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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Catch you all tomorrow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Raya

Timber   –   Saliba   –   Gabriel   –   Hincapie

Zubimendi

Eze   –   Rice

Saka   –   Havertz   –   Martinelli

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

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

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

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

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

See you all tomorrow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Premier League games just hit differently.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I know I am. I must admit that on 11 minutes of the game after Gabriel had played the most hospitally of hospital balls across his side of the 18-yard box to gift Evanilson a tap in, I did not have that good feeling. Nor did I have that same feeling after Kroupi Junior had worldie-struck his shot past Raya to make it 3-2 on 76 minutes. But upon reflection there are so many positive things to take away from a game in which Arsenal managed the right moments and ultimately have done enough to find themselves seven points clear as of Sunday morning (even if not by Sunday evening, because I give managerless Chelsea zero hope of getting anything against City, unfortunately). Job done for this weekend.

Arteta kicked off the evening with his team and, perhaps unexpectedly, he engaged in a bit of rotation in attack. I certainly didn’t expect to see Martinelli and Madueke come in for Saka and Trossard, but given that this is a hectic Christmas schedule, some of these players have barely played minutes (mainly Madueke), it makes sense for there to be a little change here and there. You have to be able to trust your squad, because otherwise, what’s the point in having such an expensively assembled one (a penny of Eze’s thoughts right now)?

So rotate he did, also bringing in to Rice and I think the move to bring in Madueke clearly worked a treat. The England international really needs to invest more time in shooting drills, because he ain’t the greatest on hitting the target, but what he is possibly the best at doing in this squad is beating a man in a one-v-one duel and yesterday he had whoever he was up against on toast all night. Even before Bournemouth’s belated Christmas present from Gabriel, Madueke had beaten two men and blazed over and whilst he did that again at least once in this game, he also used his super power to help us win all three points. For our first goal he just kept driving and kept driving until he was ready to cut back and whilst eventually the ball found its way to Big Gabi for his redemption story in this game, we probably should have finished it off even before then in that move with Martinelli too. No matter though; we scored, Big Gabi neutralised his earlier error, Arsenal could start to take hold of the game and search for the win.

At least that was my assumption. Bournemouth had been on a winless run stretching back to October, they had shipped a fair few goals when you looked at the Premier League table and the ‘goals against’ column, they should leave space for us to capitalise. Except the only problem with that line of thinking is the it belies just how good they are at home and when I started to look at halftime how their home and away form stacked up, I could understand that when the halftime whistle had gone, they were the better side. Or at least they had just edged the game. They pressed high when out of possession, tried to force us in to errors and, in that first half, that’s exactly what we did. Zubi was guilty on a couple of occasions, Martinelli too, as well as Big Gabi of course. We looked like our usual rhythm was being displaced and Bournemouth were countering that with a few decent chances, shots from distance and going long on a number of occasions when they could.

The second half felt like we were able to recalibrate though and I thought we were much the better side overall. The stats will tell you Bournemouth had seven shots in the second half – the same as us – but in reality we limited them to more distance efforts and their xG in the second half was just 0.22, which tells me that they really didn’t create too much of note other than a one-in-ten effort that went in from 25-30 yards for their goal. Conversely, we were fashioning plenty of chances and I thought we were easily good value for not only the first Rice goal, but the second too.

On that first goal, let’s give some props to a few players in the build up, because Martinelli won an aerial duel that set Big Vik in, he muscled his way past four Bournemouth defenders, which also drew them on to him and allowed Odegaard to slide the ball for Rice to slot home. Odegaard will get the assist numbers, but Gyokeres and Martinelli need to have a tip of the cap for their involvement too.

On the second goal, this time the stats will favour Bukayo Saka for the assist, but it was Odegaard’s perfectly weighted ball in behind that did the first part of the damage and whilst Rice still had a bit to do to place the ball in the right place to make the goal happen, Saka gave him the perfect weight on his pass to make it as easy as possible for Declan. Declan Rice, in red and white, I like it, uh-huh, uh-huh.

And at that point, under normal circumstances, I think most Arsenal fans are happy that we’re taking all three points, were in not for that aforementioned wonder-strike. I have mixed feelings on it. Yes, perhaps Odegaard could have closed down a bit quicker, but how many of those normally beat a ‘keeper of Raya’s quality? I don’t think many at all. Then there’s the aftermath post-goal, in which Bournemouth and their fans are feeling a bit excited about an upset. But with the benefit of hindsight and a night’s sleep, I recall that Bournemouth really didn’t offer much at all from minute 77 onwards. Those Arsenal players just shut the game down and on a night in which there were one or two mistakes made early on in this match, the way these Arsenal players controlled the second half will have ultimately pleased Arteta.

We now have a solid five days between this game and the visit of Liverpool to The Emirates. That means these Arsenal players can get back to London Colney, get some training in, do some analysis ahead of what will be a really tough game, so that we’re ready for a really tough encounter against last season’s champions.

We did a post match pod on the Same Old Arsenal podcast this morning if you fancy listening in here. Other than that, I’ll catch you all tomorrow.

• Win
• Don’t lose
• Don’t draw

The latter particularly. I’m getting pretty fed up with draws this season and whilst I know the context of some of the early ones, as well as some of the ones latterly, we really do need to pick up a couple of more wins to secure second spot. It’s a bit ‘meh’, I know, but it is a place we’ve been all season and it would just be a little annoying if we ended up third or fourth come the final day.

And if we’re out of the Champions League by next weekend – something that let’s be honest, is a higher probability than not at this stage in time – then it’s going to have a real Debbie downer by the time we have to go up to Anfield for the nothing game that is our third from last in the season (I absolutely will NOT be watching that game, I tell you that much!).

Arteta faced the press yesterday, plus he did some interviews with the likes of Sky and I love what has come out of them. There was of course the standard questions about team news, but we’ve seen things emerge from some social media sources that aren’t quite in the official club recording of his presser, so I’m guessing they were additional interviews, etc.

For example, him referencing all of the players who were in their civvies on the sideline against PSG I am pleased that he spoke about. There will be some idiots in the media and idiot rival fans that will say it’s him moaning, but you only have to watch the Sky Sports interview ahead of this evening’s game to see it isn’t moaning at all, it’s stating facts. Lots of people have lots of issues with Arteta outside the fanbase, but if they were honest they would admit that he never throws excuses around. But in the video clip I’ve watched he rolls out those names of Tomiyasu, Jorginho, Partey, Havertz and Gabriel all in the dressing room ahead of the PSG game, then speaking about how proud he is that the team has got this far. And they have. No team gets anywhere with the volume of injuries and crazy red cards we’ve had and is where we are at; there will be no medals hung around necks for the performance of the squad, the history books will show another season without that end product success, but at least us Arsenal fans know the context. I have a Spurs supporting mate who will be around my house over the summer as I bring all the lads together from my old school days. He will absolutely be crowing if they win the Europa League, but deep down, he will know that it’s far better to be in the position that we are in, than where they are, because you can see a positive trajectory for Arteta’s Arsenal. You can’t with the Scum.

We still just need to get over the line though and that really needs to happen today. Two wins. That’s the requirement. Beat Bournemouth today – and get some revenge for the joke of a game earlier in the season with that Saliba red card – and then we need just one more to get us over the line.

I think Arteta will stay relatively strong too; there’ll be Raya, White, Saliba, Kiwior, possibly Zinchenko at the back. In midfield I think he then goes for Partey and Rice, maybe with the brief that one or both need to come off after 60 minutes or so. But what to do with Odegaard? His performance in midweek was roundly – and rightly – chastised for ineffectiveness, but do you try to play him back in to form and hope he has a good game today? Or do you try something else? Maybe give Nwaneri a shot at playing there? After all, this game is one we need to win, but if there’s another draw or defeat, what does it really matter?

I think he’ll go with the former option and Odegaard will be given a chance to rekindle some semblence of form ahead of the game in Paris, then I think we’ll also see Merino back up top with a bit of rotation out wide. Maybe Sterling will eat up some minutes and it really does show what a waste of a loan deal it was that I’m using that phraseology. The guy is literally there so we don’t use up too much of Saka or Martinelli’s juice. He is the archetypal ‘body’ in a squad. He does nothing else. So maybe he gets 45 and then one of the two proper forwards get another 45. Maybe Trossard is the same too in one of the wide positions, because it means that both Saka and Martinelli can be rested for what will be a hella intense game on Wednesday.

Bournemouth will be without Evanilson, as he was sent off against united last weekend, in a game in which by all accounts it looks by the stats like United absolutely battered the Cherries. They sit 10th in the league, they can’t really get near the Conference League positions, so their season feels very much “end of season on the beach” stuff. But then again, so did Palace’s, and look at what happened to us there, eh? So there’s a need for Arsenal to be professional and do the job, but not risk players and their fitness ahead of another season definer for The Arsenal.

Just go out there and win lads. I don’t care how ugly it is.

Right I’m done for the day. It’s the mother’s 70th birthday weekend so I’m gonna go enjoy it with her.

Catch you all tomorrow.

A new week also brings new football too, so rather than pour over that result – which I will say a few words about in a bit – I’d rather focus on the fact that us playing tomorrow night is a bit of a touch, really. Shaktar come to visit, Mikel will therefore speak to the press today, so hopefully we can put the bad taste of a defeat behind us.

It wasn’t the best of weekend’s though, given how City scraped a win with a contentious goal, Liverpool also winning, meaning we’ve fallen further behind them as a a title chasing duo and Villa’s win has put them level on points with us. It was a shoddy performance on Saturday, compounded by the penalty and my hope is that we will see consistency about decisions like that one to send Saliba off. I can kind of live with it being a red card, with the benefit for a couple of days to think about it; a shocking kick from Trossard for which I suspect he’ll have been a bit sheepish about on the coach journey home, then a clumsy challenge by Saliba and the game hits a game state that we’re all now becoming very familiar with. Three times in eight games is the sort of rub of the green that could cost titles and, had we have avoided those reds, I’m pretty sure we’d have at least six points instead of two right now as things stand today. Given how recently we saw the importance of every point (last season’s title chase down with City) in this league, being handicapped with a man less isn’t something that we want to making a regular occurrence. And especially when there is so much more of a game to play, which has happened in every one of our reds this season. Rice, Trossard and Saliba were all in the first half, meaning we had to play a lot of football with ten men. Last season Tomiasy was sent off against Palace on 67 minutes, meaning we had just over 25 to hold on to the points. The other sending off was at home to Burnley in which Fabio Vieira went off on 83 minutes, after we were 3-1 up, so a little less of a worry. This season each of those red cards have ultimately cost us points. We had to nip this in the bud somehow.

I did wonder whether I wanted to get drawn in to the debate re: Tosin and Jota from yesterday, because the positions on the pitch were very similar to the Saliba situation and Arne Slot referenced it in his post match press conference. It’s very ironic indeed that this has happened in such proximity to the Saliba outcome and at first I felt a little triggered after saying on social media that the Saliba red doesn’t happen to any other team. It felt like it at the time, but there is a second Chelsea player who looks very close to Tosin and so I can’t for sure say that it is a carbon copy of the decision. I still do feel like we are refereed differently but let’s face it, in the 30 minutes in which we started the game, we didn’t look great at Bournemouth as it was. We had a little more of the chances and a little more of the possession and touches in their box, but we didn’t look very cohesive to me and so I think Arteta will also be looking at how the team reacts after starting off the performance in the way they did.

We haven’t been very fluid so far this season at all. The defence has broadly (when 11 on the pitch) coped with the opponents we’ve been up against, but we haven’t exactly clicked repeatedly going forward yet. It all feels a little disjointed and ‘bitty’ at times to me. Southampton was fine at the back other than one moment in which they scored from their only chance. But until that point we’d struggled with our finishing. Leicester we were two up at halftime but it felt like it could have been five or six. The City game you have to view in isolation given the opponent and how we were down to ten men and in the game against the Scum we didn’t really create loads of clear-cut chances. Brighton we created chances before and after the red card but didn’t finish them off, Villa the same until later in the game and I thought Wolves at home looked a little laboured. So I do think that we are going to need to click in to gear soon if we don’t want to be cast adrift in this attempted title race. Some of it is down to the injuries and suspensions, I think, because we seem to have had to rotate in every single match already this season and it feels like we haven’t had a fully fit first team for ages. Timber, White, Tomiyasu, Calafiori, Zinchenko, Merino, Rice, Odegaard, Saka, Jesus, Martinelli – all of these guys have had games where they’ve been missing or suspended, which I suspect has had an impact to building those natural relationships back on the pitch again. But when you’re competing for the sorts of things we’re competing for, you can’t afford slow starts to seasons. I know the opponents have been quite tough so far and we’ve got another little death run already coming up with Liverpool, Newcastle and Chelsea on the horizon, so perhaps those games will naturally be a little tighter and chances are at a little more of a premium, but we need to find a formula of winning these games – and doing it without going down to ten men!

The Shaktar game tomorrow provides an opportunity to get a win on home soil before the Liverpool game against a Champions League opponent who lost their most recent outing in the competition 3-0 to Atalanta. That means we have the chance to get the winning feeling back and I hope Mikel is stressing the importance of that, because Liverpool will be rocking up feeling very confident given their current standing in the league and the fact they managed to dispatch Chelsea yesterday. Say what you like about their fixtures, but momentum in football is massive and there’s no doubt their start to the season has enabled them well; they will be coming to us with a bit of swagger about them, whereas we will still be licking our wounds a bit.

That’s it from me for today I think. Back tomorrow with a match preview. Catch you then.

two.

On expected goals this season they’re sixth, so they are creating good chances and decent chances, but in the Premier League on actual goals scored they sit in 14th. They’ve scored eight goals this season in seven matches, but six of those were against teams expected to be in relegation dogfights: Everton and Southampton.

So today I’m thinking we’re going to have to expect them to create chances, but we need to be able to get back to defensive shutouts and clean sheets after conceding five goals in our last three matches (something Arteta was also asked about in his press conference yesterday). From a defensive look, Bournemouth sit mid table with 10 goals conceded in seven games and they are yet to keep a clean sheet this season, so you’d hope that we’d have enough to avoid being completely shut out, but as usual Arteta wasn’t minded to give too much away.

The good news seems to be that Saka is fit. Martinelli’s situation is a little up in the air so I suspect this might mean an alternative option found, so that question could be solved with Trossard easily enough, but Sterling and Jesus could still be putting their hands up to get a start too.

I have a weird sneaky suspicion he might put Sterling in there toda, you know. Here’s my thinking on that:

– I think he likes that Trossard and Havertz are interchangeable at the moment and so they both play in the eight and up top at different stages of each game

– I don’t think we’ve seen enough from Gabriel Jesus to suggest he’ll get a start and against Southampton I think him and Sterling together didn’t work, so I suspect it will be a case of one or the other if they are going to start

– Gabby Jesus loves the Champions League so I suspect he would be saved more for that in midweek than today

There’s also the fact that Ødegaard still isn’t fit, which I suspect means that Partey is the deepest lying midfielder and Rice will cover left eight. He could of course surprise us with Merino, but I think given the opponent, we’ll see Partey in there with Rice and his engine to cover when Bournemouth attack us with their high press and committed bodies. Merino is a duel winner but from what I’ve already seen and we know from his time at Sociedad, he does that higher up the pitch. I haven’t seen enough to tell how big his engine is when Bournemouth hit us in transition and start to flood forward. Because that’s exactly what we’re going to see today; they are high energy, high press, bodies forward and try to stress their opponent with numbers in the final third.

That’s why I’m thinking Partey from deep, because if they are doing that, he has the vision to execute line-breaking passes and if there are gaps to be found, he should be able to do it. In a way it’s a real shame that Ødegaard and Martinelli aren’t available today, because I can picture in my mind’s eye Ødegaard picking the ball up from deep and sweeping a ball to Martinelli after we’ve won it off Bournemouth to set him off in to space. Without them, somebody like Partey and his passing range over middle distances should be important today. Sterling is a tricky dribbler and whilst he won’t have the same burst as five years ago, he’s still got a bit of pace about him and he might find himself with more space today if he plays wide left.

On the other side we all know what Starboy can do, but who will be behind him to support? It won’t be Tomiyasu, who Arteta also confirmed will still be out for a while yet, but it will be one of White or Timber, I’m sure. My gut tells me it’s going to be Timber, because he’s played – and played so well of late – and that White is going to be eased in after his absence, but I also feel like Timber might be a better one-on-one dual merchant. Iraola himself has said this week that the games they win are when it is more open, they get to exploit space and have more one-on-one actions, so that is what they are looking to do. We have to be ready for that to be the game they want and so we need players who are good at defensive duels. In an ideal world you’d say a back four of Tomiyasu left, Gabriel, Saliba and then Timber, but I did see Calafiori win a few against Southampton so maybe he’s got more in his locker in that sense that we thought, but I’m more thinking about pace coming up against you and we have already seen that Riccardo is not the quickest in the world. He’s no slouch, but he’s not as rapid as some of the wide players in this league and we saw how he got done by Savio, then also how Hakimi roasted him two on a couple of occasions, says to me that he’ll need to be on form today and hopefully he has some support for teammates that can double up.

Alternatively we’ll just do what we have been doing and let him roam, then see who Bournemouth fancy putting on their right to go up against Big Gabby!

Whatever the approach, however, one thing is clear, which is that this has to be a ‘must win’ today. City will beat Wolves and Liverpool should probably overcome Chelsea at home, so anything other than three points puts us further away from them and makes life all the harder. The reason the Premier League is the best in the world is of course it’s unpredictability, but Arsenal and Arteta need to minimise the chances of that by playing our game, not Bournemouth’s high-intensity, open one, today.

back tomorrow with some thoughts on how it all played out. Catch you then.

But from a footballing point of view it looked like it was a decent enough outing. Apparently Fabio Vieira played well, Karl Hein did a decent job with some fine saves (I’ve literally only just read about) and when you look at the timings of the subs there was a good outing for a decent chunk of the first teamers, with White, Timber, Partey, Vieira, Nkwtiah and Nelson all getting a run out for an hour. Then for 30 minutes there was 30+ minutes for Kiwior, Trossard, Gabriel Jesus, Zinchenko and Jorginho. So we’re underway with this pre season in earnest and the next game or two will be about finding that team rhythm and dynamic and getting back in the swing of things, building those ‘automatisms’ in prep of the start of the proper stuff in three week’s time against Wolves at home.

One notable absence from the field, which would have had a few of us a little bemused had an Ornbomb not landed at around 12.30am last night before the game started, was Emile Smith Rowe. Apparently Fulham are close to a deal that will see him join for £35million, plus add-ons, plus a release clause and having shafted us a little on the Bernd Leno transfer a few season’s ago (£4million was peanuts for a guy with his experience and ability), Fulham have decided against trying to lowball us this time and are paying what seems to be more ESR’s market value.

£35million plus £5million in add on’s (you’d expect it maybe is a mixture of staying in the league, getting in to Europe, etc) seems like a very fair deal to me. I don’t know many Arsenal fans who are desperate for him to leave given how important he was at a time in which Mikel Arteta needed a saviour in his second season at the club. We all have a lot of love for Emile and as Arsenal fans we’re all conditioned to being amateur accountants these days, so getting a good deal for a good player softens the blow, but he’s still one of ours and he’s still a talented player. But he needs to play, he needs to be given the opportunity to be the ‘main man’ and he needs to stay fit. That will be one of his biggest challenges, because every time it’s felt like he’s getting back in to form, he’s suddenly picked up a knock that has halted his progression in the team as a regular.

Fulham are getting a good player. He could be a great player. Hopefully their fans will love him as much as we do, but that will come if he can get a run of games together and show why he was that saviour from that Chelsea game all those years ago, which then helped get us out of the doldrums and on our way upwards.

So yeah, good money for Arsenal, good player for Fulham, player gets the game time he has been craving for a while now.

As for us, we move on and that will be with Calafiori, expected to do his medical in the US this week, but there will also need to be a hole filled in the middle of the park. Fabio Vieira scored last night and I’ve seen a clip of him and Mikel in deep conversation at some stage in the game that happened this morning, so perhaps now Mikel is going to be asking Vieira to show his stuff. There is a player in there, I’ve always thought that, but now he has to step up and prove it. And perhaps like Emile, he needs to do that by having a good pre season and avoiding injury for the whole season. If that happens, with ESR out of the picture, Mikel will I’ve got no doubt be looking at Vieira to show more and deliver more on the pitch than we got last season. Think the Fulham home game from last season, but that happening at least half a dozen times during course of the season coming up. In that Fulham game he game on and turned the momentum of the match around, winning a penalty and also getting an assist. We need more of that, please, Fabio.

If Fabio Vieira is the attacking and creative replacement for Smith Rowe, then you’d expect Arsenal to pull the trigger on Mikel Merino from Sociedad as soon as the ESR Fulham deal goes through. That is rumoured to be around £20million and if that happens then the question is where will he play. Is he a six or an eight? He wins a lot of fuels, which makes you think he’ll be a defensive midfielder if you don’t look further beyond surface metrics like that, but if you look at his heatmap here, that looks like he’ll be operating in the left eight role, so that’s interesting. Interesting because I think we’re going to see Rice there more often than not so it would appear that Merino would be an understudy. That’s fine, but it still leaves the question in the six role. If we’re going with Partey and Jorginho I have my reservations. Two older players, one of which doesn’t seem like he can stay fit at all any more, the other of which is getting in to his mid-30s. Is that enough?

I’m not sure. You can of course argue that should we need to, Rice can drop in to the six and Merino as the left eight, so perhaps that makes more sense. Perhaps I’m just overly worrying where I really shouldn’t. We’ll just have to see what shakes out as the transfer dominos for ins and outs at The Arsenal start to fall down.

Right, that’s yer lot for today. Enjoy your Thursday and I’ll be back tomorrow with some more musings on all things The Arsenal.

Have a good’un.

And that is exactly what we got from Arsenal.

Honestly, I was so impressed with the way these Arsenal players handled that match yesterday, because especially after the first 15 minutes – when I think we’d racked about about eight chances – there could have been an element of nerves setting in that it might be “one of those days”. I’m in Munich at the moment and so had to watch the game from my phone and even after 30 minutes and no goal scored, that’s what I was saying to The Management in a Bavarian beer garden. I was certainly concerned about the repeat of the Villa game in which we’d done everything but score in that first half and so when Kai Havertz went down and the penalty was given and confirmed by VAR, I certainly felt relief. I have to say though if we’re being fair, it was probably not really enough contact to make Havertz go down. He left his foot there, there was clear contact, but if we’re talking about the lack of contact from Kulusevski last weekend (which wasn’t a penalty in my opinion), we have to say the same about the same level of contact yesterday. It’s one of those weird ones that whatever the on field decision is the VAR won’t overturn it. If the referee says it’s not a penalty then I suspect VAR don’t even properly look at it and we go in to halftime on level terms.

Saka slotted it in and we go in at halftime one up which was a super soft way to be ahead, but as Iraola said afterwards, we were the better team and deserved to be ahead. It just probably wasn’t a penalty and perhaps we got away with one.

But you can also argue that Bournemouth ‘got away with one’ too, because how on earth Ryan Christie stayed on the pitch is baffling to me. His high boot up as high as Saka’s waist midway through the first half looked worse every time you saw it and when you then saw that it drew blood from Saka’s legs, I have no idea why VAR didn’t call the referee to the monitor. If they had have done I’m sure it would have been red and then you’re looking at a game in which we play against 10 men for 78+ minutes. It was at very least a nasty yellow and the fact that he then had hold of Gabriel’s shirt in that first half for a clear yellow again, yet wasn’t punished in the slightest, was baffling. He finally picked up a yellow in the second half and honestly, it felt like a bit of a joke that he remained on the pitch as long as he did.

So perhaps there was a bit of karma in our soft penalty decision, because before that Partey had shot over, Saka hit the side netting, the ‘keeper Travers had made three fine saves from Partey, Havertz and Trossard shots and I think there had been about four or five blocks as well. We were excellent at everything except putting the ball in the net at halftime. We’d had 16 attempts at goal, an xG of 1.97, five shots on target, SEVEN blocked shots and had completely shut out Bournemouth from doing anything offensively.

But this isn’t a poor Bournemouth side and they came out in the second half with a bit more purpose about them. And between the 46th and 70th minute when Trossard got his goal after a superb reverse-flick pass from the man-of-the-match Rice (more on him in a bit), it felt like a game in which any small slip up could be punished. Bournemouth certainly had more about them and in the second half had six attempts and a couple of shots on target. There was also the controversy of the Bournemouth goal they thought they scored. To be fair to the ref I think he blew up as the ball went in, but VAR ratified what was a clear push by Solanke on Raya. If Solanke isn’t looking only at the ‘keeper and pushing him to off balance him, maybe you have a case, but he was never showing any intention to win the ball and so for me it felt a fairly obvious one. Perhaps there is some argument about Saliba fouling a Bournemouth player in the box, but again it felt a bit week to me. If the ref gives the penalty then I don’t think we can complain, but we’ve heard about the higher threshold for VAR intervention and it feels similar to the Havertz penalty in the first half; the VAR will just ratify what the on field decision is.

That would have made for a nervy final 20 minutes plus injury time, but as it was the clean sheet was kept in tact and after that I felt we were in ‘seeing the game out’ mode. It was good actually because it gave a bit of an adrenaline shock back in to the team I felt and we gathered a little more composure to ensure the clean sheet. Which also confirmed David Raya’s golden gloves for this season. It’s an award that I couldn’t really give a monkey’s about but what it does show is how good we’ve been defensively by getting yet another clean sheet, so well done to our back line for once again being strong.

And it was a good job that the magnificent Declan Rice stepped up to add to the goal difference too, because we all knew that Wolves were going to bend over for Man City and gift them more goals and three points as well. Now that IS a team that is on the beach, although they also have a few injuries, but City’s win was as expected as you’re gonna get. But Rice was the deserved man of the match because of his fine assist for Trossard’s, as well as the excellent finish in to injury time to make the scoreline more reflective of the overall dominance we had in that match yesterday.

So it’s another win, it’s another game down, this team can only do what it can to keep up with City and hope for a miracle.

And we start all of this up again next weekend with an incredibly tough one: Manchester United away.

Catch you all tomorrow.

I’ll tell you why: Because it’s within touching distance. The Promised Land feels tantalisingly close. Arsenal are currently top – albeit having played a game more – have just three games left to play and should they win them all, they will have been so close to lifting a first league title in 20 years. It’s so close it feels painful.

If this was February and we were playing Bournemouth, the tone of today’s blog would be very different. It would smack of quite and slightly reserved confidence that we can overcome a side currently quite literally in mid table. Bournemouth are 10th, they in theory have little to play for as they aren’t getting anywhere near a relegation scrap, they’re a team who should by all rights be the archetypal “on the beach”.

But this Bournemouth team are an impressive unit. There is a reason that Iraola was given the job after the good work Gary O’Neil did; he’s a very good manager. Last weekend they smashed Brighton 3-0. The weekend before they beat Wolves 1-0 with 10 men. They’ve beaten Man United away, drawn with Villa away, they’ve shown that they have goals in them and in Dominic Solanke they have a striker in red hot form this season. He’s bagged 18 goals in the Premier League and you can bet your bottom dollar that he wants to hit 20 before the season is out. Their next best goalscorer is Semenyo, who is out injured at the moment on eight goals, the Kluivert on seven. So for our back line the primary objective is clear: Keep Solanke as quiet as you can.

Bournemouth are a decent outfit away from home though. They sit eighth in the table in terms of away games only and have won six, drawn three and lost eight; they tend to go one way or the other and I’m really hopefully they add to the ‘eight’ today. We are in desperate need of it.

They are also good at creating chances away from home. They have the sixth best away xG of all teams in the league and are only six goals behind us in that regard. They do, however, give up chances and are 11th in terms of xG goals allowed, so that offers us some hope that we’ll get opportunities this lunchtime. That also rings true across all games as well, with Bournemouth 12th in the league for average number of goals scored against them by opponents. This feels like a game in which we’re going to see a fair few chances and you’d hope we will score in. So the big question will be whether we can keep both Solanke and Bournemouth out.

In terms of their playing style, Bournemouth have by some distance the most ‘take ons’ in the league i.e. they have players who like to dribble and attack players. So one-on-one duels in the middle and defensive third for us feel crucial. That’s why our duel monsters have to be kings today; Gabriel, Tomiyasu, Rice and Saliba all need to be able to win their individual battles. If they do that, we’ve got a great chance of winning. Bournemouth also make most of their tackles in the middle third or higher up the pitch, which says to me we’re going to get a side who will press us quite high today. So we need to be able to move from back to front quickly to catch them out, because if we can evade their press, there will be space for our creative and attacking players to succeed.

Which makes me wonder about who should be starting. I think a lot of the team picks itself (Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Rice, Odegaard, Saka, Havertz), but who else? I’ve kind of hinted that Tomiyasu should probably be given the nod and given we’ve had a week since our last game (almost) I just feel like he’s the best option right now. Sorry Zinny, at home against an opposition who will press you higher, this just doesn’t feel like the game for you right now. Then in midfield who plays with rice and Odegaard? Again, I feel like it probably has to be Partey. His passing range and ability to get the ball between the lines to feed the likes of Saka, Odegaard or Havertz feels like it should be a definite selection choice for Arteta today. then the final piece of the puzzle is wide left. Do you go with the finisher and guy who is better with the ball at his feet in Trossard? Or do you recognise that if Bournemouth are going to press us high that there will be green grass to run in behind and therefore Martinelli is a better choice? I have no idea on this one. Nor do I have a preference. I think both players could do well today. So whatever the choice, I’ll be happy with it, but if you’re putting a gun to my head I’m probably going with Trossard given his form. He wasn’t great against The Scum but his form in the main has been really good, so that’s the only reason I’m giving him the nod. Regardless of who starts, the other one will of course have a role to play at times and if we go ahead and Bournemouth have to chase the game, maybe the pace of Martinelli is better off the bench?

But regardless of who gets selected, the key that has to be emphasized throughout this Arsenal team is: FOCUS. Keep focused, keep concentration, no silly errors and get the three points. However they come, at this stage of the season, it’s all we’re looking for. Don’t even care if it’s a scrappy 1-0, just do it.

I’m travelling in Germany this morning and so watching the game might be tough, but I’ll certainly be trying my best to find a stream/feed wherever I am come kick off. Fingers crossed boys and girls. Only a win will do.

Catch you all tomorrow…maybe….depends on whether I need to drown my sorrows and am too hungover on Munich beer I guess.

Laters peeps.

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.

He was in front of the press yesterday and at first it didn’t sound too great a prognosis on the players who would travel down to the south coast; as of yesterday’s press conference it sounded like there was no Timber, Partey, Trossard, Martinelli, with doubts over Saka and Saliba from the weekend too. However some videos emerged of the players arriving last night in what looked like a hotel I stayed in when I had my stag weekend in Bournemouth, which was dubbed “The World’s friendliest Stag and Hen hotel” was what they built it up as….I can assure you it didn’t feel that friendly and certainly was sticky enough on the floors. But I’m sure the club have bumped up the per person room rate in comparison to what my brother and mates had to stump up when they were picking our location…

The good news was not that they’ll all have memory foam pillows, but that Rice, Saliba and Saka all got off the bus in their Arsenal trackies which I’m taking to mean that they should be available for selection, which should be massive providing they are all fit. Were we not to see any of those players step off the coach, then you’re looking at a severely depleted Arsenal team travelling down to a place that will be no means be a forgone conclusion this afternoon come 3pm kick off.

Bournemouth are a decent side and I think their results have belied that a little so far. They’ve had a home draw against Chelsea, a 2-2 away to Brentford which is always a tough place to go, as well as a 1-1 at home on the opening game of the season against a West Ham team who are playing well. Their defeats have come to Liverpool (who are looking more like the Liverpool of old),  the Scum (who are annoyingly in form), as well as Brighton away; a place in which many teams will drop points and who were magnificent last season. So whilst it looks like they’re towards the bottom of the league and not in form, there is definite mitigation when you look at the opponents and what they have done so far. Bournemouth’s problems when you look at last season was that they didn’t get enough goals compared to what they conceded, with the second worst goal difference ratio and the fourth worst goals scored tally. This season they have managed five in six and with the suspected news that Solanke could potentially be out having suffered a knock in midweek against Stoke, that could be a bit of a boost for us. He’s bagged three of their goals this season and he is the strong target man that they will look to in order to unsettle our back line, but if he’s out then they’ll rely on Ouuttara, Semenyo and then Kiefer Moore as the target man. He’s a big lump and will cause problems, but he’s not as mobile as Solanke so I’d hope that Gabriel and – fingers crossed if fit – Saliba can marshal him. I seem to recall at the Emirates that Semenyo had a bit of pace about him so we’ll have to watch for that on the flanks.

For us we need to be better at clicking. There was a bit of introspection amongst us Arsenal fans after the disappointing 2-2 against the Scum but as the week has gone on and you realise that at halftime we were missing a chunk of important players against their pretty much best XI, I think I’ve just accepted that sometimes it isn’t your day. We are all saying amongst ourselves that we haven’t quite hit the high notes yet, but the team has been severely disrupted by injury and player unavailability so far. I’ve got the programme from last weekend in front of me now and as I look at it I can see that of all of the games we’ve played so far, we haven’t once been able to play our strongest XI. My assumption of the strongest XI would have been Raya (ish – Ramsdale could equally take that), White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Partey, Rice, Odegaard, Saka, Jesus Martinelli. That side hasn’t once got close to starting together and in fact the only time it has was for the Community Shield, in which even then we had Timber at left back and Havertz up top. So whilst we can be frustrated with the start, we need to acknowledge that Arteta isn’t working with his favourite chess pieces in that position and therefore perhaps an acknowledgement of the fact it might not be as successful as last season’s start as a result is worthwhile. Certainly I keep telling myself that.

Today, assuming those players who stepped off the bus are all available from the start, my starting XI would be:

Ramsdale

White   –   Saliba   –   Gabriel   –   Zinchenko

Rice

Odegaard   –   Havertz

Saka   –   Jesus   –   Nelson

Let me show my workings on some of the more contentious choices here:

1. Ramsdale – I would pick him because he played really well against Brentford. He made some good saves, he looked up for it, his distribution was pretty good and I liked what I saw. I didn’t think Raya’s distribution was that great against the Scum and if Arteta is truly going to have a competition and fight amongst his ‘keepers because he sees both of them as the number one, then I think he deserves to keep his place. This is going to sound like it is a bit of a referendum on our ‘keepers, but if Raya starts today then I think it is clear that Ramsdale is the number two ‘keeper because on form you’d say Ramsdale keeps his place based on the last game. So this will be interesting to see. Ramsdale is also up against a former club somaybe there is some extra spark in there too for him.
2. Havertz – he wasn’t exactly sparkling against Brentford, but I do think it was his best game in an Arsenal shirt so far. He was knitting together passes, was involved a fair bit and I thought he did alright. Arteta needs to give him more opportunities and this is the sort of game in which I think he’ll get more space to work the ball around in midfield and so I’d give him another shot today. If you ask all proper Arsenal fans whether they want Havertz to succeed or not, we all do, so let’s hope he starts and plays well today.
3. Nelson – similar to Ramsdale, I think his performance was decent enough on Wednesday night and the fact he scored what turned out to be the winning goal will give him confidence. If we’re talking about players needing to feel like they are part of something, that they all have a chance to stake a claim in the team, then you have to give Nelson the shot today I think.

I don’t think that is the team Arteta will pick, because I think he’ll go for Raya and Nketiah with Gabriel Jesus out wide, but it’s definitely something I hope he’s thinking about (my team above).

We’ll find out soon enough.

We’re back tomorrow for the latest Same Old Arsenal pod at 7.30pm tomorrow evening so have yourselves a good Saturday (entirely Arsenal dependent, I know!) and I’ll catch you all tomorrow.

I think mine is just about starting to wear off, but mainly because we’re just over 48 hours until we are on to our next game away to Sporting Lisbon, a match which Arteta will have plenty of questions in his mind in terms of team rotation and who he decides to start. It’ll be a tough one, but I don’t think I’m ready to accept thinking about that game until the last-gasp victory from Saturday is completely worn off.

I also wonder what level of ‘acceptance’ Arsenal have with the supposed investigation that is going on this week at FA GQ, as the football’s governing body in this country decide whether or not they should punish the Arsenal players and staff for their behaviour. I mean, seriously, what else are they supposed to do? Score the goal and the simply walk back to the centre spot with a polite and gentle hand clap to the fans?

Never gonna happen. A goal like that will always result in the pandemonium that ensued and if the FA want to get their charge book out again to try to make another example of Arsenal this season, I’m sure Arsenal will just accept it and politely ask whether the same rules have been applied to pitch invasions at lower league clubs during this season. Probably not, because those pockets aren’t as deep as Arsenal and somebody at the FA probably needs a nice big, new, desk, for them to drop their many papers on.

No, the news that will probably concern Arsenal is the Trossard injury length, after he went off on Saturday with a groin injury. Arteta said at the time that it didn’t look great, that he felt something as he was running back towards our goal to defend one of the few Bournemouth attacks, that he wasn’t sure about the severity. But the Standard appear to have gotten wind that the injury isn’t as bad as is feared and that’s good to hear. What the article does say, which might be a slight concern, is that they hope he’ll be back before the international break. That’s only four  games between now and then – Sporting away and home, as well as Fulham away and Palace at home – and whilst you feel we might just be able to get through that period if it is just those couple of weeks, the fact that we also have Eddie out at this period of time, means we are really thin on the ground right now.

Gabriel Jesus took part in a warm down kick around on Saturday, which is great news, plus we had Smith Rowe get around 45 – 50 minutes at the weekend. I suspect he’ll be given another longer run out on Thursday – maybe from the bench for 30 minutes against Sporting – so we could potentially have cover, but depending on what Arteta says about Eddie, would suggest that we might have to try the Martinelli experiment again.

It kind of worked to an extent I thought. He had that blistering run where he just knocked the ball over the bar, he was involved in build up and certainly if you’re asking him to play off the shoulders or win a foot race with a centre half he might be very useful centrally, but whoever comes in for him wide left will have to show a level of consistency because Martinelli has been banging in goals from wide left over the last few weeks and we know how much Arteta prefers not to move his puzzle pieces around too much. I’m sure Arteta is hoping amongst hope that Eddie is fine for Thursday because I think Arteta might go strong – certainly in his front three – and I wonder if he’ll be wanting his usual front three of Martinelli, Nketiah and Saka to be out there in the Portuguese air on Thursday evening.

There are options for rotation though. Nelson may have only made a few cameos this season, but they have been effective; you certainly can’t really argue about his end product in the Forest game and then at the weekend. He’s made eight appearances in all competitions so far this season and has three goals and a couple of assists I think. That’s not bad going and in a season in which you want to win a major domestic trophy, you often need an unsung hero to step in for parts of the season. The likes of Manninger and Wreh have proven that in title winning seasons you need an unsung cameo appearance if you want to get over the line. Could Nelson be playing that role this season? Maybe. But it certainly feels at the moment as though he’s going to get a little more game time than we all thought a few weeks back when we signed Trossard and Smith Rowe was returning, that’s for sure.

I hope that it’s a sign. ‘Big’ Gabby was seen post the Bournemouth game to be pointing up to the heavens and saying something to Nelson. I hope it was him telling him that he has been chosen by god and that this was a sign from god. I’m not sure I believe it that much, but it is certainly a positive omen in what has been a great season so far.

We’ve had a number of weeks where Arteta has said there haven’t been many injuries other than the long term absentees like ESR and Gabriel Jesus and just when they look like they are getting back, it appears as though we’ve got a few other players in those positions just creaking a little bit. Hopefully it’s just me worrying unduly, but I’m going to be looking out for that pre-Lisbon press conference with an intrigued eye.

Catch you all tomorrow. Have a good one.

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.

As for the game itself today, it is easy to become complacent when you are up against a team second from bottom in the league, with whom you beat 3-0 right at the beginning of the season and who you fully expect to be able to be overcome this afternoon when they visit The Carpet. But this isn’t the toughest league in the world for no reason. Bournemouth travel to us today with absolutely no expectations from anybody for us to beat them and that is a dangerous concoction. They may have been absolutely routed against Man City last weekend, but it was a City team finding form and looking imperious (unfortunately), plus football teams are very different when you play them at home versus away. Bournemouth will have opened themselves up a bit at home to try to get their fans on side, but once City pressed down on their necks it became a bit of a precession. Today I don’t think they’ll be as open and I think they will aim to try to be as compact and difficult to break down as possible.

My hope is that it becomes difficult for them, however, because they have shipped the most goals in the league – by a fair bit. They’ve conceded 48 in 24 games – roughly two for every match – and they have scored just under one for every match. So unlike Everton, Forest and Wolves who just don’t score many goals at all, Bournemouth have been able to find the net a few more times, but they are leaky at the back.

Which is why we should be focused, professional, do our jobs, but not be expectant that we are going to smash a hatful of goals past them, because as we know the Premier League doesn’t play that way. Just look at Forest a couple of weeks ago against City; they can’t really buy a goal, they have shipped 42 goals this season, Man City give them an absolute tonking statistically, yet they still get that equaliser towards the end of the game. We need to be wary of that and we need to start fast and start hard come 3pm. What I’m hoping for is a very strong team to control all areas of the pitch; Ramsdale in goal, White, Saliba, Gabriel and Zinchenko at the back, Partey back in to anchor the midfield, Xhaka and Odegaard as the eights, Saka and Martinelli flanking Trossard up top. And I’ve gone for Trossard mainly because I suspect Eddie is still nursing this ankle injury and I think Arteta hinted at that yesterday in his press conference too. If that’s the case then start Leo and if Eddie is needed in the second half, then give it a go. But with Gabriel Jesus not sounding like we’ll see him this week or next weekend, I don’t think we want to contemplate losing Eddie to injury now either.

If he was fit, however, I think I’d opt for Eddie up top because I don’t think Bournemouth will be as stubborn to break down as Everton, plus I don’t think they’ll play camped in their own box in a super low block. Those are the games Eddie has struggled in but this sort of game feels to me like the type of game that I think Eddie Nketiah might relish. So if he’s fit enough, I’d have a little go at rotation up top today and bring Trossard out. I guess it depends though, because we’re likely to have even more space for Eddie to run in behind on this Thursday when we play Sporting Lisbon, so maybe Arteta sticks with Trossard for now but then brings Eddie back for the Europa League showdown.

As for Bournemouth, I’ve just read that they are missing a few players in Vina, Stanislas, Tavernier, Zabarnyi and Brooks (who I’ve always though was quite talented), which will be a blow for them. Their big game players are Billing, Lerma and Solanke and Solanke will no doubt look to be a physical presence against Saliba and Gabriel today. They also have the benefit of not playing in midweek, so we need to be mindful of the fact that Bournemouth will be fresher than us, but if we impose ouorselves, control the possession and ball, ensure they are chasing us rather than the other way around, then I am hopeful we should have enough to beat the Cherries this lunchtime.

They’ll likely line up with a back three turning in to a back five, with four in front and Solanke up top and they will most likely be looking for transition counters and set pieces. I’ve had a look at their numbers and they make the second fewest progressive carries with the ball in the league, the second fewest progressive passes too. They have the lowest xG of any team in the league which suggests they don’t create many big chances in a match. Oddly though, they have had the most penalties in a game, although I’m not really sure what you read in to that, really. They do launch the ball longer and are fourth highest in the league so I suspect we’ll get plenty of balls fired up to Solanke from the ‘keeper Neto today, so winning the knock downs and turning over possession quickly for us may be a feature we need to consider if we’re to get a win today. They also have the lowest average distance of where their defensive action happens in the league, which suggests that they will indeed sit back and defend deep. The challenge will be whether they are any good at it. We may need to be patient.

And that may well be the mantra Arteta is saying to the players pre game today; patience is a virtue, so don’t force it, but do your job and create the chances and let’s see how we go.

Hopefully it’s forward with another three points.

Catch you lovely people tomorrow.

Do you know, with all of the joy of the Arsenal game on Wednesday, I completely forgot that there were FA Cup games going on and as a result I completely missed that the Scum got knocked out to Sheffield United. Hahaha. I remember ready a messaged on Twitter from a Spurs fan listing the teams that had been knocked out of the competition and saying something like “we may never have a better chance to win this”. Well now, how’d that work out for them, eh?

But enough about their misery, let’s focus on us and today Arteta will deliver his press conference ahead of the game at home to Bournemouth tomorrow. The hope is that we have no new injury concerns and maybe we’ll even get an update on Gabriel Jesus. If he can even be in contention for Fulham next weekend that will be massive I reckon. Even if it’s a place on the bench.

Injuries. The curse of any footballer and the curse of football fans alike. They are the horrible thing that can define a season and for where we are right now, I think all of us are just hoping that a core of players that Arteta relies on can maintain their fitness levels between now and the end of May. If we can avoid too many longer-term knocks to key players, we’ll still be in the title hunt come the end of the season.

I’ve seen a few of Arsenal fans over the last couple of days reference the 2007/8 season, given that in that season we were top of the league, on 60 points and had just beaten Manchester City 3-1 with goals from Emmanuel Adebayor and Eduardo. We looked good, we looked on form, we were in a race for top. United were the challengers just two points behind us. On match week 26 we beat Blackburn 2-0 at home and things continued to look rosy. But it was with 11 games to go that the Birmingham 2-2 draw happened and from there it all collapsed.

Those scars still run deep and I myself have referenced that season as the warning flare fired high in to the night sky; we still have a LONG way to go yet. in 2008 we drew 2-2 against Birmingham but were still three points clear. But by match week 30 United had overtaken us and were three clear with eight to go. We fell away and they marched on as the juggernaut under Fergie that they were. We limped over the line and finished third behind United and Chelsea.

I am saying all of this because as I mentioned above, I still carry those scars of that collapse and I still fear it for us, depending on what happens with injuries. In 2008 we lost Rosicky, Robin van Persie picked up knocks, Eduardo was obviously gone and Almunia’s form in goal tanked. But that didn’t all really kick in until match day 27. I’ve said on a couple of podcasts earlier in the season “see where we get to when we’re at 25 games” when people have asked “are you on ‘the train’?” and I have to say I kind of have felt like that since Christmas. “If we’re top of the league by the 25th game then I think I might start to believe” I told myself, deferring my hopes until then. But that is where we are now and I must confess to you that what happened in 2007/8 has me thinking that I need to push back that mini milestone. Instead now I’m looking at the season remaining as a whole block of games and we have 13 left to try to win the league. We are in the conversation, of that I am sure, but Man City are still favourites for a reason. They have done it before, they have a history of going on long winning runs and I think that may now kick in. They play a Newcastle team low on confidence, with whom the goals have dried up as much as the clean sheets. Their last one was an away draw to Palace on 21st January. If they were playing City a couple of months back I might have fancied their chances, but not tomorrow. They are still licking their wounds from a League Cup final defeat and I think Man City might make light work of them tomorrow.

Then City have Palace away, which could be tough, followed by some cup games before they have Liverpool travel to them and whilst in season’s past that might have been a tough opponent, this Liverpool team look pretty poor. Except when we go to Anfield in a few weeks time, of course, when they’ll become peak Pep Barcelona. After that though, City have a run of games that I’m looking at and thinking they’ll probably win them all; Southampton away, Leicester at home, Brighton away, us at home and Fulham away is possibly tricky but they’ll probably get a few points out of that run in. Then it’s another run that you’d expect them to pick up points in Leeds at home, Everton away, then Chelsea at home should be relatively uncomplicated, before finishing away to Brentford. There’s a postponed game at home to West Ham in there somewhere but that will be no problem for them. Some of those matches feel tricky to me, but I’m kind of thinking they’ll probably get 30 points from their last 13 games at least. That gives them 87 points and means we probably need to win at least 10 of our final 13 to be crowned champions. Just my gut feel.

That sounds quite daunting when you think we go away to Liverpool, City and Newcastle, as well as West Ham, Fulham and Forest. We have seven at home and six away. We have to win all of the home games and then three away matches and whilst I’m looking at West Ham, Forest and Fulham as an opportunity, I think we might slip up in one of those – probably unexpectantly – which will probably need we’re going to have to win one of City, Liverpool or Newcastle away.

What we can’t afford is a 2007/8 slip. That goes without saying I know, but Arteta needs to ensure his players remain super focused, super sharp, that some of our returning players from injury can step up and start firing on all cylinders and we can find a ay to win those 10 games I say we need.

This team has showed so much already. They have been brilliant up until this point and no Arsenal fan wants to talk about the title yet. But we’re getting close to the time where we won’t be able to resist ourselves.

Catch you all tomorrow.

Now, I realise that we are yet to play Leeds, they could very well do the same to us when we travel up there later in the season, but as every good football fan knows, you have to make hay whilst the sun shines and right now us Arsenal fans are having a scorcher, so we need to release all the schadenfreude we possibly can. I did watch that game yesterday but I did switch it on to see the final few minutes and the result and it ticked one of the boxes for me to have a happy football weekend. I always think to myself that as long as Arsenal can win, that’s the first boxed ticked, which we did on Saturday. Then, as long as at least one of our rivals drop points over the course of the weekend, that’s the second box ticked. Chelsea are most certainly seen as a rival and having suffered at the hands of Antony Taylor last weekend to drop points, then seeing them get served in Yorkshire yesterday, they were the ones who were the source of amusement yesterday, where United were it the week before.

We sit happily top of the table and the only team with a 100% winning record in the Premier League and that is a good feeling. It is a polar opposite to the feeling that we had last season sitting bottom of the league after the first three. But as any Arsenal fan will tell anybody who listens, we know that it will not last forever and we certainly know that things can change around very quickly indeed, so I doubt there are many of us who are expecting it to be this rosy for the whole season. We know it won’t be but right now let’s just enjoy what we’ve got.

And what we’ve got at the moment is fun. It is a team with purpose, drive, a balance about it that feels significant. Today is 22nd August and we have ten days before the transfer window shuts and I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt like I’ve felt about the squad going towards the end of the transfer window closing. I’m sure you are like me; I’d like another signing or two, for sure, but if we don’t make that signing I’m pretty happy with how our  squad is looking and I have faith in some of those players to deliver a better season than last season.

Last season when Tomi went down with an injury we chewed our nails as Cedric came in. Now Tomi and Ben White have shown that they can both play that position.

That’s an upgrade.

Last season when Tierney picked up an injury that ruled him out for the season we chewed our nails because Nuno was still too raw and it kind of showed. This season he’s struggling to get in because of the form  of Zinchenko.

That’s an upgrade.

Last season when Lacazette was blowing out of his arse and couldn’t hit a barn door in front of goal, we had to rely and hope on an Nketiah whose contract was running down. Thankfully he stepped up, has signed a new deal and is part of the managers plans, but jhje’s playing second fiddle to the sensational Gabriel Jesus who once again showed just how transformative a player he can be for this Arsenal team with his performance against Bournemouth.

That’s an upgrade.

We have upgrades all over the pitch and even those players who were good last season and played a lot last season, all seem to be stepping up. We have Gabriel at the back who was great again on Saturday evening. Martinelli goes from strength-to-strength, Xhaka looks reborn in this new position and Partey, whilst quiet, is still delivering the business in the base of our midfield.  We have options everywhere, Mikel can change it around  if he needs, plus we haven’t  even properly seen the likes of Sambi, Smith Rowe or Vieira yet. Our squad looks more competitive than I’ve seen in years and to be we look like a side hungry to prove the doubters wrong. I just hope we can this season.

So when I see teams scrabbling around this week for potential new signings, or when I see teams linked with players from left field because they haven’t done their business earlier in the summer, I crack a wry smile. We’ve been there. We’ve seen that. The t-shirt has been worn so many times by us that it’s started to get a little frayed at the edges and the imagery on the front has faded. We will land on 1st September with most Arsenal fans saying “yep, broadly happy with that”  regardless of whether we have signed another player or not. There is talk about Pepe going on loan to Nice and that will probably activate our search for a wide forward, but if that doesn’t happen then I’m sure Arteta will reintegrate the Ivorian and he’ll get League Cup and Europa League minutes to keep him ticking over. He hasn’t worked out for us, he can be frustrating as a player, but he’s still got end product and can add something to our team. It’s not like he is as useless as Mkhitaryan or Arshavin were towards the end of their time at the club. They were practically unusable by the time we shipped them out, but I don’t feel that way about Pepe. Sure, we need to move on and sure, it’s probably best for all parties, but I’m not stressing too much over the desperate need to bring in a new player because “we’re just one or two short”. We have a good set of players, a likeable set of players, a squad which I hope will go places this season.

Long may this feeling remain.

Catch you all tomorrow.

But as with all things, you need to be able to translate that to output, which is why the fact we scored so early helped to define the narrative of the game yesterday. Bournemouth and their fans never really got the opportunity to make it a raucous atmosphere because our players did what every away team wants to do – kill the atmosphere and silence the crowd with goals. And the first goal was a peach. Gabriel Jesus looks like an utter beast right now and his feet are lightning quick. But not only that, he’s strong, with great upper body strength to control the ball for that first goal, followed  by twinkle toes feet to skip beyond a couple of players, before picking the right pass to Martinelli whose shot was saved, only for Odegaard to tap in. Brilliant work from the Brazilian and some  end product from the Norwegian, which is always good to see.

Then on 11 minutes we’re two goals up and it’s Odegaard again sweeping the ball home and I’m thinking to myself “hmm, this might just be a nice afternoon on the south coast, you know”. I have to admit that I thought the goal itself was offside because of Ben White, but apparent  it was the camera angle that was a bit unusual and that’s what made it look so. But VAR had a look at it and decided to call it so I’m going to take it. There was also the Gabriel Jesus goal that was call offside in the second half that was very narrow and would have been a deserved goal for his performance, but VAR ruled that one out by a gnat’s testicle so it wasn’t all going for us yesterday.

But most of it did go for us because we were so good and when you’ve got William Saliba – excellent once again – banging in top corner finishes like that from the edge of the box, you can see just how much this team is clicking. And we are clicking. Quite a lot. I know people will point to the fact that Bournemouth are newly promoted, that we should beat them, blah, blah, blah, but quite frankly I couldn’t give a monkey’s right now because what I’m seeing from this Arsenal side each weekend so far is really pleasing on the eye. It’s one thing to go away from home and pick up a victory, but it’s another to do it in such a dominating fashion. Let’s not forget that Villa went to the Vitality Stadium and came away with nothing. This was a Bournemouth team who will have been in to the habit of winning and won on opening day, so they’ll have been right up for that game yesterday, but we poured cold water all over those hopes within minutes of the game starting. And this is a feature of our recent games  so far in the league; we start early and score within the first 20 to 25 minutes. Whether it is home or away, we start fast and try to wrestle the advantage before our opponent has the chance to settle in to a rhythm. It is not always going to be like that, we are not going to have things our own way for the whole of this season, but if we continue to start games with the aggression and drive that we have done so far, more often than not it will happen.

Every player was good yesterday. You can pluck out the stand out players like Jesus, Martinelli, Odegaard and Saliba, but I thought Gabriel was good at the back, Zinchenko and White continue to keep out Tomiyasu and Tierney, in midfield Partey and Xhaka continue to look impressive and whilst Saka hasn’t been in the goals, he is still a threat and caused the Bournemouth left back some issues yesterday.

Teams have to think about this Arsenal side. They have to wonder whether we are going to go left, right, or straight down the  middle with Jesus. There is no predictability about Arsenal right now and the knock on effect of that is that we’re getting impressive results in this early part of the season. We all know that it is early days, we are going to suffer defeats and we’re going to have poor games and  there will be opponents much better than the three we have faced so far, but the signs so far are so very good.

The Premier League is relentless and to be towards the top you have to be on it every single week. Most teams looked at their start to the season and have looked at ours and  said “they should win those” and yes,  there is certainly an argument for that. But you still have to go out and do it. Nothing is ever won  on paper and if you aren’t completely focused in this league any team can trip you up. Next weekend we play a Fulham team with two draws and a win, having beaten Brentford yesterday and picked up a home draw against Liverpool, showing that they are no mugs. We will have to be on it again and focused again but after that performance yesterday, there aren’t many Gooners out there who won’t go in to the game not feeling confident about our chances.

Arsenal are playing really well. Long  may this continue. we hope.

Catch you all tomorrow.

Yesterday I did a bit of a look at Bournemouth so I won’t dwell on them too much today, as we had Mikel’s presser and we have an Arsenal set up to think of, but just touching on it I think we’ll probably see a Bournemouth side playing with a back three, looking to be compact, trying to take advantage with breakdowns and set pieces against us. Against Villa they scored from a set piece corner and then their second goal was in a second phase build up following a free kick swung in to the box, so I think that’ll be their blueprint today; get the ball up in to our half, look for free kicks, corners, throw ins, etc, then use some pretty decent aerial threat attacking players to cause us problems. Think Brentford away last year and how they dominated us aerially throughout the match.

Here’s the good thing though: we’re a very different Arsenal team this time around. Firstly, we have an aerial presence amongst our back line today that wasn’t there at the beginning of last season. In  that game against Brentford we had White, Mari, Tierney and Chambers at the back. Chambers had a torried time, White was playing his first game for the club and Pablo Mari is six foot five with a leap that takes him to six foot six. So we got done. But my hope for this year when we face opponents like Bournemouth today, is that we can counter any aerial threat with our own big lads at the back. Gabriel is six foot three, Saliba is six foot four, White is six foot (I’m assuming he plays at right back. Of course Zinchenko is smaller, but his position is such that if we’re transitioned on we will have moved to a back three with White, Gabriel and Saliba covering the three zones spread across the pitch and so they can win any aerial balls. And Zinchenko won’t be marking Kieffer Moore on corners and set pieces, that’s for sure (or at least I hope not). So I hope we can negate Brentford’s clear threat in the air.

We’ve also got more confidence about us now. Two wins and a good pre season has helped that and although the sample size is small, seeing the resilience to come back from conceding those two goals against Leicester so quickly, had me hoping that when we eventually go behind, this won’t be an Arsenal team that has no chance to win a game of football. In the league Arteta has managed to come behind just once in his managerial career and you feel like he’ll need a few of those kinds of results to get that particular monkey off his back.

Hopefully not today though. I’d like us to go ahead and stay ahead, thank you very much. It won’t be easy – no game is in the Premier League – but as Arteta said in his press conference yesterday there will be a raucous atmosphere from the home support who have become accustomed to seeing their side win football matches. They beat Villa on the first game of the season and as a newly promoted team that first win is vital in the Premier League; it inspires confidence that you deserve to be there and gives the home support hope that they can do well this season. So I’m expecting them to be loud and proud and we have to stop that by starting fast.

Team news is all good news. Arteta confirmed that we have a clean bill of health and Vieira and Smith Rowe are ready to join the first team after playing in midweek for the u23s. Tomiyasu and Tierney have played minutes as a sub in the league and that mean they too are ready. It means our bench will look strong and we’ll have options for Arteta to call on, but for me you don’t change a winning team. This team started picking up results in pre season, they’ve got two out of two so far this season in the Premier League and the message it sends to players is that every one of them fights for the jersey.

I also think tactically it’s the right thing to do. Zinchenko tucking in to midfield when we are further up the pitch and pushing Xhaka further up the pitch is an approach which is working. Teams haven’t quite figured it out yet and it might take them a few more games of scouting us before they can calibrate to counter the set up we have. So with that in mind we should stick to that and it is what I am expecting from Arteta today. On the right you can make an argument for Tomiyasu; I think he’s a better right back from Ben White but with the way the team is playing, the confidence that has been flowing through the side, I think that has to be a “you’ve earned the right to keep the jersey son” conversation. Tomi will be patient, he’ll get his chances and he’ll get games. And White will get chances on the right and the centre of defence, of that I have no doubt.

We can’t take anything for granted. Bournemouth in mid season or two-thirds in to the season, if they’re down there having lost a few games and confidence is low, would be a very different opposition to the one we get today. They’ll have a little more swagger today and so perhaps there is an argument that it is a more difficult time to play them. Then again, perhaps that swagger draws them out a bit and if that happens then we look to our attacking players to do the business. So Gabriel Jesus to find pockets of space, Martinelli to terrorise Smith and Lermer would be nice, but if he doesn’t get joy then let’s have that right hand side having a go in the shape of Odegaard and Saka on Kelly. That’s the good thing about us this season; it looks like we can try different things. We’re no longer reliant on just one flank to do the business and if we need to flick it to the other side then so be it. That’s the hope, anyway. Whether that is the reality remains to be seen, although I have faith, despite how early in the season it is and how we haven’t got too many data points to go on.

I’ll be watching from my back garden as I fire up the BBQ today so my hope is that in the West London sun, Arsenal can do the business on the south coast and bring home three points.

Catch you all tomorrow.

Little ‘Scotty’ Parker seemed to be in good spirits, as he had his press conference yesterday and said some lovely things about Mikel Arteta and his team for this season. He talked about how he thinks we’ll be ‘right up there’ come the end of the season, about how tough the challenge of facing us will be, as well as the fact we are a ‘very technical team’. I’d love somebody to explain to me what that means when some managers say that. It feels rather vague I have to admit. Does it mean that we are good on the ball and our technique for each player is such that it is difficult to get it off us because our passing is so accurate? Or that we have players who know their positions so well that they know exactly where to stand and that we have been drilled with a level of technical knowledge to know how a passage of play will pan out? Or that we have very skilful players who can score lots of goals and dribble around opponents? I never quite know. It’s an ambiguous enough statement to sound like you know what you are talking about, without actually giving away any admission on why you have labelled a team a ‘technical’ team. But hey ho.

He did talk up the importance of the home crowd tomorrow and I do think that is an interesting point, because it is something we were able to do to quieten down the Crystal Palace fans on the opening evening of the season a couple of weeks ago. I went in to that game expecting a raucous atmosphere, a home crowd who will give the home team an extra 10%, a physical contest that we could very well wilt under. But the key to going to tight, compact grounds like Crystal Palace and Bournemouth is to keep those home fans quiet. If we can do what we did against Palace – start VERY well and give them almost nothing to cheer about – then I think it will have a bearing on the game and the result. Scoting early has been a feature of the first two games of the season (scored on 20 minutes at Palace, then at 23 minutes at home to Leicester) and that has to be the mindset that Arteta needs to have for his team tomorrow evening too. That’s not going to happen every week so if we don’t get that early start and the crowd does play its part as Parker has suggested, then it will be good to see just how much resilience this Arsenal team has in the face of that pressure.

He also gave a bit of a team update and I’m going to talk about it today because when I do my preview piece tomorrow I think I’ll focus on where we are at, how we will set up and then how we counter what Bournemouth will throw at us tomorrow. Plus we’ll have had Arteta’s press conference so there’ll be a little more to chew on from that. But as for Parker and his team news, they are awaiting the results of Dominic Solanke as a ‘doubtful’ player for tomorrow night’s game. Parker has called him a ‘maybe’ and I suspect that means he’ll be in the squad and get some game time. That sounds to me like a little bit of mind games and I think they’ll play the wide forward at some stage. They scored their two goals against Villa on opening day through balls in to the box from set play or second phase after a set play and they have big, tall players in Moore and Solanke so I suspect what Parker is hoping for is a physical battle. That’s why it’ll be interesting to see if White is fit because we will need plenty of aerial prowess at the back I suspect. It might be the first time Saliba is tested properly in the air so we’ll have to see on that one.

In their last game they played City at the Emptihad and so it’s difficult to have any kind of proper insight in to how they might set up against us, because they basically just sat everyone on the edge of the box and went compact as a defensive unit but I’d be surprised if that’s how they set up against us on their home soil. They’ll know we’ll have more of the ball, but I don’t think their home fans would tolerate them just dropping in to a compact back five, two central midfielders tight behind them, then seeing if they can shut us out for a draw. they may think they can hit us with the old ‘rope-a-dope’ and catch us on the counter, but without wanting to sound too cocky, if we have Tomiyasu,/White, Saliba and Gabriel as our main players tucking in and happy to match up on the duels, I’d fancy our chances in footraces. I don’t know enough about how quick their players are but this article on Marcus Tavernier suggests he’s somebody who fancies those spring races, so that might be one to look out for if they decide they want to hit us with that rapid counter approach. Given the size of Solanke and Moore I’d guess that they’ll try quite a lot of long balls to see if they can win knock downs, so it will be an interesting match up to see how Saliba and Gabriel cope against that physical presence. Leicester don’t really do that and Palace had their strength in wide positions, so this will be a completely new challenge to any we’ve faced so far this season, although I recognise that it is because we are still just two games in to the season and so data points now are harder to draw conclusions from.

But I am optimistic. I think our confidence going in to the game, the way that we have played, the players we have available, the options from the bench, it all helps in that optimism. It counts for nothing if those Arsenal players don’t deliver the goods from 5.30pm onwards tomorrow I know, but seeing where we are at, with what Arteta has been trying to do in pre season and also the way we’ve started this season, that optimism remains. And given the fixture list before the international break, we simply must be picking up wins right now because it starts to get very hard after the break with the visit of The Scum.

Fingers crossed our players can deliver.

Catch you all tomorrow for a match preview and some thoughts following Arteta’s presser.

Have a good one folks.

• One game in which we’d not taken our chances and were frustrated (Bournemouth away in the league)
• One in which we’d been the better team but ran out of puff for the last 30 and were sucker-punched with some poor individual errors (Chelski at home)
• One in which we’d got our two goal lead in the first half and kept a team at arms length (United at home)
• One in which we were surprised by our high-intensity opponents, but bettered them in the second half (Leeds)
• One in which VAR had denied us a clear penalty and win (Sheffield United)
• One in which VAR has seen us go a man down and stopped us from going on to win (Palace)
• One in which we had absolutely no chance of winning and a slim chance of drawing and yet found the resolve to battle to a draw (Chelski away)

Bournemouth don’t have a big ground as it is but those players last night did what you’d love every Arsenal team to do away from home; they completely sucked any life or energy out of the home fans. We dominated possession, we created chances, we got in behind their full backs and we looked in complete control.

I suppose it helps that we got an early goal through the excellent Bukayo Saka who once again showed just how much potential he has, but also that he is already realising it at the tender age of 18. He absolutely leathered that’s ball from Martinelli’s feed in, then was pivotal in finding Nketiah for the second goal which left us in complete control of the game.

Second goals are so, so, vital and this one proved decisive because it gave Bournemouth a mini mountain to climb, such was our dominance.

What I did notice and I’m sure you did too, however, was little tactical changes by Arteta which are helping our players so much. Especially the young ones. Saka is thriving, for example, and last night was no exception. Whenever we had possession Saka would take about 10-15 paces further up the pitch and play like an auxiliary wide man. Xhaka would slip in the gap he was leaving to cover against any turnover of possession, then Martinelli would either support the line running or move infield for a ball inside.

It’s this clever movement and positional variance that is helping us to find more space, to create angles that are enabling our players to pull apart the opposition, and then allow us tine and space to get in behind opposition defences.

Saka steals all the headlines but there were so many other good performances. I thought Mustafi did well until his injury and isn’t it typical that in a game in which some of the away fans were actually singing his name, he was stretchered off and will probably now miss a bit of football as a result.

In front of them I thought Xhaka was once again very good and filled gaps when we needed them, but also distributed the ball well all night. In the first half he was picking out long diagonals but in the second, when we needed to be compact against an inevitable pressing forward from Bournemouth, he was there in the thick of it scrambling the ball away when needed. It was a performance of leadership.

Next to him we also got an imperious Guendouzi display, especially in the second half, which feels like it was important too because we sat back and allowed Bournemouth to come on to us a bit. That meant that when we did have the ball we needed retention above all else and I think Guendouzi really stepped up on that front.

As did Willock. He started the season well, faded, but in a couple of times that I’ve seen him recently and certainly last night, he showed that he’s very capable of filling the box-to-box attacking midfielder. He won tackles, was strong and on a number of occasions was the one winning the ball back high up the pitch which kept pressure away from our defence. That’s really important in football because it stops your opponent setting themselves up as a unit and means teams like Bournemouth who might want to break with pace as soon as the ball turns over, have men set too far up the pitch to about face and do their defensive duty. It gave us space to counter and Pepe and Martinelli both had plenty of time throughout the match.

And finally, to the top end of the pitch, where Eddie bagged an important goal for his confidence. He worked hard all night and got his reward with a poachers finish. I wonder if Lacazette would have been in that position had he been playing last night? I don’t mean that as a dog, but more that Lacazette seems to be more involved in build up than on the end of the moves at the moment and I wonder how much that is affecting his goalscoring game. Eddie wanted to play as the main striker and positioned himself accordingly, which resulted in a goal that will give him yet more belief, as well as ultimately securing us safe passage to the next round, which is an away trip to Portsmouth in just over a month.

The second half felt a little bit more of a containment exercise and unfortunately we did concede a late goal, but we got what we deserved in the end and Arteta can feel pleased that some of the young players really stepped up.

It’s now onwards and upwards to Burnley at Turf Moor, with plenty of young players knocking on the managers door, which can only be a good thing.

Catch you peeps tomorrow.

It’s a deal that brings in a centre half as another body and whilst not exactly the most exciting prospect we’ve ever had at the club, it will fill a gap left by the injured Chambers, the half fit Holding and the calamitous Mustafi. So as it stands I’m not up in arms.

I’m also not up in arms if the deal is a loan with an option to buy in the summer if it’s an acceptable six months he has at the club. I think that’s fair and it mitigates any long term risk is he is, well, a bit pants. Apparently people who watch Brazilian football day he’s very good in the air, good with the ball at his feet, but isn’t very quick. That last attribute is one that will worry many Arsenal fans given the pace of the Premier League, but there are so many defenders that aren’t blessed with pace and yet still forge a decent career. I don’t particularly think Harry Maguire is a quick centre back but he had a good enough season for Leicester that it convinced United to drop £80million on him.

I suspect it will be announced today and then we’ll finally get around to our FA Cup game away at Bournemouth and I suspect we’ll see a strong side tonight. We don’t play Burnley until Sunday next week and so it’s six days between games. It means Arteta doesn’t need to worry too much about rotation and instead we need to look at this match tonight as an opportunity to go deeper into the competition and a chance for a shiny silver trinket at the end.

I think he’ll probably give Martinez a shot given that he’s the cup ‘keeper, but then it gets a little more complex. It’s been six days since we played Chelski and the hope is that the timescale works for Bellerin, so I’m hoping he’s given another start as we work him back to fitness. There’ll be no Luiz so I suspect that means Holding and Mustafi unless Sokratis is fit. Apparently it was an illness and so I suspect it will be Sokratis and Mustafi but after the German’s blunder last Tuesday for the opening goal it should probably be Holding. We need to get him back up to match fitness and with Luiz now missing for three games I believe, Holding needs minutes under his belt and that’s why I’d pair him with Sokratis, because Mustafi and Holding feels like a recipe for disaster.

On the left it will continue to be Saka I suspect and in front of them it will be interesting to see just how much Arteta thinks of the FA Cup and our chances of winning it. That’s because if he plays a Guendouzi-plus-one midfield then you know he has other fish to fry. But if he goes with Xhaka and Torreira then you know he wants to navigate this round without a replay.

In front of them there is still one final game to serve of Aubameyang’s suspension but Martinelli should surely come in. Him along with Pepe and Lacazette will play I would have thought, although the Frenchman’s form in front of goal does need to see him get something, anything, to go for him because this goalless streak is getting increasingly worrying for us all. I don’t know whether it’s the set up of the team, the way he drops off to be part of the build up which means he’s not getting into those poacher positions, or what, but something needs to go for him and that’s why I think Arteta plays him from the start tonight.

It’s a shame we haven’t been gifted an easy lower league tie like United or Liverpool because it would have given some other players an option to play and show Arteta what they can do. But in Bournemouth we have an opponent who have already picked up a draw at home, won their last league game comprehensively and now find themselves with an opportunity to build some momentum. It’s up to Arteta to stop that and the way he does it is by channeling the spirit of the team from that Chelski result, matching it with some end product from players who aren’t Auba.

Maybe if he starts we could get another goalscoring dissolution from Martinelli?

What I do know for sure; this will be a different game from any of the other games we’ve had this season, because every single game has been different so far. Each time Arteta’s side has taken to the field we’ve needed to see a different Arsenal; whether it’s a resilient one a man down to one of the better teams in the league, or a quick start and first half goals to get us a lead that we have to hold on to, we’ve seen a different Arsenal each time. I’d like tonight to be an Arsenal team that gets a three, four or five goal lead and then manages a game out. That’s the least stressful for me anyway!

Catch you all tomorrow with a dissection of the game.

Hopefully bit-by-bit there is also more confidence and belief flowing back in to this Arsenal team. Picking up an unlikely draw against Chelski, coming back twice from behind, showing the spirit and resolve they did is very positive and I’m sure Tricky Micky has hen emphasising this to his players.

He was up in front of the media yesterday for the pre-game presser and one of the first things he said was how much joy he got from the attitude of the players from that Chelski game. They are responding to him. The results aren’t exactly what we want but it feels like in every game we’ve played there has been a little something that has gone against us and that won’t happen forever. In the Chelski game we finally had a bit of fortune go our way with the Kante slip, but in my mind we’re owed about half a dozen more of those instances given what has happened. It’s been a month since he took over, we play Bournemouth again away, but in that time we’ve had some red cards, some player errors, some decisions go against us and yet more draws. He of course needs to start turning them into wins but we’re seeing things go in the right direction and I think that’s why a lot of Arsenal fans still feel buoyed by what Arteta is doing.

Of course yesterday he was asked about transfers – both in and out – and he poured some pretty cold water on the Auba rumours, whilst deflecting any answer about Matvienko, the centre half from Shaktar. This is an interesting one and like fans we always read so much in to what managers are saying, but he was pretty clear last week that there was absolutely nothing in the John Stones rumours. This week he just said that he didn’t know and would let the press know when we have something to announce. That is hardly a denial and given the media sources talking about this kid, I suspect there’s probably something in it.

Whether or not he comes in, and even if he does whether he’s any good or not, that of course remains to be seen. But there seems to be some interest and if that transpires it’s probably going to happen sooner rather than later because we have a week until the window slams shut.

Until then what we have is the players that are already in through the door and that currently includes Ceballos, although how long that lasts for I don’t know. Arteta was hardly jumping up and down to say how fantastic Ceballos was, instead just saying that he needs to fight for his place like everybody else. He didn’t pour cold water on the rumours of the loan deal being cut short and I have a feeling we might see the Spaniard return in the next week. That’s because he’s still very highly rated in Spain and there will be teams who will probably guarantee Real that they will play him for 75% of matches, whereas Arsenal have clearly not given that guarantee. So I wonder if that’s got some legs. If so it’s fair to say the signing was failure, but I think that would be down more to Ceballos not sticking it out other than anything else. He’s been here six months, two of those he was injured and the last month he’s spent getting back to fitness. That’s half of his time out and so to throw him back in is hardly something Mikel would do. But he has been on the bench and if Mikel was desperate to get him in then he’d have at least given him minutes from the subs bench.

It’s a shame because on paper this looked like a great move for us and after that Burnley home game we all thought we had a maestro from midfield who could pick up where Santi left, but Ceballos has had nowhere near the impact and as a result his Arsenal career may be over before it even got the chance too get started. Ce la vie, I guess.

I think i’ll leave it at that for now. Perhaps we’ll get some transfer rumblings tomorrow but unless that happens it’ll probably be a quiet ol’ weekend for us Goobers.

Catch you guys tomorrow.

These draws are killing us though. I’ve never known a season like it and as we hit the halfway stage we’re on just five victories, five defeats, but nine draws. A very less probable outcome at the start of the season UK casino sites would have predicted. It’s why we’re so low down the league and when you consider that both the Totts and United won at home yesterday it serves to highlight just why we’ve slowly slid down the league. We just aren’t converting those points.

Yesterday we just weren’t converting the chances either. Arteta named a team that I guess in hindsight was difficult not to change much. In defence injury and suspension is forcing his hand and in midfield we have Xhaka and Torreira who are our best two central midfielders. Arteta went with the old ‘Auba wide’ malarkey with Lacazette central and whilst previous games have seen him disappear a bit when out wide, I thought yesterday it was telling that he seemed to put more of a shift in than I’ve seen before. He certainly tracked back a lot to support Saka and whilst the youngster wasn’t exactly sparkling yesterday (his end product was pretty budget too when he got into wide positions), he’s a kid so needs protection sometimes. I think he got that on the left and I think Maitland-Niles did get it on the right.

So I think some of our senior players did step up and we certainly controlled the first half in terms of our defensive third and the middle of the pitch. Xhaka and Torreira helped with that and I thought Lucas was superb in his distribution and ball-winning. I lost count of the times he tigerishly won the ball back from a Bournemouth player.

On the sidelines you could hear Arteta barking encouragement at the players and it was obvious that he had been quite explicit in what he wanted us to do:

Win the ball back higher up the pitch

Quicker rotation of the ball

Forward players supporting the defence a little more

Create pockets of space for the likes of Özil

• And yesterday Özil had his best game of the season. He was able to drift into pockets and when he was found all of our good build up play went through him. He was pulling the strings and we need that to create chances, which we did, more than at any stage this season (check Orbinho’s Twitter timeline for the stats on that).
• The only problem was that we were wasteful and unfortunately the chances didn’t all fall to Aubameyang. Instead they fell to Lacazette – who was terrible all game yesterday in both finishing and passing – as well as Reiss Nelson, who looked as promising as he was frustrating, with some poor crossing and shaky decision-making at times. It feels like both of those players need a goal and we only have to look at how Pepe exploded into life after he got his to show what it could potentially do for them.

Speaking of Pepe, he was out until the last ten minutes and given how impressive I thought his cameo was I can only assume he’s not fit enough yet to get 90 minutes under his belt. He was subjected to another scissor tackle and I just wonder if these knocks he’s getting keep setting him back a little. One can only hope he can be fit for Chelski on Sunday. If we could have him available for then at least it gives Mikel some thinking to do because Nelson or Lacazette should probably be dropping to the bench given their profligacy in front of goal.

Bournemouth created a few worrying moments but in the main I thought we dealt with their threat well and defensively we were much more compact at times. Invariably though, despite the positivity, we still went behind with one of Bournemouth’s only shots of the first half. It cane from our defensive left and there was probably a little too much ease in which the Bournemouth player got to the byeline but we’ve got an 18-year-old winger playing at left back right now so you can hardly chastise him too much for switching off. That’s what happens when you’re a kid.

That’s also where you need your coach to protect them too and you could see that perhaps Nelson’s performance had him on a little bit of a downer at the end, but Arteta visibly had his arm around him and I hope that does him the world of good to know his manager will have his back. This game didn’t pan out as we’d hoped it would be we did see enough to see a change in what the team want to do under our new manager. They want to win the ball back higher up the pitch, track back certainly in the wide positions to avoid being overloaded with our inexperienced full backs, plus we have to appreciate that Arteta is having to put players into his system that might not fit the characteristics of the players he needs to fully implement his footballing vision.

This season is done in terms of the league and it’s now about preparing for next season by getting the system right, getting the right players for that system, so we can see what a true Arteta side looks like. We do need to start winning football matches and there’ll be no bigger statement than a scalp like one of United or Chelski in the next few days. Let’s hope another day or two on the training ground can prep us more.

And let’s hope they practice finishing a little more as well.

Catch you all tomorrow.

We also have a level of excitement that genuinely hasn’t existed all season, because it’s the first official game of Mikel Arteta’s reign in charge and the possibilities feel endless. That’s because we have absolutely no frame of reference of him as a manager. We all know Arteta the coach, but this is a step up that is massive, so all eyes will be on his decision making and his actions pre-kick off.

Who will he choose to start at Dean Court?

How much change has he been able to affect in the few training sessions he’s had?

What sort of style of an Arsenal team will we see?

There are so many questions that are unanswered and although that feels a little terrifying because it could all go horribly wrong, it also feels a little exciting because hopefully it can all go right, with maybe even a ‘new manager bounce’ to get us started. It would be nice to see one of those work in our favour for a change.

And it is possible. Freddie’s situation didn’t help but Arteta is in at the club with no ties to the previous regime, with his own ideas on the training ground and now we have players who by the sound of it have been impressed after a couple of training sessions. It’s time to see if Arteta can make a few instant tweaks to change our fortunes.

It is possible too. When we played Southampton last season Ralf Hassenhuttl had just joined them and he got the team playing a more intensive press and we were the first victims, losing 3-2, whereas Duncan Ferguson has just shown that even a few changes in style and approach can have an impact, picking up five points from Chelski at home, United away and us at home. So why can’t Arteta have an impact like that straight away?

Bournemouth are no mugs though. They beat Chelski a couple of weeks ago, they gave us a really tough game at the Emirates and given our horrendous defence I’m not expecting us to keep another clean sheet, in spite of what betting sites like Betsson suggest. That means we have to score a minimum of two goals to win this afternoon and given how poor we’ve been creatively – especially away from home – that’s not an easy task. But we appear to have a manager who knows exactly what he wants and hopefully that clarity of vision will transmit to a better performance from our players.

I suspect it’ll be Leno in goal, but what he goes for in the back line is probably going to be based on who’s available and who he wants to start against Chelski in a couple of days. He can’t play Chambers because of suspension, Bellerin has only just started training after a couple of weeks, plus we know we’ve got our first choice fullbacks out until the new year. So what’s he going to do?

If I was to guess I’d say Saka at left back and Maitland-Niles at right back again. I’m not sure who else could fit in although shifting Maitland-Niles to left back and playing Mustafi on the right is an option. In the middle it’ll be Luiz and Sokratis I’d imagine, although it’s not as if there’s much choice, so our new head coach will have his hand forced methinks.

It’s in front of that back line that I’m intrigued to see what happens though because there are more options in that regard, and certainly more chance of improvement given our wayward midfield, so I think we’ll see some form of change in approach from whoever plays. Personally I’d stick with Torreira and Xhaka because I think they give us more stability in front of our back line than Guendouzi does. The young Frenchman looked ill-disciplined before his current stint out of the team and that was laid all the more bare with the Man City game, which Arteta would have had a front row seat for, so I think one of the main things Arteta will be asking if it for a more coherent structure and positioning approach to those players in the middle of the park today.

And then we come to the creative end of the pitch, which has to start Auba up top and has to have three players behind him that will connect the team. That’s what I’m hoping for anyway. We need to avoid isolating Aubameyang and to do that we need players who are going to be mobile, provide movement, have an ability to spot a run and when we get the opportunity to, we need to take our chances. Because you can bet your Christmas bonus Bournemouth will be looking to take theirs.

In terms of the Bournemouth team they’ll be missing Diego Rico at left back, Nathan Ake at centre half, as well as Steve Cook, Adam Smith and Harry Wilson. David Brooks is also out and of the few times I’ve seen him play he’s been quite impressive, so the fact we won’t have him running at our quite pathetic back line is at least one cause for optimism. Of course in Joshua King and Calum Wilson they have players more than capable of showing up our back line and so Eddie Howe will be quick to tell players like that, as well as Ryan Fraser, to get in behind our creaky back line.

Despite Bournemouth’s injuries, we still face an incredibly tough game on our hands, especially if we go behind at any stage, because the fragile confidence of this Arsenal team could evaporate at any stage it feels right now. So I’m praying we can score first and build on the confidence. After we equalised in the second half against West Ham we looked like a totally different team as we went on to win it. That’s what I’d like to see today. Let’s have some steel injected back into an Arsenal side.

Over to you Mikel.

Micky Arteta probably will have a token glass raised with the family, but by the sounds of it and judging by the press conference yesterday, it’ll be kept to a minimum because he sounds like he’s putting in some hard hours on the training pitch to prep his players for tomorrow’s game against Bournemouth away. He’s going to do it without a few of them though, as we still have a hefty injury list and added to that appears to be now with Martinelli, who is a doubt after taking a couple of knocks against Everton. The plus side is that Bellerin returns and Ceballos might also be available from the bench but I tell you what, these press conferences are a lot more watchable than anything we’ve seen in a long time, such is the poise with which Arteta delivers. I’ve read the transcript of what he said yesterday, then I also thought i’d re-watch his presser on the video, such was my boyish excitement.

He spoke about the players executing his demands at Goodison Park and also how he wants his players to have a different aggression when we lost the ball, which he said we saw. I guess as we get through the coming weeks we’ll see if that is actually true but the first little test seems to have seen the players react positively to his presence.

Mikel also spoke about Freddie and the fact that he will stay on at the club in a first team coaching capacity and I think that is a really positive step for the club. Freddie has Arsenal DNA, he can help the transition as Arteta gets to know the players, plus let’s not forget that a lot of the young players have very positive things to say about Ljungberg. He’ll be an asset on Arteta’s staff and I don’t think you’ll find many Arsenal fans who don’t feel happy about this move. It was tough for him coming into the team with little structure or back room staff, so to take the reigns and conduct himself in the way he did, I thought was really positive for the club.

But now we move on and Mikel talked about clean sheets from everyone – positive and negative – so I’m going to be fascinated to see who responds to him. Players like Bellerin, Chambers and Ozil have played with Arteta before and so they know the type of man he is. But they’ll know that he’ll be different as a manager than he was as a coach. My big hope is that we see all of the players up their intensity levels as they play for a position in the team.

Whether or not some already have an eye on the exit door remains to be seen because there’s already so many rumours that are starting to appear around so many players. We’ve heard a lot about Xhaka to Hertha Berlin, we’ve seen noises that Lucas Torreira wants to go back to Italy, Ozil off to Turkey with Fenerbache, plus the fact Auba isn’t signing a new deal and there are noises that Madrid are interested, suggests to me that January might have a little bit of movement.

It’ll have to be movement in both ways though, because we do need an injection of some new blood into the team in January I reckon. Mikel will know how he wants to shape his team and I’d be surprised if that is playing in the same style and shape that we had under Emery. So he’s going to want players with the physical attributes that suit his game style and invariably I think that means some casualties. I’d be surprised if it’s wholesale changes in January though and that’s got to mean that although plenty of these rumours are appearing, I’d imagine it’s only one, possibly two, that might move on. Mikel himself said yesterday that he hasn’t really gone into much detail on transfers and I can kind of understand that. We have three games in a week now and we really can’t afford to be looking at January and deals that need to be done whilst there are matches to be played and hopefully won.

I’m actually getting excited ahead of a football match again, you know, which I haven’t felt in a long time. It’s good. It’s exciting to see what type of team arises from  the ashes of the Emery regime. Bring it on.

Catch you all tomorrow.

Not that I don’t like my job – I actually find it quite rewarding – but if you gave me the choice of not doing it and sitting at home playing on my computer until the Arsenal game starts then I’d probably plump for that option.

Bournemouth visit us tonight with a pretty poor away record, with a few injuries and the absence of wonder strike merchant (in our favour) Lerma this evening, which means our ‘shots from outside the box’ numbers might be affected tonight

But whilst the signs should point towards an Arsenal win we all know the reality: this Arsenal team is predictable in its unpredictability and so this evening I’m expecting a difficult game against an opponent who in reality has nothing to lose. Bournemouth are comfortable in mid table with 34 points, they’ll probably pick up a few between now and the end of the season to get north of 40, so for them tonight represents somewhat of a ‘free hit’.

That’s not the case for Arsenal. With The Tiny Totts away on Saturday and then Man United wedged in between an away and home leg against Rennes to focus on, Arsenal simply cannot afford to drop points tonight. I’d go as far as to say that even one point will probably not be enough because we need to build a buffer for what might be a difficult lunchtime on Saturday.

This season every time we’ve tiptoed in to the top four we’ve quickly been nudged out and I suspect even with their injuries tonight United will beat Palace at Selhurst Park. If that’s the case then a draw for us this evening drops us back down in to fifth. If be some quirk of delicious fate United don’t beat Palace, then a victory for us brings a much needed buffer that I believe we’ll need because I’m not confident of us getting anything on Saturday in the NLD.

What Unai needs to decide is who he starts this evening and I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest of rotation from Sunday’s game is a factor. I’d expect Leno to start and perhaps Lichtsteiner at right back. Monreal at left back is an option to rotate with Kolasinac. I’m not sure who the best central defensive pairing is but I’d be tempted to stick to Sokratis and Mustafi this evening because I would use Koscielny and Sokratis on Saturday against Harry Kane et al.

This is of course assuming Emery goes with four tonight and four at the weekend. He’s tended to be pragmatic in the away games against the bigger teams so it wouldn’t surprise me for him to use all three central defenders against the scum so if that’s the case then you’d have to take Kos out for tonight.

Xhaka and Torreira has to make up the midfield two if you ask me and bringing in Özil for Ramsey tonight makes sense if you’re playing the Welshman against Tottenham for the intensity he brings.

The decision then is who plays either side of him and although Unai played down Suarez for 90 minutes I’d be throwing him in from the start tonight. Iwobi and Mkhitaryan played well at the weekend but both should be used against Tottenham and so one should sit out for tonight’s game in my opinion. We need to see what Suarez is made of and five or ten minute cameos here and there is hardly a good enough indicator as to whether he’s somebody we should be seeing more of next season. Right now that looks like a ‘no’ from me but he’s hardly played so it’s very difficult to judge.

The decision the manager might also make is whether he plays Suarez and Aubameyang either side of whoever plays at number ten tonight. It would be tempting I think, especially as Lacazette is on form and should definitely start in the next two games I think. He’s suspended for the Rennes game next week so I’d be playing him from the start but whether Auba starts will be interesting. He flits in and out of games but I recall a few times during the unbeaten run that he came in at the back post to tap in. If Bournemouth give us space then he’s a player you’d want in and around the box to profit.

As for Bournemouth themselves, well, I don’t really know what to make of them. Brooks and Wilson are missing tonight which will be a blow in terms of their creativity and Lerma’s suspension means they’ll be without another key player to anchor their midfield. They have pace on the counter with Ibe and I’d expect Howe to be telling his players to go front to back as quickly as possible to get in behind our flaky defence. Howe only needs to look at how Redmond got in behind us early on at the weekend to see just how easily pace can worry our team.

Then there’s the threat of Solanke who will provide a willing runner in to the channels but is also a big player who will be a threat on set pieces. So we need to marshal him well tonight.

My hope is that ‘Mr USB’ Emery goes with a back four and aims to press Bournemouth high in to making mistakes. Yes they have pace on the counter, but if we push them deeper in to their own half I feel like it’s a team with a mistake or two in them. We need to put the emphasis on though so my hope is that from the first whistle we see a similar Arsenal team to the one from the weekend.

Hopefully we can get the three points and then start worrying about the Totts away at Wembley.

Laters people.

There were a few of my compatriots who also echoed the same feeling and after a 2-0 victory against a hard working Southampton side I’m wondering if the old “beggars can’t be choosers” phrase needs to be applied here to my own thinking.

After all what we all want from football is to see Arsenal win and we got that. What we also got was some fluid and creative football and some very good passing routines in the first half. Emery named a back four for the second game in a row and the defensive line up of Leno, Lichtsteiner, Mustafi, Sokratis and Kolasinac may have had a few worried faces in the pubs around the ground pre game, but as it transpired the defence held out for a clean sheet in the end.

Not that it couldn’t have been very different, mind, especially when Redmond broke through within the first five minutes and only a smart bit of goalkeeping stopped us from going one down. This Arsenal team will always gift big chances to opponents and so perhaps the new tactic is giving up those chances early so we get them out of the way?

Hey if that was the case it worked and certainly shocked us in to life because we scored almost immediately after we could have been behind. Lacazette showed us just how influential he’s become and turned in a nice early goal and the relief all around was palatable. One nil to the Arsenal and then within another ten minutes it was to be two.

Step forward Mkhi and Iwobi for the Armenian to double our lead. I have to say I thought both wide forwards played quite well yesterday. They looked bright, were involved in a lot of what was good about our play and it was as if the haunted look they’ve both been showing at times of late had been lifted.

We were playing good football. The quick transition of passing from front to back was there and some of our triangles to work space was leaving Southampton exposed. We probably should have had more in truth but after a first half in which we dominated the football and the chances, it didn’t fee too worrying at the interval.

So why on earth we couldn’t just maintain the same intensity in the second is beyond me. Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to the second half performance because it was one that saw Charlie Austin come on, Southampton to change their shape slightly, then us to start to wobble.

I guess in defence of the performance you could argue that lots of successful teams will take a commanding lead and then just ‘see out’ a second half. After all we saw it in the early 90s with George Graham famously building an Arsenal team designed to do just that. This is of course making the assumption that your defence is capable of remain resolute. As ours has demonstrated at times this season we are far from the 90s Arsenal version and whilst we did have a couple of good situations to make it three (think Auba’s deflected ball towards Laca that nearly went in), in truth Southampton had more of it in the second and at times it felt like we were hanging on.

That’s where some of the saves from Leno came in handy and whilst strikers feed off goals, ‘keepers feed off clean sheets, which are slim pickings if you’re an Arsenal ‘keeper. But Leno earned his clean sheet yesterday and made some smart stops in both halves.

We looked good in the first half, we were a little jittery in the second, but I think given how low on confidence we’ve looked at times this season that kind of performance in the first half will bring the players a much needed boost. But it needs to be followed up on Wednesday night at home to Bournemouth because if we’re going to draw on any hole of a feeing of momentum in the camp we need a third win in a row before we have to face the scummers of Tottenham next weekend.

So hopefully the players can regroup, refresh, then get their game faces on for just two days time because we need another performance like yesterday’s first half to believe that the swagger can come back to The Arsenal.

And that’s yer lot from me today. Catch you all tomorrow.

It’s an early start, dark, I’m wet all over and we have to wait another 36 odd hours until The Arsenal are on again.

Still, at least we get a bit of midweek football so I probably shouldn’t grumble too much. And there’s also our radio show on LoveSport tonight. We’ll of course be previewing the game tomorrow as well as giving a bit of a recap on the game at the weekend and of course, the big one on Sunday won’t be missed, but I want to touch on the poll we’ve done about Mesut Özil, because it seems he’s a more divisive player from a fans perspective than I thought.

As you may (or may not) know I’m a massive fan. His vision, his ability to see things others simply can’t, his movement to find spaces, the assists, his ability to glide across the pitch make him – for me at least – a joy to watch. He’s not always been bang on form in the last 18 months or so but how many players were last season? And how much did his season start off a little uncertain because of all of the German National Team stuff going on?

Call me an apologist if you like, but the way the key figures in the German Team just dismissed and rounded on him as well as swathes of the German media was, quite frankly, shameful. Perhaps it may have had an impact on his slightly shaky start?

I said yesterday that it feels like the media are making a little bit of a mountain out of a molehill with the ‘Özil benched and doesn’t come on at all!’ Headlines on Sunday evening and Monday morning. To me it feels like that doesn’t really represent Arsenal fans opinion of the player and I’ve always thought it was about 10% of the fan base who thought he was a busted flush, somebody who shouldn’t be seeing game time, particularly away from home.

Yet the poll Dave ran yesterday evening – which had over 250 votes – suggested that 40% of people thought we would be better without Özil in the team away from home. I’m surprised at that number being so high to be honest, particularly after Mkhi stunk the place out on Sunday, because you can’t tell me having Özil in the pitch wouldn’t have given us more control over the ball.

Some people in replying to the poll suggested that Özil should be used depending on the type of game and the opposition and I agree with that, but to the extent that it should be true for most players we have in the team, because under Wenger we had the undroppables and we all know that it wasn’t the right way to go. Unai has shuffled his playing pack well so far and Sunday was a good example of that, but I don’t think it was the right example, because I think that formation and the team we played against was perfect for an Özil on the pitch master-show.

Think about it; in the first half Bournemouth presses hard, hit the channels and tried to commit more bodies forward, which they were quite successful with because we couldn’t retain possession of the football. One thing you can’t label at Özil is that he loses possession of the ball a lot. He doesn’t. He’s not perfect but he rarely loses possession or misplaces passes. So imagine him being an outlet for the defenders or midfielders to find when we’ve scrapped the ball back. He’d be much more likely to spot a run than anyone else in the team and I just feel like we should have probably given him a crack at Bournemouth on Sunday.

He is a man who if you as a team can get behind an opponent pressing you on the ball can operate in those pockets where you can unlock defences within the blink of an eye. Think about the great goal we scored against Leicester last month. That was in large part down to his (as well as others) influence when Leicester has committed bodies forward and we could capitalise.

On Sunday there were a few diagonals hit to Auba which ran into Begovic’s arms. A few came from Mustafi and whilst Auba applauded the thought, obviously the execution wasn’t there, because Mustafi is a centre half and doesn’t have the touch or ability of an Özil. Had Mesut been on the pitch would we have seen less of that and more balls to him rather than those diagonals?

Again though, that’s not to say I don’t appreciate games where perhaps other players are suited, I just think that in this instance I’m not sure that decision was the right decision by Emery and in most cases throughout the season I think Özil should be starting.

But hey, that’s just me, I’d be more interested in hearing what you guys think. Would you have played Özil on Sunday? Would you play him away from home at Old Trafford a week on Wednesday?

Let me know in the comments.

Laters people.