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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Raya

Timber   –   Saliba   –   Gabriel   –   Calafiori

Zubimendi

Eze   –   Rice

Gabriel Jesus   –   Havertz   –   Trossard

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mikel Arteta

• Perspective before performance – Mikel started with humanity. A reminder that context matters, and that leadership isn’t just about the next result – it’s about grounding people before asking more of them.
• Adaptability is the real constant – He talked about how injuries aren’t drama, they’re data. The message is simple: we’ve dealt with it all season, we’ll deal with it again. No noise, just solutions.
• Control the controllables – No chat about draws, permutations, or what others might do. He was very binary about the preparation – you play to win the next game, full stop.
• Mindset isn’t fluffy – it’s decisive – Talent gets you in the conversation. Mentality keeps you there. Arteta was explicit that this is an area they’ve worked hard on – and now have to prove again.
• Pressure reframed as privilege – Instead of fearing the moment, he reframes it. Being here is earned. That mindset shift matters when the stakes are high.
• Learn fast, don’t linger – Past losses and external noise aren’t baggage – they’re fuel. Take the lesson, feel it briefly, then channel it productively into what’s next.

I think it’s the right approach ahead of a huge game and, unlike last weekend, there wasn’t any need to do the whole ‘fire’ or ‘bring your dinner’ stuff. He knows that this game is already being built up so much by everyone that we need to dial it down a bit. I do wonder if the players are feeling that, though. We heard from Eze ahead of Sporting, and he was chill; Rice was also very focused but saying all the right things in a Sky Sports interview. But I worry that the actions of the players of late have shown a different side, a side that is feeling the weight of expectation, a side that is running out of gas whilst also dropping like flies on the injury front.

To that end, the absence of Saka is a real blow, and I think at this stage, we probably have to start thinking about him as an optional extra now, for the rest of this season. He’s struggling with an Achilles injury, and he won’t be in the squad tomorrow, meaning his last game was over a month ago. There’s no way he’s going to be back in the starting XI next Saturday against Newcastle, which means we’ll probably also only see him as a bit-part player for the first leg of the semi-final of the Champions League. It means we need to see more from Noni, who, at least, Arteta confirmed, should be ok. As usual, he wouldn’t be drawn on which players are fit, saying that some players are ‘close’, but he said that last weekend and ahead of Sporting, so whether they are fit remains to be seen. I think all of us are desperate to see Timber back, for sure, because Doku might be licking his lips if he’s up against White or Mosquera. Equally, having Calafiori available would be a big boost, even if he’s not fit to start, with Hincapie and him able to share minutes. Hincapie was restricted in the League Cup Final because of that ridiculous yellow card that wouldn’t have been a yellow, but I wonder if this time, if that were to happen again, Arteta would bring on Riccardo earlier if he had to. I certainly hope so.

Pep Guardiola

• Calm realism, not drama – Pep was a little matter-of-fact about injuries and circumstances. Players will be missing, that’s the season. No emotional charge, just acceptance and adjustment.
• Success is contextual, not emotional – He was clear that winning the title this season wouldn’t be framed as his “greatest achievement”. That’s telling. Perspective matters when you’ve been there before.
• Respect without obsession – He acknowledged that Arsenal are the benchmark this season – consistently strong, improving year on year. Respect is clear, but it doesn’t tip into fixation.
• Big games are still just games – Even with the stakes obvious, he strips the occasion back to performance basics. Execute well, compete properly, and control what you can.
• Pressure reframed as opportunity – Six points is a gap, not a crisis. Home crowd, sold-out stadium, everything aligned to try – not to panic. His was a message of readiness over rhetoric.
• Clarity on what will decide it – Guardiola was precise about the challenge: physical duels, aggression, second balls, build-up quality. No vague talk of “desire” – just clear performance realities.

For them, the requirement is clear, and I wonder if ‘the title is over if we don’t win’ will work in their favour tomorrow or not. I think it will certainly fire everyone up, and I think those first 15 – 20 minutes or so tomorrow will be a bit of a cauldron, as their fans are unusually loud, whilst their players will be massively aggressive in trying to get ahead early, I suspect. As I said yesterday, the numbers favour that early goal, so we have to make sure we don’t go behind. As I was on my run yesterday, I was listening to the always excellent Arsenal Opinion Podcast, and the lads were quite bullish about our chances. But what Matt said on his ‘hot take’ really resonated with me: The first goal wins the league. It’s a deliberately provocative take, which is kind of the point, but it does feel significant. When Arsenal go behind, we tend not to win football matches, and City have a history of scoring early against us and going on to win. But even against other teams, we know we’re not a side that goes on to win football matches if we score first. This season, we’ve beaten Newcastle when going behind, but that’s all I could find for this season. In 2024/25 it was three wins in total. In 23/24 it was three times again. So we don’t exactly have a habit of making comebacks. The data tells us City scores first, and we don’t do well coming from behind. If we’re going to get anything from this game, it does feel like we’re going to need to score first.

And that is what I will leave you to ponder on today, my friends, so have a good one, and I’ll be back tomorrow with a match preview.

Laters.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Catch you all tomorrow.

Another League Cup Final, another defeat in it, and at this point, it feels like that competition is as cursed for us as the European ones are.

Simply put, Arsenal only showed up for one half, on a day in which there were hopes that we could get a trophy monkey off our back.

I have lots of emotions going on right now; lots of thoughts that might be worth picking up, given that we now go into an interlull, but for today, let’s just pick on one or two of the key talking points from yesterday.

Firstly, I don’t think any is getting away from the fact that the goalkeeper question was a primary reason why we lost yesterday. Kepa is a fine backup. We discussed it in the pub before the game, and I said I was ok with him starting, but hindsight is a wonderful thing, and clearly it wasn’t the right move. The delta between Kepa and Raya is quite large, it seems, and I’m not only talking about the rick that our keeper made in the game to give City the lead. His passing range is not as wide as Raya’s, and his box presence isn’t the same, which I think also leads to a little bit less confidence in the back line. The first goal we conceded yesterday will be one that will give him nightmares. It was proper chocolate wrists stuff, and whereas at the other end, Trafford gave a decent account of himself in the first half with a couple of saves, when the pressure was on us in the second, our goalkeeper folded in that key moment. And that’s what we don’t get with Raya. Sure, he’s had his dodgy moments like the end of the Wolves away game, but in the main, he is solid, and even with little to do, he still has the concentration in key moments that Kepa just doesn’t have (think that great save against Leverkusen at the end of the game last week).

I don’t blame Arteta for starting Kepa, because as I said, I think this was one that he felt he could do. But I don’t think we’ll see the Spaniard in between the sticks if we get to the FA Cup final. And his error yesterday kind of gives Arteta the licence to sit him down if that happens and say “sorry mate, not after what happened last time.

This was one of those cliched ‘game of two halves’ kind of matches. I thought we bested Man City in the first; we limited their chance creation, whilst we got in behind at least once, and Kai probably should have scored. That’s what you occasionally get with Kai, though; he isn’t always the most clinical. Ironically, if Gyokeres had been in that position, it might have been different, but he was somewhere else on the pitch, not getting those chances. But it fell to Kai; Trafford did his job, which we didn’t see from Kepa in the second half, which was also the half in which we failed to respond to City’s approach. They pressed in the right spaces, they were able to control more of the ball, and whilst they hardly troubled Kepa until his mistake, they were definitely edging it. And I think Arteta will do a re-watch of this game and realise that he probably should have made the changes a little earlier than he did. Kai didn’t have a great game, Gyokeres was pretty anonymous, Saka’s poor form continues, and Trossard was left pretty much neutralised and quiet. In that second half in particular, the attack didn’t click, and we simply could not string together enough passes or get enough of a rhythm to cause City any problems.

That second half was woefully short of the ‘standards’ that Arteta and the team set, and unfortunately, in 2026, it’s not an isolated incident. There’s plenty made about the fact that not pressing Arsenal’s defenders is a good way of neutralising them. I think that’s only part of the story. History is always written by the victors, and City fans and the stats people have already been clipping up short videos of City sitting back whilst 1-0 up and us playing the ball across our back four. But game state is everything. I said yesterday morning that the first goal would be pivotal, and I think that’s exactly why yesterday felt so flat in the end, but that’s how it turned out to be. And I don’t want to make this all about Kepa, because so many other players didn’t play remotely to their potential, but in these tight games, there’s nothing more frustrating than a mistake leading to a goal. If a player puts the ball in the top bins from 30 yards, you just hold your hands up, but when the important goal you concede is entirely avoidable, it is doubly hard to take.

I do think the absence of Eze and Odegaard had somewhat of an impact, though. Eze has just found some form, and now he’s injured, which is really frustrating. Arteta said that we have to leave it seven days for a scan, but we have to pray that it is just a short-term thing, because whilst he can rest up for a week because of these internationals, ideally we want to see him on the road to recovery for Southampton in two weeks. In his place Havertz looked at first like he might link up well with Big Vik, and there were a couple of moments where, from my vantage point, I could see us almost playing with two up top, but he faded quickly after a good opening half an hour and the lack of that creative 8/10 hybrid felt like it began to take its toll.

So City draws first blood. Seeing the dejected Arsenal players wasn’t a fun sight afterwards, but the hope has to be that they use this as fuel, because after this international break, there is a great opportunity to get back on the wagon and on to winning ways with an away game against Southampton.

This was the least of our priorities, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t sting, for which I thought Declan Rice summed it up well when describing the mood after this match. Now there is an opportunity to just take a beat, for the players to go away with their respective international teams, which hopefully will provide enough of a reset, before we get back to the proper football over the Easter weekend.

As I said above, I might do a bit of a deeper dive into some of the problems we’ve had in attack over the coming days, given that I have no interest whatsoever in the international nonsense going on from now until the end of next week.

So I’ll catch up with you back on here tomorrow. Up the Arsenal.

This is our first one since Mikel Arteta took us to Wembley for the FA Cup, albeit behind closed doors, and it’s the first time we’ve been at Wembley since we played in the Community Shield back in 2023. That day, we saw Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber for the first time, as we beat City on penalties 4-1. Whilst I absolutely don’t want to see that type of fixture play out today, if you offered it to me right now, I would take it.

That’s because we all know rumours of Man City’s demise have been greatly overestimated. This is a Pep Guardiola side who, if they win their game in hand and beat us on their own patch (we haven’t won at the Etihad in over 11 years in the Premier League), will only be three behind us in the league, a side who still boasts elite talent like Haaland, Doku, Semenyo, Rodri et al, a side who might have stumbled lately, have still won 31 of the 48 matches they’ve played this season.

Arsenal must be ready for what is going to be an incredibly hard challenge.

But I believe in this Arsenal team. I am nervous – of course I am – but I want to transmit only positivity right up until kick off. Then, when I’m in the ground, I’ll be a bundle of nerves. But until that point, I have nothing but positive vibes of success that I want to transmit to Mikel Arteta and his team.

And it is a team with whom, if some of the pictures doing the rounds on social media yesterday and this morning showed Martin Odegaard in training, as well as Jurrien Timber. And if both are fit to make the match-day squad, I think one of them will definitely start.

That’s Timber for me. Because if Guardiola is going to opt for Doku on that left wing for City, it just feels like having Jurrien up against him is the best chance we’ve got of neutralising him. Odegaard may be back in training, but he hasn’t played since coming on against The Scum for 13 minutes on 22nd February. A month ago. In fact, you have to go back to the 3-2 defeat against United almost a month before that, to see his first game from the start, so I just can’t see it today. In fact, given the limitations of the squad you can name for this cup final, I’d be wondering if he’s even ready for the bench. If you can only get 10 – 15 minutes out of Odegaard, shouldn’t his space in the match-day squad be taken up by another?

That’s a decision Arteta is going to have to make today, but if his captain is fit and he can get something from him, my gut feeling says he will make the squad.

So, who else plays today, then, eh?

Firstly, the keeper situation, which basically every Arsenal fan I was listening to on podcasts this week has been debating. The media also asked him the question during his press conference on Friday. Of course, he wouldn’t be drawn on it, but I have a feeling he goes with Kepa today. I’m not sure it’s the right move, hopefully it doesn’t come back to bite us on the arse, but I go back to his arrival in the summer, and I can’t help but think it is a situation like today that is the reason Kepa signed for us in the first place. He was number one at Bournemouth; he could have signed for them or another club and been their number one, but he chose Arsenal, knowing that he 99% won’t displace Raya. But if Arteta had a conversation with him and told him he’s the cup keeper, all the way to domestic finals, then I think he will honour that, and we’ll see the other Spaniard in goal today.

And I think I’m fine with it. Providing, of course, we see know ricks in him…

I’ve named Timber in at right back, and I think the two centre halves speak for themselves, but who to put in at left back, I wonder…

**taps finger on chin in a pondering fashion**

I think it might be Calafiori, you know. I think Arteta will want to have a little bit more chaos in the final third with his inside channel runs, and I think that means it will be the Italian over the Ecuadorian. It doesn’t mean Hincapie won’t see minutes – I absolutely think he will – but I think for the first 60 – 70 of this game, he will be tasked with getting into those pockets of position similarly to last season’s 2-2 draw at the Etihad, where he scored. His task for the day will be keeping an eye on Semenyo, I suspect – no easy feet.

In front of them, I think it’s fairly obvious that Rice and Zubimendi start, and I think Eze is pretty much nailed on for his position too, after his fine display against Leverkusen. He was on the ball more, involved, plus we saw just how hard he can hit the ball if given the chance. But let’s also not forget that Eze has good recent memories of this stadium. This was the scene of his ascension to cult hero status for Palace fans in May and I watched that goal again this morning. It’s a great finish, running onto a cross as City were in transition, and his stroking the ball home was perfectly timed. Another one of those would be great. He was also there for Palace’s 2-2 penalty win in the Community Shield last August, so I’m sure he’s more than happy about his time at Wembley in the last year. Let’s hope he can transmit some of that this afternoon.

The attack has another couple of questions to ask about it, too. Not Saka, I don’t think, but I do think that there is a question over whether it’s Kai or Big Vik, and, despite his good showing in midweek against Leverkusen, if it was my choice, it would be Havertz all day long. He will bring other wide forwards into play, he will be a handful in the air for those City defenders, plus he put in a super display at Wembley in the Community Shield for his Arsenal debut too. So it has to be the German who leads the line. And so to that left-wing spot, in which nobody has really nailed it so far. But I’m thinking it will be Trossard. Again, he combined well at home against Leverkusen, plus I liked how he was drifting a little more, and I think rotation across our attacking players is key today. We need to get at the likes of Nunes and probably Khusanov, because both are players with obvious strengths, but also weaknesses too. Nunes is a physical presence and likes to be aggressive in the press, but he isn’t always the most consistent and I’ve seen people suggest he does have an error or two in him. Khusanov is rapid, but he too has mistakes in him.

Man City can be ‘got at’. We’ve seen it all this season, but we need to see it today, and I think the first goal is massive in this one. At the Emirates earlier in the season, City got their goal with pretty much their first attack and then just sat in the lowest block that has ever been recorded by a Pep Guardiola side. They were away from home and they could see how dominant we were and it was only a late bit of magic that salvaged a point for us. What that meant is that we couldn’t truly test what City are like running back towards their own goal, as many teams have already done this season since that day. If they score first, I think they will be a similar variant of that City team that day, although I expect them to create a few more chances. But if we score first…well…that will 100% bring them on to us and that’s where we need to take advantage of the inevitable space that crops up.

It’s so hard to call. I keep chopping and changing my mind on how this one will play out. But what we all have to remember is that this is just the start of the ‘business end’ run in for triphy attempts. This is the cherry on the cake, before we’ve even got the cake fully prepped yet. So I’m going to try my hardest not to be too down if we lose, but equally, not to be too high if we win.

But if we could just win, yeah Arsenal? That would be great.

Back tomorrow for a debrief. Let’s hope it is a happy one.

Arteta, as usual, gave basically nothing away, saying that Odegaard and Timber are a ‘we’ll see’, using the smokescreen of an additional training session to avoid giving the media – and City – anything conclusive. Weirdly with Odegaard, the best source of news seems to be his national team manager, Ståle Solbakken, who has been quoted as saying:

If he ends up making the League Cup final squad, we’ll reassess…I would prefer that he builds up his physical condition and gets a proper training period. He can have the opportunity to do that during this international break. So if he calls and says he’s fit, I’m not sure I would include him

I think that is a perfectly sensible approach from a coach who is clearly mindful that he needs his captain at his best for the upcoming World Cup. If only Thomas Tuchel took the same approach. He’s called Up Noni, Saka, Rice and Eze, and whilst Noni and Ebs haven’t had as many minutes this season, Saka has had injuries and plays all the time when fit, as does Rice, so I’m disappointed to see them travel. They should have been told to rest up. Somebody said to me they aren’t joining the eam for the first game, but will be there for the second. I can’t find anything online (haven’t looked too hard, to be fair) that gives any indication of that, but if it’s true, that’s a small blessing, I guess. Likewise, calls to have Dowman in the squad were rightly responded to by Tuchel as “no need to give him that pressure” – at least he’s got that bit right.

As for the other international bits of news, Mosqeura got his first call-up, which is nice, and given he hasn’t played much, I think that’s fine. I’m less happy about Zubi being called up and his situation should be treated the same as Rice’s – neither should be seeing minutes next week. That should also go for Gabriel (especially after what happened to him earlier in the season), Saliba, Trossard, Gyokeres and Havertz – who has only just started to come back. Use them sparingly…..please…

Back to Arteta, though, who cut an understanably confident tone as he looked ahead to this game. I didn’t realise this, but he has a 100% record at Wembley. That’s good, although I hate stats like that, because they are always there to be broken. I remember a stat coming up after we scored in the Man United home game earlier this year, that said something mental like “when Arsenal take the lead, they’ve won 26 out of 27 of their last games”. I don’t know if that was home only, but we promptly lost that game to the worldies that United scored, so what I’m worried about with stats like that is the football gods come a-knocking on our door. Let’s hope not.

The journalists also tried a little bit of tomfoolery by asking questions like “is it about beating Pep” but clearly Arteta was not going to bite there, batting it away as he should. Still, it’s not as bad as those Manchester-based journalists, one of whom asked Pep yesterday whether he was still ‘best frriends and go to dinner’ and if they are still talking after last season, when City players accused Arsenal players of ‘dark arts’. It was a pathetic attempt to get a soundbite ahead of this game and Pep clearly just thought the journalist was being a bit of a dick. He clearly was – this sort of stuff is designed to stir up some kind of Mourinho/Wenger-style rivalry that just isn’t there, and never will be there. They have both been in the game long enough, they’ve managed against each other long enough, they know each other so well, that they aren’t going to suddenly fall out. Or if they do on the side of the pitch, they’re both going to kiss and make up pretty quickly afterwards. That’s just life. People have disagreements, then they get over it, then the friendship endures longer than any short-term passionate situation in the heat of the moment.

The rest of the questions were a bit bland, if you ask me, because it was all about whether getting to cup finals is important, on viewing this game in isolation, or if he uses this situation to motivate his players. All pretty easy stuff to respond to; Pep got a few of the same too and naturally just batted them away. He was asked things like “why are Arsenal so good?” or “will this define your season?” and of course, he just gave out some flowers to our approach and strengths, then stated that it won’t define their season. And I think that’s right, in the same way that it won’t – and shouldn’t – define our season. We have ourselves a great opportunity to win a trophy, but it isn’t THE trophy. It’s a positive situation, but it can’t be something that impacts the players after Sunday. That’s where I don’t know if it is a good thing that there’s an international break or not. Perhaps, if we lose, it’ll act as a bit of a palate cleanser. We then have the FA Cup straight after that, then Sporting away, and given the most stressful games recently have been the Premier League ones, and that’s the main prize, perhaps it is good there is a bit of distance between this League Cup final and the Premier League. Maybe that even makes it a bit of a ‘win-win’; i.e. if we win it, we get the boost, but if we lose it, there is enough space between then and our next game in the league, that the players have time to respond positively.

Of course, I could, as always, be overthinking it WAAAAY too much, but that’s just me, right?

I think that’s probably about all there is worth talking about from the press conferences, so I’ll leave it there and catch you all tomorrow for the full match preview, including my probable/possible line-up, as well as how this game might play out. Catch you all then.

Speaking of predictions, shall we have a little look to see what the media are saying ahead of this game at Wembley, eh?

Joe Cole has said he thinks it’ll be an Arsenal win, but Wayne Bridge and Carlton Cole think it’ll be City. Merse has said he thinks we’ll do it with a 2-1 win. Timmy Sherwood thinks it’ll be City, whilst Lewis Jones on Sky Sports thinks it’ll be a draw with City winning on penalties. So there’s a fair bit of plumping for City going around and whilst yesterday I saw the chat rooms of City fans being less upbeat, I can see why. Where the FA Cup is a competition we often joke about being ‘ours’, this one has given plenty of pain over the years. My first cup final after I had my season ticket was the infamous one against Birmingham in 2011 and I can still vividly remember the Szsesny and Koscielny complete cock up at the back to see Obefemi Martins win it for them. I was there for the 3-0 defeat against City and seeing Mustafi just let the ball drop over his shoulder for Aguero to do us over in 2018 and so my feelings going into League Cup games at Wembley are very different to when we’re going there for FA Cup games.

It’s so weird the way this sort of stuff plays out over time, as if there is some kind of hex upon us in the League Cup. The players were different in 2007 when we lost to Chelsea as Drogba bullied us; they were different in 2011, they were different in 2018 and they will be different this weekend. But sometimes it feels as though the footballing gods just like to f*ck with you a bit with stuff. So I’m not overly convinced that we’ll beat City on Sunday, but I do know that hopefully we will give them a better game than that awful showing in 2018. I mean, for starters, I think we’ve got notable upgrades with Raya for Ospina, Saliba for Mustafi and Bellerin for Timber/White. And there’s no square peg in a round hole with Chambers at left back either!

This is a bit of a shorter one today, mainly on account of wanting to save some thoughts for the build up tomorrow and Sunday, but I’ll be back to have a bit of a review of the two press conferences tomorrow, so if you fancy joining me on here then I’d love to have you.

Let me know what you think re: Havertz v Gyokeres in the comments.

Catch you tomorrow.

And the thing that I keep going backwards and forwards on, in my mind, is “What sort of state will this Man City team be in?”

There are obviously two schools of thought on this one:

1. Confidence sapped, psychologically wounded, fearful of the season imploding
2. Compartmentalising and recognising that this is the perfect game for them to show up against the current Premier League leaders.

Obviously, we all hope that it’s option A, but I was curious to see where their fans’ heads are at right now. If you watch the YouTubers, you see a very arrogant fanbase that just talk about how City are inevitable, how they have the muscle memory, how it is always ‘in the bag’, but some might say that about the Arsenal fans. In reality, your average Arsenal fan is like me: Nervous, worried, doesn’t want to jinx anything. We’re not all YouTubers vying for clicks with extreme opinions.

But can the same be said for City fans?

Well, here are the first few comments on a thread that I read this morning for City fans:

Don’t care how, just get us a win and that trophy. Going to have to fight for this.

and:

A must win in an otherwise awful campaign of uninspired football.

and:

100% right mate it’s been fuckin atrocious

Now, I think it is fair to say that those fans are probably reacting in the wake of being knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid, but I guess if you’re looking at it from their perspective, they’ve just seen their side go away to a Real Madrid who they expected to beat up on, plus back-to-back draws in the Premier League. In their last six home games, they have won three and drawn three, and in their last six away games, it is two wins, three draws and one defeat. In the thread I mentioned above, there are also comments like “First time going to Wembley expecting us to lose” and “We won’t win on Sunday, Arsenal are too physical, and our players will run off hiding”. I have to say, it’s a real surprise to see this level of apprehension from a fanbase who have pretty much had it their own way for trophies in the last seven-odd years.

I welcome it at this moment in time, but I’m also wary of the fact that we haven’t exactly been sparkling, with our games being more attritional than anything else. In the game at The Emirates, City scored first, scored early, after we made a couple of mistakes to set Haaland in behind. I doubt we’ll be as open and attacking as we were that day when it was 0-0, but I do wonder what Arteta has in store. We’ll find out tomorrow on team news, but he has lots of options to switch it up from even the game on Tuesday, so it will be fascinating to see what he says about the press conference tomorrow.

I wonder also if he’ll be a lot more jovial about this one, too. After all, this is selection number four of four for the trophies we want to win. All of us want it, we want to lay down a marker, we also don’t want to hear the media narrative about how “now the wobble begins” after a loss to City at Wembley, that we have an extended period of listening to because of internationals and the FA Cup after that. But in reality, even if we lose on Sunday, if we right ourselves by the time Southampton, Sporting Lisbon and Bournemouth come around, then we could still be on for a glorious season if things keep ticking over as they have done already.

Their fans are talking about how Pep doesn’t seem to know his best team, which I think is interesting given that it has, for so many seasons, been the thing that has made them unpredictable. We’ve also heard a lot about him ‘saving’ players for the second half of the season; I’m pretty sure that happened with Foden and/or Grealish for a few seasons. But now they need a settled side that Pep knows and can rely on; that side does appear, by the sounds of a few of them, to be involving Cherki, who I will admit impresses me whenever I see him play.

I wonder if, in that ‘saving players’ regard, we’re seeing the fruits of such an approach with Eze? He has played well in the last three matches, I thought, with the goal on Tuesday night being a cherry on top of the performance, and there’s been lots of talk about how he really comes alive in the back end of the season. Whether or not Arteta has planned this by action or design, I’m not so sure, though. Were Odegaard not struggling for fitness, I’m not sure Eze would have been given the games he has of late to build up the head of steam he now has. Hey, sometimes you need a little bit of fortune dressed as misfortune to allow you to stumble upon something. We all saw how the introduction of Emile Smith Rowe in Arteta’s first season effectively salvaged something for the manager over that Christmas period and that win at home to Chelsea. That came about because he had no other options, and Emile was the ‘Hail Mary’ that paid off. Eze is not that; the whole “save him for the Spring” could be revisionism, but if it works, none of us will give a flying fudge, will we?

Right, I’ll leave it there for today, I think. Have yourselves a great Thursday and I’ll be back tomorrow as the countdown to the big weekend intensifies even more.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Football. In those moments, I love you.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Like I say – patchy.

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

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

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

Or does it? I’ve seen times at which we’ve had an extended period in between matches because we’ve been knocked out of the FA Cup earlish like they were to Villa, but then you lose a bit of the rhythm and cadence of regular football.

I think for us it’s probably better that we’re playing later in the week. I mean, the whole ‘City could be just three points off Arsenal by the time they kick off’ adds a little bit of a psychological edge to proceedings, but given the narrative and way in which Arteta has addressed the talk of the title race up until this point, I think those Arsenal players will also be set up with the right conditions to block out a lot of the noise. The media manifesting this as if it is neck-and-neck is one thing, but those players need to be looking at the cold, hard facts and see where they have come and where they are at.

As fans, we have the licence to fret – of which we do – but those players are professionals, and they need to just cut it all out. I have to admit that I thought they were being burdened by the weight of expectation and worry after that United game, but since then, the focus appears to have returned. Of course, that means nothing if you slip up at these stages, but I have hope that this Arsenal team will do what the manager says and go into these games with a view to ‘enjoying it’.

If that is the case, then I think a tough and physical game against Brentford should be something they relish, because we know that Brentford are going to give us a run for our money on Thursday. We talked a bit about them at the end of the Same Old Arsenal pod we recorded last night, and I reeled off a few stats to try to work out what’s ahead of us for Brentford. Interestingly, they are the most efficient in front of the goal of any team in the league when you compare the number of shots they have compared to the number of goals they’ve scored. They don’t take many chances, but when they do, they have been scoring them, and we know that they are a good set-piece side. They are a clever side; they know just as well as we that the percentages when you get the ball into certain positions with corners, free-kicks, and throw-ins (of which they have a guy who has a bullet throw, as we know), then your probability of unsettling defences increases massively.

They also make some of the fewest final-third passes in the league, in the bottom half, and only Wolves, Leeds and West Ham make fewer. So this side goes back to front quickly; they are very efficient when they do, and they are very good with set pieces. I don’t know about you, but a pattern in how this game is potentially unfolding is really starting to become clear to me. They also make some of the most average blocks per game – this is a side who will be compact defensively, then look to spring traps with pacey wide-forwards and an in-form striker in Igor Thiago.

So what Arsenal needs to do is control some of the controllables. Winning the first few big battles in our box will be key, but we need to acknowledge that when Brentford are in their defensive shape, we’ll have possession and territory and we’ll need to – at times – show levels of patience. And I need to remind myself as well that we’ve started scoring more goals, whilst also keeping shut-outs, so maybe the team will lean more into their own form, rather than looking at what City will be doing.

I’m saying all of this as if we’re playing tonight, maybe because of the staggered match week. The interest tonight would be more ‘funny’ than anything else, because it would be funny to see Chelsea, the Scum and Man United all lose. Then tomorrow, the hopes are pinned on Brighton doing something at Villa, but I hold nothing in terms of hopes for Fulham at City. I watched Sky Sports last night, and the stats are shocking. Fulham have lost all of their last 19 games to City in all competitions. That includes 16 in a row in the Premier League and Marcos Silva for all the clubs he’s been in charge of in England? Zero wins from the last 13. They aren’t even picking up a point tomorrow night, so let’s forget about that and focus on the fact that The Arsenal need to do what they need to do on Thursday.

I might take some time tomorrow to start looking at how the Brentford fans are feeling ahead of this one, as well as what some of the other pundits are saying about how this one will unfold. But until then, I shall bid you a fine Tuesday and catch you all tomorrow for some more ramblings. Speak then.

And it’s funny, you know, because if City had scored two in that first half and Liverpool had got one back in the second, I think the prevailing narrative and hyperbole that came from the likes of Neville et al as a result of the timing of the goal, is the reason why there was a bit of deflation from Arsenal fans. And Sky, well, they need a drama. The last thing they want is one team going away and wining it at a canter. So it is in their interest to big up the significance of this. And sure, if you’re in the City camp this morning, you’ve got to do that. It’salso the timing in the season of this game. If this match happens like this in September – a bit like our win away at Newcastle in September – then I don’t think there’s as much hype around the significance as there will be from the media this morning.

The only ones that want a big points-march procession to the end of the season are Arsenal fans.

So this morning I’m kind of like “yeah, disappointed, but we knew that this season was not going to be easy. No Premier League season is easy if you want to win a title. But you have to go out there and be relentless in the winning of football matches”. What’s happening now is that people are looking at the blocks of games and saying things like “City’s is a lot easier than Arsenal’s on paper” and “by the time Arsenal play Brentford they (Man City) will probably be three points of them”. What Arteta and his team need to do, which, to be fair to them, they’ve done all season, is just to get their heads down and do their jobs.

When we had that little January wobble, the narrative after United was “Arsenal fans are making it worse in the stadium, and the team is being affected – the blip could cost them”. The response? 4-0 against Leeds, 3-0 against Sunderland. What we need to do on Thursday night is approach a game that is just as tough as Man City’s game against Liverpool yesterday, against Brentford (and yes, it quite LITERALLY is as tough because we play away to Brentford, who have the same number of points and goal difference as Liverpool in the table as it stands now.

I said on Saturday in the pre-match blog that Arsenal needed to heed the advice from Clooney in From Dusk Til Dawn – that feels relevant today as well. “Everybody be cool. You be cool”. That feels like where we need to be at today. We have six points, it will almost certainly be three by the time we play, because City play a Fulham team who lost to Everton at the weekend, United away the week before, as well as Leeds away a couple of weeks before that. But that’s fine – this weekend we had the slightly easier game at home and played first, and we did the business, with City holding serve with their game. We just need to do the same in midweek.

Everybody, be cool.

Right, so, what other Arsenal news is kicking around then? Well, the Arsenal ladies bagged a 1-0 win over what I think will probably be the WSL Champions Man City at the Emirates, but for those ladies, the focus will be mainly on getting into those Champions League spots. Good finish from a ball in behind for her too – proper strikers one, that one (fast forward to 1:48 for the goal).

On the men’s side, it’s mainly focused on team news, but I don’t suppose we’ll find out much until the middle of the week, because of the fact we play on Thursday, and so the press conference will probably be left until Wednesday. Hopefully, that means the knock that forced Trossard off is resolved, as is the Odegaard injury, although I suspect there will still be no update on Saka. I was going to say “we should be ok without him for Brentford”, but that’s arguably, for the aforementioned reasons of their league form – one of the most difficult games we have coming up. The North London Derby is always tough because of the very nature of what it is, and the Scum will elevate their game for us more than for any other side. Wigan will be rotation, Wolves still sit bottom, then we have Chelsea at home, which we’ve seen will be tight, as well as Brighton away. That block of games feels like if we come out of that with close to maximum points, THEN I might start thinking we could do it. But I suspect there might be a couple of bumps coming up, so we, as fans, need to be ready for it and to ESPECIALLY cut out the rival fan and media hyperbole that will come with it. The second we even draw a game, we’re getting called bottle-jobs, because people don’t want to see us win the league. They prefer a City win because they are a nothing club, and it’s easier to be ‘meh’ around a nothing club that carries no historical weight (or ‘wait’, to be fair).

Right, I’m going to leave it there, as I need to remember what I do for a living and start my day of tapping at my desk on the keyboard. Having just spent the last 30 minutes or so doing the same to write this. Amanda and I will be back at 6.15pm for a post-Sunderland pod review on the Same Old Arsenal Pod here if you’re interested.

James and I spoke about that on the Same Old Arsenal podcast yesterday. We were both a little down, a little frustrated, both feeling that we were seeing worrying signs from an attacking perspective. And I think we’re right to have concerns, as many of us Arsenal fans have already voiced, across multiple different platforms – both online and offline. We’ve had three seasons of finishing second. We’ve been one of the best teams for a while now, but the reasoning has always been that we’re still a young team, we’re still a little too emotional, and the squad may not be as deep, which means we can’t handle an injury crisis. Yet this season, most of those…well, let’s call them for what they are…’excuses’ have been wiped away. This isn’t a ‘young’ team anymore. It’sa ‘prime’ one. Trossard, Norgaard, Kepa are all 31. Raya is 30. Merino is 29. Big Gabi and Gabby Jesus are 28. Bik Vik, Eze, Odegaard and Rice are all 27. Zubimendi and Havertz are 26. This is a group of players who are all in the place where they have played enough football, they are experienced enough, they need to be winning – just ask William Saliba after his post-match Chelsea comments.

The emotional aspects have been wiped away, and this season has been some of the most emotionally free from a game perspective. Just look at how we win games. We usually go ahead. We usually ‘shut down’ games by not allowing teams any goal attempts. We’re all emotional in the stands, for sure, but the actual games that Arsenal play have the extreme moments taken out in the large part. You can’t do that all the time, but the margins are very much managed by Arteta and his team, so as an ‘excuse’ on the pitch, the emotional side of it has been taken out. Compare that to somebody like Chelsea, who have a young team that picks up red cards like they are going out of fashion.

The injuries have been countered by making this squad deep. Very deep. We had no room for talented players like Nwaneri or Norgaard. These guys were left at home on Saturday.

So imagine my surprise to watch the second half of the Villa game and see Everton overcome a Villa side with their own few injuries, followed by a visibly perturbed Unai Emery absolutely lose his sh*t in the post-match interview by declaring Villa aren’t even top-five contenders. Maybe that got lost in translation a bit (although he’s been in this country long enough, I think, for that to be less the case these days), but that assertion from the Spaniard seems mad to me when they’re third and level on points with City. But what that result did do, madly, is mean that our disappointing draw away at Forest, was suddenly a point gained. Heck, even Liverpool in fourth only picked up a point, which means we’re still 14 points clear of them!

I think it’s situations like this that, as an Arsenal fanbase, are why we are all getting very antsy. Because if you’re looking at this Premier League title race and you’re not an Arsenal fan, you’re seeing things open up like we saw things open up for Liverpool last season. I remember blogging about it on multiple occasions; Liverpool were having all the luck with injuries, they were seeing rivals fall down with injuries, then poor form, just at the moments in which they would slip up. In December 2024 they had back-to-back draws against Newcastle and then Fulham. At the same time, Arsenal had back-to-back draws with Fulham and Everton. In January Liverpool drew to Man United and Forest for matchweeks 20 and 21. We beat the Scum in one of those matches, but the other? A 1-1 draw with Brighton. We made up ground, but only by two points, whilst losing at other points in which Liverpool won.

I remember reading the odd Liverpool fan forum at the time and seeing the odd fan show – they were the same last season. “Still a long way to go” was also followed by “we’ve seen us slip up before”. They were feeling the same as we were this season, but from afar, I think all of us Arsenal fans knew it was their season from January/February time. But when you’re in the position we’re in, you are not allowed to utter those words, for fear of some kind of Footballing Gods-style lightning bolt hitting us. We saw an Arsenal team in 2007/8 fall apart after the Eduardo leg break. We saw Arsena; beat Leicester at home on 14th January 2016 to go a couple of points clear to them, only to lose our next two and also draw to the Scum to open it up for Leicester to leapfrog us. We were all there in 2022/3 where we led up until we ran out of gas in March. We’re all feeling those pains right now and it is intensifying this fear in us all. What we all want is for Arsenal beat Liverpool at home and lay down a marker, then go to a struggling Forest side and do the same again, which we’re all now sat here on a Monday morning thinking about how we could have an 11-point lead and really start to feel like we can start to ice the champagne. But the quality of all of the teams in this league – evidenced by the fact that Wolves, West Ham, Forest, Burnley and Leeds all picked up points – shows that you just aren’t going to get that. Very rarely does a Premier League season become a procession for any team. I think maybe in the 33 years that the Premier League has existed, there’s probably been five or six times – max – that it has happened like that. And when that has happened, it has been from about February/March time, not in January.

All of this spiel probably sounds as though I’m giving you some sage counsel, to ‘chill out’ a bit, that I’m ‘calma’ and am thinking that ‘we got this’. But in truth, this is a letter to myself, to remind myself that we’re in a battle for a title. Nothing is won. Everything can be lost. But what you want at times like this is to be in our position.

We’re seven points clear. There’s more work to do. Let’s go do it.

Back tomorrow as we look at the game away at Inter in the Champions League. Catch you then.

• The Scum lost to a last-gasp winner (and the manager tries everything, including being given an Arsenal cup and told to drink from it because they’ve ’bottled’ some of Mikel Arteta’s tactical ju-ju in there
• Man United can’t hold off Burnley
• Chelsea lost a West London Derby
• Villa held by Palace
• City surprisingly held by Brighton

And that last one really was a surprise, because I never thought for a second Brighton would get anything. I didn’t watch the first half, but caught a big chunk of the second, I have to say, City looked so open and ragged. I’d heard people say that a couple of times this season, but this is the first time I saw it on full display. And it reminded me of us nin 2007/8 after the Eduardo leg break. After that, 2-2 against Birmingham is where we lost the title that year, as we drew to Villa, Middlesbrough, then Wigan, and those additional dropped points basically ended our chances.

I don’t think City’s draw does that, because our dropped points back then were in March, not January. So there’s still lots of football to be played.

Including tonight.

And tonight’s one feels like the significance has just been ratcheted up, too. Liverpool comes to town, and there are so many narratives at play, I don’t really know if I’ll be able to do them all justice in one blog today.

There’s the revenge narrative, which I’m sure Arteta will be drawing on tonight. If he isn’t using phrases like “we owe them one” after the cagey game earlier in the season, then I’d be really surprised – we all saw the All or Nothing documentary, and we all saw how he used Ivan Toney’s “Nice kid around with the boys” tweet. Arteta will be using all he can to pump these boys up for this evening. The home crowd will do their part too; there’s a fan display, it’s under the lights, there will no doubt be some beverages drunk, and a raucous home crowd, further buoyed by last night’s results.

And those results last night segue nicely into the Incentive narrative, because City and Villa’s draws mean that Arsenal have an opportunity this evening to move eight points clear at the top. That’s a decent chunk of a gap with 17 games to go. It’s not big enough to really claim we’re getting close to it being done, because there is so much more football to play, but it would go a big way to giving this team the confidence and even more belief that, if they keep up this form and they continue to push and remain focused, then good things could await at the end. 

Which leads me nicely to the Champions narrative. Dominik Szobozlai has done an interview this week, and I think it got a few people’s backs up because of the headlines, but ultimately, all he does is state facts: Arsenal are not champions. We haven’t won anything. Liverpool are champions; they won it last year, so there’s an opportunity for Arsenal to make a statement against the reigning champions that they are ready to (hopefully) take over that mantle by winning tonight and sending a message to the rest of the Premier League.

That won’t be easy, though, as I talked about yesterday, because this is still Liverpool. They are still a very good team, with very good players, who still have the firepower to hurt us and have scored against us with alarming regularity over the last five to ten years or so. I think they will again tonight, and despite Slot trying to play the Arteta card with Ekitike, there’s absolutely no chance he doesn’t play tonight, I don’t think, or at least make the bench for impact in the second half. They need to show the world that last season’s Liverpool is still there. They need to show that their recent unbeaten run is sustainable and they need to prove a point, so what better way to do it than the team who are clear at the top right now.

What I am praying for is that this Arsenal team takes its opportunity tonight. Last season was characterized by Arsenal not capitalising almost every time Liverpool dropped points. What we’ve seen over the Christmas period is that Arsenal – this season so far at least – have – taken advantage when our rivals have dropped points. We need to do the same tonight, and I think for all of us – fans especially – we’re all waiting for those mega ‘statements’ that make us all believe this could potentially be our year. Beating the current champions, at home, to go eight points clear, is a perfect way of doing that. A draw just ‘saves par’ this evening, but can you, as Arsenal players, go one better at such an important and busy time in the season?

I really hope so.

From a team news perspective, given that we have had five days since our last match, I think Arteta won’t make too many changes from the Bournemouth game last weekend. I think Saka and Trossard will come back in, but suspect the rest of the team picks itself. And that means a super strong bench to call upon, which I really do think will need to be used tonight. A Liverpool fan commented on the blog yesterday that they think this could be a battering, but I can’t see that for two reasons:

1. Liverpool will be defensively resolute to make sure that doesn’t happen – even if it means sacrificing some of their attacking impetus
2. Arsenal is not a high-scoring team

On that second point, you can of course point to seven goals in our last two Premier League games, but I think when you look at us over the course of the whole season, there’s a reason why the bookies give shorter odds for Arsenal games with under 2.5 goals – our matches are usually low-scoring affairs.

So I think this will be tight, it will be cagey, we will concede chances and probably a goal, but the big question is whether we can take advantages of any lapses by the Lverpool team. Which to me means our wide forwards, once again, need to be on it. Saka and Trossard are doing the business, and then perhaps a job-swap for fresh legs to keep the Liverpool fullbacks on their toes. And then it’s probably about dominating the midfield. Those Liverpool fans haven’t been impressed with their midfield this season, whereas ours looks like it is starting to purr. We need to show that tonight and, if we do, then I think we’ve got a great chance of taking all three points.

I’ll be there tonight, in the cold, wind, and rain, hoping that by the end we all have nice feelings to take us into the weekend.

Catch you all tomorrow for a debrief.

All this preamble is to say that, from an Arsenal perspective, thankfully, there isn’t a ton of stuff going on. We’ve got the game on Thursday, for which the build-up probably really only starts tomorrow in the media, but the club and players will have been preparing for that since yesterday I suspect. Light training, followed by video sessions and a look at how Liverpool have been playing, but also how they played against us earlier in the season. I remember watching a video of interviewers outside the ground in the aftermath of that match, and it was Liverpool fans explaining how easy it was, how it was typical negative Arsenal, that they got what they deserved, etc, etc, blah, blah.

The reality was that on that day, both teams really spent a fair bit of time shadow-boxing one another. Liverpool were mindful of our threat and strengths, but we were equally mindful of both our poor record at Anfield, as well as the quality of the opponent. It was so early in the season, too, that nobody could really look at the result and say in what direction the season would unfold. It was still match week three, but that didn’t stop Liverpool fans parroting things like “same old negative and defensive Arsenal”; when in fact their team had been just as defensive. Now, half of them seem to want Slot gone, whereas we’re in a good space – albeit a precarious one with City still on our tails ahead of another set of midweek fixtures.

I guess that’s the thing about this time of the season; larger points leads might feel lovely, but when you are at a stage of the season in which they can be quickly eroded because of the frequency of matches, it can be a bit of a misnomer. We could quite easily drop points to what is still a very good Liverpool side, whilst City will probably still win against a Brighton side who have won just one game (against Burnley) in their last seven. If we lose to Liverpool at home, they beat Brighton at home, suddenly the online and media discourse flips all over again, and City are ‘chasing Arsenal down’ having had two matchweeks in which we’ve gathered a bit of distance whilst they have dropped points. City also plays 24 hours earlier too, so whilst we’ve been able to strike the earlier psychological blow with our wins, the boot will be on the other foot by the time we kick off on Thursday, I suspect.

I’ll start doing the usual stuff ahead of the game on Thursday from tomorrow, but for no,w a quick scan on what else is happening in the Arsenal world doesn’t really bring up too much. I saw that HandOfArsenal has said we’re after some lad from Blackburn, but for me personally, that’s not piquing too much interest because of: 1) his age and ability to impact the first team right now (one for the future), and 2) the depth of the squad we already have. It’s so interesting because I think this is the first ever window – January or summer – in which I’ve genuinely not wanted us to sign a single player. It’s a weird – but good – feeling not to be saying “we’re just short in these one or two areas”, which has felt like something Arsenal fans have been saying since…well…the whole concept of transfer windows was introduced over 20 years ago. Man, that makes me feel old, because I remember when clubs could just sign players whenever they wanted to…

But it’s a nice feeling to know that this squad is stocked with such good talent and with the news of the return of Havertz meaning that I think we might only just have Mosquera and Dowman injured in the squad if Calafiori is back fit, then you look at our strength at the busiest time of the year and it feels one’s heart with glee.

Imagine being able to field a second string against Portsmouth that includes Kepa, White, Hincapie, Calafiori, Lewis-Skelly, Norgaard, Merino, Eze, Madueke, Jesus and Martinelli and STILL be scratching your head about how to fit in a returning Havertz and young prodigy Nwaneri into it. Yes. Please.

And this is all whilst City appear to be having mounting injuries to their team, with Gvardiol confirmed to have had a fractured tibia in his leg, as well as Ruben Dias out too. I’m sure when we were facing the injury crisis that saw us go to Villa without Gabriel or Saliba, the City fans had plenty of sympathy for us (not), so you’ll permit me to hold on to mine, given they will just probably go and spunk £0 – £40million on Guehi to alleviate their problems at the back. When that happens, as I saw somebody suggest, it will mean City will have spent more than £500million in a calendar year on players. I seem to recall plenty of online City fans crowing a year ago about how much Arsenal had spent with Mikel Arteta during his tenure, whereas they’d won their titles having hardly spent a bean in recent years. Arteta has spent £900million+, but he’s done it in six years – an average of £150million per year. Where are you online City fans now, eh? Because your chequebook manager has been flexing his financial muscles, so don’t come to me with your chirping about ‘net spend’ now if City go and drop a wedge of cash for Palace’s captain. I won’t hear any sob stories from 115 FC, that’s for sure.

Ok I think that’ll do it from me for today. I need to get cracking for another day of desk jockeying, so I’ll catch you all tomorrow as we start to look ahead to that big Liverpool game on the horizon. See you then.

I’ll be honest with you, at the beginning of the festive period when we had the late kick off against Everton, I never thought I’d be sitting here talking to you about how we’re now six points clear of our nearest rivals going into the busy January period. I thought we’d be looking at a tight two-point gap at best. But thanks to yesterday’s results, we’ve had a great ol’ time this weekend, kicking off with our hard-fought victory on Saturday, then being finished off by City’s surprise draw in stoppage time to managerless Chelsea.

I decided to switch on the game yesterday as I was cooking. I didn’t hold out too much hope for a Chelsea team that seems to be in a bit of limbo at the moment and has just sacked their manager. Man City, away from home, without your manager, with a record up there which is almost as bad as ours is. But stranger things have happened, so I figured I’d watch as much of it until City scored and then I’d switch it off. So when Reijnders hit the back of the net on 42 minutes, I decided that enough was enough, I was going to have my last Sunday roast for a while (diet starts today, unfortunately) and then watch some David Attenborough instead.

So as I made my way up to bed in the evening a few hours later, you can imagine my pleasant surprise to see that Chelsea had made something of a fightback in the second half, that they’d got that late equaliser, that we were now a bit more of a solid gap ahead of City and six whole points separated us, them and Villa respectively.

Happy days.

Paul Merson spoke in the aftermath of our win and said that he felt that the psychological pressure of having to win at home might have an impact on City, but I didn’t believe it. I had assumed that this would be a routine win and as always, had they held on for the 1-0 victory, the narrative would have been that they are grinding out our victories to keep pace with Arsenal. But the problem with results-based analysis is that it doesn’t do enough to tell you what is going on. Perhaps the reason why City didn’t do what I think most people would have expected them to do in that second half and go on to win by two or three goals is that they were feeling the psychological pressure a bit, and that led them to be a little bit more off the pace in that second half? Again, I can’t say for sure because a) I’m not in the dressing room, and b) I didn’t watch the second half. But given in December we had several games in which we retreated towards our own box whilst holding on to something (Villa = draw, Wolves = one-goal lead, Brighton = one goal lead having been two-nil up), that we as Arsenal fans and the media said that the team was already feeling the pressure of a title race, perhaps the same can be said for City and their players?

Some will point to the fact that City have ‘been there, done it before’ and of course Pep has, but his whole team haven’t. Having a look at his title-winning side of two seasons ago, the following players were pretty much ever-present (I’m calling that as somebody who has played more than 30 out of the 38 games) that season:

• Alvarez
• Foden
• Rodri
• Ederson
• Silva
• Walker
• Haaland
• Dias
• Kovacic
• Akanji

Those highlighted have left the team. But they also had Grealish and De Bruyne in there too. This season, new faces include Reijnders, O’Reilly, Gonzalez, Donnarumma and Chekri. Whilst some of those have admittedly won trophies before in other leagues, it is not the Premier League. Could it be that they are feeling the pinch of pressure just as much as we think our players have at times?

Maybe. Maybe I’m just putting two-and-two together and making 928. But one thing is for sure, based on 20 games played, this doesn’t feel like a City team that just bashed down the league. The City teams of two or three seasons ago ended up going on relentless 15-game winning streaks, and nobody would keep up. This City team don’t feel like that, and I think there will be more dropped points for everybody. Because I think we don’t feel like a relentless machine either. We have the strongest squad, for sure, but some of our attacking struggles prior to the Villa game cannot be ignored. We aren’t quite the clinical team that will blow this league away. Sure, we’re six clear at the moment, but I’m not naive enough to think that gap will just grow and grow to nine, 12 or 15 points as we make our way through the first half of 2026. I think we will have weekends where we’ll be pegged back; there will be times when the narratives spun will not make great reading for us as Arsenal fans, and we’re going to have to collectively take some deep breaths. I think we also need to appreciate and savour these moments in a season; the squeaky-bum weekends will come on the horizon, so take the time at periods like this to metaphorically sit back, smile and have yourselves a cigar.

The first one might be Liverpool on Thursday. It may be nice to see Liverpool sit in fourth, 14 points away from us, having drawn to a late equaliser away to Fulham yesterday. But they are still Liverpool, they will still carry lots of threat for us on Thursday and Arteta and his team still have to get the preparation right ahead of this important match-up. In much the same way that we would look at Liverpool v City as one in which it could be a banana skin for City, they will look at that in the same light this Thursday. So we have to find a way to overcome the Scousers.

Back tomorrow with some more thoughts as the extended build-up to that Liverpool game looms on the horizon.

But the draw was obtained, Sunderland remain unbeaten at home and for a newly promoted side at this stage, that is huge for your fight for survival. Good on ’em.

And we’re certainly saying that this morning as Arsenal fans, because we are all clearly pleased with a result that means our win at home to Villa has become a little more juicier because City couldn’t hold serve in matchweek 19. And I use that metaphor with intention here, because of late it has felt like a bit of a tennis match between Arsenal and City depending on who is going first. In the last couple of week’s before this latest round of matches, it has been City going first:

1. 20th December – City beat West Ham before we had to get our 1-0 away win at Everton
2. 27th December – City scaped by Forest and then we had to do our business at home to Brighton

So this round of fixtures was our turn to serve and City had to return it by matching the result. They could not and as a result, we see a four-point lead open up ahead of our game tomorrow against Bournemouth away. That will be another opportunity for us because City don’t play Chelsea until 5.30pm on Sunday and if we have managed to overcome a team who beat us home and away last season, then the lead coule be seven points.

At this stage of the season it means little as we know; we had a seven-point gap at the beginning of December and one month later it is four. We also know we have to go to City – a place we haven’t won there in about a billion years – plus we know what a tough January we have coming up with games at home to United and Liverpool, whilst tricky away games to Forest and then an in-form Leeds at the end of January represent another set of obstacles this Arsenal team will need to overcome. City and to a lesser extent Villa, have shown their capabilities on going on winning streaks and whilst we can celebrate a draw yesterday evening and dropped points from the blue half of Manchester, Let’s not forget that in the League I think they’re unbeaten since around September time.

So we need to be mindful of that and we need to not take any matchweek for granted, including tomorrow’s opponent Bournemouth, who just picked up a respectable point away to Chelsea, just before that bizarre club in West London decided to bin off their manager for some random reason. We’ll need them to show up away at City, but this decision they’ve made hardly gives me too much hope for them this weekend and hopefully it also impacts them for the League Cup semi-final too.

Back to Bournemouth, and despite being on a bit of a difficult non-winning run at the moment (stretching back to a home win against Forest on 26th October), Mikel Arteta – who will no doubt have his press conference today ahead of that game – will be more than aware of what fellow Basque manager Iraola can do to us given the aforementioned double Bournemouth did on us last season. That game last season was centred mainly around the Saliba sending off, which was farcically almost completely mirrored the following day when a Chelsea player brought down the late Diogo Jota in a similar situation. Of course we had the post-game gaslighting from the likes of Dermot Gallagher on Sky Sports following the weekend’s results, but ultimately we couldn’t hold out against Bournemouth side in top form and eventually succumbed with Kiwior making a bit of a mess of one situation I recall that led to one of the Bournemouth goals.

Tomorrow you’d hope it’s a different kettle of fish and firstly, that we’re reff’d properly, but secondly that we are up for it and looking like a team at the top of the league and purring. We’re on a decent run at the moment and the win against Villa will have sent condidence soaring. There’s the slightly alarming news of that video of Declan Rice supposedly telling Morgan Rogers that his knee is “f*cked” which doesn’t sound great, but we found a way to win against an in-form Villa side without him, so you’d hope we have enough of the tools even without him to be able to overcome the Cherries tomorrow.

Their fanbase is a bit mixed on that. My little nose over on a couple of their forums suggest that half think they’ll lose, about a third think they’ll draw and a small minority thinking that they’ll get the win at home to us. Given their form right now you can understand that, but as I’m sure you’ve read just like I have, Bournemouth are a streaky team, so we need to be mindful that their streak doesn’t start tomorrow.

I’ll do a bit more of a preview on how I think the game will go when we hear a little more from Arteta and Iraloa on who is available (e.g. Semenyo, anyone? Although City will no doubt want him playing for Bournemouth against Arsenal for sure, I suspect, so I would have thought he’d be there tomorrow to potentially play his last game for them) for this one tomorrow. For now, I’ll pause, bid you a fond farewell for today and hope that the second day of 2026 works out lovely for you and yours.

Laters peeps.

Who’s our ‘red hot’ form player right now?

I’m not sure we have one. You could argue that Declan Rice has been amazing and yes, he certainly has delivered some imperious performances in the heart of our midfield, but I’m not sure I would describe it as being in ‘red hot’ form – would you?

Perhaps there’s a positive angle to spin on this, because it’s just that Rice has been so brilliant, so consistently, all season, that you don’t think of his form being that amazing – he’s just always amazing and on Saturday evening I think there’s a big argument to be made that he was our best player and the best one on the pitch. He just oozes class and the way I watch him glide through games is phenomenal. I love seeing him pick the ball up, turn one way, then the other, then just stride out away from players as we move up the pitch. Seeing him gallop away is just brilliant and I think Gary Neville is probably right to say “if they lose Rice they might have some problems”.

However, why isn’t anyone saying that about Haaland or Rogers? Is it because Haaland basically never seems to get injured? He plays pretty much all of the time and is pretty much always available. But then so is (and I can assure you I am touching wood as I type this) Declan Rice, most of the time. He has missed some pweriods but up until this point he hasn’t been out of the Arsenal team for any prolonged period. I just had a look at Morgan Rogers’ injury record and guess what? He’s also hardly ever injured, having missed 27 days and three matches for Villa two season’s back in 2023/24. It appears these current ‘streak’ players also have that ability to stay fit in their locker too.

I think what it also points to, which is probably symptomatic of our season, is that our ‘red hot streak’ player isn’t one who is bagging goals at the top end of the pitch. Rice has two goals and six assists so far, which is a decent return, but I think we probably need to see one of our forwards hit some kind of ‘streak’ form in the coming weeks. I think if you were to ask any Arsenal fan who that is most likely to be, we’d all point to Bukayo Saka, who so far this season has seven goals and four assists in all competitions. He has missed 26 days and six games for us which, given his consistent form throughout his Arsenal career so far, feels like he would have a better G+A tally if he were fit for those games, but as we reach the halfway point in the season, I’d be lying if I were to say to you that I thought he would be on those numbers and not many more. He’s our Starboy, he’s the one we often look to for end product and he is the one who last season still got 12 goals and 14 assists whilst also missing 25 games in all competitions for Arsenal and England. If you do the ratios on it and extrapolate up what those extra 25 games would have given us in a season if he were to have stayed fit, the numbers suggest he’d have been on course for 20 goals and 24 assists last season. This season he’s trending at just under 20 goals and 11 assists if he gets around the 60-game mark. We’re at the halfway stage and he’s played 22 so far, so that suggests he probably won’t get there, but if we go deep in multiple competitions, he might get close to 50.

What do all of these numbers tell me? I think it suggests that even Saka, for all of his end product and what he’s done so far, is probably a little bit behind what we’d hope for from this season. And that probably rings true when you think about how we haven’t been swatting teams aside much. We’ve become a low-scoring side in a low-scoring sport and Saturday night was another example of that. We had the chances to double our lead, but we didn’t quite take them.

Is it a cause for concern? Maybe. I don’t think our attack has looked amazing this season and some of that could be down to the shiny new forward who doesn’t play like any previous forward we’ve had. But I also think we do need more from our wide forwards too. We haven’t quite seen enough that unlocks teams and the only one that has been continuing his good form throughout this season is Trossard. But we need others now. It’s that time of the season where I need to see more from Martinelli, more from Madueke, more from Eze and more from Saka too as I’ve mentioned.

There’s no need for a panic up, because we’re top of the league, but it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t all be voicing any issues if we feel them. We have time, we have the quality of players, we have the manager who has shown the ability to solve these puzzles. And that work needs to start as soon as possible.

I think I’ll leave it there for today. Arteta will have his press conference today ahead of Palace tomorrow night, so I’ll have a run through and preview that this time tomorrow. Catch you then.

Thierry Henry – you are a true legend.

Back in today’s world of Arsenal now and last night we got some news filtering through that despite Kai Havertz being rumoured to have been targeting a return to first team football before the year is out in the next few games, he has apparently had another setback which will see him out until mid-January. At this point you just have to laugh at this. It is crazy the level of injuries we’ve had to deal with and then when you see details like this emerging from Sky Sports about the volume of injuries since the beginning of last season, you have to wonder if our ‘injury curse’ has basically just carried on from last year. Last season I called it The Cursed Season but you look at that chart and realised that you might even call this one that same situation too. In that same time Man City have had 18 fewer injuries, whilst Liverpool have had 33 fewer injuries and so it is actually a remarkable feat that we’re still in there fighting for the title, let alone leading the table going in to match week 15.

Havertz’s setback means that he’ll essentially have missed half the season through injury; it’s a bitter blow for a player who hardly ever got injured before last season and who Arteta described as a ‘machine’ just before he picked up his knock. And given his injury last season, as well as his injury this season, I am starting to wonder if we will ever get back the same Havertz. He might come back fully fit, for sure, but we have all heard stories about the psychology of players being out for so longer and never really fully recovering mentally for it. Robert Pires famously always seemed to run a little differently after his injury, I’m pretty sure Rosicky has talked about the impact of these injuries that kept him out for a long time, so what sort of player will Havertz be when he gets back?

Hopefully he can find his old form from when he was fit, because at the start of the season I seem to recall saying on one of the Same Old Arsenal pods that he was on course for a 20-goal season in the early stages of the season. He played 36 games in 2,800+ minutes last season and had racked up 15 goals in all competitions. I’m pretty sure he’d have got to 20 with another 15 games that season to do it. So it was a real shame when and how we loist him and it’s been a massive shame how we haven’t seen him since the opening day against United.

What his extended absence does do is give Gabriel Jesus a chance though. I think for sure he’ll get some more sub minutes against Everton tomorrow, but then I also think that he’ll get a start against Palace. If he can come through 60 or 70 minutes against the Eagles, then I’m 100% convinced that he’ll be making a start in one of the Christmas fixtures, which is not something I think any of us thought at the beginning of the season. His return to the team means we have cover and options to rotate in the absence of Havertz providing the Brazilian doesn’t have an impact, which feels massive, given the context of these next few weeks, as well as the calibre of opponents.

And that run of tough games starts tomorrow away to Everton, which as I mentioned yesterday, isn’t a place that we’ve had such a great time of inj recent years (one win in our last seven). We then play two games over Christmas that we drew at home last season in Brighton and Villa. Let’s also not forget that this time of the year hasn’t always been a happy one for us; two season’s ago we lost at home to West Ham and then away at Fulham. Admittedly we then went on a mega-run of winning game-after-game, but the Christmas period has always felt like a slog for The Arsenal and I’d be lying if I said to you that I don’t have any apprehension. Man City have an easy time of it; a pretty shoddy West Ham team tomorrow who they will batter, followed by a Forest Team who are currently in 16th and have lost eight games, not exactly looking anywhere near the same side as last season, followed by a Sunderland team who despite being in eighth right now, aren’t exactly flying when it comes to underlying metrics. It feels to me like they’re running out of momentum a bit (even though they won the derby last weekend) and by the time they play City on New Year’s Day, I suspect the momentum and vibes they’ve been channelling will probably be running low.

So what all of this means is that at a period in which our rivals will most likely get an easy ride, we’ll have to conquer some demons. And do it with one of our star strikers missing when we thought we’d be getting him back. The hope is that we have ourselves some better news over the festive period at the back, with Big Gabby rumoured to be looking at one of the games over Christmas as a possible return date. If he’s back for Villa, that will be massive because it will mean we hopefully get that main central defensive pairing back up and running for the new year and with Bournemouth away and Liverpool at home on the horizon in January, having him return to the heart of our defence gives not only confidence amongst the fanbase, but also amongst the players as well I suspect. We’ve been able to cover so far, I think Hincapie has come in and done great and hopefully will continue to do so, but there is no substitute for Big Gabby and his return will be very eagerly anticipated for all associated with Arsenal.

I’ll do a bit on team news, Everton, what we might see tomorrow and more in tomorrow’s preview, but for now I’ll bid you farewell for another day and hope your Friday goes great.

Catch you all tomorrow.

I have to admit, I was kind of sad that I didn’t watch the batshit-mental football match last night that was Man United 4 – 4 Bournemouth. Looks like a Christmas hum-dinger of a game and one in which I saw Jamie Carragher describe it as “the best of the season”.

Of course it was. It had lots of goals, one team winning, then the other team, then the other team again before settling on a draw. For the neutral (no such thing) it was a barnstormer and for Sky it’s exactly what they want from a football match to advertise “The Barclays”.

But for both Bournemouth and United fans I bet it was a bit of a nightmare. Both teams will leave that game feeling like they should have won and both of those teams will probably come away with an unsatisfied feeling in their mouths and minds.

And I thought about our 4-4 against The Scum and I tried to put myself back in that position when it happened to us and how I felt. And it was even maddening now thinking about it. There are other matches, like the 4-4 at Newcastle, but that had the whiff of dodgy refereeing in it. There was the 4-4 at Anfield in which Arshavin but I feel like by then both teams weren’t really in the running for anything so it didn’t have the jeopardy about it. So it’s that 4-4 against Them that sprang to mind.

Now I fast forward to today and to how Arsenal really haven’t been a team who the likes of Sky Sports and TNT Sport want to hang their ‘great advert for the Premier League’ Schtick on, because other than the last few weeks, we aren’t exactly a team who are playing basketball matches are we? Last weekend had late drama, but that was because Arsenal were complacent for one moment. Villa Park had great drama and was described a ‘great match’, but that’s because it was a bit of an anomaly; Arsenal don’t usually play the way the opponent wants and Villa always want that type of game, where it’s a little end-to-end. It’s why they’re on this great run; nobody is actually low-blocking Villa from what I’m seeing. Wolves didn’t when they played them. We didn’t. West Ham didn’t. So you get those games. I think as well to an extent, it is the same with City, because Palace had a go at them last weekend, Fulham did in the 5-4, plus Leeds nearly snatched a draw too.

That’s what happened to us in our first season we competed for the title in 2023/24. Teams came at us because they saw a side who had two years prior been still a work in progress. Now they see a side who doesn’t let up too much, but also one that if you low block, there is an outside chance that you might be able to frustrate a draw, or score with your one chance you get. So the evolution of this Arsenal team is to take that ‘next step’ and to really push down the metaphorical boot on the neck of opponents.

I think that has to be in finding a way to score more first half goals. We’ve got 30 in the Premier League this season, with 13 of those coming in the first half. Not bad, nearly half, but City have scored eight more than us and six of those eight have come in the first half. When you score first, especially against so-called weaker opponents, it stands to reason that you are more than likely to go on to win the game (this blog is a few years old but goes into a little more detail and I still think is relevant). But Arsenal are such a good defensive unit (albeit we’ve seen some cracks appearing recently, I think we can all admit) that when we score first, the game more often than not feels like it’s almost there in terms of being won. If the psychological blow is dealt early, then it totally changes the complexion of the match. This season we have scored first in nearly half of our matches (seven). Conversely, Man City have scored in 12 of their 16 matches so far. That means the game opens up, they have an opponent who has to come out, so they get more chances to rack up more goals. This is what Arteta needs to unlock.

I’m a simple football fan. I’m not one of your in-depth deep analytical fans who can pour over hours and hours of data and come up with some hyper-intelligent answer. If you want that, check out the amazing Billy Carpenter on Substack – he’s great. I like to dabble and have a bit of a look on FBref to see if some numbers give me a bit of a story, but it’s only top line. But to my simple eyes and with my simple feelings, I do feel like the only way Arsenal unlock this league and win it the way I’d like us to win it – like Liverpool did last season – is if we find a way to unlock games. The simple eye test that I have and some of those around me in Block Five that I go to the games with, tells me/us that we start games too slow, too methodical in our build up. There’s too often that we shadow-box out opponents. It’s almost as if Arteta sometimes says “just suss the other guys out there for 15 minutes so I can see how they are set up tactically, then we’ll tweak it accordingly to see if we can win the game”. I know that’s clearly not what Arteta is telling them, but again, it’s just the way it feels as a fan when you’re in the stands watching it play out with the raw emotion and nerves of needing to win the game. It feels to me that there is an inherent caution in this Arsenal team in first halves of matches and if there’s something I’d like to see a little more, it’s that we perhaps push the boundaries of that caution a little bit more.

It won’t happen, I don’t think, because I think we would see a few more instances like that moment in the first half on Saturday when Hwang was suddenly through on goal because we had every player bar-Raya on the edge of their box. I will bet anyone hard cash (not that we’d ever truly find out) that Arteta has re-watched that moment about 50 times and will be replaying it to his team this week in training for sure. There will be a “if you feckers EVER do anything like that again, Imma whip yo’ asses so hard…” talking to at London Colney this way for sure.

The positive I did take from reading this Telegraph article yesterday was that it appears the players are self-serving now when it comes to critical analysis. Arteta will be mad, but he’ll also be internally pleased that the players know when the standards haven’t been met and reading this gave me comfort that they will all be doubling down their efforts this week to ensure there isn’t a repeat of the Wolves situation.

But that doesn’t quite put what I believe is the final puzzle piece in place to take Arsenal to the level where even City are shrugging their shoulders in disbelief that they can catch us. We had it about six weeks ago without the volume of injuries and the clean sheets were being racked up. But that was never sustainable. So I do think we need to find a way to unlock more first half goals. And that’s something I hope Arteta, the coaching staff and the analysts, are all working on trying to fix.

Right, that’ll be it for today I think, so have a good one and I’ll catch you all tomorrow.

City, conversely, are being touted as ‘on the march’ now and you can sort of understand why Sky Sports want to hype it up. They don’t want any team having a procession to the title, but Guardiola certainly has shown he can be a force to be reckoned with previously.

The humbling City handled to Liverpool has a lot of people proclaiming City are ‘back’ and I must confess I gave a few little nervous feelings in my tummy, but if you look at what is happening to Liverpool, you do wonder whether them being close to ‘done’ in the title race is no big problem either. Certainly some of their crowing online fans being a little salty this morning is amusing. Their manager and his ‘no excuses’ or ‘excuses on injuries are for teams who don’t win’ is now looking rather amusing I have to say. But we do have to use Liverpool as a cautionary tale as to how things can swing so differently in this competition. We are four clear at the top which is great, but after the international break there are some really tough games and it isn’t inconceivable to see that gap eroded away if we don’t get back on the winning wagon almost immediately after the players come back from international duty.

And it’s not as if they are absolute gimmie games either. I know that no game in the Premier League is, in reality, a ‘gimmie’, but The Scum are going to be tough to break down, tough to beat (they are much better away from home playing the under dog than at home under the watchful gaze of their own home fans) and as it’s an NLD all bets kind of go off. It only takes that game going the way of a draw, then Bayern getting a result against us, then the same at Chelsea and the season suddenly looks like it’s in trouble. When you’re at the top you’re only a couple of wrong results away from a crisis and Liverpool are finding that now.

It’s why I really hope there is some magic happening in the treatment room at London Colney over the next 10 days or so. We really do need those re-enforcements in attacking positions. those who have been on the pitch  have coped admirably, they’ve done what is required to get us in this excellent position, but we need to see the return of at least two of the current injured players for that derby game because the bench did look decidedly light on Saturday evening.

I do think we will see at least couple make it. I saw a couple of people speculate that Arteta could be deliberately not playing players because he doesn’t want them to go away on international duty. I’m not sure that’s 100% true because he’s a guy who wants to win every game and I don’t think he’d be thinking long-term when he still had that difficult Sunderland match to overcome. But can I say that it is completely unlikely? No I can not.

The guy I stand next to at The football – Nick – occasionally gets tickets to be in one of the boxes at The Arsenal and at the last game he was in them – Atletico – he said Madueke was in the box next to him. Said he was a lovely fella, really humble, seemed to be genuinely chuffed to be there and when he made a joke to Noni about making himself a hero at the NLD, Madueke just smiled and said “that’s the plan”. I think he might be one of the guys they are expecting back. I also hope/suspect that Viktor’s muscular injury is just a short-term one, so I’d hope that’s another option. Whether Odegaard, Havertz or Martinelli are back in remains to be seen, but I do feel like we probably need one  of Big Vik or Havertz to be fit and ready to play. The challenge with Havertz is that he’s had no time to build up his match fitness. If Gyokeres is ready, then he’s been playing all season, he’s missed just a couple of games, he’s been able to rest the muscle injury and hopefully it’s healed without too much loss of match fitness. So hving him start and perhaps Havertz coming on (if he’s back) will be massive for us. It means we have so many options and with Bayern also on the horizon that week, it means players can be down for some job sharing, which hopefully keeps them fresher for longer.

So all eyes will already, inevitably, be on any news breaking over the next few days on players getting out on the training pitch at London Colney. We need an Ornbomb to drop this week to get us excited for the squad getting back to full health. Something like that this week will be a lovely little antidote to the poison that is yet another international break.

Right, I think I’ll leave it there for today, such is the inevitable lack of Arsenal news given the media attention on this impending interdull. Have yourselves a great Monday and I’ll see you all tomorrow.

On the Same Old Arsenal pod on Sunday morning after Amanda had gone, James and I had a quick chat about the next ‘block’ of games, as well as looking at Liverpool’s fixtures. As a slight aside, it amuses me that City are being pegged as ‘dark horses’ for the title, because when you spend £400million+ in a January and summer window in a calendar year, being painted as ‘underdogs’ really isn’t a colour that you should be matched to. This is a team with the best striker in the world, the best manager, have spent a fortune and have won five leagues in a row as recently as two seasons back, so I think City have to be in the conversation and I think if they aren’t successful then the same ‘no excuses’ moniker that Arsenal are labelled with, should also be aimed in a Manchester direction.

But anyway, those fixtures, to which a few have looked at them in the media and seen an opportunity for Arsenal to build some potential daylight. Obviously all the usual caveats must apply; this is the hardest league in the football world, it is the most physical, which means the squads have to be deepest and injuries are an inevitable consequence of the game. But it’s hard not to look at this admittedly tricky set of games and not set yourself some hope and expectations as an Arsenal fan.

As I mentioned to James on the pod, I like to – as I’m sure you do too – break down the season into little ‘chunks’. The first ‘chunk’ was up until the October international break and that was the ‘Death Run’ that we had which included United, Liverpool, City and Newcastle, with a dose of ‘potential bloody nose’ against a West Ham side who had sucker-punched us two seasons in a row. We’ve come out the back of that and rather than talking about “well, we’re still in touching distance at the top”, we are at the top and that’s fantastic. It gives us a solid (almost) two weeks to bask. Lovely stuff.

But post the international break, we have ourselves our next ‘chunk’, which if I had to label it, would be the ‘Build’ part of the season. By that I mean we have to start building ourselves a points accumulation that makes us look like we’re champions in waiting. That runs until the game against The Scum and that’s four Premier League matches that takes us to 11 games played by mid November. The old adage is that the table starts to take shape after ten matches. We would go into that NLD on 11 matches played and when I look at Liverpool last season during match week 11, they had 28 points, nine wins, one draw and one defeat. We currently sit on five wins, one draw and one defeat and our next four games are:

• Fulham (away)
• Crystal Palace (home)
• Burnley (away)
• Sunderland (away)

I’m obviously ignoring the midweek Champions League and league cup for the basis of today, as I wanted to focus on the Premier League for today’s musings.

Now, Fulham away has caused us some issues. We conceded early last season, battered them, scored an equaliser and had one weird and marginal call against us in injury time. The season before that we played shockingly poor and were beaten on New Year’s Eve (I remember being in a fancy hotel in the New Forest and shouting could be heard down the hallway The Management said). So we know that it isn’t a given for us. Crystal Palace are just off the back of a 19 game unbeaten run and their confidence isn’t going to be dented by a game against Everton that they really should have won. Burnley away you’d hope we can do the business and despite the reunion with Granit up on Wearside, we need to be looking at that as a game that we should be aiming for full points on.

If that dream scenario happened and we won all four of those games, we’d be level with what Liverpool were doing at the same time last season. That’s a very good sign in my book. Conversely, Liverpool have a tricky run and given their form hasn’t been great of late, the hope has to be that they can drop some points in games against Man United (har-har), Brentford (although seeing them on Sunday against City, that remains to be seen), as well as Villa (hmmm) and then City away. Of those games you have to look at the City one as one in which somebody is going to drop points, but if we’re going into that weekend and Liverpool have dropped points to any of the above mentioned teams, then you’d be thinking we’re in a good spot going int o the NLD.

City’s run is a little kinder. They’ll beat Everton at home in their next game you’d expect, then Villa away is normally tricky, but doesn’t feel so just this minute (you wait until they have a massive uptick of form when we have to go there, eh?), as well as a tricky but probably winnable game against Bournemouth at home, before they play Liverpool. They too have Champions League and an away game to Swansea in which they’ll inevitably rotate, but it does feel a little similar to our tun other than Liverpool at home if you ask me.

So whilst the prevailing media narrative is that we have a bunch of winnable games, I do think that both of the other supposed ‘rivals’ also have games in which they’re going to win the majority of. That’s why we need to keep on getting those lovely and boring results like the weekend. Let’s suffocate the life out of fixtures. I’ll take more 2-0 uneventful games between now and the NLD please. Hopefully by then the squad will have filled out too with some players returning from injury.

Back tomorrow with whatever other random Arsenal thoughts pop in to my head. See you then.

Arteta got labelled with too much caution at Anfield, but the reality was that both team played with caution; the free kick Liverpool scored just allowed them to own the narrative and the media naturally lapped it up. But my feelings on the set up and how I would happily defend Arteta’s approach up there to try to go for a smash-and-grab win at the home of the champions, is very different from the feeling I have about yesterday’s draw. I said it in my blog yesterday, but when it comes to these home games, you really are just trying to ‘hold serve’ and if I drag out the tennis analogy a little bit more, that means you are more aggressive on your first serve as you look to try to force the error from your opponent and positioning them in a way in which you can more easily get the point. Yesterday it felt like Arsenal’s home advantage meant we needed to set the tone from the off.

This is where Arteta got it wrong. The introduction of Merino and Trossard didn’t work and as much as you have to praise the fact he acted swiftly by making changes at halftime (I hope Madueke isn’t now injured for a while, because he came off with a knock and that would be just our luck if we now lost another player to injury), the decision to start them wasn’t the right one and I think he has to own that today when they do the debrief. It’s not that they aren’t good players; Trossard is a good finisher, he played well against Bilbao and Merino is a duel winner, he’s good at retaining possession and has a goal or two in him. But together they did not have enough creativity in our team and I think it showed. But those two aside, the set up was wrong; we were so passive in possession. We started controlling possession, we didn’t let City have much of a sniff, but perhaps Pep realised this was going to happen and as a result he decided quite early on to turn this in to a transitional game in which he used his pacey forwards to hit us on the counter. In Doku they have a guy who is rapid, can beat a man and is in form (he had a very good game yesterday) and in Haaland they have the inevitable goal machine, so to be as naive as we were defensively and push so criminally high up for the City goal, had me confused. The run Haaland made as well just made Saliba and Gabriel look like they were running through treacle; these two guys are not slow and we’ve seen they can match Haaland for pace, yet both seemed a yard off and as a result he got in and did what he does.

The symmetry in what happened at the Emptihad last season compared to this season is so weird. We played them almost a year to the day and on that day Haaland scored on the nineth minute too. There was also a last minute equaliser for the home team. There was also one team who decided that being compact and deep in their shape to see if you could grind out the win would be their Modus Operandi but, unlike last year when we were a man down and forced in to that change, City played with a full compliment; I won’t hold my breath for hope that the media give Pep and his Man City team the same chastising that we got on that day, eh?

But we were behind and at home and the onus should have been on us to got at City. Except in that first half it just felt too passive and ponderous and as a result when it came to halftime I just felt like we’d lost ourselves a half of football because of our approach. When we have beaten City and Liverpool in the recent past at home it’s because we’ve gone at them hard, fast and dominant in our attacking runs and movement. We just didn’t see that yesterday and that is leaving me with a slightly bitter taste in my mouth.

The second half was better, there was more impetus, we created a few more chances than the first, but it was a familiar story of coming up against a low block and at times City had a wall of about six or seven defenders in a line. Heck, City finished the game with six centre halves on the pitch, so that tells you what their approach was and we once again found it difficult to break through the line. Until that bit of magic from Eze came and he found the run of Martinelli who did what he does best – out to in run through the middle behind a weirdly high line that he was able to exploit and brilliantly flick the ball over the onrushing Donnarumma to salvage a point for us. That’s two in two for the Brazilian and, as I said on socials last night, he’s a streaky player and when that happens you have to think about giving him a starting birth. I certainly think he should be ahead of Trossard now, but the question will be what you do with Eze if Odegaard comes back in.

So we get the jubilation and relief of not dropping points, we managed to find a way through a low block, but I keep coming back to the selection decision and more than that, the tactically passive set up for that first half that leaves me feeling less than sated. Some have speculated that it was this difficult start to the season we’ve had that has led Arteta to setting up like this, as well as our injuries, but we saw this last season for large chunks of it, so I’m not sure that’s quite true. I do acknowledge that after the Newcastle game (which is starting to feel like a bit of a ‘must win’ now) we will have come through some of the most difficult away fixtures and a game against one of the title rivals in Man City, but it felt like an opportunity to lay down a marker yesterday.

I don’t think we took it.

The guys will be doing the Same Old Arsenal pod tonight at 8pm if you want to join them here. Otherwise, I’m back tomorrow as we prep for the visit to Port Vale.

Positive P.S. it was good to see Bukayo Saka get 45 minutes yesterday. I don’t think we want to risk him against Port Vale, but if he and Odegaard can be back for the trip to Newcastle, that makes us a heck of a lot more creative hopefully for what is going to be a really tough game. 

Man City are a good side. They are a strong side. They WILL cause us problems today. But we will do the same to them and what we Arsenal fans need to see is a continuation of the good defensive form that has seen us concede just one goal in all competitions so far. City will have Haaland at his inevitable best, they have a Doku who looks like he’s starting to find the scintillating form that he promised when he first started playing for them. They have Foden who scored last week and will have built up a bit more confidence as a result. In the middle of the park we all know Rodri’s capabilities at dictating tempo and the build up and break down of opponents attacks, whilst in between the sticks they have a ‘keeper who basically salvaged PSG in the semi final last time he was at The Emirates.

This is going to be a nervy watch.

The expectation from most seems to be Arsenal have a few more of the tools to get the edge on this game and we’re I a neutral watching it, I’d probably agree; I am of course very much not a neutral and I am therefore hoping that what everyone else is seeing and predicting goes true for us today. I think we will inevitably concede, but we have to have enough going forward to trouble a City side who are creating lots of xG, but are also conceding goals. They shipped two against the Scum, they did the same against Brighton and they are still finding their form in defensive shape I think. In their fullback positions I think they are gettable, which means we need to do our damage in Madueke’s side of the pitch, but also Arteta has to have a think about who works best on the left. Eze was hardly sparkling against Atletico, but this will be a different game. I think he’ll get more space than against the Spaniard’s, but I also think Arteta should probably give Eze the nod because he can drift in to those central positions. We probably won’t have Ødegaard there today due to injury and I suspect given it’s a big game and we want to win the duels and physical battles, it will be Merino who is preferred, hence why I think more of a play,along wide forward in Eze is a better choice than a touchline hugging, sprinty winger like Martinelli.

Of course given his goal and assist in midweek will have provided a shot of confidence for the Brazilian, Arteta might want to see if he can get more of the same from the start, so I don’t;t think it’s beyond the realms of possibility that Martinelli is preferred. He’s also up against a centre back/full back in Khusanov who I think Martinelli might enjoy a run at. City won’t sit in a compact unit and try to low block us; we’ll have them coming at us and that may mean that this game works as a ‘Martinelli match’ – green grass to run in behind on to. So whilst I still think Eze is the best choice, I won’t be too surprised or annoyed if it’s Martinelli to start.

A lot of the rest of the team does, I think, pick itself. Raya in goal, Timber at right back as White isn’t fully fit yet, Gabriel and Calafiori will get the nod, so the question will only remain with Saliba. I think he’ll be fit and I think he’ll start, despite the form and good performances of Mosquera.

In midfield it will be Zubi and Rice and as I’ve mentioned I don’t think Ødegaard will be fit so I suspect he’ll go with Merino. Gyokeres will start up top. I am hoping that Big Vik gets on the scoresheet. He’s going to have another physical battle as I think John Stones is fit and will start alongside Dias, with Gvardiol shifting to left back, but he’s been accused of being a flat-track bully by only scoring against smaller teams. This dates back to what people have been saying about him when it comes to his time in Portugal, so if he can get on the scoresheet today, I think that just gives another middle finger to the doubters in the media.

And that’s the side that has to collect three points today. This is by no means a forgone conclusion but we need to see an Arsenal side who is quick off the block at home. Home games always feel like in tennis when you have to ‘hold serve’ on your own serving game. That’s kind of what it feels like to me today. We have to hold serve by beating one of our title rivals. Let’s hope the team is up for it.

Catch you all tomorrow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back tomorrow.

Fair play, I say, because they’ve acted swiftly to find TAA’s replacement and by all accounts, it’s a good player.

Then, I’m seeing some rumours about another excellent talent in the Bundesliga – Florian Wirtz – apparently in a two-way duel with Liverpool and City for his signature. It’s all conjecture and hearsay at the moment, but if the season closes and those two teams move quickly to go after him, then it’s swift business and it’s clever business for a very good attacking midfielder. Apparently Liverpool are edging ahead and City are backing down from a possible move, which you could understand if the player is favouring the Scousers, but it shows that Liverpool are intending to get their business done early. A savvy move indeed.

Why have I taken just over two paragraph’s to talk about other transfers? I guess the title of today’s ramblings give it away; other teams get to do transfers too. Liverpool, Man City, United, Chelsea, Villa, even The Scum will all be augmenting their teams and so whilst for us we see our deficiencies clear as day and expect the club to take action to build a more complete squad than this season’s one, we have to acknowledge that these clubs will also find players that will inevitably – at least some of them anyway – be a hit at their respective clubs.

Transfers, eh? It’s a bloody hard game to play. You have to get the right value for a player, pay them the right wages that aren’t too extortionate, hope that they will gel with their new teammates, hope that they settle in with their new environment (which for many will also be a new country and a new language), then, above all that, you have to hope they take their own game to the next level on the pitch. I’ve not even mentioned the luck of having them remain fit the whole time, either. The variables involved are numerous and pulling the trigger on a multi-million-pound deal is not for the faint-hearted.

But it has to be done. You can never  stay still in football. Arsenal have to find players that will take us on further than any other signing for any other side. They have to hope that Zubimendi – if he arrives – is not only better than what we had this season in our team, but he’s better than the signings that other teams have made too.

In some instances it’s slightly different. For example, if somebody like Gyokeres comes in to play for us, he’s basically taking Gabriel Jesus’ spot, who has spent the vast bulk of this season injured. So the bar for improvement is pretty low. But when you then apply the logic of how many goals behind Liverpool we were this season, how we need another Havertz who will get 20 goals, as well as Havertz staying fit to also get 20 goals, you start to realise that when you get to the top of elite sport and especially football, the margins are razor-fine.

We’re not just fighting to improve ourselves, we’re fighting to improve on everyone else’s improvements.

Perhaps the upside we have is that for some teams the challenge is a little less stark. The whole world knows we need a striker. The whole world knows that if you get somebody who can bag 20-goals in the Premier League, then if we are the same as this season and next season (we have one of the best defences), we’re probably going to be within touching distance of the top or the team at the top. The downside of everyone knowing is that there could be some clubs who play silly-buggers with us on price, but if by the sounds of it Arsenal are looking at release clause folk, then that is less of an issue. Go do the business, pay the release clause, then prep yourselves for a good pre-season.

I do wonder if that’s one of the criteria for the club this season as well, you know, the release clause I mean. As I’ve already mentioned there are so many variables in football transfers, that if you can remove at least one in the shape of the negotiation over the transfer fee, then it probably solves a fair few headaches in The Arsenal Transfer Team. If that’s out of the equation then you can indeed get a deal done quickly.

And, as already mentioned, that’s what we need this summer. The power of a settled and organised pre season cannot be underestimated. If you get business done early, if you can get those players playing together and gelling well, then it can have a massive impact on the success of your upcoming season.

Let’s hope that it is what we see over the next month or so.

Catch you all tomorrow.

I think for me personally it has to be seen as a poor window, because the need was known from the 1st January, it was exacerbated with Gabriel Jesus’ injury at the midway point in the month, yet all we’ve really heard in the form of faint whispers has been that we were offered Ollie Watkins for £60million from Villa, but decided that was a deal that was too much for a guy who will be 30 in December this year.

And to be fair to Arsenal, I get it, because as much as I’d have loved to see the Gooner make his way through the door yesterday, the fact that so many Arsenal fans were saying “no way” when it was posed that we could go back for him in the summer, tells a bit of a story in itself. June is just four months away and so that deal which seems so appealing now, that looks less palatable by the team we’re getting to the end of Spring, should tell you all you need to know.

Watkins is a ‘now’ player and he’d have helped us this season and next. But he may have also been a blocker to a big move in the summer, because if we’re blowing £60million and a big wage packet on him, we’re probably not going in for one of the big named targets in the summer.

If one of those targets is Isaak for £100million though, that’s a worry for me, because as talented and hot as he is right now, that injury record and the fact that Newcastle will drive a hard bargain has me thinking I hope we go back in for Sesko. More up side, more ceiling, more opportunity for him to evolve into our version of Haaland. Hopefully a better fitness record too.

As for the here and now, I guess all that keeps going through my head is “I really hope you know what you are doing, Arsenal”, because they are taking a massive gamble on the fitness and return to form and fitness of a very small crop of players. The club were clearly briefing their side of the story relatively quickly last night; Charles Watts stating that the club feels that because of the easing of the schedule and the return of players like Saka in March, they think they have enough to get by. But in central attack the numbers are worryingly thin. Is Kai going to play every game? What happens if he gets a horror tackle on him? What happens if Bukayo has a set back? Can we really rely on Leo to play false nine? Will Arteta actually start considering Nwaneri as a centre forward?

These are all questions for which the answers are less than palatable. Havertz has had (so far) a remarkable ability to stay fit and we have to hope that remains, but football is a game of so many variables and it only takes one clobbermeister for us to be staring down the barrel of a remainder of a season with not one recognised striker. Like, LITERALLY not one. Not even when you start looking at the youth team, it’s not like there’s a guy who you could promote to play understudy. There’s nobody who has got near the first team and so we are taking an almighty gamble between now and the rest of the season.

And as James said on the Same Old Arsenal pod last night – which I wholeheartedly agree with by the way – by not doing any business this January, we’re leaving ourselves with a mountain of work to do in the summer. Whoever comes in as the Sporting Director this summer (and I’ll be surprised if Jason Ayto gets the job because this was hardly the perfect dress rehearsal, was it?) is going to have a rather long ‘to do’ list of signings they have to make:

1. New back up goalkeeper to replace Neto
2. Defender to come in as a rotation option (we can’t rely on Tomiyasu and Tierney and Zinchenko will be off – so that’s at least one player that comes in)
3. Midfield replacement for Jorginho and probably Partey (do we need two?)
4. Wide forward to provide cover (we’re not signing Sterking permanently after his ‘meh’ loan this season)
5. Central striker (for obvious reasons)

That’s me being conservative, because even if we get a striker in, if we pick up an injury to that striker or Havertz, we’re back in to the same position we are in now. James estimated that we might need to do between eight to ten deals and if you think that the likes of Kiwior is going to want to probably move on to play more football, that will leave us short again and needing to look for squad reinforcements.

I didn’t want us to sign a random who means we can’t do what we wanted to do this coming summer. But you can’t say that this January and last summer have been successes when you lay out what has happened. Calafiori has been injury prone, Merino hasn’t set the world alight, Neto has played one game (and that was a bit scary) and Sterling feels like a complete waste of time at this point. So when you couple the two windows linked to this season together, it compounds the need for summer 2025 to not just be a good window, but a pretty much flawless one.

Like I said, I really hope Arsenal know what they are doing, because it feels like they’ve rolled the dice in a season in which we keep coming up Snake Eyes with the injuries, suspensions and general bad luck.

Let’s end today on a high note though, eh? Because crying in to your cereal because we didn’t sign anybody won’t help anyone. We’re all frustrated but come tomorrow if we beat Newcastle the mood will soon change. We’ve just smashed City and after tomorrow’s game the players can undertake a bit of rest and a reset. We’ll have hopefully White and Tomiyasu back and hopefully those Arsenal players will look fresh as we tackle the final 14 games of the season and a Champions League campaign that we’re still in.

Catch you all tomorrow.

After all of the hand-wringing about our lack of signings this month, after what felt like a very barren beginning of the year with us profligate in front of goal and virtually out of the two domestic cups, Arsenal turned up on a cold London February afternoon and delivered a precision cut to any lasting dreams Man City had of catching either us or Liverpool.

The second half was where nearly all of the action happened yesterday, but we have to ensure the formalities of the first half are talked through first, methinks. Arteta recalled a host of first-teamers to the starting XI and after his ban was rightfully overturned, in came Lewis-Skelly ahead of Calafiori. It was the right move not only because of what was to come in the second half, but also because his form is such that he’s absolutely earned a starting place in this side.

I was nervous before kick off. This may be an ‘off-the-boil’ Man City, but they are still the Champions, they still have quality players who can hurt you and they still have the air about them when it comes to some of the names on the team sheet.

Not defensively though. They may have welcomed back Stones, they may still have had Gvardiol and Akanji in that back line, but defensively they looked shaky and after two minutes we’d exposed that. I have absolutely no idea why Stones played the hospital pass he did across his goal to Akanji, but it was borderline suicidal, especially against an Arsenal side with whom Arteta has spent years drilling to win the ball high up the pitch. We did, Rice’s instant reaction to cushion the ball to Havertz was superb and we had our noses in front. It was the perfect start to what would become an almost perfect afternoon.

But after that, in that first half, we just sort…well…sat off a bit. City had no intention of pressing Raya and at times he just held the ball at his feet for 10, 20 or 30 seconds. We went long a fair bit to the battling Havertz and so did City. It was a tetchy and cagey game in that first half; two heavyweight boxers just circling the ring a bit and throwing out the occasional jab. Havertz should have scored after another City mistake and he will not be 100% happy with his missed chance in that first half – you simply have to hit the target when you’re in the position he is in.

But the thing about Havertz is that he never stops working. He chased, he provided an outlet, he ran the channels and he provided an out ball all day. And he was even granted another goal to his tally this season in that second half with a fine counter-attacking move that will have been the stuff of nightmares for Guardiola. Pep had said in the last week or so that he was worried about us and our strength in transitions and that’s just what happened in the second half.

Eventually.

Because before it could get really good, we had to suffer a bit, with the gents around me in Block Five all agreeing that in that first ten minutes of the second half we were just far too passive. We let City have the ball. We sat off in our shape. You just can’t do that against quality teams like City and the inevitable Haaland goal came. Saliba won’t be happy about how he was done a bit by Haaland’s movement there and as Mr ‘Stay Humble’ wheeled off in celebration to the travelling away fans. I had a worry that the game was going to turn now City had managed to draw themselves level.

I needn’t have worried too much though, because defensively City were all over the place. I’d looked on a few of their fan forums over the last couple of days and some of their fans had talked about how bad they are at the back, but I never really believed it until I saw it. Because we cut them apart time and time again yesterday. Sure, Partey’s goal had a touch of fortune about it and sure, it was a ‘buy a ticket’ shot that when they come outside of the box are always speculative. But Partey was given a fair bit of time to travel with the ball before he struck it and I just don’t see a City team of last year or the year before doing that like they did yesterday.

The timing of that goal was perfect. Two minutes after City had scored, we’d barely had time to get worried, we were back in front and then eight or so minutes later it was fairy-tale stuff.

Myles. Lewis. Skelly. Take. A. Bow. Son. Rice fed in a relatively simple ball and his shift of it on to his right foot and being shown inside would have been – you’d have thought the City players were thinking – enough to reduce any risk on their goal. Myles had other ideas and the way he wrapped his boot around the ball to curl it goalward on his weaker foot…**chefs kiss**.

Perhaps you could ask questions of the ‘keeper, but I’m not minded to take anything away from MLS today, then his celebration right in front of me – iconic. 

You want me to ‘sty humble? You wanna know who I am? Oh I’ll show you all right.

Even after his mimicking of the Haaland celebration, the look on his face as he stood up and looked up in to the crowd – quality. Loved it. What a gem of a footballer we have found from within Hale End. He’s keeping Calafiori out, for crying out loud and even if you park the goal and celebration fun, his defensive display was good and the way he was able to keep Savinho at bay defensively was certainly something for us to be happy about.

We weren’t done though – as you well now – and Havertz getting on the scoresheet was an important one I reckon. He still had a fair bit to do from where he actually struck the ball from the goal after Martinelli’s pass, but given he’d missed that sitter in the first half, it was maybe good that he did deliver a fine finish from a slightly difficult position. Yes he misses chances, yes, he’s not the elite finisher we all crave. But he’s now on 15 goals and five assists for the season and there is still plenty of football to play. Without Saka until probably April we are going to struggle to have two players who get 20 goals involvements in the season I think, and that’s probably what you need if you don’t have one 30-goal a season striker, but Kai is going to have done his bit I suspect and it certainly feels like he’s on track for 20 goals this season. Last season in the Premier League he got 13 goals and in all competitions he got 14 goals. In his best season in the Premier League in 2021/22 he got 14 goals and five assists in all competitions. That was in 47 matches in total and this season he’s surpassed that tally in 33 matches. So he is – to be fair to him – doing his bit.

As is Ethan Nwaneri, who capped off a wonderful afternoon for us and a great week for him by following up his Champions League goal with another one that is starting to become his superpower right now. Cutting inside, curling ball in to the far corner. This kid is going to be a superstar. 

And it’s a good Monday for all Arsenal fans. I absorbed a heck of a lot of Arsenal #Content last night and I’m going to intermittently be doing that today for sure. It’s Transfer Deadline Day and the club needs to make moves on this Monday, but at least we can do it against the backdrop of a brilliant win against what used to be the best team in the country.

Catch you all tomorrow.