flanked by Saka and Martinelli to have a run at Hall and Livramento respectively. The hope is that we get space and joy with those guys, because if we do, then that’s why we might hurt them.

Two season’s ago we drew 0-0 at home to Newcastle in that game in which they dived, time wasted and generally employed more ‘dark arts’ than Arsenal have over the course of this whole season (nobody spoke about that from the media after the game though, eh?), their success was predicated on doubling and sometimes tripling up on Saka specifically, but on our left wing too. You have to assume they will do the same today when we have the ball, so the emphasis needs to be on moving it quicker and if Saka is going to have that kind of attention, then other players need to be ready and near him so he isn’t isolated. Three players marking your right winger means you’ve got three players not somewhere else on the pitch, which creates space. Arsenal need to know and exploit that.

Newcastle will threaten us through Isak and Gordon, both of whom I think are quality players and can take chances if afforded them, so Ben White and Saliba will have their work cut out with Gordon and Gabriel/Saliba need to win the battle with Isak. Of course they have other players like Barnes and if he plays wide left then Gordon will move right and it’ll be Timber who needs to have his number. Barnes is a quality player too so it feels like it’s shaping up to be a midfield battle, with Newcastle’s answers coming from that front three. In response, our front three have to show their quality and deliver some end product. That wasn’t something we were able to do last season and it was a really poor game from The Arsenal overall. My hope is that we give a better account of ourselves because last season they just shut us down by stopping us in build up from the back and if I remember rightly we only had one or two shots on goal in the whole game. We have slightly different personnel this time around and hopefully that physicality (Partey instead of Jorginho, Havertz playing up top to put a duel winner in Merino in to the midfield, for example) can serve us better than last season.

As usual it’s a mixed bag with the pundits; Sutton’s going for a 1-1, Sports Mole is saying 2-1 us, Merse is backing us for a 2-1, Goal has gone for Arsenal to win but not predicted the score and Jones Knows on Sky has gone 1-0 to The Arsenal too. So the general consensus is us, with a few outliers. I can understand that; Newcastle haven’t won in their last five, they have a few key defensive players out, they haven’t been scoring too much but also haven’t been conceding, so this has all the hallmarks of a low scoring affair I suspect. Let’s just hope that we get that first goal, because it may open up Newcastle a bit.

This will be tough, it will be a bruising lunchtime encounter, but i’m crossing everything that we get the job done. We probably need to, because a defeat and we’re probably staring down the barrel of outsiders looking in on the title race. But let’s not end my musings today on negativity, because a win for The Arsenal, and suddenly things are looking very rosy indeed.

Catch you all tomorrow.

I don’t know why I still get triggered by lazy journalism, but I do, falling victim to shoddy ‘takes from so-called professionals not once, but twice in the last 12 hours. First it was Charlie Wyatt on Sky Sports last night, who described Mikel Merino as a ‘defensive midfielder’ who apparently plays in the six and will sit alongside Declan Rice, which as you and I both know is just all kinds of wrong. Merino played 45 times last season for Sociedad, his heatmap showed a guy plying more in the attacking third and as a left eight. Yes, he wins his duels, but he ain’t no six, Charlie-Boy. Neither has Rice been playing there either for a while; you probably have to go back to March(ish) to see Rice operating there, as he finished our season as a left eight.

Then it was Louis Saha that I read about this morning, talking about how we have no chance of winning the league because we don’t have a 20-goal-a-season striker like City do. Yawn. We scored 91 goals last season without a supposed ‘number nine’ and on top of that Gabriel Jesus was injured for a big chunk of it, so to dismiss our title chances because of comments like that just feel ham-fisted, if you ask me.

I should probably just ignore the opinions of idiots, but there you go, sometimes I get suckered in.

The good news is that there is football on the horizon and today we’ll get Mikel Arteta’s thoughts ahead of the game against Villa tomorrow. The team will most likely be travelling tomorrow in the morning to get up there for the 5.30pm kick off, but regardless of when they go, I suspect Mikel will want to get his press conference sorted sooner rather than later, so he can make his final preparations before what invariably feels like a tough game for his side in the Midlands. He’ll be asked about Merino, who it is widely reported will be an Arsenal player after agreement between the clubs for a fee around £32.6million, but he’ll bat away any comments until an official announcement is made I suspect. Merino will have to do a medical, there will be pictures taken, etc, so I suspect this will be a Sunday or Monday announcement that we’ll get, meaning he’ll be around for the Brighton game in a week’s time. But the conversation will focus on a fellow Spaniard in Unai Emery and I hope we get another press conference masterclass from Mikel that has us excited for tomorrow.

The key for me is team news though, in which I wonder whether he’ll give any thoughts on Calafiori and Timber in the left back spot. I doubt it, because he never gives that much detail away, but for me I’m more looking at what the situation is with regards to availability. Even on Saturday last weekend after the game Arteta said that they needed to change it in the second half when Wolves started to come at us a little more and I wonder if Timber’s cameo has given Arteta enough to change it against what will be a fast and tricky wide player in Leon Bailey. More on the team news tomorrow I think, but ahead of the game itself I did a little saunter in behind enemy lines this morning as I like to do to get the vibe from Villa fans as to how they are feeling ahead of this clash. It’s fair to say on the basis of what I’ve read there is a bit of a mixture on this one. A few of them are talking about a title challenge, but there’s an equal proportion who recognise we’re a good team and it will be a tough game. There’s a few who are doing the usual ‘banter’ and of course there are some  saying “we were the better team home and away” which is the usual blinkers, but I do think we will recognise the threat they pose. But as I’ve said already this week and will say again tomorrow: we have to take our chances. We were better than them home and away last season – the numbers show that – but we have to be able to finish our dinner. I’m sure they’d love a repeat of last season at Villa Park and their rapid start, so hopefully Arteta will be reminding his team of that today and tomorrow pre-game.

Pundit and predictions-wise most of the mainstream sites are going with either a draw or an Arsenal win, which you’d expect given the expectation of us competing for the title, but as I’ll talk a little more about tomorrow, I am not as optimistic given the Emery hoodoo and the fact that Villa have shafted us a few times over the last few seasons. But we’re in good shape, we appear to have a relatively clean bill of health and hopefully after Arteta’s press conference this morning there will be a little more excitement about us potentially avenging what happened up there last season.

If you want some bonus reading, here’s an article on the official site with Ben White talking about last weekend and the ambitions for the team this season. I like his understated confidence when he talks of the capability of his teammates on obtaining perfection. Of course we all know it is unlikely, but the focus of these Arsenal players is something that you can hear in their words; White talked about how pre-season was a different vibe and it really feels as though these group of players have their game faces on for this season. They have to do it on the pitch, obviously, but it really does feel as though they are all very aligned in how they need to perform, behave, work together, to achieve the goals they set this season. It’s very exciting.

Right, that’s me done for the day, as I have a half day before heading off to Portugal to sit in the sun for a week. Have yourselves a lovely Friday and I’ll be back tomorrow for my usual ramblings.

Laters peeps.

I think i’ll do a few days in which I’ll take a look at the team by on-pitch section, so today I thought I’d have a think about defenders, i.e. what went well, what went wrong, what we might look at for next season.

I think if you’re going to do some kind of grading system, the back line would absolutely be getting an A* from most Arsenal fans. The numbers speak for themselves: most clean sheets in the season is nothing to be sniffed at and the fact we were even able to get to the final day still in with a shout feels to me as though it was mainly in part down to our back line.

At the end of last season it was our defence that cost us; you can’t concede the amount of goals that we conceded and just expect to outscore your rivals. It just doesn’t work. It didn’t under Kevin Keegan in the 90s and it doesn’t work today. Our back line and defensive set up is the reason we have been so good and when you consider the turnaround from 2022/23, it really is quite a remarkable feat.

But what is it down to?

David Raya in between the sticks

I was a sceptic, I still don’t think he’s made that much of a difference (i’ll explain why in a sec), but there’s no doubt that he’s been a calming factor in some areas. I love Ramsdale, I was sad to see that Arteta had no intention of following through on his comments about having two number one goalkeepers, but the way Raya claims crosses and seems so composed at times has been brilliant and I’m sure pivotal in calming those in front of him. I didn’t think he was enough of an upgrade on Ramsdale and I’m still not 100% convinced, but he’s our ‘keeper and he gets my full backing and support and has done whenever he’s been in between the sticks and as we go in to next season.

Saliba staying fit

This is one of the big factors, I think, and I’m sure you guys have seen some of the numbers floating around as to the fact he’s played every minute of the Premier League this season. He’s been immense; his ability to win ground duels, the fact he’s bossed the likes of Haaland this season, as well as the way he strides out of defence with the ball that enables us to disrupt the positioning and press of other teams, has had a huge impact. We all said it last season – that losing him could have cost us the title – but when you have other players saying it as well as he himself stating it, it shows just how important a cog he is in this team. But he isn’t the only one in that back line, because…

Gabriel is a man mountain

If Saliba is the cultured defender who strides and glides so gracefully, Gabriel is the muscle. But to simply label him as that would be a massive disservice to this footballer, because he has become imperious alongside his French teammate. He’s a lot quicker than people would think, he absolutely LOVES a duel, but also he’s a good passer of the ball too. I can remember countless times this season in which he’s played vertical passes in to the likes of Trossard, Martinelli or Havertz and I think that part of his game probably gets overlooked a fair bit. He’s a great footballer for us and I am so glad that nonsense at the start of the season was cleared up quickly, because I have no doubt in my mind that without him we wouldn’t have achieved nearly as much defensive stability. In fact, I’d go as far to say that he was our best defender this season. Last season Saliba blew our minds, but this season I feel like Gabriel has risen to the challenge and then some.

Ben White – Mr underrated

I love him, you love him, every Arsenal fan loves him. Quiet, unassuming, durable and such an adaptable footballer. It’s because of Ben White that if we did lose Saliba to injury next season, I’d feel absolutely fine about having him fill in. He could just as quickly adapt and become a top class centre half again, even though he’s been playing two season’s as a full back. When he’s fit and firing – and post Dubai that was definitely the case – his link up with Odegaard and Saka is phenomenal. I can’t picture specific moments, but repeatable moments; I’m sure you too could envisage White overlapping Saka which then creates space for Saka to either cut in, or feed him to put a ball in. The only sad bit of the season was his miss at Bayern to make it 2-0 to us but he’s a full back, so I don’t think anybody was digging him out too much with that miss. At everything else he excels.

Rice to form the perfect triangle

I think that the real reason above all that we are so good defensively is Rice acting as that screen in front of Saliba and Gabriel. Don’t get me wrong, those two are amazing, but the amount of block tackles that Rice has made to stop the ball even coming to a situation where our centre halves are stretched is, I think, a reason we also have such a low quality of shoit against us (and therefore the best xG against of any team in the league). That triangle of Gabriel, Saliba and Rice is immense. Long may that triangle stay fit, for sure.

This defence is brilliant. I love it. I just pray they all stay fit, because if we can get that level of consistency for next season and those key players can stay fit throughout the duration not to mention the hope that Jurrien Timber bangs for us, the hope is that once again we’ll be a force to be reckoned with.

Back tomorrow with some thoughts on the midfield.

Catch you all then.

Pre game I was nervous. I’ll hold my hands up to that. I didn’t know what kind of Chelsea we’d be up against. Pochettino said beforehand Palmer would be missing, that Gusto wouldn’t be there and that Chilwell wasn’t fit.

I’ve heard that story before. John Stones was ‘out’ at the Etihad. He made the bench.

Hwang couldn’t possibly play more than 45 for Wolves last weekend. He got 60 minutes I think.

I thought Poch was playing a fast one and I – being the eternal pessimist (I can’t help it, sorry) – thought to myself “here we go. Last minute winner from one of those ‘injured’ players to break our hearts. We all know it”.

The pre match chatter was about the gents assembled with me saying “stop it. We’ve got this”.

And I really should have more faith you know, because Mikel Arteta and his players – the same players that I thought looked shattered on Saturday – delivered the kind of performance that makes you dream of something special at the end of the season.

Yes, as it turns out, this was a Chelsea team shorn of a few key players. And yes, it was a Chelsea team that defensively looked ragged throughout, but in that first half with a few chances they showed that on the counter this is still a Chelsea team that you need to be mindful of. They have pace and they create chances and despite the fact that I thought we were worthy of at least (minimum) a two goal cushion at halftime, there was still the worry of that same threat in the second half that thankfully, never really materialised.

But let’s start back at the beginning, which is Arteta’s team selection, which I thought was brilliant. Tomiyasu was in to counter any potential wide-forward threat. Partey would sit in the six and let Rice roam at left eight. And Trossard would be rewarded for his good form in front of goal by keeping Martinelli out in that wide left position.

Every decision was right. Tomiyasu was imperious. There were questions from a couple of the gents I had a chat with on the concourse at halftime about Partey, but I thought he looked more like his old self after some rusty cameos. He was moving the ball well, winning some duels, dictating from deep and he helped to contribute towards an authoritative Arsenal performance that had the hallmark of a serious team fighting for the serious honours.

I said in the morning yesterday that I thought we needed an early goal to control the narrative and that is exactly what we got. Within 10 minutes we were one up and it was Leo once again delivering with his excellent form in front of goal. We should probably question the ‘keeper a little bit being beaten at his near post, but screw it, we deserved it and although there were a few jangly nerves that we were creating chances and not getting that second, what we weren’t to know in that first half was that this Arsenal team had another gear to go against a Chelsea side who knew they were beaten as soon as the second goal went in.

And in that second half we didn’t have to wait too long to get that buffer, with Ben White unmarked and the coolest of finishes you’ll see form a full back,

As we all know now though, that was just the warm up for the second half. Havertz’s finish over the onrushing Chelsea ‘Keeper on 57 feels like a goal I’ve seen from him before in an Arsenal shirt (Brighton maybe?) and the. To bag his second to start the ramp up on goal difference on 62 was just brilliant. But we all know the team wasn’t done and Benny White White White sent us all in to raptures with 70 minutes on the clock.

And I’ll admit something to you, I was wanting a sixth and I’m not 100% happy we didn’t get it. I remember watching Wenger’s 1000th game, feeling that pain and humiliation in our failure, and I wanted to banish those demons. Selfish I know, but it felt like we could have got more and a little part of me is sad that we didn’t.

But that part is microscopic, because for this Arsenal team to go in to this game, with the pressure and fatigue of playing four games in 10 days, then delivering that performance? That was brilliant.

Bravo Arteta. Bravo those Arsenal players.

So here we are. Four points clear. Yes City have games in hand. Yes they will probably still win it. And yes we will have an infinitely harder game this coming weekend against the Scum. But by George we’ve given ourselves a fantastic platform to be in with a shout towards the final dregs of this season.

That’s another smashing of a team as well and when we all think back to December and how we didn’t seem to be clicking in attack, it feels like another lifetime ago, eh? I saw a stat today that said this was our sixth win of 5-0 or more this season and only Man City in 2019/20 have managed more on seven for the season. This is massive. We now have the best goals scored in the league, the best defence in the league, we have a goal difference which is +12 on Man City and as opposed to years gone by when that has felt like an extra point in itself for City, we are the ones who are holding that particular trump card. By all rights you’d be looking at this table and saying Arsenal are the best team in the league. But as we all know that counts for nought because it’s all based on points and if City win their remaining games then there is little we can do about it. But we have set ourselves up in such a good position. All we all ever wanted was to show that we can compete to the death and regardless of happens this weekend or for the remainder of the season, we shouldn’t take it away from Arteta and his team that they have enabled us to do just that. 

I could wax lyrical all day. There were performances all over the pitch and I’m coming to the end of today’s blog and haven’t even mentioned the best player on it: Martin Odegaard. This kid has hit his peak form at the perfect time. I just hope he can deliver like that on Sunday against The Scum. We’re gonna need it.

Back tomorrow with some more musings. Over to you, Liverpool.

Dedication. Determination. Tomiyasu pic.twitter.com/2Q6kGZWNza

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) March 20, 2024

We all love Tomi, I think that’s a given, so getting him to extend his stay with us is great. But perhaps it is a mark of some of the challenges he’s had since joining us, the deal itself is only an additional year extension. Clearly the player wants to stay and extending that was his priority, but I wonder how that conversation went, when Arsenal only offered him an additional one year extension? Does it benefit both parties and therefore it made sense for everyone? If you are Tomiyasu and his agent and you want to stay at Arsenal and secure a longer-term future, then perhaps you do this as a gesture of “ok we’ll sign, but we want an option”? If I was in Tomiyasu’s shoes that’s what I’d be wanting. An additional year added to the contract clearly feels like the club might have said to him “we love you, we want to keep you, but we need to have a consistent run of staying fit in order to give you that longer-term contract. Show us you can be available for 35 – 40 games in a 50 game season and we’ll give you what you want”. And I think that’s probably fair enough. If you look at his injury history he’s missed 14 games and 72 days for us so far this season. Last season it was 16 games and 107 days and the season before that it was 11 games and 60 days. In his last season at Bologna he missed 10 games and 47 days, so we’re talking about a guy who does seem to break down at least once a season, so it feels natural that Arsenal wouldn’t tie him down to a deal in which we have a player who as he gets older, is probably not going to suddenly find himself able to shake off more of these injuries.

It’s a shame because he has been so good for us when he has been fit and available. When he signed for us everyone said he couldn’t play as a right back and I think it was one of those soppy Sky Sports ‘transfer gurus’ who said that people in the game didn’t understand why Arsenal were paying that money for a guy who doesn’t play right back. He came in, he excelled at right back, then it was only because he was injured that we moved Ben White to that position that he lost his place. Tomiyasu is a hard-working, strong-tackling, dual-winning, versatile defender who I would rather see us keep than offload this summer because he’d have just a year on his deal. BUt by extending for one more year we can at least park the conversation for another season and give him the chance to show he can stay fit for longer.

If he remains side-lined for something like another 15 – 20 matches next season, then the club have a decision to make in the summer of 2025, but if he plays and contributes and is available for Arteta for most of 2024/25, then it makes sense that we’d look to potentially move him on.

There’s also the emergence of Timber too, that we’re hoping for. If Jurrien comes in, is robust and stays fit, then it may feel natural that he is seen as a successor to Tomiyasu – if the Japanese international does break down again – so Arsenal extending by one year protects the players value, shows that we ideally want to keep him around, but also means that if he finds himself in a position where his chances are limited by next summer, both club and player can find a solution that works for both parties.

But that’s another year away and for now let’s just be glad that another good player who makes an impact in this Arsenal team has signed up to this ‘project’. The players are clearly loving what is happening at the club at the moment and in the last year all of the key players have been committing their future to the club, which is a positive example that is showing we’ve been moving in the right direction. We all know that, but it was about 10-15 years ago when we’d see players start to look elsewhere when their contract starts to run down, but that doesn’t really feel like it’s been a big thing for us now. We have the money, we have the set up,. we have the coaching staff that have proved they can improve players, all we need now is the trophies to start building a legacy. That last bit is never guaranteed, especially when you look at the juggernauts we’re up against, but it feels like we’re ideally placed to have a proper go. And Arteta is the kind of ruthless winner that makes you think that he will not relent until he’s added to that FA Cup he won in 2020 and the couple of Community Shield’s we have.

Just before I wrap up today, as we are now finding out from the press, it seems as though the truth is emerging about the Ben White situation and it doesn’t make England or Gareth Southgate look very good at all. I think most of us knew that something was fishy and I thought as much when I talked about this last weekend. Southgate has clearly lied through his teeth; I also saw the video of his interview during the last World Cup when he spoke about the situation and it was clear that he was both uncomfortable and unwilling to reveal the true nature of what had happened. That’s because his mate Steve Holland had clearly crossed a professional line by calling out White in front of his fellow professionals and I think we all know by now that what he has supposedly said to White smacks of arrogance. The current England set up is stale and dwindling; it is full of Southgate and his ‘mates’ which includes certain players that shouldn’t be in the squad and the sooner he exits after the summer the better. And if he takes the United job then all the more hilarious.

I don’t particularly want to talk about England any more though, to be honest with you. We back our lad Ben and Holland/Southgate can ‘do one’ as far as I am concerned.

Catch you all tomorrow.

Firstly and most pleasingly, there was the announcement that he’s signed a new contract at The Arsenal. Much like Aaron Ramsdale, this contract announcement got a really nice and heartfelt video where his teammates talked about him and what he brings to the club:

Benjamin White, as told by his team-mates pic.twitter.com/2O3pcUJu70

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) March 14, 2024

When I first watched it I thought “ahh, that’s nice. Lovely to see. Then the official site had a nice little interview which you can see here, as well as the usual pictures and text which is here. We’ve known about it for a while, I think Romano tweeted about it ages ago, but the club finally announced it and we can all be glad. But it was only until later on in the day that many started to conclude that this was a very rehearsed and precise reason why the announcement was made yesterday, because on the same day Gareth Southgate announced his England team and spoke specifically about the Ben White situation. We all know he left for ‘personal reasons’ in 2022 and there wasn’t much coming out at that time, although there have been a few stories around that time talking about a bust up. Depending on who you read and believe, it was because either he had a bust up with Grealish, or that he had a bust up with England Coach Steve Holland. The story seems to go in a couple of directions but two prevailing theories are:

• Steve Holland argued and questioned Ben White because of the fact he said he doesn’t watch football
• Steve Holland argued because Ben White didn’t watch the preparation training videos, because Ben White thought they were pointless and he was being targeted in the squad.

I suspect as always there is a little truth and a little embellishment in these stories, but I find it very off that a player of White’s calibre, who Arteta absolutely loves, would refuse to do any background research because he doesn’t care or because he just can’t be arsed. Firstly, if that attitude was displayed at any time whilst playing for Arsenal, I think we all know that Ben White would get the Aubameyang treatment from Arteta. This is a manager who values the ‘estandards’ and the drive and determination more than anyone else. I bet Arteta is even stricter with his players on knowing all the details. So for Ben White to do that at England level seems like a bit of a joke to me. Here’s Ben White talking about how he cried when he got his England call up. This isn’t a man who doesn’t care. This isn’t a man who won’t do everything in his power to play for England. Heck, this is a man who plays through injury, has been described as a warrior and for anyone to question his integrity as a professional should be ashamed of themselves.

Something is fishy here. I smell some bullsh*t and I don’t think it’s coming from Ben White.

This is coming from Gareth Southgate and his camp. Here’s his interview he did in full, which includes the context of the way the question was asked and I will say to Southgate’s credit, he didn’t instigate the discussion. He was asked specifically about Ben White and so he responded. But there are ways of responding. He played the magnanimous manager card and said “the door is always open”, but what he could have said was “the door is always open, but for now he continues to not be available to us and I don’t want to discuss what is a personal matter”. But instead he decided to go in on how he had a call from Edu, told that White didn’t want to be considered, etc. Clearly what Southgate is trying to do is put this all on Ben White and focus the attention on it being his decision. But why would a guy who has openly admitted he was desperate to play for England, suddenly decide that he doesn’t want to be selected?

Southgate refuted claims that there was an issue with Steve Holland, but having watched what he was saying again this morning, I am going to 100% say that I do not believe that Southgate was telling the truth. He is defending his coaching team and doubling down on that, which you’d expect him to, but by name checking Steve Holland too, it seems to me that this is fairly obvious that something has happened with that coach, which leads you to start re-looking at the above and when you again think about Ben White at The Arsenal, it feels like this has everything to do with Steve Holland. Gareth Southgate is telling porkies and Ben White is the victim, because now all of the headlines today are about Ben White snubbing England. It hits his own image and Southgate has been the instigator of it. So now we see why Arsenal went in to bat for their man and we saw the lovely media that went on the website on the same day Southgate decided to try to torch Ben White and his reputation, all the while playing the “no issue from us, he’s always welcome” spiel.

Screw Gareth Southgate. Screw Steve Holland. Ben doesn’t need you because he has an army of Arsenal fans behind him and we’ll back our lad all day long.

The up side is that White gets time with his friends and family and he’ll also get more time to prep for this intense period we’re about to go through. If we get time to rest up Ben and have him on full power for the last couple of months of the season, happy days, as far as I’m concerned.

I’ll leave it there for today I think. Back tomorrow with some more Arsenal musings no doubt. You guys have a good one.

For me I think this is the right thing to do. He’s a player who is great in the duels (and we know how much Arteta loves it when you win a duel), can play both flanks and for Japan has also operated as a centre half. One of the things that has become consistent in Arteta’s kind of defender is their versatility and I think Tomiyasu has certainly shown that. He absolutely pocketed Salah last season at The Emirates and were he fit at Anfield this season I’d have put some money on the Japanese defender to have started in that game too.

It’s that sentence that will have a few Arsenal fans questioning, however, the deal itself. I think nearly all the Gooners I have spoken to think Tomiyasu is a great player for us and we all love him. When he arrived at the club it completely changed our right back situation and then when we lost him to injury there was a void there. But since he’s joined he’s never really been able to shake off those persistent knocks and injuries and the fact he went away with Japan, played most of their games, then came back to us crocked, personally didn’t look great for me. Since he signed for the club, according to Transfermarkt, he’s picked up four separate injuries with us, totalling 225 days, which is 38 games that he’s missed in total. That’s in three season’s and effectively means he’s missed about a quarter of a season every year. His injury record before he joined us also wasn’t impeccable and that’s why if there was an Arsenal fan who was questioning his long-term viability as a regular in this Arsenal team, I could understand it.

But perhaps Arteta and Arsenal are just learning to adapt by building him in as a squad player. Ben White is pretty much recognised now as our first choice right back and with Zinchenko and Timber also able to operate in that left back role, Tomiyasu’s versatility means that whilst he’s not always fit, when he is fit, he’s not relied on like when he first signed as our number one guy in any position. And when I think of it like that, I can make peace with him signing a new deal and for us keeping him around. If he’s a player that Arteta trusts and he keeps delivering when he is fit, then it’s fine with me.

There’s also been some noises about Ben White on the verge of signing a new deal too, which to me would be another great move that Arsenal are doing to tie down a core set of players on long contracts. in the last 12 – 18 months we’ve done Gabriel, Saliba, Tomi when done, Ben White when done, Odegaard, Rice is on a five year deal, Havertz too, with Martinelli having signed and Saka as well. The core of this team is stable and I think the next big question that will be on Arsenal’s minds is what to do with Gabriel Jesus and Zinchenko. I think both have three year’s to go at the end of this season and whilst that isn’t something to be too concerned with, if their respective injury problems persist in to next season, they might be the only ones who Arsenal might be thinking about moving on from. Arteta talks about how Gabriel Jesus “changed our world” when he signed and we all saw how Zinchenko flipped our thinking of how a left back operates, but let’s not pretend that Arteta won’t be ruthless if he has to be. He loved KT when he signed but he has slowly been phased out to the point at which I haven’t heard an Arsenal fan really talk about him in any detail for about a year. Ramsdale signed a new deal a year ago and now he seems destined for the exit. Arteta is constantly looking to upgrade and improve this squad and we all know that the club are looking for a striker in the summer. If Gabriel Jesus can’t stay fit for long enough then you just know Arteta will move on from him, regardless of how much he loves the player.

Perhaps that was already meant to happen this season with Timber and Zinchenko? Had Jurrien not picked up that horrible injury right at the start, he might already be a regular there. Zinchenko was missing for the first game of the season against Forest and in came Timber at left back without a thought. He was good in that first half, too, having played so well in the Community Shield, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see that the next time Zinchenko picks up a longer term injury, he finds his path blocked to the starting XI by the likes of Timber. Or maybe even Kiwior? His form of late is such that I have absolutely no problem with him keeping his place and, in fact, I hope he does. You keep playing like that, son, and the jersey is yours to the end of the season. You just need to keep up your end of the bargain by keep on putting in those great performances you’ve been doing.

Isn’t it just amazing to be able to have these conversations though? Rather than wishing players fit, we’re simply allowing others to step up and improve the overall depth of the squad. I love it and long may it continue, because that will foster the kind of winning mentality that gets you the big prizes at the end of the season.

Anyway, there’ll most likely not be a press conference until tomorrow, so I think I’ll put a pause in today’s ramblings and come back to you tomorrow, with a more in depth look at how our opponents for the weekend – Brentford – are shaping up.

Have a good one.

How optimistic are you that we might see Bukayo Saka on the pitch tomorrow, eh? A bit more optimistic than a couple of days ago I’ll bet. That’s because we’ve started to hear some whisperings that he might be ok from Sunday, with even Mikel Arteta admitting that he is ‘in contention’ to play against the champions. Then yesterday I saw a few journos in the afternoon and evening say that he’d been cleared to play, that the club had been speaking to England as well about managing his minutes, so you have to assume that we might at least see him in the squad for tomorrow.

And given that we’re already more than likely to be missing Martinelli, who I don’t think has trained yet and so must be pretty unlikely to feature, that is a morale boost, for sure. The question will remain on how able he is to play from the start. I always find that a little bit of a weird one though, because when you have a player who has been playing so regularly, then surely it is a little more black and white than Saka being named on the subs bench. Players coming back from longer injuries will of course need time to get up to speed and if you look at Partey, or maybe even Martinelli, then if they’ve missed three or four weeks+ of training and matches then they probably do need to be eased in. But Bukayo has been playing in most matches as we all already know. So physical fitness to cope for an entire 90 minutes shouldn’t be the problem. The problem comes if he isn’t ready because he is still experiencing discomfort/pain caused by limping off on Tuesday. If he is, then the club need to take the difficult decision to just not have him involved at all. And if that happens then you have to be looking at those two England games and agreeing that he should be nowhere near at least one of them; the friendly against Australia he should not even be getting his tracksuit on.

But that’s England and that’s next weekend. This weekend all eyes are on the second toughest fixture of the season for us domestically, the first being Oil Whores FC on their own ground. And for us it is even harder than other sides as well, as we have one of the worst records against City in the Premier League and certainly the worst of all of the ‘Big Six’ clubs. No win since 2015, 15 losses out of 16 against City, including 12 in a row in which we’ve been defeated. Arteta was asked about that in his press conference yesterday and although he dismissed the psychological impact of so many defeats to them, citing different players playing over that period, there’s no doubt in my mind that there is a big psychological barrier for us to overcome tomorrow. He also dismissed it as a ‘season defining’ game and although it is in the interests of the broadcasters to make that the case, I have to agree with him on that one. We are seven games in to the season and after tomorrow there is another 30 to go. I doubt that this game tomorrow will define our whole season, but what it will do is reconfirm that we’re not ready to compete for the title just yet given some of the changes that have happened to the team since last season. We’ve all talked about how we haven’t quite clicked yet, we had a disappointing away result in midweek against Lens and I’ve even been saying since the summer that I think this is going to be more difficult for us to compete in the same way we did last season, because of those extra Champions League games. So to me whilst I don’t think tomorrow is season defining, I would agree that talk of the title should probably just be pushed so far down the discussion topics if we pick up yet another defeat to them tomorrow.

He was asked about other players like Partey and Rice specifically and as you’d expect, he was pretty positive on both. He’s ‘ahead of schedule’ according to the manager and I suspect we will definitely see him tomorrow in some capacity. Arteta confirmed he’s in the squad but the big question – a line-up one – will be on whether he is fit enough to start tomorrow. If the answer is ‘yes’ then it could be very big for us.

Equally important is somebody like Ben White and as good as Tomiyasu is, White is clearly the best right back we have at the club. Arteta described him as a ‘fighter’ and there’s no doubt that’s a pretty accurate desctiption of him. He seems to be so unfazed by everything, quite laid back, yet when he’s on the pitch he is a beast. You could see from the Lens game just what he adds compared to Tomi in an attacking and overlapping sense and there was one overlap Tomi made on Tuesday that he got in behind, but his cross in wasn’t the best. I remember thinking to myself “Ben White finds an Arsenal player there I think” and that is testament to just how much he has developed in that right back slot. He really doesn’t get enough praise; he’s quite an unsung hero at the club but any Arsenal fan you speak to about Ben White, we’re all telling you about just how brilliant he is.

There was a little bit on Pep that I thought was interesting too, where Mikel was asked whether Pep can still surprise him. He cited last season’s efforts at playing Bernardo Silva as a left back as one, but I think the way they also went long against us at the Etihad could also be shown as an example on how flexible and adaptable Guardiola is as a coach. He will shift anything around to find a solution to the opponent he faces. I’m sure with some teams lower down the league there is an element of ‘we’re just better than them, let’s just play our game’ and because of that, those teams are more likely to be able to cause an upset over City compared to us; Pep will have a very unique gameplan to play against Arteta’s Arsenal ahead of the match tomorrow, as opposed to playing away at a Forest, Wolves or West Ham, for example. So we need to be mindful of that, Arteta needs to be mindful of that, and be prepared to change it in-game as well. Let the 3D chess commenceth tomorrow at 4.30pm.

And from me for today I shall call a halt to my tapping away. Back tomorrow with more of a match preview, some thoughts on my preferred line up, as well as trying to work out how the hell we beat this City side.

Catch you all tomorrow.

The only thing that stopped it from being a real ‘iconic’ weekend however, was the game that happened between the Scum and the Scousers, but the best possible result (both teams lose) was impossible and so there was variations of disappointment that were going to be inevitable. The way in which the media love in continues for the Scum is interesting given the helping hand they were offered yesterday by VAR and a card-happy referee, but this morning I am choosing to see it in a similar way to my Arsenal going pal Dave who wrote:

https://x.com/TrueStorey_No4/status/1708236005558362378?s=20

Very true indeed. So if they are getting excited about conditions like this falling their way, much like they did last weekend in the North London Derby (Rice injured at halftime anyone? Arsenal missing Martinelli and Trossard as attacking options for those games?), then perhaps it isn’t so bad that we saw Liverpool lose. They look to be a far greater threat to us than Them and with that being the case, let’s just be pleased that a defeat to Liverpool delivers them more dropped points. As for VAR, well, what more can be said that hasn’t already been said online in various discourses? That we are once again having to see apologies from VAR for not even checking clearly onside goals is scandalous. That it wasn’t called back as a goal is crazy. That the PGMOL have had to come out and explain that both referee and VAR in Stockley Park thought the other had said something different (VAR thought they’d said that the on-field decision was a goal, not an offside, which is what the on-field officials ruled) is criminal. And I’m not buying it for a second. I could say so much about this but we’re here to talk up The Arsenal so let’s park it for now and focus on the good stuff.

And wasn’t it good yesterday, eh? In the morning I had genuine concerns about whether this could be a banana skin. I know Bournemouth are languishing towards the bottom and I know they are having trouble scoring goals, but we had a mini injury crisis going on and when you look at who they have played so far, it hasn’t exactly been the easiest of starts. Yet the first wave of relief came in an hour before kick off as Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka were both fit to start and that meant that the team Arteta picked was almost as strong as we could have hoped for given long term absentees. Saliba was also good to start and as we hit kick off the confidence started to kick in after the first six or seven minutes. There was a couple of early misplaced passes in those early exchanges, but from about minute six onwards it was pretty much Arsenal in control from thereon in. And when yo start to see how we popped the ball around, controlled possession and moved what was a high line Bournemouth about, it was great to see us take a relatively early opportunity too. Fantastic work from Odegaard to float one in at the back post, a good header that was unlucky to hit the bar from Gabriel Jesus, followed by the easiest awkward header tap-in from Saka to get us on our way.

We dominated the opening half in terms of possession, but still had a couple of half-chances that almost threatened to turn in to something for Bournemouth but as soon as Eddie broke in to the box and saw Aarons swipe at him, you knew that once Odegaard converted (which he did) then penalty, then it would be very difficult for Bournemouth to come back from two down. They’ve struggled for goals this season and we’ve also looked pretty assured away from home in the league, so as halftime hit I was pretty confident that we should be able to pick up our fifth win of the season in the league.

And in to the second half we only had to wait eight minutes before the third goal was dropped. I have absolutely no idea why Christie was sliding in as he did on Odegaard in the box like that – it was as stonewall a penalty as you’re ever going to see. But then the unexpected happening which was also lovely – Odegaard telling Saka to give the ball to Kai Havertz to slot it away for his first of the season. Arteta referenced it afterwards, as did Declan Rice, but that was a wonderful gesture from a collective and a team that are clearly very united as a group and it’s wonderful to see. Him getting off the mark gets the monkey off his shoulder and that means that there will be less people focusing in on the zeros of goals and assists and hopefully means he can start to find a little bit of form. The away fans sung his new song for about 10 minutes and that too will have helped. I also thought his performance was better too, even before he slotted the penalty away, as he found pockets of space, made some good runs and was connecting the play well. He’s a good player that has been out of form, but we need him to now step up in to being an elite player. Hopefully we get that guy from Leverkusen back now.

There was also room for more as we saw in stoppage time with Ben White nodding in for what I think is only his second goal for us. Certainly in the Premier League I’m sure it is and it put the gloss on a dominant performance that felt right. I don’t know what it is but 3-0 in itself is a hammering, but it doesn’t feel like a ‘proper’ hammering like 4-0. And away from home too. It was a dominant Arsenal performance despite some questionable refereeing decisions like how Senesi was able to wrestling move Gabriel Jesus to the floor without a booking, but Havertz was booked for his first offence in the first half, but let’s not dwell on that too much. Ultimately Arsenal won, picked up more points and remain unbeaten in all competitions. How long that can last for given an away trip to France and then the toughest fixture of the season against City I don’t know, but it’s good going so far and we have to be happy about that.

A teeny-weeny sour note from yesterday though – Bukayo Saka once again limping off. As soon as that third goal went in Arteta really should have taken Saka off and I think given what unfolded today, he’ll feel the same today when he looks at the match again. He had been limping at the end of the NLD, he hadn’t trained all week according to Arteta, yet he left him on until the 75th Minute. It was the wrong move and it could be costly ahead of the game against the Champions in a week’s time. Let’s just hope Bukayo can rest up and be ready for that game. We need all of our best players available to get anything from that match.

But, like I say, just a teeny weeny note of disappointment on an otherwise wonderful day of sport. Catch you all tomorrow.

Been away from the blog for the last two days on account of a case of food poisoning that I got from a restaurant in London Waterloo on Saturday night. Wiped me out for two days but ready and rocking after what it feels like some mammoth sleeps and recovery that has just taken place. The problem I have from an Arsenal perspective, of course, is that talking about the friendly on Saturday night which I would have done on Sunday morning, is a little old hat now. There’s been plenty of discussions online, in video and on podcasts, that you’ve probably heard it all already. So apologies if I bore you with this first little bit, as I finally got around to watching the game in full yesterday when I was able to get up.

I was worried before I watched the game that this was going to be an Arsenal team who had been ‘found out’ when I saw the score and nothing else. That’s the trouble with placing too much stock in friendlies though. Although last summer was great because we looked so good, I think it meant more because we suddenly saw us play a different style with the likes of Zinchenko and Gabby J, that because that was busted out and we just won all of our games, it felt so different that it felt significant. We are a year later, we played a fellow rival, we adopted a different style by inverting our right back in Timber, plus we conceded two shoddy goals. That’s pretty much it. Had we not have conceded silly goals like that, it wouldn’t have surprised me to see that we played out a draw.

We played within ourselves, popped the ball around well enough, tried to get the ball out wide to Bukayo and Martinelli, then got booted about by United. Lisandro Martinez even picked up a card and it was clear that Ten Haag United tried the ol’ “get stuck in to em lads” mantra. Well that may well happen at the Emirates in September, but they won’t have as lenient a referee and they will have the home support roaring rage if it does, so let’s not expect the exact same outcome.

Barca this Thursday will – hopefully – be a little more about players on the pitch putting in a display for the assembled fan. I would expect it to be more about technical football, ball movement, rather than “let’s see if we can go through Bukayo Saka on rotation today” football. Which is a-ok for me. Again, it is about getting minutes in those legs, of trying different combinations, to see what works and what doesn’t. We do probably need to see Zinczenko though because he hasn’t featured all tour and we’re getting close to the point in which you’d have to say that he isn’t going to be ready for the season opener against Forest. We have the match on Thursday, then Monaco next Wednesday, then it is the Community Shield, although whether he’ll be there or not I’m not sure, because there is the ‘Game 4 Ukraine’ match at Stamford Bridge taking place the day before. It’s one of those ‘former pro’s and celebrities’ matches, but I don’t actually know if he will take part in any way. Perhaps he is still involved in the Community Shield but I wonder if Arteta has said to just focus on that in case there are any distractions? It is kind of a big deal for Zinchenko to be putting on an event with Schevchenko that is going to help so many people in his homeland and we’ve all seen how much the war in Ukraine has impacted players like him. I just had a look at the teams and it looks like the only player currently playing is Mudryk, but I wonder if Zinchenko and Svechenko will also get on the pitch? If so then that would completely rule him out the next day I would have thought and it is probably better that Arsenal allow Zinny to focus on that charity game, but just make sure he doesn’t cause himself any injury concerns.

If that is the case then we’re looking at the Barcelona and Monaco games for him to get any game time in ahead of the kick off against Forest in mid August and when you think about how Tomiyasu, KT and Fabio Vieira’s summer was impacted by not playing all of the games, you have to wonder if that will impact the start to the season for Zinchenko too.

That will also leave a question for Arteta on who plays left back and given that he’s been trying lots of different things this pre season so far, you’d have to say that it all feels very up in the air so far. He started Kiwior at left back in Nurnberg, then it was Tomiyasu against United, so if he plays Tierney there from the start against Barca then it’ll really make me wonder what his plans are in that position for the season. If Timber plays again though, you’d have to say that it must be with a view to playing the inverted full back on the right hand side at the start of the season. That’s what I would do, anyway, because i’d want to get Timber as quickly acquainted with that style of play as possible. It’s great that we can opt for right or left as the inverted full back approach, but there’s no doubt that what Zinchenko gives us at this moment in time is more superior, so perhaps the plan is to give some minutes for that approach, but equally play with both White and another centre half at left back, so we have four big, physical centre halves who can win the aerial duels, have the pace and can be better on one-on-one duels with their marker. It’s an idea that we’ve seen Pep adopt and maybe Arteta fancies at least giving it a go.

It’s worth trying different things if Arteta wants different answers to questions that teams pose our defence, so I’m up for seeing some changes in the next couple of matches. Heck, even if we’re still tinkering for the Community Shield in 13 days time I’d be ok with it. So long as we are very clear in what we need to do by the following week after that and we have everyone knowing exactly what is needed to get those first precious three points.

Catch you all tomorrow.

Today my friends, is one of those days, for sure.

I even fired up my laptop this morning and instead of logging on to the site and starting to type away, I started to go through my work emails, rather than start to think and talk about The Arsenal. But in some respects I am a creature of habit and one of those habits is writing every day (or at least the days in which I’m not hungover/travelling/on holiday and can’t get great access), so here I am.

I actually wish I could just switch off and go for radio silence on all things football, but whilst I can do that from a messaging out on social media, not reading any post match content, videos, pundit views, etc, I can’t escape it in my own head. Yesterday evening I got on the tube to go home and watched an episode of Vikings to pretend that I hadn’t witness the collapse at home that I did from those Arsenal players. I then got home and the Management simply asked “do you want to talk about it?”. My response was to smile, make myself a squash and say “nope”. My phone got put to one side for the evening and we watched a few episodes of the Sky History show Alone and then went to bed. I did my best impression of somebody who is denying an obsession, but throughout the night last night I kept waking up and thoughts about Arsenal and football crept back in. I can try to tell myself that football doesn’t exist after a result like the defeat to Brighton yesterday, but my subconscious will not let me forget and so I had a rubbish night sleep as well. What a great way to start the week.

For Mikel Arteta, the inquest needs to be the start of his week because as he rightly said, they will need to address what went on yesterday. It simply wasn’t good enough and although most of us knew we only had the slimmest of hopes of winning the league anyway, what we needed to see from the players was that they were up for it and were back on form. But yesterday it never happened.

I have to admit to having bad feelings about the game even in the first half. We’d created a few decent chances, but just didn’t take them, but the bad feelings I got about the game wasn’t around the missed chances. It was actually on the way in which we were popping the ball around. Tierney, Odegaard, Jorginho, Xhaka, Saka – all guilty in that first half an hour of misplaced passes or a little bit of sloppiness. It wasn’t the silky and free flowing Arsenal we’ve seen so much this season. We weren’t terrible in the first half, we just weren’t very good, which given how well we did against Newcastle just a week ago, came as a bit of a surprise.

But Brighton didn’t create too much themselves in that first half either. They are very good in possession, they looked tidy enough and we knew this would be a tight game, but in my head I thought “as long as we come out in the second half and take the chances, we might be ok”.

How wrong was I, eh?

We never showed up in that second half. After we went one down you are expecting to see a reaction from the Arsenal players, but there just wasn’t one; it was as if we just had no idea on how to handle a Brighton team missing a number of key players. Tactically there are so many of us who think that Arteta is a very astute guy, but I thought he got it all wrong yesterday. After about 15-20 minutes Brighton switched Mitoma from the right hand side to the left and he got in behind White all day. They played ball after ball in behind White and we did nothing to counter that threat. There wasn’t any support offered, White didn’t drop deeper to negate the space, nothing. Then, at the other end of the pitch Ramsdale hit long ball after long ball towards our front line, which was meat and drink for the Brighton defence. It was, frankly, baffling tactics from a manager who has been so good on that front for most of the season.

Afterwards he said that he apologised, but then said he has to look at himself first and foremost. He will do that, but then he needs to look at the players and there needs to be a frank conversation on Tuesday when they all go in to London Colney. Because that wasn’t a performance befitting of a side trying to challenge for a title. But in reality that title challenge started to fade around the West Ham / Southampton draws, was pretty confirmed after the City defeat, and is now done in all but name. Arteta even said mathematically he knew it wasn’t, but it was a man who knew the jig was up from a title perspective.

Now we need to start planning for next season. Nobody can catch us in second, we can’t catch Man City in first, we might as well start to think about experimenting and we might as well start the process of working out who we cash in on in the summer and who is coming in. I’m sure Arteta and Edu have already been doing that for months, but now that the title is all but finished we can start looking forward instead of putting everything on hold because the focus needs to be on a title charge.

The team has had a good season, we have fallen short at the end, so it’s time to re-evaluate where we are at and start to plan to see how we can improve for next season. We’ll be doing a post-match review on the Same Old Arsenal podcast later tonight at 7.30pm. Join us if you want some group therapy.

Catch you all tomorrow.

I got to Highbury & Islington tube station at around 12.35 – about an hour earlier than I normally do – so I could watch the City versus Liverpool game. What a waste of time that was. I hope the Scousers are that rubbish when they play us, although I think we already know the answer to that one, because they definitely won’t be. But I went along to the pub to catch some of the game anyway and sat there and endured a City performance that made their recent history rivals look like a bunch of school kids, before beveraging myself up ahead of our game at home to Leeds.

“Just do your job, Arsenal, don’t worry about anything else”

That was the mantra pre game and that was the concern: that Arsenal would slip up against an opponent who – at home – they should beat. After all, this season we’ve all been talking about the scars we all still have from seasons past; even last season we fell away in the top four race and this one has even more pressure associated with it. There’s a title up for grabs this time, for Christ’s sake.

But I am projecting my own fears, my own biases and my own worries on to a current crop of Arsenal players who are showing every week that they are capable of handling the pressure of a title race. Yesterday was no exception and whilst the first third of the match was fraught with slight concern that it could be ‘one of those days’, as soon as we got the penalty for the first goal you knew we were on our way in North London on a Saturday.

It was a penalty. I had a few lads around me messaging their mates who told them it was soft, which I kind of understand, but when I watched the replays on match of the day in the evening later that night, you can see that Ayling’s boots catch Gabriel Jesus and when there is contact like that, the player goes down and the ref points to the spot, there’s always going to be one outcome. Not even VAR could properly have a sniff at it.

So to Gabriel Jesus the responsibility fell and his very cool penalty down the middle sent us on our way to another three points. He of all people will have been relieved to get on the scoresheet and now we can tick off that barren run goalscoring drought that a few pundits and fans had talked about, is now a thing of the past. He was to double his tally for the day in the second half with another assist for our Belgian maestro Trossard and you can’t help but think how important those two goals might be for his confidence going in to a run of absolutely critical games for our season in the next month. He was only to last an hour yesterday, but it was a good day at the office for our Brazilian and now we can look ahead to that Liverpool game next Sunday and hope that he can deliver more goals for us now that this particular monkey is off his back.

Let’s give some flowers to Trossard too for the assist for goal number three of the game yesterday. He played well I thought, particularly in the second half and his balance and ability to shift his weight so quickly left and right enables him to find space against defenders and pick out passes that others would not be able to. He’s already got seven assists for us since signing and he is proving to be such an important cog in our machine. He’s been that influential and good that Arteta felt comfortable leaving Saka on the bench from the start yesterday and whilst I thought he was a little quieter in the first half, in the second half he – as well as the rest of the Arsenal team – really turned on the afterburners to pull away from Leeds.

Benjamin ‘Benny Blanco’ White also got himself on the scoresheet with a goal that took a few seconds for me to process that it’d gone in when it rippled the net. I love a goal that goes in off the bar but given the proximity to the goal White was, I think next time I’d prefer it if he could just side foot it right in the middle of the goal. Let’s also give some props to Martinelli for the assist too; it looked like a really good ball to find him and pick him out, but it was only on the replays that you can see what a fine assist it was.

Leeds did cause us to have a few minutes of wobbles with their – somewhat fortunate (took two deflections) – goal, but the fact that we restored our lead just eight minutes after they scored through another Granit Xhaka goal was certainly welcome relief from my perspective.

We looked good. We looked like a side who are fighting for the title. We won our 23rd game of the season and we maintain the eight point lead over City with nine more of those cup finals to go. This was a game that we were expected to win, but the fact that we were able to do it without too much nail-biting during the game is pleasing. By matching City’s scoreline against Liverpool we also managed to keep pace with them on the goal different front too, which is useful, because it feels like we might need that when we get to the last few games.

I’m still not ready to declare us favourites though. Yesterday was a game we should have won and we did. Next weekend we will go to a Liverpool side that will look very different to the appalling display they put on at the Etihad over lunch. We always lose against Liverpool and I’m expecting the same next Sunday, so that eight point lead will probably be cut to five. The buffer will quickly disappear with the way that City are playing right now, but we just need to focus on what we can do as a team, then see what happens elsewhere as a bonus.

For now though it is ‘as you were’ at the top of the league and for that we can be happy.

Catch you all tomorrow.

A bit better than poor ol’ Tomiyasu, who the club confirmed yesterday had undergone surgery on his knee and he will be out for the season. Such a shame. Such a big blow to such a good player, but sadly we’re now in to the territory where we have to start thinking about whether we can rely on him longer term as an option. I listened to the ArsenalVision pod this week and they talked about the robustness and availability of Granit Xhaka. They talked about how whilst some have found him over the years to be frustrating, what you can’t argue is that he is not a player who isn’t always available. The old cliche rings true that the best ‘ability’ is ‘availability’ and I feel sorry for poor ol’ Tomi, because he is a quality player whose body just lets him down.

Sadly for him this isn’t a one off either. He missed the end of last season and the start of this season with a calf injury that meant he didn’t really have a pre season and as a result he wasn’t at full fitness when it all kicked off. Ben White came in to start at right back and never looked back, which restricted Tomiyasu to 11 starts in all competitions all season. It has meant he is no longer considered our best right back and sadly you have to look at this surgery now and wonder what will happen to him for next season, because if he’s just had knee surgery in March now, you’re probably talking about a minimum of six months out, which will take him to mid-to-late September before he’s back up and training again. Without a pre season that will mean it takes him longer to get up to speed, so then you’re probably not talking about seeing the best Tomi until November time at least I reckon. That’s fourth months – just under half – of next season.

We have seen how Arteta made moves to get another left back in because of the challenges KT has had with injury and now you can really understand why the club were so interested in Fresnada from Valladolid because the reality that we have to look at now is that Tomiyasu – as great a player as he is – probably can’t be looked at as a guy that Arteta can rely on for a season in which we will most likely have Champions League football. Tomiyasu is 24 years old and yet he has already missed:

• 12 games this season with his knee injury
• Nine games last season and the beginning of this with calf injury
• 10 games in 2020/21 with muscular problems and a calf injury for Bologna
• Eight games in 2019/20 with a hamstring injury and muscular injury for Bologna

That is, sadly, the mark of an injury prone player and it wouldn’t surprise me to see the club make some harsh decisions on bringing in a replacement in the summer. For now the concern is on who can cover for Ben White if he gets injured and whilst we can all cross our fingers given we only have one competition to play in, the reality is that whilst we’ve worried about Partey and his injury challenges all season, we now have an equally important player in Ben White that we all now need to stay fit. Perhaps we can play a Tierney or Saliba in there, perhaps Reiss Nelson could be given a go, but the reality is that whoever comes in if something happens to Ben White, we will be seeing a massive downgrade on the player who is first choice right now.

Which is why his omission from the England squad might just be the biggest boost for Arsenal that you could possibly get right now. If only Thomas Partey could fall out with his coach! Then we’d have two of our most important players with some time to rest up and recuperate before the intense final 10 game run in.

What we also now need to hope for is that Saliba’s injury isn’t as bad as had been reported by some of the French press, but I don’t suspect we’ll get an update on Wilo. His was a back injury that I suspect the club will just tell to rest up and see if he can get himself better for that Leeds game in 10 days time. At the time of it happening Arsenal reacted quickly to bring him off, Arteta seemed less worried about him than he did Tomiyasu after the Sporting match, plus at 21 you’d hope his body heals quicker, so I’m hoping that we get good news closer to the Leeds game. It’s true we could probably survive without him for that game at home to Leeds, but there’s no way we can expect too much from Holding up against the threat that Liverpool possess. So my hope is that at some stage – probably in a week’s time, we get some ‘Saliba in training’ pics that can put all of our minds at ease.

Just before I wrap up for today’s blog, a quick shout out to the Balogun interviews that he’s done over the last few days. I’ve kind of already said my piece over him and Eddie in a recent blog here so I won’t labour the point too much, but it’s a good video watch if you fancy it here on Sky Sports. There’s also a nice little article by Kaya Kaynak here after he recently sat down with him that is worth a quick read. Always worth digesting a bit of content about a player who has shaken things up in France and will cause really positive headaches for Arteta in the summer.

That’s all I gots for ya today, so have a good one, enjoy whatever it is you are doing with your Wednesday, then I’ll catch thee all tomorrow.

Have a good’un.

When a game ends in dramatic fashion like it did yesterday in North London, then that is the only place to start when you’re trying to explain the situation. The stadium, the noise, the collective bundle of the entire Arsenal coaching staff. The moment that Reiss Nelson’s beautifully struck left foot rippled the back of the net, there was pandemonium. Bodies everywhere. The unscripted hug of complete strangers. The unbridled joy. It was all there. I had given up. I was starting to head for the exit. I was almost out the door too. But “just when I think I’m out THEY PULL ME BACK IN AGAIN!”, as the saying goes.

It was amazing. It was the highest of highs and the joy of that victory will last for some time yet. And the manner of the victory too felt all the sweeter; as I described to Dave when we met afterwards for a drink, it was fitting that the goal was scored in ‘Neto time’, after the Brazilian ‘keeper had time wasted a solid five minutes on his own in that second half. There are some pictures doing the rounds of the Arsenal players celebrating and how so many emotions are on show – Odegaard on the floor, Saliba running off to the corner to kick the flag, Reiss Nelson being the coolest of cucumbers – but it is Ben White’s celebration that I loved the most. Having just been punched in the back of the head by Neto (who was on a yellow card for dissent to the referee in the second half, by the way), he simply turned to him and fist pumped just a yard away. “Have that you cheating bar steward” is what I hoped he was saying.

What we’re all saying this morning is that, eventually, it’s ‘job done’. But we could only say that come the final whistle, because for the vast majority of yesterday’s game, it certainly was not ‘job done’. In fact for almost the entirety of that game – because of the early Bournemouth goal – it was ‘points dropped’. Pre game the discussion was about ‘how many’ rather than whether Bournemouth would get anything from the game. Bournemouth were a side who haven’t scored goals, they’ve leaked goals, so surely with our defence we should be able to shut them out and then see by how many we could win.

But football never works like that. It is not played on statistics and what has come before and Bournemouth caught us stone cold in just nine seconds. The kick off went wide, the ball came in, Gabriel’s leg swing was lazy and Saliba’s peripheral vision didn’t pick up Billing ghosting in at the right time. One down inside the first few seconds and already it felt like it might be ‘one of those days’.

We responded, as you’d expect us to, with an Odegaard shot and Saka on the rebound, within a minute or two of their goal, but after that the stage was set for a low block as Bournemouth frantically set up with a low block and lumping balls forward just to clear their lines. The problem for us was that when they did clear those lines on a couple of occasions, they created chances. There was one counter in that first half that I felt certain was a goal, except Ramsdale came up trumps with a brilliant save to keep the score line from doubling. We huffed, we puffed, we created chances but none of them worked the ‘keeper. At halftime there were 14 attempts on goal for us, but I think we only had two or three of those on target. We had something ridiculous like 85% possession in that first half. It was all one way and you felt that in the second half that would only continue, so the question would be whether we would be able to break down an opponent that was – to their credit – defending well and cutting out balls from out wide by throwing their bodies at everything.

So when they got their second goal, there was just a stunned silence. 57 minutes on the clock and Bournemouth had come here and scored two goals in the Premier League for the first time since a 3-0 win at home to Everton on November 12th. That’s nearly FOUR MONTHS in the league without registering a second goal on the sheet. Yet here they were at the Emirates putting a serious dent in our title chances.

We had dominated the ball, the territory, had more shots and I also thought in that second half before their second goal that we were turning the screw. Yet we were two behind. Then the Arsenal beast really did wake up. The rage really did kick in for those Arsenal players and I think that Thomas Partey goal to bring it back to 2-1 came at a very opportune time. It was five minutes after Bournemouth had doubled their lead and I think if they hold out until 65-70 minutes, then the crowd start to wobble and that has a knock on effect on the players. But by scoring so soon and with still a solid 30 minutes plus ‘Neto time’ to go, there was still time to turn it around, which you could see in how we responded. Ben White, for example, was overlapping Saka more than I’ve seen him all season and clearly with Bournemouth retreated deep in to their own box, the instruction was for a bit more gung-ho in how the players positioned themselves, because the one time Bournemouth got forward after Partey scored was because we committed people forward and Ramsdale had to make a smart save at his near post.

The equaliser was thoroughly deserved and with it going in from White to get his first goal in an Arsenal shirt and there still being another 20 minutes on the clock, the hope was there that we could complete a comeback that looked thoroughly unlikely at 60 minutes.

But as what happens with these low block teams at the Emirates, Bournemouth used every gamesmanship tactic in the book. I’ve already mentioned Neto and his antics, which also included going down with supposed ‘cramp’, before getting up and running towards the referee to remonstrate when he was told to get up after about a minute on the floor, for which he was rightly booked. He should have been sent off for his punch on the back of the head of White, but nothing will come of that, I’m sure. But you can’t as a goalkeeper go down with cramp. I’m sorry, that’s just not on, nor is it true. If his calf really was hurting that much, then he should have been subbed off. But as we know because he then got up and ran towards the referee, it was a ploy to waste time, which was deliciously added on – on top of the six minutes that the referee gave at the end of the game. I’ve seen a couple of other fans of other clubs suggest that playing for over seven minutes on a six minute injury time isn’t fair, but let’s make this right; a Bournemouth player went down ‘injured’ before being able to get up and sprint around in injury time. This was a tactic to spend a solid minute of that six eaten up with no football and we must credit referee Kavanagh for adding on that time that was clearly wasted by the Bournemouth defenders.

And so it came back to bite them, like the most sweetest of sweet bits of karma that you will ever see. The chest from Nelson, the composure to set himself, the left foot half volley and the jubilation at the end. We may not win the title. This may just be one of those amazing memories that ultimately doesn’t play its part in an Arsenal title, but at least we get to have these memories and at least we have collectively got another data point with which to look at this team and recognise they are the real deal.

I haven’t talked too much about individual performances today, nor the squad rotation that Arteta did to mix it up, or even some of the crazy lack of calls from a few penalty incidents that looked a lot clearer to me than the referees, but when you have an ending like that it almost feels a little redundant because games like these are just worth reliving from an emotional perspective rather than getting too much in to the detail of the statistical dominance. Or how any one person did or didn’t play. I do hope that Trossard’s injury was not too serious though. More on that in the coming days I suspect.

For now though, it is victory number four in a row and the team goes to Lisbon on Thursday to face a tricky opponent in the Europa League in Sporting, before an equally tough game away to Fulham. Fingers crossed we can keep the winning run going.

Catch you all tomorrow.

Yep, we got our second pre season 2.0 friendly yesterday for The Arsenal yesterday afternoon and it was another victory and another penalty shootout win that ensures the Dubai Super Cup will be getting on that plane and heading its way back to London Colney this week, as Mikel Arteta’s super reds edged AC Milan yesterday afternoon. Forget your World Cup semi finals, this is where the real action is, which is why I’m going to dedicate the rest of this post to talking about it. The World Cup can get in the bin

Although let’s at least acknowledge the nice story of Messi getting himself to a final. One of the best players of all time could be on the verge of securing greatness this weekend. Even if it would mean that Emi Martinez – who is turning in to quite the pantomime villain right now, would also therefore be happy and on the winning side if it happens.

But anyway, back to proper football, which is that Arsenal continued their preparation for the restart of the season by bagging a couple more goals and beating a Milan side that seemed decidedly sluggish, if truth be told. I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t watch t he game live and in full (if you do want to see Arsenal live scores you can do so), but have seen the highlights and the goals, including a pretty sumptuous free kick from Odegaard and a nice – albeit slightly fortunate – strike by Nelson deflected in to put us two goals up by halftime. It has been an interesting trait of Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal for some time that we do like to is to go early in games. We were three up by halftime against Lyon and in the Premier League we like to start quick and get early goals if possible. I think back to how quickly we scored against Liverpool as an immediate example that springs to mind. The players on the pitch yesterday may not have been the usual first XI that we would expect for most Premier League match days, but it is nice to know the mentality is the same and the approach to games is applied regardless of the personnel. And yes, I know it is only a friendly, but mentalities can be shaped in pre season, as the summer showed, so seeing the team pick up where it left off is positive. It doesn’t mean we’ll beat West Ham, it doesn’t mean we couldn’t have a rubbish Christmas if we fall down away at Brighton and at home to Newcastle, but based on what we’re seeing in front of our eyes right now, seeing this preparation ahead of the resumption of the league can only bring positive vibes.

We also saw the return of a few faces and that was really great to see too. Thomas Partey played 45, as did Ben White, which will be good for them and you’d expect them to get more minutes on Saturday when we line up against Juventus. I suspect they’ll also be joined by the likes of Turner, Tomiyasu, Xhaka, which will bring a semblance of normality to the side that could start the last pre season before it all kicks off again. The big question is around KT, who apparently went down with nobody around him and was substituted late on. I really hope it isn’t a setback for him because he must be looking at the situation with Zinchenko having played little football in this second pre season, and fancying his chances. But if he isn’t fit or breaks down, it could be an opportunity missed for him. There hasn’t been that much said online about him (well, I can’t immediately find anything on a quick search this morning, that is) so my hope is that it was minor and we don’t have anything to worry about. But he needs a run of games and if Zinchenko is expected to be fit for Boxing Day, then KT really needs to be a few steps ahead in terms of fitness if he wants to take that left back spot on 26th December.

Arteta also admitted that in the next few days the other players will come back, so my hope is that we get as close to a full compliment as possible on Saturday; it would be nice to see Saka and Martinelli at the Emirates, even if they aren’t in the squad, because they’ll get the love from the crowd and you just know that will be beneficial for them and how they are feeling after their respective countries’ exits from the competition.

There’s not really a lot else to talk about really. We could touch on the Ben White stuff, but it all feels as though it has been swept under the carpet – whatever it is. Depending on what the reasons for leaving the camp were, that might be a good thing for Ben, actually. Arteta seemed to think that everyone knew why he left the England camp, but of course nobody does, so I doubt we’ll ever really know, as the focus will now be on the football and to be honest that is always how it should be. As long as the club are behind him, looking after him, so he can feel happy and comfortable and performing to the best of his abilities in an Arsenal shirt, that’s all that really matters.

Right, i’m offski. Time to take more cough syrup and throat lozenges and hope this blasted cold gets out of my system in the next 24 hours.

Catch you all tomorrow.

TO PROPER FOOTBALL COMING BACK!

There’s no games today because the semi finals are tomorrow and Wednesday, but this is the most ‘meh’ part of the competition for me. What I mean by that is that it is ‘meh because there are so few games. The group stages, for that reason, are the absolute best, because you get three to four games a day and it is all the football all the time. That’s what gets you sucked in, whereas now I’m basically back to “when are Arsenal on?” mode.

The good news is that the answer to that is tomorrow, with a game against Milan, followed by Saturday’s match at The Emirates against Juventus. That means we can fill our time looking at who looks fit, who looks ready, who will probably start on that West Ham game. Arteta will, of course, give nothing away, but I suspect those players who get more minutes for the Juve game, will be those in the greatest contention. He’ll want to find a balance between playing his intended first team for 60 minutes, as well as not giving away any secrets to West Ham, but I’m expecting us to line up in a certain way for that match more so than the one tomorrow. It wouldn’t surprise me if we get a close to full strength side of first teamers tomorrow, then in the second half he makes a load of changes and brings in the kids.

Of course one of the decisions he’ll have to work out is how many minutes to give Xhaka, Partey and White, who all arrived in Dubai over the last day or two and who the club released training pictures of the players training alone away from the main group. That’s obviously to assess fitness but at some stage they’ll no doubt be in with the team. I’d expect that to happen tomorrow actually; I don’t think they’ll start the game tomorrow, but I wonder if Arteta brings on Xhaka, Partey and White for maybe the last 20 to 30 minutes. That would be a good way of getting minutes in to the legs, but also ensuring they are not over-exerted.

With their return, as I said yesterday, things appear to be shaping up quite well, which is good to hear. The game against Lyon showed that the team are still fired up and hungry and although we gave them a battering and most people were just dismissive of Lyon as a poor side, they did beat Liverpool 3-1 yesterday. I’ve just had a look at the Liverpool team and it featured Robertson, Milner, Matip, Gomez, Thiago, Salah, Firmino in their ranks, so it wasn’t as if it was a complete outfit of kids that started that game. Of course they did make a raft of halftime changes like we did in our game, but they still brought on players like Keita, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Tsimikas, so it’s not as if it was a complete kids XI that played the second half. You can never really read too much in to friendlies, but ours looking so impressive and Liverpool’s looking less so, does at least give me a smidge of pleasure and hope that the team can pick up from where it left off in the Premier League back in November.

So, what else is going on in the Arsenal world? Not a lot really. There are more rumours flying about with players like Ferran Torres, from Barcelona supposedly a player that we’re interested in, but that smells like BS to me. He’s played 18 times for Barcelona this season already and therefore is clearly a player that they are intending on playing, so I don’t see that as anything other than paper talk to sell some of their rags. He is the sort of profile that we should be looking at though; has played wide left, wide right, as well as through the middle and that level of versatility is surely something Arteta is looking at. It is why we went in for Raphinha, because of his versatility, so by the very fact of this rumour surfacing, one would hope that it is a little clearer on the type of profile player we are looking at for January. We need a guy who can step in to cover Saka at times, somebody who will also be able to fill in if Eddie gets a knock or falls out of form, and if this person doth exist, a player who can also cover for Martinelli if needed.

That sounds like a big ask though and so I wonder if we’ll see nobody come in rather than a loan stop gap signing. I’ve seen a few people suggest we could have a look at Marco Asensio from Real Madrid. He’s 26, has made 15 appearances in all competitions for Real Madrid, plus he’s played wide left or right. But I’m not sure he’d take a loan move to go from the fringes of Madrid’s team, to be cover for ours. It just doesn’t sound like it’d be an attractive offer for him.

There must be a few decent players out there who would see this as an attractive proposition, but doing a deal that isn’t overly expensive and doesn’t mean Arsenal pay over the odds in January, feels like a big ask. We’ll have to wait and see what happens when that transfer window bursts open on 1st January. My guess is that ‘not a lot’ for the first week or two, but lets just see.

That’s enough from me for today. You have yourself a good one and I’ll catch you tomorrow.

I must admit that I didn’t expect to be talking about a Denmark exit at the hands of Australia for the knockout stages, that’s for sure. The Danes looked impressive at times in the Euro’s and I just assumed that it would be the same in this tournament, but they have very much flattered to deceive, it seems, which has meant that it is the Aussies who go through. And fair play to them and their fans for getting up in the middle of the night to watch it, because it seems like there was a fair few of them who had made the effort and for those sore heads this morning, it’ll have all been worth it.

Of course they’ll get a bit of a pasting against Argentina in their Round of 16 game, so it’s probably as far as they’ll go, but maybe Christmas miracles can happen.

On a related note, when on earth did it stop getting called the second round? I could have sworn that’s what it used to be called. Second Round, Quarter Final, Semi Final, Final. Could’ve sworn it was that all those years ago. Or maybe even recent tournaments. ‘Round of 16’ just doesn’t have a ring to it, does it? It’s a bit clunky as a stage.

“How did you get on?”

“Got to the ‘Round of 16”

“So what does that mean then? Is that good? How many rounds were there?”

“Can’t remember”

Nope, give me good ol’ fashioned ‘Second Round’. Do it like they do with the FA Cup; you get to the Sixth Round, then after that you’re in the Semi Final. Simples.

In terms of the other games yesterday, I’ll not put as much effort in to the France vs Tunisia game as the French did, so let’s move on from that, as the really exciting stuff happened in the evening. Who doesn’t love a ‘permutation’?? Before I talk about Poland v Argentina, sad times for Mexico, who I watched the last 20 minutes of their game and thought the desperation, the chances, the excitement and then the agony of that late goal against them from Saudi Arabia, was a fantastic watch. Not if you are Mexican, but as a neutral the drama is always gripping.

I’ve repeatedly stated I’m not a fan of International football, but tournament International football becomes very interesting when you have situations like last night with Group C. That was a hum-dinger! I found myself pre game routing for Poland because of the Szczesny connection, which I still think I was behind when he made the penalty save after the frankly ludicrous decision to award the spot kick from the Szcszesny palm away. I’m sorry but if that’s a penalty then the referees in this tournament have missed about three in each game. Then for the referee on the pitch, as well as in the VAR studio, to all agree? Madness. It’s kind of deflating too; as English Premier League watchers we all bemoan the shocking standard of our own referees. I almost take solace in the fact that ours are so terrible and there are nations out there with plenty of great referees. But that guy yesterday – think he was Dutch – just threw a Netherlands-shaped spanner in the works in showing that incompetence on VAR and on-field spans country borders too. Thankfully Woj saved it, but he couldn’t save Poland from being generally terrible in the game.

But then they went through anyway, so they’ll all be patting each other on the back this morning, but based on what most of us have seen so far in this tournament, they’ll be heading home soon enough when France give them a hammering. I cannot see any other result barring – again – some sort of Christmas miracles. But based on Poland’s lack of ambition I’m inclined for that to happen more for the Aussies than the Poles. And that’s taking in to account the fact that if England beat Senegal on Sunday, they’ll play the winner of that match!

My hope for today is that we get some more intriguing moments in which teams flit in-between going through and going out. Group E is set up nicely, because every team has to go for it, but if I was a betting man I’d assume that the two big names will ultimately go through. Japan should have beaten Costa Rica and if they’d have done that then they’d have knocked Germany out, but I think Germany finishes the job today and with Costa Rica’s terrible goal difference, I suspect that it almost counts as a point for Germany already given the group context. A 1-0 Germany win will probably put them through because I can’t see anything other than a Spain win against the Japanese. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe the fat that Spain are basically qualified due to their superior goal difference – again, practically acting like an additional point – but I don’t think that will force the Spanish to take their eye of the ball tonight. Regardless though, at least there are no dead rubbers.

Unlike the earlier games in the day, where sadly Canada are out, which is a shame given how admirably they’ve played. But Morocco have something to play for and I just hope that they can overcome the Canadians now, because it would be funny to see a pretty bang-average Belgium team go out. The goal difference is such that a draw for Morocco is enough if Croatia win and Croatia know they can’t not go for Belgium for fear of Morocco winning their match and knocking them out. So three of the four teams are playing for something and hopefully that adds some intrigue.

Away from the World Cup and back on The Arsenal, it has been sad to hear that Ben White has returned home from the World Cup for ‘personal reasons’. You don’t come home from that unless there is something serious happening at home and so at this time that privacy requested by both England and Arsenal is essential. We just have to hope that he and all of his family are ok.

On that potentially sombre note I’m going to call it quits for today, so hug a family member tighter and hopefully you can enjoy the rest of your Thursday.

Have a good one peeps.

“Who’s going to have the best World Cup?”

I’m a World Cup follower, rather than a specific fan, as you may know if you regularly read the nonsense that I spill on to this blog. I’m English, I inevitably want to see England do well, whilst also having some German heritage, so I have a pseudo back up team to get behind when the inevitable happens. But I’m more of a ‘follower’ for my national team, rather than a fan, and I can safely say that if there was a clash between Arsenal’s Dubai Super Cup friendly with AC Milan and the Semi Final of the World Cup, I’d be tuning in to The Arsenal ahead of anything else.

That being said, we have Arsenal players at the World Cup and so there will be reason to tune in. So, anyway, my morning run…

yeah, I was out there in the pouring rain and listening to a podcast and they mentioned a few players at the World Cup and it got me to wondering which of the players out there do I think would have the biggest impact. Then, which player(s) will go the furthest (because that will also impact us in terms of their return time to the club), then which players will be a surprise package from The Arsenal. So that’s what I thought i’d pick out today. Be keen to get your thoughts.

Who is having the biggest impact?

This is a subjective question based on how you interpret it, because you could say “on the whole competition?” or you could say “for their country?” and for my interpretation I’m saying the one player that the world will look at and say “he’s a great player for Arsenal, who maybe haven’t watched us much before. In that regard, I think it will be William Saliba. Now, I know that there is a caveat in there based on whether he plays, but if he doesn’t play then Deschamps is a nutter, in my opinion. Saliba has made so much look so easy in an Arsenal shirt this season, playing in easily the toughest and most competitive league in the World. I’m biased I know, but to me Saliba is better than Upamencano and with Varane and Kimpembe out injured, surely Saliba should be getting the chance? If he is, I think this will be the player that will make the biggest impact and surprise the most people.

I could have gone with Saka, Martinelli or Jesus, but I think the world knows about Saka now after the Euros, plus I’m not sure – bizarrely – whether Southgate will be starting him. I think the same can be said for Martinelli and Jesus and that’s why I think Saliba has the biggest chance of surprising the most people.

Of course it could be Xhaka, but he’s been an established international for so long and the world should already know about his quality having seen it in World Cup’s before. Hence, I’m sticking with Big Bill.

Who is going to go the furthest?

For Thomas Partey and Takehiro Tomiyasu, my gut tells me they probably come home quickest. I just have a feeling that Ghana don’t make it out of the group stages and that means his last game could be 2nd December. If that is the case, Arteta will probably want him to swing by Dubai, get a week off in the sun, before returning to training after a week and maybe being part of the squad for that second Dubai Cup game. Given Partey’s injury record, if he comes back in one piece and then gets that rest time, maybe he gets a little more time off to recharge, but if we can have him ready for that West Ham game – given we have no real replacement for him, that might be one of the best outcomes from an Arsenal perspective. You could probably say the same about Tomi and his injury record and with Japan in a group with Spain and Germany, that may well come to pass, so for me if we get those two players back sooner rather than later, the better.

I think for England it’ll be quarter finals at best. Looking at the draw I think they’ll get as far as France and then naturally go out, which would mean Saka returning to us after 10th December. I suspect Arteta will want him to take some time off if he’s played, maybe a week, so he can come back and have a week in training before being ready for West Ham. I doubt Ben White or Ramsdale will get hardly any game time so I think they’ll be back then too, but I doubt they’ll have been given many minutes (again, bizarrely). I think Xhaka and Switzerland could also get themselves to the quarter final too, but that’s probably all they’ll have in the tank, so the timings there will probably be the same.

If William Saliba does make the French first team, then I think France are probably – like Brazil – going to be expecting at least a semi final place in the competition. That means the three players we need to think about from a fitness perspective are Saliba, Martinelli and Jesus. The good news could be that Martinelli and Jesus don’t actually play that much and with Saliba it still isn’t clear whether Deschamps will give him any minutes, so we could end up with a situation where players come back having gone deep in the competition, but haven’t been run in to the ground. So they’ll have been training, keeping their fitness up, be match-ready, but will probably just have to deal with the potential pain of losing / come-down having won the World Cup.

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So all in all I don’t actually think it could be that bad for us in terms of player fatigue **touches something wooden as he types**. There will need to be some rest time for those players at the competition as soon as their tournament is over, but that’s only going to be the same amount of rest time as the current set of players not going to the World Cup are getting right now.

But what do you think? Who’s having the best impact and who is going to go the furthest and therefore cause us the biggest potential worry?

Yep, yesterday Lucas Torreira left The Arsenal for good this time and is now a Galatasaray player. We got absolute peanuts for a player who has wanted out of England since the first season he joined us. It’s a player who was homesick for Italy, homesick for Uruguay, so signed for Atletico Madrid in Spain and basically barely played all season after we snaffled Partey off of them. He had a good loan spell in Fiorentina and sounds like he was one of their better players, but they didn’t want to cough up the cash that they agreed and so now he’s moved even further away from Uruguay to ply his trade in Turkey. Go figure.

There was so much that went wrong with the Torreira situation, but I find it all a real shame, because I felt – and still feel  – that there was a  player in there and he would have a future at The Arsenal if he’d have at least tried to integrate himself in to the English culture. Who knows, maybe it was the weather, in which case he’ll be much happier in Turkey in 35 degree heat, but it is what it is. He had a good start to life at Arsenal, he was tenacious in the way he played at first, picked up an injury or two too many, spoke to the press a little too often, then made some pretty poor choices. Couple that with the fact that Emery went a bit mental with playing him as a number ten for some games, which all added up to a cocktail of failure for a transfer that should have delivered so much.

Hey,  we move on, he moves on, life moves on. We are in the fortunate position that we aren’t feeling his exit as keenly as I thought we might when the time came for him to leave (I had a belief he’d do four years and then we’d lose him to one of the big clubs for a big fee when he first signed – that certainly didn’t pan out that way!!), which I guess is both a good and a bad thing; we have our settled team and based on last weekend’s performance they are already delivering. The key now, is consistency. That will need to be this coming weekend and then we need to take that right up to the United game at the beginning of September. We have a real opportunity to build momentum with home games against Leicester, Fulham and Aston Villa and with an away match to newly promoted Bournemouth, if Arsenal can amass a large number of points in this first ‘phase’ of the season before the  first international break, then the mood amongst supporters will be joyous, amongst the players it will carry some swagger, amongst anyone affiliated or with a stake in the Arsenal game, it will be rosy. That’s the prize on offer for August and I hope we grab it with both arms.

One player who will also be looking to grab opportunities with both arms is Brooke Norton-Cuffy, who signed a new long term  deal with the club yesterday. He’s an exciting young talent at right back who did well at Lincoln City last year, but I suspect it’ll be another loan for him this season. I haven’t heard anything about a loan  move yet, but I suspect the club will look at the fact he player Legue One last season and want him to make another natural progression to the Championship this season. When you look at what Djed  Spence did for Nottingham Forest last season, Norton-Cuffy is cut from a very similar cloth to the former Boro, now Scum, right back. He’s a guy who likes to drive from out wide, he chipped in with a goal or two at Lincoln I believe, plus he’s of an age where if he plays in the Championship and does well, he could come back to Arsenal next season with genuine aspirations of making the first team squad. This time next summer we’ll most likely lose Cedric as his contract will finally be up, which will create a space for him and I suspect that if he’s impressed in the Championship then Arteta would be more than happy to take a look at him as an option from right back.

The question would be how versatile Norton-Cuffy is on the right hand side, because what is clear from seeing Tomiyasu and White excel in that position, is that Arteta favours a specific type of player. Norton Cufffy is six foot one I believe and at 18 will probably grow a few more inches, so from a physical presence perspective that is a lot closer to White and Tomiyasu than Cedric. I haven’t seen enough of him to know if he can play that inverted full back type position,  but based on physical stature and his running power alone, it feels to me like he could. That was always the challenge with Bellerin and remains the challenge with Cedric; both players just don’t fit the system and style of play that Arteta is looking for from his right sided full back. We use our left channel to push KT or now Zinchenko further forward, where the back two shuffle across slightly and Tomiyasu/White form a kind of hybrid third centre half on that right hand side. Cedric and Bellerin were outside, overlapping, full backs and we just don’t really do that often enough for either of them to work long term, even if both did have the required quality. Just think back to when Hector was playing under Arteta at first; I think he had one of his worst seasons and that is because he was being asked to make underlapping runs rather than overlapping. I remember seeing that quite distinctly and it’s why he has no real future at the club, which is of course a shame, because we all love Hector.

But the style of play is becoming very obvious for this Arsenal team now and it is clear that only certain types of players work in specific positions. Which is why a loan for Norton-Cuffy – the right type of loan to a team that will  enable him to hone those skills at right back in the way Arteta wants, could be key to his future career at The Arsenal.

Anyway, just something to ponder on a Tuesday morning. Have yourselves a wonderful day. Catch you all tomorrow.

I don’t know about you guys, but that’s just the way I like it, because as long as everyone is waxing lyrical about other teams, we can just get on with our job, which is to amass enough points to show improvement on last season’s 69. After one game it’s impossible to start guessing how many points top four would secure, but an average over the last ten seasons shows a wide range. I’ve just had a quick flick through and a mean score of 71.4 points suggests that if we better last season by just two more wins would most likely have us comfortably in top four. But last season was a bit of a strange one for us because we hardly drew any games. We either lost or we won, with 22 victories and 13 defeats. A lot of those defeats came because we just didn’t have the answer to going behind through scoring enough goals, so for me what we probably need is another 10 goals this season. If we added an additional 10 goals to last seasons final tally of 61, then that probably would translate to an additional six points and that might be enough. But the league is competitive and teams are better this year than last year – happens every season that the quality goes up – so we need to see wholesale improvement across our team.

I think we will get it. I am hopeful we will. The pundits are still saying they don’t think we’ve got enough, but they’re looking at things a little too black and white and binary in my opinion. Tottenham and Chelsea both have bought good players, for sure, but have they shifted the dial much tactically this season? I’m not so sure. Maybe they have, maybe they haven’t. I think we will have. Well, I hope we have and the first 30 minutes of the game on Friday night gave me enough of a blueprint to think that’s what Arteta wanted for 70+ minutes of a game, rather than just the first 30 that we delivered. You’re always going to have periods of a Premier League football match when your opponent creates opportunities, so you will need to ride out some attacking waves from every team, but we need to increase the number of minutes that we are ball dominant like we were at Selhurst Park. In that first 30 minutes I saw an Arsenal team who were incredibly cohesive as a pressing unit; it felt like we were expanding and contracting like an accordion or, to use another metaphor, like a living entity breathing in and out.

The ‘breathing out’ was when the opposition has the ball at the back; we push our attacking players and our midfielders up as one flowing movement, rather than just pockets of a press like if Gabriel Jesus goes to close a centre half down but Odegaard, Saka and Martinelli don’t also press their men. When we ‘breathe in we are pulling those players closer together to be more compact and difficult for opponents to play small passes in between us. Where Palace almost got the upper hand was that their very direct route one diagonals to Zaha often found some space for him to attack before we had the chance to contract ourselves in to our tighter unit to make like difficult when we are out of possession. A quick diagonal long ball means you have less time to get yourself set and the fact that Andersen was seen as one of their best players was because he kept finding Zaha. That’s where now, the more I think about it, Ben White had a fantastic game and contributed massively towards the victory, because those long diagonals basically put him in a one-on-one battle with Zaha that he was forced to win or it could have had a massive bearing on the result. Imagine if Zaha had of repeatedly got beyond White – it would have meant that we’d have lost our shape too much and there would have been more space for the Palace players in the box to get even more chances than they did. So now that I’ve had an extra 24 hours to process the performance on Friday, I think Ben White did a very good job.

And that’s pleasing because it gives us a safety net from having to play Cedric when Tomiyasu isn’t fit. We play Cedric in meaningless cup games and we save the proper minutes at right back for both White and Tomiyasu between them, which is a-ok by me.

So it’s been a good all-round weekend for us so far as Arsenal fans. We’re up and running and from what we’ve seen on the first weekend we’ve started to see some of the good stuff in pre season be replicated for the ‘real’ stuff in the Premier League. As Arteta himself said after the game, there is still more to do and there were a few instances in the match in which he said that they will work on, which gives me more optimism because he is seeing more and more things that we can improve on and if we keep getting better and better then I reckon it’s going to be a good season for us.

Right, I’m offski, so you have yourself a good one and I’ll catch you all tomorrow for more thoughts and ramblings.

Laters people.

I’m feeling pretty good. Hurtling my way in to the Big Smoke for a day at the office, with little proper Arsenal news to speak of, hopefully meaning they’re all getting themselves recharged at the club so that ‘we go again’ for pre season and the new season which will come around sooner than we think.

Of course there are a bunch of international matches that are taking place and going by what my ol’ mate Giles said on Twitter last night, it looks as though Takehiro Tomiyasu has reported for duty for the Japanese national team. Honestly, could a sensible decision not be made on this player that he avoids what is going to be meaningless friendlies against Paraguay and Brazil? The Japanese play Paraguay on Thursday and having missed a massive chunk of the second half of the season, then going down against Newcastle in the penultimate game, isn’t somebody, somewhere, having a word with all parties and saying “maybe he should just rest and recuperate”?

I remember having a chat with Giles about him a couple of months back. We were talking about how every season Tomiyasu has tended to pick up a knock which has kept him out for a decent period of time. At the time Giles speculated that it could be because he is one of these guys so desperate to play all the time for both club and country, that he over-extends himself and that’s why he breaks down. Perhaps that’s the reason he’s heading back to his homeland? If that’s the case, somebody should be finding a way to have a word. At 23 he’s young and his body recovers quicker, but at 28 if he’s still got the same mentality, we’ll end up with a player we don’t often see in a season.

And having seen and looked at his injury record, it does feel pretty clear to me that we need a very good back up, of whom Cedric is certainly not. There’s lots of hope in Norton-Cuffy and certainly he looks to have impressed massively at Lincoln, but the gulf between League One and the Premier League isn’t just massive, it’s a chasm. I’d love him to be the understudy and to succeed because it would be another big tick for Hale End, but we don’t want to ‘kill’ him by throwing him in too quickly.

I wonder if Arteta and his team will use the pre season to see how close he is?

Perhaps they will, or perhaps he gets a Championship loan next season with a view to him being ready the season after, but football is so often about timing and if Norton-Cuffy isn’t ready this summer, the club surely have to buy a new right back? Hector isn’t coming back to play second fiddle, Arteta will clearly move Maitland-Niles on and if we want to be competing in the top four that can’t mean we play a 30-year-old bang average right back for half the season, can it? Cedric did ok at times, but when he wasn’t being poor he was being ‘ok’. That’s his ceiling and we can’t have that if we harbour loftier ambitions than we had this season.

The good news will be that we should have opportunities in Europe and the League Cup for players to get more minutes and if Arteta and the staff feel Norton-Cuffy can at least be part of the squad and maybe slowly feel his way back in to the first team by getting some of those midweek games, I’d be much more up for that than another season of journeyman Cedric. We’ve seen that story before. We all know it ends with a ‘meh’.

But back to my original point, which was about these internationals, and at least Ben White has sensibly withdrawn from the England squad. Good decision. Go on holiday, recover from the injury you were nursing properly, then be ready for the new season. You will be needed. There’s not a lot we can do about the likes of Saka and Ramsdale heading off with England, but if Southgate can at least be sensible with Saka – as I feel like he has with many players who have played a lot of football – then hopefully his minutes are shortened a little over this international break we have.

I haven’t really bothered to look up who else is travelling with their country but I suspect it’ll be a fair few of our players. And with this international break being where it is now at the beginning of June, I suspect we won’t get too many transfer rumours until after the break. There will be stories, as there always are, but I suspect nothing concrete will happen until the back end of next week. And that’s when we all start to wonder what is happening at the club. There’s usually no meltdowns from fans until we start to approach July, but the murmurs begin as we start to see other clubs making their moves.

Maybe Arsenal will make theirs early this season, but I’d be surprised if that was the case. We all know the drill by now, and we’re slap bang in the middle of transfer rumour silly season, so most of us just have to strap ourselves in and wait for more nonsense to cross our paths.

And on that note that’s me done for today. I’m podcasting tonight with Amanda and James on the ‘Same Old Arsenal’ show so swing by this evening if you fancy listening to our dulcet tones do an end of season review.

Catch you all tomorrow.