His finish yesterday sailed past the Leverkusen keeper Blaswich who, up until that point, very much had the feel of Gandalf and was not letting anybody pass. He’d made six saves before Eze’s rocket to break the deadlock and some of them were worldies too. The one he saved with his foot to have the ball just skip wide of the post is the first one that comes to mind. But on a night in which big shocks had happened in the other part of this side of the draw with Lisbon beating Bodo/Glimt, this was not to be another upset, as Arsenal pretty much dominated from start to finish.

One of the criticisms I think a few of us Gooners have had is that we haven’t started games too quickly. It’s felt at times – certainly in 2026 – as though we take our time to ‘feel’ our way into a game and how the opponent sets itself up. This was not the case last night. Arteta made some tactical tweaks, including Ben White, which I think worked really well, and we were pretty much on the front foot within the first few minutes. You could see that White was looking to overlap and create more space for Saka and I think he must have appreciated that, because he got on the ball and was creating chances. There were still some instances in which I thought Saka could have got a shot off a little earlier, but today is not a day to be bagging on the starboy. Sometimes, to recapture your best form, you have to take incremental steps in the right direction. I thought last night was definitely one.

But there were strides forward from a number of attacking players yesterday. I thought Trossard looked lively, popping up in spaces across the front three, whilst Viktor Gyokeres must have had arguably his best game of the season yesterday. He didn’t score, which is obviously a marker a lot of people will put down as another failing, but not me. Not today. He used his power well; he looked to be half a yard sharper. He had a few runs at defenders and a couple of shots, one of which was deflected wide. He is the sort of guy who will probably have got into the dressing room at full time quite disappointed in himself for not scoring, but I bet the manager was exactly the opposite of that.

After the dominance of the first half, things felt like they got back on to a more even keel in the second, which you’d expect given Leverkusen couldn’t just sit back and hope to counter us in transition. We had our goal, we didn’t need to press forward, so gaps started opening up and even though the game ended with Leverkusen having more possession than us, I think we created the better chances in the second half overall. The one for them that stands out is the fantastic Raya save right at the end, but other than that I can’t rememberr him making a string of saves. That was Blaswich who was in that mood last night, making a couple in the second, but not Arsenal’s second, which was another superb Rice finish from outside the box. Have that, you open play Arsenal goal naysayers.

His first touch for that goal was sublime. It meant it sat up perfectly for a second touch, then the stroke of the ball past the Leverkusen goalie to just kiss the post – *chef’s kiss*. He picked up the man-of-the-match award on the night and, once again, the cries rang out about how we’d really made a steal with him on the price. He’s fantastic. He’s all action. He’s the best player in this Arsenal team by a country mile this season. There’s talk that Bruno Fernandes should get Player of the Year – pull the other one, it’s got bells on. Rice has been the most consistently impressive footballer in the Premier League; he’s been doing it in the Champions League, and his goal last night ensured that the last ten minutes or so were nowhere near as nervous as it could have been.

There were so many positives to take from individual and collective performances last night. I thought Zubimendi looked spritely; he’s been accused lately of taking the safe and backwards options on his passing recently, but I thought he was much more progressive and willing to take risks. With the League Cup final on the horizon, it is lovely to see that we have players hitting some stride, although Declan Rice’s post-match comments about being shattered are a concern. Arsenal and England should take note; there is a period coming up here where there is an opportunity to manage his and the likes of Zubimendi’s minutes differently. I said it on social media, but I’ll reiterate it now – neither of these players should be going away with their international teams, and neither should be starting against Southampton a week after that, too. If you can wrap them up, give them rest, a kind of Spring Break, if you will, then it could be beneficial to both The Arsenal and their respective international managers.

Defensively, we looked good too; our pressing was right, we got into our shape at the right time, Gabriel and Saliba looked good and Hincapie and White both performed well. There was also enough time for a Kai Havertz cameo and I thought he also looked lively when he came on.

And all of this means that Arteta has options for Sunday, too. In the pub before we were talking about where we were going to have a drink on Sunday and a few of us joked that we were overlooking Leverkusen. That wasn’t the case for those Arsenal players, who will also have the big confidence boost of knowing they are into the quarter finals with a great chance to progress there too. But before that, it’s all eyes on the League Cup now, and a showdown with 115 Charges FC. My hope is that they are licking their wounds and feeling a bit sorry for themselves this morning, having just been knocked out to Real Madrid last night.

More on that tomorrow as we begin the countdown to the first trophy attempt of the season. Catch you then.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We were all certainly blessed with mostly good news yesterday, as it was all but confirmed that Bukayo Saka has signed his new bumper contract. I was asked to give some comments on that for the BBC so rather than repeat what I said there, here is a link if you want to see a few words from me on that deal.

There was also good news on the injury front, as Riccardo Calafiori has been confirmed as fit following his withdrawal from the squad at the weekend against Wigan. When you hear that kind of news, there is often a worry that it’ll end up being a prolonged absence, as was the case over Christmas when he pulled up in a warm-up game, but this time it appears the club is focused on making sure they don’t take any precautions with players like Riccy. That’s EXACTLY what we all want to hear; he’s a very talented player, and we need him available, not out for weeks and weeks at a time. Whether he starts tonight will be interesting. Personally, I’d be tempted not to risk it, to give Hincapie the starting jersey, then see if Calafiori comes through the last 30 minutes unscathed. If he does, you’ve got him as a viable option for the game against The Scum at the weekend.

Ben White is also fine, having limped off, but it appears that was just a bit of fatigue, so having him available is good. Jurrien Timber probably needs to do a little more job sharing in my opinion, because he’s looked leggy in the latter stages of games recently, so having White available to come on is important for us and keeping it tight at the back, I believe.

The other good news on the injury front was that Kai Havertz has an outside chance of being fit for this evening, according to Mikel Arteta, but he has also said he is a possibility for the weekend. I think the club won’t risk Kai tonight, but I think they’ll have him training this week and maybe he can be a bench option on Sunday, which is fantastic news.

Odegaard, however, won’t make it this evening, which I think means Arteta has two options for a replacement, and I’ll be interested to see what he goes for. He either puts Eze in there in the hope that the Wigan game has been the spark that the Englishman needs, or he can continue with the Saka-central experiment, in the hope that this could be something that unlocks our scoring firepower for the remainder of the season, where we will continue to come up against low blocks.

I really don’t know which option he’ll go for. Of course, what he could do is play Eze in the left eight, then tell Rice to switch to right eight and do the same role, but on a slightly different pivot to normal. We’re going to have more of the ball, we’re going to do most of the attacking tonight, you’d expect, so giving those progressive passes and attacking players like Eze the natural zones and spaces they like to operate in makes sense to me. Rice is also quality enough that he could do just as good a job at right eight as he does on the left, so that’s what I’d be leaning towards if I were Arteta.

I also think that Wolves are going to sit into a low block and congest the defensive third; they have the lowest field tilt of any team in the Premier League (meaning most of the ball is played in their half), they have made the second most tackles of any team (suggesting they are often on the back foot trying to wrestle back control), although interestingly they are not the worst when it comes to things like xG – Burnley, West Ham, Leeds and Forest are all worse for xG allowed, which says to me that whilst Wolves have trouble up the attacking end and sit deep, they don’t give up as many chances as those sides.

With some of that data in mind, it does feel like somebody like Eze would be useful in this match. If Wolves are sitting deep in their own box, maybe we do need to unsettle them by peppering a few shots from distance? I think we also need those trickery players, so Trossard on the left feels natural, but should we be looking at Madueke on the right? Probably not. You can’t not have Saka in this Arsenal team. He’s the main man, and whilst his form hasn’t been amazing, this is the sort of day and game that he could well come alive in on that right-hand side. So, for me, I’d go with this as a starting XI:

Raya

Timber   –   Saliba   –   Gabriel   –   Hincapie

Zubimendi

Rice   –   Eze

Saka   –   Gyokeres   –   Trossard

If that’s the side, then you still have Martinelli and Madueke to be impact players in the second half. If the game feels like one in which Big Vik isn’t getting a sniff because of a low-block back line, then Gabby J is also there as somebody who can come o,n too. If the game is (hopefully) sewn up, maybe you can also think about Norgaard for the closing stages, as he impressed against Wigan, and I think he is deserving of more Premier League minutes than he’s had so far.

Wolves are expected to line up with a back three, which will move to a back five when out of possession and dropping deep, which might mean that they look to double up on our wide men. They are missing Hwang, but they have that tricky kid, Mane, who has impressed me on the few times I’ve seen him. If he plays, he’s one to keep an eye on. Like us, they rotated practically all of their team, although their back line remained the same, so maybe/hopefully there’s some fatigue that creeps in there for us to take advantage of. But this should be a game that we are doing anyway. There is a reason Wolves have eight points all season. There is a reason they have just one win against West Ham all season. There is a reason they are at the bottom of the league, and if we want to win this thing, this is the sort of game that you need to do the business in. Wolves proved in the game at The Emirates that they are not as terrible as their results suggest, and I think Mikel will be acutely aware of the need for his team to be on it tonight.

That’s it from me. I’ll be back tomorrow for a review, in which hopefully we’re talking about three points for The Arsenal.

Catch you then.

Arsenal still needed to do the job, though. There was still a need for professionalism from those Arsenal players. And that was as professional a display as you are going to get. There was no slaughter of Wigan, just a first half that ensured this tie was dead by the time the first Asahi hit the punters’ lips, with a couple of half-chances in the second to extend the score without really extending ourselves. In many ways, Arteta would have been delighted. Sure, as fans, when you race to a four-goal halftime lead you want to see eight’s, nine’s, or ten’s, but let’s be realistic; there’s no need to over-stretch for a ball that could mean you are out for a few weeks at a crucial time in the season.

Arteta named a slightly stronger squad than I thought he would, although Calafiori was once again injured in the warm-up, which meant Saka had to come in, and the MLS as a midfielder test-run was deferred. It’s a shame, because with Merino out, Dowman still very young and Nwaneri on loan, there may well be an argument to see Myles there as an option in case one of our existing guys goes down. Zubimendi and Rice play A LOT of football and I think most of us do harbour concerns over what happens if one picks up a knock. That’s why you could see Arteta keeping both out of the starting XI, although Zubi did get on for 10 minutes at the end, which I wasn’t 100% happy about. Saka, thankfully, only got 45 minutes; save him for other matches, Mikel, so happy that you pulled him after he’d completed a pretty solid 45 as a centralised number 10.

It was the turn of the rotated squad to show they can do the business and yesterday it was just too much to ask a Wigan team low on confidence to compete with an Arsenal side stocked full of internationals. Kepa, White, Saliba (again, wasn’t too sure about that one, but he appears to have got through it all ok), MLS, Norgaard, Eze, Madueke, Saka, Martinelli and Jesus – all have been capped at full international level – and you could see the gulf in class immediately.

A lot of it was, I am pleased to say (and we were all pleased to see), marshalled by the excellent Eberechi Eze. Yesterday morning, I had said that this game feels like one in which he has to take control, and that he certainly did with two great assists. The first no-look pass to give Madueke his goal was perfectly weighted. The second ball in behind for Martinelli meant that the Brazilian still had a little more to do, but he took his goal well and now has 11 goals and three assists to his name this season. If he gets to 20 goal contributions for the season, he has 100% done his job on the attacking side of the pitch.

Back to Eze, though, who I think we can all agree needed this, with all of the noise around him and a couple of his recent performances. He needed to play yesterday to give his confidence a boost, but then he needed to play well to show he belongs here. And he certainly did that. I thought he was lively, he was getting on the ball, he was taking shots – it was like the Eze from last season and the one that showed flashes of it towards the beginning of this season. With Odegaard out injured, this was exactly the tonic. If I were Arteta now, I’d even be tempted to start him against Wolves. Let’s see if a little run of games can unlock a player we will need on top form before the end of the season.

There was also time for our old friend ‘Own Goal’ to step up and add to their tally, as well as a really well-taken Gabriel Jesus dink over the ‘keeper that was the kind of nonchalant finish that makes you scratch your head when he misses chances with the increased volume that he does. He’s another one with whom I think most of us thought might just be relegated to token minutes this season, but for Gabby, that’s now five goals and one assist this season. If he gets to 10 G+As this season, he’s also done his part for this season’s campaign.

As already mentioned, that was basically that at halftime, with the second half feeling like two teams just playing out the remaining 45 because of the rules. If there was an opportunity to ‘throw in the towel’ and simply say “we’ve had enough, let’s head home”, I suspect Wigan would have done. Arteta wouldn’t have minded it either, I suspect, but the football formalities must be obeyed, so we got a second half in the rain that was pretty uneventful. Gyokeres hit the post, Eze hit the side netting, but that was about it, really. We headed home knowing our name was in the hat for round five, whilst those Wigan fans trudged back up north knowing that they still have a league season they have to rescue somehow.

The draw takes place this evening at 6.35 p,m and I think from an Arsenal perspective, there are a few ways of looking at it:

1. A lower-league side at home that we can rotate (Wrexham, Mansfield, Norwich, Port Vale/Bristol City)
2. An away game with a big allocation, so a few of us can go

The games are played around the weekend of 7th/8th March, in which we play Brighton in the midweek, then Everton the following weekend, but we’ll also have a Champions League first leg away before we play Everton at home, so I think I’m leaning more towards the first option above, ahead of the second option. We need to be able to rotate in between those games, and I think a home match against lower-league opposition would be good. Maybe we finally arrest the demons of 92 by beating Wrexham on our own patch this time?

I’ll save any of those thoughts until we know what the actual draw is. Until then, have a great Monday. I’ll catch you tomorrow as we prepare for the trip to Wolves. See you then.

And i’m going for a roast in a couple of hours. Not exact the best pre-match prep needed. But that probably gives you an insight into this game which, if the Arsenal players were as unprofessional as me with my pre-match prep, we’ll be out of this cup quicker than you can say “Mickey Thomas scores for Wrexham”.

Thankfully, Mikel Arteta is a man who takes his job seriously, so I am expecting an Arsenal side to turn up today and do the business against a Wigan side out of form, in the relegation zone in League One and – big day out aside – probably seeing this competition as something they could do without.

For us, it’s one we obviously want to win, being the leading side to have one it the mosyt times, but as Arteta said in the build up to this, our recent form since winning it simply hasn’t been good enough. We don’t get knocked out to minnows like back in 1992, but we haven’t ventured far beyond this round since we won it during the COVID era. That win gave Arteta the goodwill to keep his job during the dark times, so I suspect it’s one he holds with particular affection, thereby wanting to see us go deep/win it this time around.

The good news is that because of the opponents, we could – and should – see plenty of rotation today. I don’t want to see Saliba, Big Gabi, Zubi, Rice, Saka, Odegaard, Timber, Calafioir. I do want to see Kepa, White, Mosquera, MLS, Norgaard and a few other players who have been a bit ‘bit part’ of late.

So here’s how I’d line us up today:

Kepa

White   –   Mosquera   –   Hincapie   –   MLS

Norgaard

Eze   –   Academy Player X

Madueke   –   Gabriel Jesus   –   Martinelli

My lovely mother was a maths teacher. She always taught me to “show your workings”, so here’s my thinking:

• Not a single one of those players could play against Wolves, so we could go to Molineux with a first XI having almost a complete rest
• Players getting minutes who haven’t got them lately
• We might ‘find’ somebody who Arteta thinks has a bigger role to play in the upcoming Premier League games
• Eze needs a confidence-booster game. Hopefully, this can be it.
• Martinelli and Gabby J have a connection that is well-documented.

If Arteta goes with this team, he also has the option for some players to come on. For example, I might have Trossard and Gyokeres on the bench. I wouldn’t have Saka there. I think having certain players even go through the pre-match routine and warm-up is something we should just avoid. Sit Gabriel down. Sit Declan down. Sit Saliba and Zubimendi down. Odegaard is probably injured so rest him. And given Saka didn’t look fit and Timber looked gassed on Thursday, just tell them to stay at home and play FIFA. We should have enough at home to overcome this Wigan side. So let’s use this opportunity to reset ourselves ahead of what I talked about yesterday as two massive away Premier League games next week.

As for Wigan, well, they’ve got a new man in charge having let Ryan Lowe go and they aren’t in a good place. This blog talks about what’s going on here and whilst this competition has delivered the highest high in Wigan’s history, I’ll bet there are some fans travelling today who are just pleased to not be talking about the league, because as the blog I’ve linked to shows they are a club who are drifting. They’ve accepted their domestic League One fate, so today is just a day out I’d imagine.

We can’t treat it like that though. I may be taking the Management out for a lovely roast dinner lunch, but as soon as kick off comes, game faces on guys and gals. We need to dispatch this Wigan side and not do it like City did with Salford yesterday. We probably need a big win and for some of the aforementioned players to step up and show some of their quality. The manager needs to be telling some of them (Eze, I’m looking at you) that a big performance puts them in contention for the North London Derby. I want to see some magic in some of those Arsenal players’ boots.

And again, I think we have to look at Eze as a guy who needs to step up. We all want the highest highs for him; he’s a boyhood Gooner, we all love him, but we need to see some of the early-season magic and that we saw in games like The Scum or Bayern. I want it so badly for him and it feels like a game like today could really help. Come on Ebs, show us your magic.

Right, I’m going to leave it there. It may be pissing it down, I may still be pissed, but I need to blow away the cobwebs by going for a run before me ‘n the missus make our way to The Arsenal.

Catch you tomorrow for the usual pre-match debrief. Hopefully by tomorrow I’ll have dried off from what promises to be a very wet day!

Laters.

We know what people think about set pieces, about how it’s “ruining the game”, but I’m not going to even remotely posit that notion this morning. Brentford have weapons, and they use them very well, not least those throw-ins, which are essentially corners in themselves. And we suffered from it with the equaliser they scored from. It’s funny because on the balance of the 90, you have to say that it was the least they deserved, but I thought in that second half we had bested them for most of the opening period and about five minutes after we scored through Madueke’s goal (which I thought took an age to actually drop into the net). So half of me was thinking that Brentford scored against the run of play, but on balance, it was just in that period of the game, because Brentford had the most of it.

It’s fair to say we weren’t really at it yesterday. The early seeds were sewn within a couple of minutes when Big Gabby passed the ball out of play for a corner. Raya had one or two wobbly moments too, including a ridiculous roll out to Rice for which Thiago nearly scored from the cross that came in. But the odd thing about Raya, right, is that he often does this – he’ll make a cock up, then instantly redeem himself with a worldie save. So you don’t know whether to be pissed off at him for his error, or delighted for him at his brilliant save. Just do the latter more than the former, mate, alright?

That first half really pissed me off, too. I’m starting to get wound up by how we just give up halves of football. It’s happened so many times this season; the first half is reduced to a kind of non-event, with the only real chance being Thiago’s header, which shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Brentford ended the first half on 0.41xG and I’ll be all of that chance creation probability came from that one effort. Conversely, we created one shot in that first half, as we just let it pass us by. That’s not what Champions-elect do. They go to a ground like last night, into a difficult night atmosphere, with the crowd up, and they bore the f*ck out of them by scoring early and shutting the game down. But we just couldn’t get players on the ball in the right spaces. Eze was anonymous. Gyokeres was okayish, with the most ludicrous yellow card I’ve ever seen in my life, whilst Madueke looked like he didn’t know how to best Rico Henry. One thing you have to say about Noni is that he knows how to beat a man, but last night I thought he struggled with Henry’s touch-tight man-marking. You have to give the Brentford left-back some props for that. The thing Noni isn’t good at is delivering end product, so it was weird that on a night in which is primary asset was nullified, he was the one who actually delivered end product. Weird. If you could just combine the two from now on, Noni, that’d be grand lad.

Brentford closed the spaces we wanted to be in, then left big gaps in the middle of the park and we just didn’t get into those spaces. I guess that’s because they go from back-to-front so quickly and they don’t really need the middle of the park because they go long so much, but you’d have thought Arteta would have had a plan to answer that. Perhaps he did and the team just didn’t execute, because for the 15 minutes after halftime and until we scored, we pretty much dominated. Most of our chances came then, except the Rice chance just after we’d scored, which he probably should have put his laces through it instead of trying to find Big Vik. Brentford defended stoutly and deep into their box as I’d said in my pre-match blog, the chance therefore went a-begging.

But after that we retreated again. If we cock up this Premier League campaign, we won’t specifically look back at this one as one in which the title was lost, but we will lament those times we couldn’t get that second goal to see off a game. We did that last weekend against Sunderland, but certainly in 2026 so far, it really feels like we just haven’t done enough to kill off a game. That leads me to another point of discussion: Our 2026 form. Brentford have more points than we do this year. We’ve drawn three, lost one, won two. It’s patchy. It’s stodgy, a bit like our football in the first half and were we a little more authoritative in games like this, I wouldn’t be as worried as I am. Which sounds mad, right? I mean we’re four points clear at the top, 12 games to go, we’re rightly lauded as the best team so far’ this season and we suffered an off night. Normally you have a game like this and you say “ahh, it happens”. But Liverpool in the second half. Forest away. United at home. Now Brentford away. It’s the patter of these performances that worries me more than the actual result itself. If we’d played last night, hit the post, ‘keeper has the game of his life, we create chance-after-chance, Brentford hang on and we are left ruing missed chances, then you can say that. But that didn’t happen. Brentford probably created the better chances than us, save for the one right at the end with Martinelli. In the moment I was like “you have to score those”, but on watching the replays, it was a good save from the Brentford ‘keeper, so perhaps you have to give it.

1,000 words in and I’m still no further in my thinking as to whether I’m still grumpy or I want to do a little ‘Perspective FC’ tonight on the Same Old Arsenal pod. Join in and listen at 6pm UK time if you want to find out.

I’ll be

Tottenham Hotspur.

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

I fully realise their next game is against us. I fully realise that there is absolutely zero chance they are as dire as they have been at home all season. I fully realise that there’s no way they will be as terrible – conceding 2.48xG to Newcastle, 21 shots, five on target, two big chances missed for the Geordies – against us. I also realise that we may have to face our old foe, New Manager bounce, because Thomas Frank sounded like a beaten man in his post-match presser. But if you can’t laugh at this situation, when can you?

I saw somebody on Sky Sports say it would be so Spurs to get relegated – or finish close to it this season – and go on to win the Champions League. That made my heart skip a beat for a second, but then I had to remind myself about their ‘run’ to winning that thing:

• Woeful Man United last season in the final
• Bodo/Glimt in the semi-final
• Frankfurt in the quarters
• AZ Alkmaar in the round of 16

The Champions League will throw up tougher challenges, so hopefully they can get knocked out of that as soon as possible, and Thomas Frank remains in charge for the foreseeable future. Please.

The only downside – which also has an impact on the relegation situation – is that West Ham were denied a win against Man United; a Man United side who, I was reading yesterday, are quietly confident that they can make a late charge for the title. Yesterday I thought ‘stranger things have happened’ and they’re ONLY 12 points off us. It’s 11 now, but if we can beat Brentford tomorrow night, it moves to 1,4 and that should be that for any notion that they are a competitor. I’d prefer it to be City in their position and United to be in City’s position, but there you go.

There was some amusement for the Chelsea draw at home to Leeds, but with them 12 points off us, see Man United for where they are at and what their possible title charge could look like.

Tonight, our title challenge gets a little more squeaky bum as Fulham get dispatched at the Emptihad as they perennially do, but as I said yesterday and the day before, we just have to handle our business. That business will be Igor Thiago first and foremost, and whilst all season I’ve enjoyed his goals for Brentford as he’s in my FPL team, this match week I hope he is as quiet as a mouse.

That’s not how the fans are feeling, for obvious reasons, because Brentford are flying, sitting fifth in the form table guide – above us in seventh! They’ve won their last two games, which included two really impressive away wins at Newcastle and Villa. I saw some of the highlights from that game at St James’ Park and they probably could have had a penalty before Newcastle initially went ahead through some poor set-piece corner defending, but they should have been two-up before Brentford got their good first, and then their penalty, which looked a bit of a dodgy and fortunate one for me. So Newcastle created plenty of chances, and you’d hope that we can also do the same. The thing we will have to watch is Outtara. He is rapid, he’s a good finisher (as that game showed), and he is the kind of guy who works perfectly in a system where his team doesn’t have a lot of the ball and goes from back-to-front very quickly. There will be plenty of pondering over the next 24-36 hours as to who starts for Arsenal tomorrow, but with that in mind, I don’t think you can look beyond Jurrien Timber at right back. He’s the guy who is think is probably better suited to tackle somebody like Outtara.

Anyway, I mentioned their fans, so what are they saying? Here’s a few select quotes from one of their forums – Griffin Park Grapevine:

They are not going to know what’s hit them.

And:

I have a good feeling…

And:

Only Arsenal have more points than us in the last 10 games, we’re playing some of the best football we’ve ever played, we’re at home and the team spirit is unbelievable. KA is proving he can mix it up with unexpected changes so let LegoHead worry about how they can contain us.

There are other comments in there that, dare I say it, are pretty level-headed and respectful about us. I have seen none of that from Wolves, Forest, Leeds, Aston Villa threads, but the Brentford fans in the thread I watched talked about our squad depth and how we will certainly field a strong team tomorrow night. That goes without saying, but it’s interesting to see them acting pretty normal and not just chucking insults our way like most of these threads do from other teams. I’ve always liked Brenrford. Just not tomorrow night.

Bit of bonus reading that I did beforehand on the official site – nice interview with Eze talking about his first six months at the club. It’s a nice read, but a common thread for a new player, much like we heard from Rice. He talks about the level of information he’s had to take in compared to the rest of his career; he is working under a manager who demands a lot and drills so much tactical insight into his team, that we see on the pitch how versatile this Arsenal side is. I think a few of us have voiced very minor concerns about his lack of game time of late, but if you take it in the context of a player who is having to learn and adapt to a completely new way of training, playing, taking on info and instructions, perhaps it makes more sense. Arsenal and Arteta are also in a position where they have a deep squad and many players who have been in that environment for some time, so to have the luxury of being able to give a player like Eze points in the season in which he can take a beat, might be better for his long-term adaptation to The Arsenal way.

I do think he’s got a massive part to play in the latter part of this season. Not least because last season he came alive in the run-in, but also when you look at where he seems to come alive, it is in big games. He scored for Palace in the FA Cup Final and Community Shield. He’s scored a hat-trick for us against the Scum – he’s a player who relishes the limelight I think and every game is going to start getting massive if you think about how we’re now at what is known as the slightly cliched ‘business end of the season’.

I back him to get more minutes, as well as more important moments, for us still to come this season.

Back tomorrow after both press conferences have been done and we can start to think about how we might line up.

We knocked him and his Palace side out already – why should City get a rule change? We’re all aware of the concept of being cup-tied, so why is it that now this rule shouldn’t apply? You knew the rules when you signed the player. We had it last season with Neto who couldn’t play the cup games. I remember when we signed Aubameyang and he couldn’t play in European competition. If you sign people midway through the season, they get cup-tied. It’s a ‘thing’.

Anyway, let’s get back to talking about The Arsenal, shall we?

What I’ve got on my mind this Thursday morning, is how Arteta has been using Havertz, because I quite like what he’s doing. Against Leeds at times it felt as though Havertz was playing as another striker with Big Vik. He was taking up positions that were closer to the Swede and I do think it unlocked something in Gyokeres. It may just be that we caught Leeds at a good time, it may well be that playing away from home affords Arsenal more space, but to my untrained eyes the closer distances between our two attackers meant that Viktor was more involved. He didn’t cut an isolated figure in between two centre halves. He was able to exchange a few more passes and although he did have a one-on-one that was blocked that he should have done better with, we are at least seeing a few more of those start to happen (think how he also got one against Forest).

I think the team are starting to realise that they need to get the ball quicker to him and in a one or two-touch move – think how quickly we went from back-to-front in the Kairat game with Havertz’s pass to Big Vik. That’s what the team are starting to do more of, and if he gets one or two of those a game, he might only bag with 50% of those chances, but if he gets a couple each match and scores at least one, we’re laughing.

I think Eze can be that direct and quick passer to Gyokeres as much as Kai. I also think we saw it for the Forest game earlier in the season. But the one guy I think maybe doesn’t suit what we need to do with Big Vik is Martin Odegaard. I’m just going on the eye test here, but we have all seen enough of Odegaard to know the player he is. I really like him, I loved his progressive passing approach against Leeds when he came on, but in recent weeks we’ve seen more of the Odegaard that drops too deep and is recycling possession, without much incision. Remember the video at the start of the season where the skipper sent a message to Big Vik, congratulating him on signing and saying, “if there’s anything I can do, just let me know”? Big Vik’s response was simple: “I just need assists”. The assumption was that naturally those two would click and that it would be Odegaard doing those balls in behind, but I think I’ve seen more in recent weeks from Havertz and Eze than I have from Odegaard when it comes to feeding the big man up top.

That doesn’t mean it can’t change, mind, and hopefully it will. Because Odegaard is going to get minutes, and he’s going to play. He’s Arteta’s ‘guy’ on the pitch; he’s the captain, so he will play more often than not. So we need him to be delivering for the strikers. I love the way he leads our press, but it’s time to step up and lean into the ‘chance creator’ role now. I think that means less of collecting the ball from deep. He needs to have a closer distance between himself and the three forwards. When he’s at his best he’s drifting over to that right hand side with Saka, but perhaps he needs to drift a bit more into central positions too?

Hey, I’m no tactical expert, I’m no genuis with data, but I am just a fan who see’s things with his eyes and I just think there’s a little more that Odegaard needs to do to foster that relationship with Gyokeres – and I say this because I think we’re going to see more of Havertz ‘AND’ Gyokeres, rather than Havertz ‘OR’ Gyokeres up top.

It’ll be interesting to see what he says ahead of the Sunderland game, because that one represents another chance to see where he’s going with the striking options, given that we now have all three of our main guys who have recently been on the scoresheet. I mentioned yesterday that some tricky games are coming up, including a midweeker against Brentford and away at The Scum, but having all of your strikers recently score in different comps is very valuable from a confidence perspective. Let’s just hope that some of the connections I believe I’m starting to see with this side can be maintained between now and the end of the season.

Right, I’m going to leave it there. Tomorrow I’ll start to look at Sunderland and what they might do to potentially hurt us on Saturday. Apparently, they’re missing Xhaka, which is a bit of a shame given that it would be nice for him to return to the Emirates, but in terms of handing us a small advantage, it certainly has an impact to have him missing, so let’s see how they’re feeling in tomorrow’s musings.

Catch you all then.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It’s 8am, the sun is rising on a crisp November morn and Arsenal are, once again, kings of North London. A dominating North London Derby that saw open play goals, a six point lead at the top opened up, plus a performance from one of the new signings – and boyhood Gooner – that will go down in Arsenal folklore. North London Derby moments for me are:

• Dennis Bergkamp at Highbury in 1996
• Thierry Henry’s solo goal in 2002
• Fabregas’ quick one after the kick off in 2009

Eze adds his name to that list after hit hatty yesterday. And I don’t think there’s an Arsenal fan out there who could be happier about that.

I said yesterday morning that I thought the first goal was the most important in what I expected to be a really grotty game. I thought Frank and his Spurs team would come to sit deep and hit us on the counter. The team line-ups suggested that too, as he went for a back five and two holding midfielders in front, with the sole aim of frustrating a home team and home fans throughout the 90. But this is an Arsenal side on a mission so far this season. They are professional, they are driven and they are focused and from the first minute we asserted our dominance by being camped in the Tottenham half. Even before the goal there were chances for Saka, saves from Vicario and you could tell this wasn’t going to end as a boring 0-0. Arsenal were on it.

And so too, once again, was Leandro Trossard, who got us on our way. His run was superb, it was timed to perfection, but the pass from Mikel Merino was sensational. It felt Odegaard-y and on a day in which the Norwegian wasn’t quite ready to make the match day squad, the Spaniard stepped up once more to provide end product in the form of his assist to set us on the way to what would be a supremely comfortable home win.

The first goal scored, what I thought would be interesting would be to see how the Scum reacted to being behind. They’ve not been great in chance creation so far this season, so it would be interesting to see whether they opened up a bit when they had to chase the game. But…they just didn’t. They didn’t come at us, they didn’t open up, they just kind of…well…did the same thing, which I thought was a bit weird. This is a North London Derby. Your fans demand you rise to the occasion. Yet what they did was…well…nothing.

To be far, there was just five minutes between Trossard’s opener on 36 minutes and Eze’s first of his hat trick on 41, but by the time that hit the net, I suspect most of those Spurs players knew the game was done. His first goal was a well-taken and perfect example of what he brings to this Arsenal team: chance creation. He has a go. He takes shots. He scores goals. It was a fine finish and as opposed to his muted response against Palace, this one was most certainly a celebration worthy of a smile or two.

But he wasn’t done there.

I’d not even got back to my seat from the halftime beers when we were three up. Ebs again to seal the game and turn this into a cakewalk. Again, another fine finish from the edge of the D and that Spurs defence – which we’ve been told by their fans is the best in the league and better than Saliba / Gabriel – pulled apart like a dry biscuit. It was another cool and composed finish from a guy who has made those types of goals his own in his Palace and now Arsenal career.

This was fun. This was easy. This was a great derby day to be enjoyed, with just one blot on the copybook, which was Richarlison getting his ‘once-on-a-lifetime’ goal. No chicken celebrations today though. It was a good finish, to be fair and that will annoy Raya, but that is just what we do by pressing him higher up the pitch so he becomes a passing outlet, so I’m not going to complain too much.

And on a day in which we’ve picked up three points and scored four open play goals, you can’t really complain, because Eze restored the difference to ensure no nervy ends on 76 minutes with another fine finish to see us over the line.

This was a superb Arsenal performance. Not just for the goals, but for the defence too who whilst they’ll be annoyed they didn’t pick up a clean sheet, will be pleased with the fact they reduced the Scum to basically nothing. I’ve just looked at the numbers and in the first half Tottenham created precisely 0.00xG and didn’t even have a shot on goal. In the second half they created 0.07xG and that came from Richarlison’s long-range strike. That was it. That was the sum total of their parts and it was an Arsenal performance that had everything aside from the clean sheet it probably deserved.

Mikel was rightly happy with the display and you could tell how pleased he was by his post-match comments. That, and we even had time to get Noni on the pitch on 78 minutes for a run out, with Gabriel Martinelli reserved for midweek and Bayern. We’ve navigated another really tricky game on paper and for this difficult week of fixtures that we have we’re one for one as it stands. Arteta will give them all the day off today, but it’ll be back tomorrow ahead of the Bayern game and game faces on for his squad. But for us we can bathe in the glory that is a North London Derby win. Happy days.

Amanda and I will be podcasting later this evening at 7.30pm so if you fancy joining us and jumping in on the joy in the chat, you can do so here. Other than that, I’ll be back tomorrow. Catch you all then.

Why the HELL is Saka playing the full 90?

Rice was taken off on 65 minutes, so that’s good, plus Ebs got on and scored a pretty decent goal from that left forward position (more on that in a sec), but Saka shouldn’t be knocking down 90s in a game like this. I hope on the game on Sunday he’s given rest time.

I will say that Tuchel appears to be more mindful of the players and their minutes compared to the horror that was Gareth Southgate. He’d give Saka the full 90 in an international friendly against Gibraltar, was such his ego needing stroking (funny how he has taken no managerial opportunities and instead is just content on releasing a new book, eh?), but at least Tuchel thinks and acts like an elite manager and is mindful of loading minutes of players. That’s my hope anyway when it comes to Saka, because he’s clearly decided that Rice can have an earlier sit down last night.

Gattuso and the Italy coaching staff are doing the same with Calafiori, who was left out of the team to face Moldova but might be in the squad when they play over the weekend. There’s apparently nothing to worry about, but that’s a clear sign that they know that he has a chequered injury history, that he’s played a lot of football this season and if he can have a few extra days off whilst still training (albeit alone) with the Italian National Team, then that is something. In a weird way, if he plays over the weekend that might be a good thing, because it shows that he’s ok. Italy play Norway on Sunday evening and if he plays a part, then he’ll have from Sunday until Sunday to recover and that is hopefully enough time (assuming he doesn’t pick up an injury) to be ready for the North London Derby.

Saliba also played for France in a game in which he will have basically been a spectator in most parts given their dominance over a Ukraine side that had zero attempts on goal or on target and just 33% possession. Talk about dominance. I looked at his numbers in that game and it was 62 of 67 passes for France and 29 of those attempts were in the opposition half, so I think he’ll be feeling fine off the back of that win. He normally averages around 67 per game for Arsenal so this feels like a pretty standard Saliba outing, which is good news.

The rest of the players are action in their first matches either tonight and tomorrow and I do wish Brazil would have played their games a little earlier. Big Gabi is off with them and they don’t play until tomorrow and then on Tuesday, but here’s the good news:

1. It’s a friendly and so hopefully he’s rotated
2. It’s in Lille, France – the borders of Belgium

A quick check on Google tells me it is a one hour and 22 minute flight from London to Lille; that’s like taking the trip to Inverness in Scotland, so he’ll be back and hopefully wrapped up in cotton wool by Wednesday night, meaning Arteta can have a look at him on Thursday and by Friday he’ll have had three full training days before the North London Derby on Sunday. Great stuff. Providing he doesn’t pick up an injury, that is.

I mentioned I wanted to touch on Eze today and I wanted to have a little look at where he featured for England. He came on for Rashford on the left wing position and a look at his heatmap showed he very much occupied the kinds of positions you’d expect from that position. But in the 26 minutes on the pitch he was very much not playing like a winger who is hugging the touchline and asked to drive at his man. If we think about how Martinelli plays that role, Eze feels a lot more analogous to Trossard as more of an inside forward in that position and the superb goal he scored last night was scored from that sort of inside-left position too.

We haven’t seen too much of that this season due to the injury to Odegaard and Eze has been obviously asked to play a little more centrally, which I think a few Arsenal fans have been left feeling like there’s a little more that Eze could give us. But I think that’s in part due to the fact he plays the ‘Odegaard role’ different to Martin. Odegaard is a pressing trigger for us and he is quite an intense one; Eze presses, but not nearly as intensely as Odegaard – can you remember many times when you see him closing down the ‘keeper like Odegaard does when we are out of possession? I can’t. But in my mind I can visualise Odegaard doing that every game. Odegaard also drops deeper to receive the ball than Eze does, as well as picking it up in different positions too, so when we are missing Odegaard it’s great we have a player like Eze who can look to perform that role, but I wonder if he’s been the victim of the fact that expectations are that he would be similar to the Norwegian. That’s simply never going to be the case.

Eze has to carve out his own niche in this Arsenal team. That means from a central position when he’s playing in for an Odegaard, or maybe even if Rice or Merino aren’t available and he slots in at left eight, or even if Rice slots in to the six with Zubi out. We almost got to see that against West Ham but Odegaard’s injury reduced it to just a glimmer of a showing. So the return of Odegaard might see Eze put in positions more like he was in last night and if he delivers end product like that, I don’t think many of us will be complaining, that’s for sure.

The challenge Eze will have when Odegaard returns is the form of Trossard in that position, as well as the competition of Martinelli and Madueke as the rapid, touchline-hugging wingers to offer something different. I for one am glad we’ve had him and his contribution with all those attacking players out has been valuable at this time. But perhaps he needs to find a way how to do the different roles a little differently to the others, to absolutely cement his place as a regular in Arteta’s Arsenal first XI.

back tomorrow with some more thoughts.

**Quick Shakespearian ‘aside’ to give some props to Saka for his fantastic goal as well last night. Good work Starboy – keep on doing that for us when you get back!**

And as expected, yesterday’s 1-0 victory over Palace was as tightly contested as it could be, against a very well-organised and well-drilled Palace outfit. They are no mugs and as we saw with their shape, movement and ability to close their grip on tight spaces in and around the penalty box, we found it slim pickings. Saka got barely any change all game. Trossard was lively but relatively ineffective. Gyokeres didn’t have a sniff all match and we huffed and puffed without looking like we were going to break through a Crystal Palace back five that came to frustrate and hit us on the transitional counter.

The good thing about us, though, is that our defensive back line is water-tight and I’ve seen a stat online that suggested that Palace had just 0.09xG in that first half. We were restricted too, however, with just 0.11xG, but the difference was that we found the back of the net first and I think when that happens, we bet on the reliability of our back line to just not concede goals. I was saying to the lads in the pub beforehand that I didn’t want to say it out loud last weekend for fear of it coming back to bite me on the arse, but as soon as we scored against Fulham, in my head I said to myself “that’s it – that should be enough” and yesterday, after Eze had struck his first goal in the Premier League against his former club (more on that in a sec), I had that same feeling. The only difference this time was there was a fair bit more of the match to go, but despite that factor, we never really gave Palace too much of a sniff in a game that was just snuffed out after Arsenal went ahead.

And on the goal itself, that’s the kind of goal you expect Eze to score and that’s why we paid the big bucks for him. A fantastic scissor kick volley into the net following a knock down on a free kick. Set Piece Again Ole Ole as the saying goes…

The Palace fans must have known it would be him to come back to haunt them. It was almost like it was pre-destined to be this game that he got his first Palace goal. Having seen van Persie’s, Anelka’s, Adebayor’s and others come back to haunt us over the years, I feel your pain Palace fans, but I’m afraid this was a day in which sentiment cannot be afforded to any other team, so getting those three points by any means necessary was crucial for us this weekend. It’s a big goal scored for Eze too, which has some significance about it too, I would wager. It’s all very well scoring the fifth of a six-goal victory, but when you are the match-winner, the goal holds more importance and as a player you probably take more joy and confidence from it. That’s certainly what I’m hoping and at a time in which we are missing our captain and key creative midfield output, Eze has delivered for us. Good jobs.

In terms of the game itself, there isn’t really a ton of stuff to talk about, because it felt like a cagey one in which both defences cancelled out the attacks. I’ve already mentioned that our front three didn’t really get a sniff, but neither did Mateta, Pino or Sarr; it was one for the back lines and when the final whistle went it was smiles all around as we find ourselves four points clear at the top of the league.

There was some slightly worrying news from the end of it, with Saliba coming off at halftime for Mosquera, plus Calafiori apparently took a knock, along with Martinelli in that second half. Arteta said afterwards that he’s not sure on any of them and they’ll all have to be assessed, but one would suspect that none will now be involved against Brighton in a few short days time. The good news is that we can easily rotate those players out and bring in some quality players too; Hincapie came on yesterday, Mosquera played the second half and did well, so I think we have cover there. On Wednesday we could have a back five of Kepa, White, Mosquera, Hincapie, MLS and I think most of us would be happy with that. In midfield I think I read somewhere that Declan felt a little discomfort and so that’s another one that I think we need to rotate, but with the ability to bring in Norgaard, Merino and Nwaneri into the midfield three, I don’t think it’s too much of an issue. If these injuries are more serious and are going to result in extended absences for longer than a few days, then perhaps we need to worry, with Burnley coming up on the horizon, but for now we can only go off what Arteta said in the post-match press conference and that’s not too much.

And so we march on with another victory, another clean sheet, another weekend in which rivals faltered and I’m looking at that Premier League table and, boys and girls, it’s looking pretty tasty I have to tell you. Seven wins, one draw, one defeat, playing well, scoring goals, not conceding them, with a pretty tasty goal difference, truth be told. We’ve conceded three goals all season and those goals have been from a wonder free kick, Haaland, then a Woltemade set piece up at Newcastle. That can’t be too bad.

James and I will be doing a pod tonight at 8pm on the Same Old Arsenal pod so if you fancy joining us then you’ll be able to do so here. Other than tat, I’ll catch you all tomorrow.

That hurdle is by no means an easy one to overcome however. indeed, we’ve failed to do so on our last two attempts and it is that recent history that will give Marcos Silva and Fulham fans hope of a bit of an upset today. They scored early last season and tucked in to a deep block which we struggled to break down. That was the problem we had last season with a lot of teams and Fulham certainly profited from it, as they hung on for a draw and we dropped further behind Liverpool on their way to the title.

If this Arsenal team want to win the title that can’t happen today. Today is a game in which you have to show your credentials by going to a place at which you have struggled two years in a row and win. Just like last weekend against West Ham, just like the week before against Newcastle and just like week one away to Manchester United. Mikel Arteta needs to set his charges up for victory and they need to be on it from the start, because I think Fulham will play with a conservative low block this evening, because they have their injury problems that Silva admitted to yesterday. Lukic is out for a couple of weeks – a big blow to them – but they are also missing Muniz up top, Chukwueze on the flanks, Tete, as well as Robinson at left back. That is a positive for us in particular with Robinson, because I’ve always been impressed with him every time he’s played. It means that Sessengnon will likely deputise at left back – probably in a wing-back role – which will be interesting if he is isolated against Saka or if he ventures forward and leaves space for our main man to run in to. If he does, that’s where we have to be looking for our success, because Saka was on the scoresheet last week with a penalty and also scored for England last week too. It feels as though Saka is starting to power up and given what the ambitions are of this Arsenal team, that’s what you need to see all over the pitch.

Arteta has some selection decisions to make elsewhere though. Firstly, he needs to look at who he wants to deploy in midfield and with Zubimendi missing training on Thursday for rest, I think he’ll come in and anchor our midfield. Arteta confirmed yesterday in his press conference that it was to manage his load (making him sit out training) and I think that means he intends to get him on the pitch against the Cottagers. But who will play in the middle of the park with him? I suspect he’ll go with rice, but I hope that means that Merino isn’t preferred alongside Dec, because let’s be honest and admit that as a midfield trio it doesn’t quite have the dynamism of other combinations we have. In that trio, if you’re going with Zubi and rice, I think you need one of Nwaneri and Eze. I think Arteta might go with experience over all and that Eze will be asked to play in that right eight role, but if he decides to stick to the original plan from the summer and give Nwaneri the nod, I’d be good with that too.

That option also doesn’t have to mean Eze doesn’t start. It’s the same with Merino. Just because I say I don’t want him in a midfield with Rice and Zubimendi, doesn’t mean I’d be unhappy with him getting a starting spot as our central striker, for example. I don’t think it’ll happen and I think Arteta will go with Big Vik up top, but given Merino’s goalscoring form for Spain and the fact he already opened his account against Newcastle, you can’t fully rule it out. Likewise with Eze who, whilst playing centrally more recently, is an option on the left flank I think. But I do think on the left it has to be either Eze or Trossard. If Fulham are going to go with a back three and wing backs, sit in a low block and look to counter us, then we need those lock pickers I keep banging on about. That’s not really Martinelli I don’t think. So for me I’d have either Ebs or Leo – both of whom scored for their respective international teams this week – on the left flank.

The great news is that we have options. We have a selection of different styles that can be deployed and that’s going to make it more difficult for Silva to second guess our approach. Heck, if we watch Arsenal all the time and even we don’t know who is going to line up, then I’m thinking that Fulham and their analysts will have found it difficult this week too.

I do think with the way that Silva plays, we have an opportunity for Gyokeres to get on the scoresheet today, if they play with a back four, that is. Silva has always preferred a 4-2-3-1 traditionally and he could do that today, which means that if Fulham are going to be true to their normal style, he’s going to split his centre halves at times when in possession and leave space for turnovers and Gyokeres to run in behind. That’s if they don’t low block us though, which might also be game state. If we score first, it opens the game up, but if we get a repeat of last year, the Swede could find it difficult to find space.

It’s going to be tough, Fulham will create chances, but if we’ve got our defensive set up on its game, you’d have to fancy us, especially with the injuries they have. We just need to translate what I think will be a lot of possession in to goals.

Catch you all tomorrow for a de-brief.

Starting off with the mid-morning kick off our time with Martinelli and Big Gabi for Brazil. The result may not have been in their favour, but if you look at it through an Arsenal lens, what are you wanting from this match given that the players are already out there? 1) Big Gabi gets a rest, 2) Martinelli gets a confidence-booster. Which is exactly what we got. Big Gabi never got off the bench, whilst on 32 minutes Martinelli got the second goal of Brazil’s 3-2 defeat. It was a well timed goal too and a good run as the ball looped over the back line for him to volley it in. Gabi has found starts limited of late as Leo has played more, so for him to get a solid 57 minutes before he heads back to London can only be a good thing.

Back over here in Europe and with the Management pottering around the house doing chores last night, I was left to see if there was anything good on TV, which there wasn’t. So I decided to watch the England game sporadically. It was a comprehensive one but I only really saw the first and last goals which, if I’m honest, are the only interesting ones. The first one from Gordon was a good finish, but the last one from Eze had interest for us because of the Arsenal connection. Again, if I think about what Eze needs to help him with it’s Arsenal form (which is already very good by the way), it probably is a decent goal in an England shirt. He may not have started, but he finished and his finish itself for the goal was well taken. Then you look at the other Arsenal players and as I said on social media, what do we need from the match?

1. Myles Lewis-Skelly to play minutes, because he hasn’t had many so far so this will help sharpen his match fitness and ready him for our games.
2. Declan Rice not to play too many minutes, because he is already a guy who racks them up and so getting him off nice and early would be lovely.
3. Bukayo Saka not to play too many minutes, because he’s recently returned to fitness and we’ve seen how Arsenal have been loading up his minutes.

I think on that last point, if it had been a Southgate, Allardyce or Hodgson side, we’d have seen Saka probably play 85 minutes. But as Arteta recently pointed out in one of his pre match press conferences, he has a good relationship with Tuchel and I think they will have both have looked at what is best for the player and realised that 60 minutes is about right. He can now come home today, do some light training tomorrow, then take part in normal training on Friday and be ready for Saturday. That’s how you should manage a staged return to work for a player who has suffered a big injury last season and a minor setback already this season.

Elsewhere we also saw the continuation of the crazy-good form of Mikel Merino, who bagged another two goals to make it six in four matches now I think. According to UEFA he played in that right hand side of a three midfielder with Zubi anchoring it, in a very similar position to what he was asked to do in the City game against us and it does make me think about how with Odegaard out, we might need to find different ways to skin-a-cat, so-to-speak. The problem Merino has had – and I’ve heard Clive on the Arsenal Vision talk about this, so I won’t claim it as my own thoughts – is that he probably needs somebody who is a little more creative in that midfield three when he’s playing. Rice, Zubimendi and Merino is a bit too much of a ‘functional’ midfield. I think a slight maverick, or as Clive put it – a ‘footballer’ – is needed with him and in the Spanish side they have Pedri who is their creative eight with the vision, passing, etc.

Of course Mikel Merino scored with two powerful headers and when you’re looking for a midfielder to arrive onto the ball with his head in the box for you (think Newcastle away guys and gals), I can’t think of many better than Mikel Merino. He is such a valuable asset for Arsenal and you can see why Arteta wants to keep him close to the group and playing matches. When you have an aerial threat like that there is always space for them to get minutes.

Zubimendi was mercifully taken off on 63 minutes and so he will have some rest in to his legs too, which is nice.

Elsewhere we had just one more guy to come through without any problems, which was in Italy with Riccardo Calafiori, who played the full 90 for Italy and whilst that isn’t ideal, it shows that he didn’t come off with a knock, so hopefully today he heads back to England and can also be in training for tomorrow.

And so all of the 16 Arsenal players on international duty have, we hope, made it through unscathed and because of the timing of the games we might find ourselves with a press conference from Arteta on Friday (I think he’s doing it on Friday even though it is away, given it is a London derby) where he can talk with a little more authority on player availability, because he’ll have had the lads in for light training the day before and so can speak to the overall fitness of the group.

I might hate international breaks, I might find it farcical that we have another one in just a months time, but on this occasion we’ve done alright from it and my hope is that the players come back with a fire in their bellies for the next batch of games. Because we need to be going on a run now.

Catch you all tomorrow.

One of the most frustrating part of last season – injuries aside – was that it felt like every time an opportunity opened up for The Arsenal to claw points back on Liverpool, we didn’t take it, so they ended up creeping away from us until the lead they had was so unassailable that there was no real battle for the title that happened. I remember playing Everton at home and we drew 0-0 and I think Liverpool had dropped points against Fulham in the earlier match of the day. I remember heading to the stadium and saying to a few of the lads I’d been in the pub with that “you have to make it count on days like today”.

That day Everton at home was a little more of a winnable game than today’s away match at St James’ Park, but if you want to be Champions then you have to take advantage of any little chinks of light that open up, when they do. Yesterday as a day might have been a great fun one to have a ‘Hate Watch’ given that all of our so-called rivals dropped points other than Man City (who were never going to slip up at home to Burnley), but today has to be a response from The Arsenal that shows our title credentials. Newcastle away has been a hoodoo for us; we haven’t even scored a goal there on our last three visits and the last two 1-0 defeats in the league have felt eerily similar to me.

The first one two season’s ago was that dodgy Gordon goal that Willock admitted afterwards was probably out when he salvaged the ball. At this stage you have to ‘whatever’ about that, but the performance itself i remember being really lacklustre; we didn’t win duels, we looked stodgy up front and we never really troubled an organised and very disciplined Newcastle side who have already shown this season that they have that part of the game as locked down as we do.

Last season’s encounter was probably worse though. I thought we were so poor and it was a game in which Isak scored early, but if we were playing that match for a solid week thereafter we probably wouldn’t have scored. We were so ponderous in attack that day and what I want to see from today is that we create chances. We have to be able to give something for Gyokeres to feed off and we have to stretch Newcastle more than they have been in the last three meetings. In all of those games once we’ve gone behind they’ve sat compact in to their shape and Gandalf’d us for the rest of the 90 left to play.

It’s why I think if we get the first goal today, the game opens up a bit and the dynamic shifts. If Newcastle score we know what they are going to do; they will sit back in to shape and ask Arsenal “go on then, see if you can get through our barcoded wall” – think last week against City, only this time with home advantage. The home crowd will be roaring for the start of this game and if we do what City did against us and score early, that will have the same impact that the Haaland goal had on our home crowd. We were muted. We need to mute the Geordies today.

Arteta has spoken of a couple of things he thinks they will do differently, but I think most of us hope that our line up – if we are sans Odegaard from the start – needs to have a little more creativity in it. I personally have nothing against Merino, I believe there’s a time and a place for him, but I don’t think it is in the midfield with Rice and Zubi today. Sure, it gives us the control we need, but it handicaps us of a more creative outlet on the pitch and if you go a goal behind early on, it can make you look a little stodgy when your opponent reverts to a low/mid-block approach.

Go from Ethan or Eze early in the game.

On the left there might be a question whether it is Eze or Martinelli too and given the week he had last week and how his confidence might be high right now, I suspect Gabi might get the nod. I’ve said it before on social media and I’ll say it here too – Martinelli is a ‘streaky’ player. His goals and his form comes in patches and two in a week, as well as an assist in Bilbao, means he’ll be flying high and so my gut feel says to me that he gets the nod. Arteta loves his work rate too and I have a feeling Howe is going to go with Elanga on the right and Gordon on the left, which means rapid pace and a need for ‘Nelli to do his shuttle runs defensively as well as going forward.

If that happens and if Odegaard is fit, it could mean Eze doesn’t start which will be hard on him, but the reason he took this job at The Arsenal is not just because he is a fan of the club, but because he wants to get better, he wants to improve and he wants to be at a big club and when you are at a big club like The Arsenal, you know that the competition for places is more intense than anywhere in the Premier League. If Odegaard is fit then I have no problem with seeing Eze from the bench.

If Odegaard isn’t fit and Arteta does fancy getting a more creative outlet in the midfield, then I do wonder whether it will be Eze or Nwaneri. Eze normally occupies those left eight positions and that’s where he thrived (albeit more as a ten) for Palace last season, so I would be tempted to tell him to go left eight and then maybe you ask Rice or Zubi to fill in on the right. Alternatively, we do what we’ve been doing this season and have Rice and Zubi drop into a double pivot and tell eze to occupy both left and right half spaces, with Declan alternating those left and right spaces where Eze isn’t. Rice is an intelligent enough footballer to do that, so I don’t see why that wouldn’t work?

Whatever we go with, the prize is clear: Victory puts us to within two points of the Scousers. It puts us to within touching distance with them having gone through the hardest part of the season and it would set us up to have a real run at that top spot between now and November when it gets tricky again.

Go do the business, Arsenal.

Depending on how the game pans out Amanda and I might do a post match pod, but if not I’ll be back tomorrow, then we’ll do a catharsis pod on Monday night.

Laters kids.

Arteta’s starting line up cause a few raised eyebrows amongst the fanbase, with Declan Rice rested, but with Bilbao in midweek and City the week after, he’d clearly looked at this small block of games and decided that rotation is needed. This is new for him. This is an evolution. I – maybe like you too – have long thought that he doesn’t trust enough of his squad to rotate, but yesterday proves he now feels like he can and the result was a victory that I have to say looked very impressive from where I sat (I had to watch the first half on a plane!). The fanbase has long told him “if you’re going to have a squad, use it!” and he definitely responded yesterday, playing Merino in back-to-back games, which he admitted afterwards had something to do with his impressive form for Spain and his goals over the international break. Perfect – meritocracy – that’s what we all want.

The rest of the team was as most of us expected and in came Eze for Martinelli and in that first half I thought Eze was quiet. He showed some flashes of quality with his turn of pace to beat a man a couple of times, but most of our play came down the right hand side, where Noni Madueke was absolutely terrific I thought. He is a nightmare to deal with for defenders because he has a very quick stop-start turn of pace and he had whatever full back Forest played on toast all day. He beat his man time and time again and whilst the end product wasn’t always there, what his performance did for the team yesterday was start to commit more Forest players over tot hat side and I noticed towards the end of that first half that Forest started doubling up on him to try to stop him. But he just kept on beating his man and for a guy who I didn’t understand why we bought him, he’s absolutely proving me wrong and honestly I couldn’t be happier about it.

400+ words in and I still haven’t mentioned the first goal. That is very remiss of me because it was a peach of a finish from Zubimendi and I tell you think right now, we’ll have ourselves a candidate for goal of the season when we get to May, that’s for sure. On the volley, swerving finish, Sels with no chance, it was of the highest quality and I saw an interview afterwards where the interviewing confirmed that he only scored two goals in the whole season last season. Welp, he’s equalled that already because his second and Arsenal’s third to seal the game, was a really good one from a guy who isn’t that tall and yet leapt like a slamon in the box to float the ball over Sels.

That third goal came on 79 minutes and as I mentioned before, if you’re going to plot out the ‘perfect’ 3-0 victory, I think you’d probably pick similar times for the goals we scored. Almost – I’d probably prefer an early goal, maybe on 15 minutes, but around the half hour mark is also fine. Then, you’d definitely pick a ‘straight after halftime’ and that’s what we got with Big Vik’s third goal of the season. It felt somewhat similar to his first goal at the start; a long ball from Calafiori down the left hand channel, only this time it was Eze sprinting down that left hand side and then when the Firest defender didn’t win the header to let the ball bounce of his shoulder, Ebs needed just one touch to instantly cross the ball over to the Swede to tap in from inside the six yard box. It was a classic poacher/striker finish and it’s exactly what we brought the Swede for. Power, positioning, box threat. He is not the most skilful player in the world, there were a couple of times in which his touch went awry, but there were more times in which he linked up with his fellow attackers and other times in which he made an impact with his power running; I’m particularly thinking about the effort he had that cracked the top of the post in the second half.

The relationship between Eze and Gyokeres was interesting. I think a few people have speculated that Eze would enjoy playing with Gyokeres like he enjoyed playing with Mateta, but yesterday we got visible evidence of this with the second goal, but also with some of the connections between the two and I think it’s no co-incidence that both players improved after halftime. This was the first time they’d properly got minutes together and with Gyokeres being a guy who naturally favours that left hand side, you could see the connections starting to form.

That’s really positive as well because if you think about how on our right hand side you have Odegaard (really unlucky to get injured on the same shoulder again but Ethan came in and did really well I thought) and Saka who combine, it’s good to see that Eze and Gyokeres might be starting a good connection with each other. Of course yesterday it was Madueke and with Odegaard going off he was isolated, but what we saw is that he’s fine being a lone wolf on the right hand side; Arsenal players can feed him the ball with little support and he will action it. Of course he did get some support and I noticed Timber overlapping on a few occasions which was positive, but in the main Noni is happy to get the ball and go at his man and at a time in which we have Saka and Odegaard out, his form is a welcome one. He got a deserved standing ovation and I loved what I saw.

But that goes for most of the team. We reduced Forest to basically nothing and the fact that their best chance came through a bit of a spawny whack off of Wood’s chest to deflect the ball towards the crossbar, shows just how controlled we were defensively, where we have now conceded just one goal all season and it has come from a wonder strike free kick at Anfield. I’ll take that for our opening exchanges.

And I’ll take the three points for the weekend to take us temporarily top. Liverpool will batter Burnley today I suspect, but at least we are doing our bit.

Now, on to Bilbao. Catch you all tomorrow.

P.s. I didn’t even mention ‘Big Ange’s return. Props to the home fans for singing “Are you Tottenham in disguise” yesterday. I liked that.

I then spent the afternoon getting some exercise and going for a few walks with The Management, before setting up the BBQ whilst putting the England game on. Rice scored, which was nice, I thought Noni was bright again on that right hand side and that bodes well for us in the immediate future too. With Saka out we need to see a player come in to that position and give us something. Nwnaeri did a good job there but he started to fade towards the end of the season and I think the move for Madueke is, thankfully, making more and more sense with every passing minute. I’m liking what I’m seeing and the bits I saw of him yesterday I liked too.

Tuchel was pleased with him and said he did well and can be an important player for England, but he did acknowledge that Noni ‘falls asleep’ in reference to counter-pressing and I suspect with more time on that training ground it will be something Mikel will want to work on. The reason that Smith Rowe was shown the exit – aside from the very good fee we got – was, I think, because of his lack of concentration and focus off the ball. Emile is electric when it’s at his feet; he can beat a man, showed the other week he gets into good scoring positions in the box and can be very exciting to watch on his day, but football these days is as much about what you do out of possession as in it. The managers of Premier League teams all want to see hard work and focus when off the ball and when Arteta didn’t get that from Smith Rowe, he found himself out of the team, then barely getting any minutes. Madueke is young, he’s talented, I’m sure he wants to improve and his off the ball stuff will be something that Arteta will focus on.

The Eze comments from Tuchel I will take with a pinch of salt. His words were apparently “not quite the quality” and “he didn’t find the creativity that he found in training” and I suppose there could be a slight concern for us because Eze faced a low block and we seem to spend two-thirds of our season against low block teams. Eze was brought to be that tricky player, that clever player, the one who can beat a man but also take shots when we’re sitting with a wall of defenders in front of us. He had three yesterday but I can’t really recall anything specific from them. They were all on target but nothing really spectacular. I’m not too worried though, because I think Eze is going to be playing a different position for The Arsenal. Yesterday he played centrally in that number ten role, with Rashford playing wide left. I think Eze starts on the left for us and that allows his positioning to be different in game. He is going to be an ‘out to in’ player for us; starting position wide, getting the ball wide, then driving inwards. In that role yesterday he will have been required to float across the front line, to link play with Nadueke and Rashford and be a connector for Kane. I just don’t think he’ll be given that instruction by Arteta and I think that will be beneficial for him. Starting on the left will naturally give him licence to get on the ball and run at players more because in low block teams you have a bank of four, one, two or sometimes three holding midfielders congesting that space in front of the D. Teams are happy to cede space in wide positions if they get their shape and so if Madueke is given more time on the ball, freedom and licence from out wide to drive in, I think he can be a success for us.

So yeah, less worried about Eze’s performance yesterday, more focused that we get all of these players back and fit.

Rice came off on 68, Eze on 78 and Madueke played the full 90, so it appears we’re good there. Tonight we have Zubi and Merino playing against Turkey and so we have to cross everything on that one, as well as Jurrien Timber playing for the Netherlands against Lithuania. Hopefully he doesn’t get one and he can be saved for Forest next weekend. Leo might get some minutes as Belgium play Kazakhstan, but then tomorrow and Tuesday are the remaining games for the players I ran through yesterday, so there’s not really a lot to read in to until we start to get to Tuesday/Wednesday and we get news of any players who have become crocked. We just have to keep those fingers crossed.

And I’m going to spend the day in the garden in the sun, taking in what is the last of summer, so I’ll catch you all tomorrow.

And that’s what Arsenal need to do today, I suspect, because I cannot for the life of me see a high-press Leeds side who will try to pin us back in our own half and dominate possession. The problem I have, however, is that there is very little data out there to suggest how they will set up in a low block, or even if they can.

I mean, they ‘literally’ could, because that just entails having your back four in place, dropping two holding midfielders in front of you, compacting the spaces between the two and congesting the box and area around the D. Leeds are a Premier League outfit and so they know perfectly well how to do that. But this is a side who like to dominate possession, who like to press, who push their fullbacks forward and use Ampadu to dictate the flow and rhythm of their game and passing movements. Against Everton they had 21 shots (only three on target though), 55% possession, 481 passes to Everton’s 411 and that was a continuation of what they did last season in the Championship. But Arsenal ain’t an Everton and this ain’t the Championship. Pragmatism has to be the name of the game for Daniel Farke (I don’t know whether it is the name that does it to me, but I always think he also looks like Lord Farquaad from Shrek) and I just can’t see how he goes full Ange ‘it’s just who we are mate’ on this match.

The weird thing is, he’s been accused of not adapting his style in previous seasons, so will he just go balls-out this evening?

We have to hope so. We get enough low blocks at The Emirates, it’d be nice to see a side that isn’t one of the bigger sides having a bit of a go, but of course I’m entirely biased because I want to see lots of space for us to exploit. I don’t think we’ll get it, I think Leeds will drop in to a compact shape despite what Farke has said about not defending for 95 minutes and I suspect they will aim to use those pacey wide forwards of Gnonto and James to see if they can spring traps.

Arsenal will need lock-pickers I think, so for me, for today, I’d be thinking about either Trossard or Madueke on the left. Trossard didn’t get on last week and will be chomping at the bit, but I just have the feeling that Arteta is going to see if Madueke can have a run at Bogle at right back today. If Leeds do press their fullbacks forward then it’ll mean space for him and given the sub-par performance in pre season and against Man United, I just wonder if Martinelli might be facing the axe given his lack of form right now.

The injury to Havertz means it’ll be Gyokeres up top and in Roden and Struijk they have two six-foot-two/three defenders who will fancy a tussle. So he’ll need to be mobile and continue his runs in behind the last man as we know he will want to do. But I think it’ll be one of those games in which his ball control and ability to fashion chances in tight spaces will be most tested. What we need to see from him is the connection with the other players and, more than anything else, that means the likes of Odegaard, Rice, Saka and whoever plays on the left needs to be able to play the right ball into space in front of Gyokeres if he gets the chance to run into some green space.

We know most of the team already, but perhaps there are question marks over the full backs and I suspect it’ll be Calafiori to get the nod again, but perhaps Timber will be in at right back instead of White. I thought White did alright at Old Trafford, but he seemed to come off a little gingerly last Sunday and with Arteta saying yesterday “With Ben, let’s see how he reacts and what we decide” I suspect it’ll be Timber to be given the nod with maybe White from the bench.

On the availability of players, we’re one game into the season and already we have knocks. You have Arne Slot moaning about having some injuries to players in the same positions (having said about it being an excuse last season…), but here we are with Havertz out for an unspecified period of time, Norgaard out last week and today with a minor knock, as well as Ben White not being fully fit. You can see why Arsenal have stockpiled, because we’re already seeing players go down and the season hasn’t really even got up and running yet!

That depth, however, does mean that we have such a strong squad that we can handle it. Even in attack with Kai out, we found Merino last season as an auxiliary forward, Nwaneri has been touted as a possible option, Trossard can false nine it and I still think Martinelli could do a job. So we’re pretty well stocked to handle one or two injuries and today we’ll see that evidenced again with our strong bench.

It will be even stronger from next week too, with Eze sure to be announced either today or tomorrow. You’d think that it’d be today though, because he’ll no doubt be at the ground to watch the game and there’s no way the cameras aren’t finding him if he’s there. And if he’s paraded before kick off or at halftime on the pitch, it’ll be weird to see the club having not released his ‘welcome’ video before that happens. I suspect the social media and videography team are doing overtime right now to get everything lined up.

The rest of the squad and the manager have to focus on Leeds though. The fact they are a bit of an unknown quantity does make me nervous, but you can have no excuses if you have aspirations on challenging for the title. These are the types of games that you have to find three points from. It doesn’t matter if it’s low scoring, it doesn’t matter if we don’t seem to click, all that matters is that we pick up points, because I have a suspicion that both City and Liverpool will win their respective tricky games today and on Monday. So we have to do our job.

I’ll be there, might even get in there early to sample an Asahi and see whether they’ve done a better job with that than the shambles that was Camden Hells, so I’ll be hoping for some joy come 7.30pm when the match is done and I’m heading home.

Back tomorrow for some post match musings.

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

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

— kimmoFC (@kimmoFC) August 21, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This time yesterday I was writing about the Trossard deal, trying to justify what felt like quite an odd move from the club, as it appeared as though we were unlikely to be doing any more business. I pondered over what we needed from the trio of Martinelli, Trossard and Madueke in terms of goals and assists.

By lunchtime – or just after – that had become even more important, because the news was breaking that Havertz had suffered an in jury and was due to be out for a ‘significant’ period of time, as reported by David Ornstein. That was the counter-signed by a few journalists and as the club took part in an open training session in front of the fans at The Emirates stadium, the absence of Kai was very noticeable and a worry for us all.

Cue the hand-wringing from us all. This is what happened last season and this news meant that, like last season, a big player for us suffered an injury that would cause big ruptions in our aspirations this season. Our attacking options were supposed to be Big Vik AND Kai, not just Big Vik.

So I think it’s fair to say that the mood was pretty low. We’d been dealt another accursed injury and the season hadn’t even got going. And spare a moment for poor Kai; he’s had a knock in pre season, having missed a massive chunk of last season, yet here he is with another spell on the sidelines. An important player for us, loved by all of us, who can’t do the thing he’s good at. I’m gutted for him.

And yesterday afternoon I was gutted for us, because the news that was permeating from various sports journalists who had clearly been briefed, was that Arsenal were looking for loan options or something to replace Kai that would be on the cheap. The chats started. Vardy at 38? Nico Jackson? Asensio on loan?

None of them were optimal, none of them were Havertz, few really inspired.

Then it dropped.

Ornstein and Fabrizio, not long after each other, with a Bomba and a Here we go.

Eberechi Eze. The Arsenal. Fee agreed. Player wants move.

The online explosion was amazing. It was like a set of beautiful fireworks were going off across Arsenal social channels everywhere. This was the one we wanted. An Arsenal lad, a player who has been the talisman for a rejuvenated Palace side towards the end of last season. A guy who should have been the match winner last weekend.

Eberechi Eze. A Gooner.

Jobs not done, player still has to go through the medical and tonight he’ll be playing in the Conference League at home to Palace, but by the sounds of it Arsenal have moved swiftly to conclude this and he may be an Arsenal player by the time the weekend is done.

Honestly, the level of decisiveness that has been shown in this deal really is quite something and dare I say it, quite un-Arsenal like. We like to take our time on these types of deals. Just look at what happened with Gyokeres. Clearly a lot of that was down to the Sporting Chairman and clearly Steve Parish is a man who is loyal to ‘Ebs’ and wanted to do right by him. There was a fee and Palace were happy to go with that fee. And so he should – hopefully – become an Arsenal player.

The deal was ‘dead’ apparently. I heard through a mate that it was off a while ago and I don’t think any of us really batted an eyelid. The Scum had a pressing need, we were looking at our front line and left wing, there needed to be some sales and clearly we weren’t pulling the trigger on a ‘nice-to-have’ player unless we had space for him. The Havertz injury has clearly changed that and, worryingly, it makes me wonder if this is a really bad one that means we might not see him until at least 2026. If that’s the case, he will take time to get fit and so most of his season is probably hanging on a knife-edge, because there’s no way you sanction a £60million deal for a player like Eze as quickly as we did unless there is a big problem with Havertz. I am delighted we have moved, we have a versatile player in Eze who will fill a number of positions, but that joy is tinged with a little bit of sadness for the German.

There will also need to be a re-jig on how we line up now I think too. Eze for Havertz is not like-for-like. Eze can play left eight, left wing, I think he’s done right wing once or twice and he plays in the pocket as a 10. That’s a lot of spaces that Kai might have taken up, but if we’re looking for a rotation option for Gyokeres now, it feels like we’ll have to find an alternative solution. Martinelli? Trossard? Merino? None of which are optimal, but perhaps in some games we will need more from those wide players.

Whatever Arteta has planned for Eze, one thing is for sure now, which is that we are well stocked in those attacking positions. And we’ve brought in players who like a shot, like a dribble and can play more direct. That should make us much more unpredictable this season and given some of the stodgy stuff we saw last season, that is welcome news to all Arsenal fans.

Finally, before I sign off today, perhaps the juiciest of cherries on the cake, is all of the #content out there from Spurs fans. They came in their droves. They posted on TikTok, they gloated on X, they lorded on Threads and they chuckled on BlueSky. Facebook was awash with mems and the joke was, supposedly, on The Arsenal.

No no no my friends. Whatever happens in life, the joke is always on you.

The ‘real talk’ bit is that as much as many of us would like to, there’ll be no rowing back if he goes to that lot, in terms of the quality of the player. Many of us have twerked for him all summer in addition to some of the big moves we’ve done, yet him ending up at the wrong end of North London is going to end up stinging quite a bit, I reckon. Sure, they’ll claim the whole ‘we beat you to his signature’, they’ll drop a couple of “biggest club in London” nonsense when we all know the reality there. But if this moves in the way it appears to be advancing, then we’ll be feeling the sting a bit when everything becomes official.

Of course, things could change, but we’ve known all along that Arsenal needed to make sales before anything else gets done. That we simply haven’t been able to shift players on probably has the biggest impact on what is happening right now, as I’ve spoken about before and even as much as yesterday where I talked about how we need to offload before we can reload. The Scum clearly know this because if the player wanted Arsenal, he’s most likely telling them to back down, but I think these moves show that the player wants Champions League football too. He’ll settle for them and he’ll easily be able to displace Maddison if he joined them, so if I’m taking my red-tinted spectacles off for a second, I can see why he’d be open to this move coming about if Arsenal can’t do the deal. If you’re player like Eze you can’t hang around all summer in the hope that Arsenal offload a bunch of players now so that you can join them. What happens if they don’t make enough money? What happens if they aren’t able to offload those players and then Palace reject the offer that is made? Eze still has two years left to run on his deal and if he decided to ‘do a Gyokeres’ and reject any other advance of any other club in the hope of Arsenal coming, he could end up missing a big chance for a big move this summer when he is ready to go.

I suspect he see’s the cautionary tale of Wilfred Zaha to Arsenal as a prime Exhibit A in that regard. We had Zaha at the training ground, Emery wanted him, Arsenal bid something in the region of £40million but Palace were asking for silly money at the time at around £100million, it put Arsenal off and we went for Pepe. Three years later and Zaha is leaving on a free transfer to Galatasaray, followed by a loan to Lyon and then a loan to Charlotte in the States. Eze will be very aware of this and that’s why I think if you’re in his shoes you need to have multiple options open and you need to be able to have a good relationship with Parish and hope he grants your wish if you get a bid in from a club playing in the Champions League. Perfect if it’s Arsenal, but Tottenham would also fulfil those wishes.

So I get it, but it’ll sting, because we want that final piece and with the likes of Reiss Nelson supposedly not wanting to leave permanently to Fulham, or the Zinchenko and Fabio Vieira moves seemingly not really progressing, this is a perfect ‘market opportunity for the Scum to take advantage of the fact we went in early for other targets.

One discussion that I do think will need to be had when the window closes and we see where the chips have fallen, however, is the timing of the deals. I have a WhatsApp group of lads I go to the football with and there was a few really interesting things that I think are worth pointing out. Firstly, we all know Chelsea needed to sell, right? So with that in mind, I’m a little confused as to why we decided to go for Madueke so early and basically pay almost what Chelsea were asking for. If we wanted Madueke and Eze, why not go for the player probably a little more in demand (Eze) than the one in which we probably could be chatting to Chelsea about right now? That’s the bit that doesn’t sound too clever to me. If we’d have gone for Eze first and then gone for Madueke, I think we’d have not only have had the fans a little more excited about the move (not that it matters too much on that from the clubs’ perspective), but I think we might have been able to even drive down the price from Chelsea a little bit.

It all feels a little strange.

Now, if you tell me the sales will facilitate an actual wide forward coming in, with the likes of Rodrygo back on the table if we sell one or two players, then I guess you could understand how the market is playing out. We’d all want an Eze, it will give us great rotation and different options for Odegaard, but if we’re getting in a top left winger to compete with, say, a Martinelli, then I’m starting to get excited. That’s because the balance of the team suddenly feels good. The challenge we’ve got, which Luke in our WhatsApp group pointed out, is that if you can get the Madueke deal done then do it early so you don’t hang around and miss out on both Eze and Madueke. Or a Rodrygo in this instance, because if Man City sell Savinho and get Rodrygo, then we’ll have been left with fewer options out there for that wide forward and maybe Chelsea go even further on their asking price.

It’s all “ifs” and “buts” at this stage. We’re not on the inside to understand the machinations of the Arsenal transfer team. But because of that, we have to just sit on and watch a player many of us coveted for a lot of the summer, go to our local ‘rivals’. That just leaves a bit of a sour taste in the mouth.

Know what I mean?

It’s why you can see leagues like the Spanish league desperately to find ways to make more money to keep up, with the Spanish league approving a motion to play Villareal’s home game against Barca in Miami in December. I just pray that our footballing values hold true in this country, because the thought of Arsenal playing one of their matches in the States, or in Asia, fills me with dread. Don’t get me wrong, I get it, the fans from those countries would have an official match with jeopardy on the line, but for me it creates a dangerous precedent that would open Pandora’s box for the global game. I can almost see it now…

Why stop at one game? Why don’t we sell the rights to six Arsenal home matches to the highest bidding country?

We’ve seen already what money does to taint the purity of our game. Just look at that abomination of a Club World Cup. The only way that competition was given any kind of priority was not because of the prestige of it, but because of the sheer volume cash that morally questionable entity FIFA put on the table with their Middle Eastern bedfellows. And the clubs chased that coin. This news of a possible La Liga game in the US is the precedent that nobody should want. What comes after that? Renaming of clubs? Why don’t we have Washington West Ham Clarets? Or Singapore Everton Blues? “Who have you got this weekend? We’re up against Manchester Hong Kongers”.

Not for me. No thanks. There’s already enough about this sport we love that has been eroded over time, but let’s not have yet another thing to slowly remove any kind of tradition that we can still hold on to with hundreds of years behind it.

Back in the Arsenal world and the now, there are noises that the Scum are also interested in Eze too. That doesn’t surprise me with the Maddison injury news and I’m pretty sure that they were also linked with him right at the beginning of the window. Given that we’re the second biggest spenders so far this summer, it stands to reason that we need to sell before we buy, with Arteta also talking about possible exits over the last week or so. I think for most of us we’ve though that would be multiple squad/out-of-favour players exiting the club like Sambi, Zinchenko, Fabio Vieira, Nelson, Karl Hein (funny how you always have to say his full name and not just his surname – or is that just me?), maybe Kiwior if a big offer comes in, with Trossard also touted as an exit. But I just have a feeling that Arsenal are holding off of any further interest in this and won’t also be pushed into bidding if the Scum suddenly come calling. That release clause he had as not been triggered, so Palace can now afford to negotiate and if the player has any sway it sounds as though he’d favour a move to us. But you have to actually place a bid in order for this to get going and so the only way I think the dominoes start falling is if Arsenal start movements too. So really what we have to see is Berta earning his coing by starting to shift some players.

It’s funny how none of us – well, certainly not people I talk to online or offline – talk about some of the above players as ‘deadwood’ any more. It’s probably because, actually, they aren’t. Each of the above players mentioned would, I think, be able to carve very good careers at other clubs. But we have raised our levels so that the concept of ‘deadwood’ just doesn’t apply any more. Zinchenko is a very good footballer; it’s why Mourinho apparently wants him at six. Sambi has shown flashes of brilliance, just not enough in an Arsenal shirt, whilst Fabio Vieira feels like a good player in the wrong league because of the lack of his physicality. I ‘like’ all of these players, they just aren’t what Arsenal need, so moving them on this summer needs to be priority now.

Back on the Eze thing, I think if the player doesn’t get the vibes that Arsenal are in for him, he probably accepts a move to the Scum. Take the tribalism away from it, they are a team who are in the Champions League this season (through the back door) and with Maddison out of the picture he could basically have a free run at the position he is most comfortable in. Arsenal might be a place he might prefer to go to given his ties at youth level, but his pathway to more regular game time would be more limited under us. It would be a bit of a kicker too given we’ve been linked all summer, but you can’t just magic up the cash from nowhere. Our net spend is apparently around £187million (again, according to TransferMarkt) whereas the Scum have theirs at £95million – so I suspect they have the ability to go big for a couple of £50million moves. We just have to hope that Arsenal do their bit first before they make their move. One things for certain, however, if it’s a straight fight between the two clubs, it’s no doubt which team is currently in the most attractive position to be competing towards the top of the league. That doesn’t mean we’ll get him, but if all things are equal and there are two bids on the table, then I suspect Eze to Arsenal happens.

But that feels a bit of a way away at the moment. More dominoes need to fall for us so we just have to play the patience game on this I think.

Back tomorrow with some more thoughts as we prep for the visit to United.

Personally, I’m not minded to put too much credence in to it at this stage, because Eze would be batshit mental to join that basket case of a club.

We think we’re doing mental gymnastics to work out where Eze fits in at The Arsenal? How about Chelsea?

They sign ALL THE FORWARDS. Eze is, for sure, a creative attacking midfielder, but you can’t tell me that he’s dislodging their irritatingly decent Cole Palmer from that number ten slot, are you?

Perhaps you can make a similar case for Arsenal, with us having Rice, merino, potentially Nwaneri who can all play left eight, as well as Martinelli, Trossard and soon-to-be Madueke in as left wing options. But I think if you asked most neutral fans – i.e. not Arsenal or Chelsea supporters – you’re going to be told that he’s got probably a better pathway to more regular game time at The Arsenal. In the Despicable-money-grabbing-cup competition (DMGC) that has just thankfully finished last week they played Palmer wide right, Neto wide left, Enzo in the 10 and Joao Pedro up top. They’ve just spent £50million on Gittens to play wide left. They’ve brought Delap to play up top as well for £30million. They are not going to play Eze wide right, so where is he going to be shoe-horned in?

I’m not sure they will. Then you have to take into account that Eze was an Arsenal schoolboy and, I believe, he was an Arsenal fan as a kid (although I haven’t done much digging on that to be honest). So there’s a connection there that I think plays into our favour.

And finally, there’s the fact that we’ve (almost) competed for the title for the last three seasons. We have shown that – hopefully I am not jinxing it here – we have a team that is here to stay towards the top of the league and if you’re Eze, the chance of being in an Arsenal side competing for the title surely trumps a Chelsea side who have just scabbed their way to a trophy through the easiest run of nothing games you’re ever going to get.

Clearly I’m biased, but if you’re looking at Chelsea as a better environment to develop yourself, you’re not looking hard enough.

Arsenal still need to do the deal though. That’s the only sticking point in this whole debate. We all know there’s a release clause to be paid and if Arsenal trigger it then I think we’re fine. But if Arsenal need to sell before they drop some money into Palace’s laps, then that could give Chelsea the opportunity to have a free run at the player, because clearly as we’ve seen the rules around PSR don’t apply to them with their financial gaming of the system and every morally grey loophole they can get their hands on.

If that is the situation and it’s just about who triggers the release clause first, you could see Eze with little option but to accept a place on the crowded platform that is the Chelsea Circle Line of rotating players in and out every year.

The other big stuff going around has been centred on Liverpool’s pursuit of Newcastle player Alexander Isak. Hopefully Liverpool get the same treatment as we would have gotten had we gone in for the player; messing around discussing a possible opportunity all summer, only to be told to bugger off at the end of August.

I suspect Liverpool will go back in for Ekitike, but at €90million that certainly feels like a steep one to me. It’s weird because hearing him quoted for that fee – as good as he is – is kind of warming me towards Gyokeres even more now. If/when this deal gets done, we are getting him for £55million. For a striker, in this day and age and in this market, that’s pretty decent work from The Arsenal. As you’ll no doubt be aware there is still Sporting playing silly buggers on the additional €10million in add ons, but by the sounds of this they have previous with that, so any hopes of him getting on that play bound for Singapore are probably going to be short-lived. I think this one will probably drag into next week because, as we’re now learning, that Sporting president is a pain in the arse to deal with. It seems most parties are moving mountains to get this deal done except that guy, which makes me hope that one day they have an interest in one of our players…..

Oh yeah buddy, sure, we’ll sell you <<Player X>>. But here’s the deal, we want add ons. And those add ons? Well, they’re going to be fiendishly difficult for you not to pay. Each add on will be more difficult than the last. How many add ons are we asking for?

One.

Hundred.

Thousand.

Woe betide Sporting ever coming back to us after what’s happening now. I bet Berta can’t wait to get this deal done so he can move on with his life and – hopefully – never have to deal with them again.

Anyway, there was some nice stuff on the official site yesterday about the new academy graduates coming in, being greeted by Big Per and signing their scholarship forms. I can’t even imagine how exciting that must be for them. It was always a dream of mine – and yours too I’ll bet – to play for The Arsenal. That dream came and went in the blink of an eye with the fullness of time, so even the fact they get to experience what they are feeling right now, I have FOMO of, for sure. Maybe they’ll make it, maybe they won’t, but at least they have been able to get this wonderful experience and I hope their parents are telling them to just not think about some kind of amazing and star-studded future – work hard, try your best, but appreciate you have at least got to this position where hundreds of thousands of young boys their age don’t.

Back tomorrow as the team depart for Singapore.