Yes they’ve recently beaten us. Yes they’ll be playing Champions League next season whilst we wallow in the Europa. Yes they are a better side than us and yes, laughing at their slip up last night seems a little ironic given that we’ve been playing slapstick football for much of this season. But do you know what? If – IF – we manage to somehow beat Chelski in the FA Cup at the end of May, even in our darkest hours of a season, there’s an argument to be had to say it’s been better than theirs. That, my friends, would be delicious.

There will be many that will scoff at this suggestion by me. There will certainly be an army to Tiny Totts fans who will call me deluded, but I watch football for the trophies, not the bank balance or second place. I have a ticket to the FA Cup final in a few weeks and having been there for the previous two, let me assure you this: I remember that experience ever so much more vividly than the fact we finished second last year. 

So this morning I find myself wit renewed amusement at the possibility of a season with a trophy, whilst that lot down the road try to convince themselves that once again, they haven’t gone all Spursy and Spurs’d their season right up.

Of course the probability of us beating a Chelski team who have been by far and away the best all season is unlikely, but this morning I’m just focused on the schadenfreude that has been deliciously served to us through Lanzini’s finish and West Ham’s win in their freebie stadium that half their fans don’t want to be in anyway.

In other news, it appears as though the move for Bosnian full back Sead Kolasinac has hit a potential snag, with City suddenly sniffing around him. flight is out of contract in the summer and I suspect they’ll bin him off, so there’ll certainly be room for the player, and there’s no doubt that as a free transfer City could take whatever we offer and stick an extra £20 -£30k on top of it. So if that interest does materialise, especially with Champions League football likely to be on the cards, I’d expect him to opt for Manchester, rather than London. If that happens it will hit home just how important Champions League football is. The lure of London has helped us in the past, but that’s been based on the near certainty that Arsenal would be in the Champions League, so for us to miss out – if it happens – hardly bodes well for a good summer in the market.

We have already heard every excuse under the sun in the last couple of summers as to why we haven’t been able to capture all of our targets early, so this non-Champions League football will surely be another one used by Arsène if we fail with the miracle attempt of getting fourth. And I’m saying Arsène because at this point I’m convinced his signing a new deal. Sadly. 

Right I think that’s it from me for the day. I need to dose myself up and prepare for a day of sniffing, sneezing and general aching. 

Whoop.

Catch y’all tomorrow.

Thankfully, they are at least achieving the results to limp us over the line to finish third, which I guess is something. A draw away to City at the start of the season would have seemed like a decent result, but as Mangala’s complete lack of marking for Giroud’s goal showed, this is a City side that can be even less arsed than we can right now. I didn’t watch their post-game walk around the pitch, but I’d imagine there were a few City players staring at their shoes rather than look some of their fans in the eyes.

The game itself started in a bizarre fashion, certainly from an Arsenal perspective, anyway. As is true to the current bemusement of fans, Arsène opted to replace Özil with Welbeck and shift Iwobi in to the number ten role, with Welbeck and Alexis flanking Giroud. I kind of get that, but it must have Joel Campbell wondering what kind of ‘special relationship’ Giroud has with the manager, because I have no idea why the Frenchman continues to be picked given his form. 

Even when Welbeck went down injured after about 25 minutes, he was replaced by a clearly not-match-fit Wilshere, who moved in to the number ten role and pushed Iwobi out wide. You’d have thought this kind of decision making would be enough to see Campbell look for pastures new in the summer. If I was in his shoes I certainly would.

The first ten minutes though, had all the hallmarks of an Arsenal team that literally couldn’t give ‘two sh*ts’ about the remaining football to be played this season. We sat back, we allowed City to press us as we panicked on the ball, then we conceded a goal that really Cech should have probably saved. He’s been an immense ‘keeper for us this season, but he looked like he’d had a decent night out on Manchester’s vibrant streets the night before, because he looked ropey all afternoon. He clattered in to Koscielny on one ball over the top and he’ll probably also be disappointed about his concession for the second goal, scored by De Bruyne, who planted the ball low and in to the corner of the net. I thought he could have got down quicker, but hey, his wasn’t the worst performance in an Arsenal shirt.

That honour was bestowed upon Ramsey yesterday, who I thought was particularly terrible, showing that he simply doesn’t work in our current set up. I’m reluctant to say ‘style’ because I don’t think we have one. It’s a hotch-potch of styles smashed together in order to – I can only assume – create some form of organised chaos in our ranks that bamboozle the opposition. Unfortunately the only ones left bamboozled are our players.

And yet, for all of our poor ball retention, for all of our inability to demonstrate any particular style or brand of football, we still managed to conjure up two good goals. Giroud didn’t have to do much to shake Mangala off from the corner straight after Aquero’s goal, but he still had to get enough purchase on the header to steer it past Hart, so we have to give credit to a guy who has looked like he might be swallowed up by his own melancholy at times over the last few weeks. 

Giroud is an enigma of a man though. He then preceded to spend the rest of the game never really able to hold up the ball or retain possession for any length of time, yet was instrumental in the second goal, which was wonderfully worked. Alexis profited from his deft flick, but that was the kind of build up, movement and composure from all players involved, that you expect to see of Arsène Wenger’s teams. Sadly there has just not been enough of it this season.

The game petered out after the second equaliser and apart from a Bony crossbar rattling shot, it didn’t really look like City knew that only victory secured a Champions League spot, because there wasn’t exactly an onslaught on our goal. In fact, had Giroud looked up at the right time with seconds to go, he might have found Walcott through on goal in the closing seconds of the match. That would have brought us level on points with the spuds knowing that bettering their result next weekend would see us inexplicably finishing above them in the league. That would be one hilarious way to finish the season, but personally I don’t see it happening, because Newcastle are pretty terrible. But at least we’ll get to go in to the final game of the season with something vaguely interesting that could  happen. And if that does happen, if we somehow rack up more points than that lot, I wonder what the narrative will be? I say this because yesterday I heard John Cross say that he thought that Tottenham have had a better season and that perhaps it wouldn’t be a fair reflection. But he’s the same sort of guy – journalist – who would be the first to say that you get what you deserve after 38 games. And as far as I’m concerned, even if they finish second and we’re two points behind them, this idea that there’s a ‘power shift’ in North London, needs to be taken with a hefty dose of Saxa.

Righto, that’s the lot from me, so enjoy you’re Monday. 

Laters.

Who plays on both sides will be interesting. City will have their captain Kompany missing, whilst Yaya Toure was completely missing mentally against Real  Madrid during the week, so whether or not he’s given a start I just don’t know. You could probably make a decent educated guess that he will and he’ll probably be completely unplayable today, but that is what tends to happen to us, especially this season when average players have blinders against us (although I  know Toure is not an average player, but he is prone to bouts of averageness).

This is Pellegrini’s last home game as manager of City and he’ll no doubt want to sign off with a win, but for us it’s about being the least pants of the two teams that really look like they want to see the back of this season. Like, now. City will come at us, they will try to hit balls into the channels for Aguero, with De Bruyne and probably Sterling supporting. He’s the one young player who has looked really up for it for City in previous weeks, which to be fair you’d expect given his hunger to prove himself in the first team, but whether he makes it in to the starting XI today I’m not sure. I don’t watch enough of City, but I do know that Pellegrini has experimented with a 4-4-2 to accommodate the youngster up top, so maybe he’ll go for that today?

City are also missing Zabaleta and Kolorav are also missing today I believe, which means that we’ll have a return of a couple of Arsenal old boys in Clichy and Sagna. I don’t expect them to be given the same pantomime booing that Nasri and Adebayor have faced whilst playing for the oil whores, but I do think it will at least add a little bit of familiarity. I also think that Iwobi and Alexis could have the beating of both of our former gunners. Both are in their 30s and will not be as spritely as our forwards, so my hope is that Welbeck starts for us and we see more of the movement that was prevalent in the team about a month ago, but has somewhat disappeared in the last couple of weeks with the re-introduction of Giroud. In Ottamendi and Mangala there are also two defenders that I’d hope we can pull apart a bit, so I’m expecting to see more from the front three and Ozil than I’ve seen for the last few weeks.

I’m also curious as to who Arsene picks in midfield. For me Elneny surely has to be number one choice. He’s been an ever-present over the last few months, he is the new ‘Arteta’ style player who keeps everything ticking over and he retains the possession so we can move more fluidly from front to back. But does Arsene opt for more defensive support in Coquelin, to screen in front of the back four like we were doing at Spurs before Le Coq had his brain fart, or does he look for a little more dynamism going forward by putting Ramsey alongside Elneny in midfield. Personally, I’d give Le Coq the nod, because I don’t think Elneny/Rambo works as well. I didn’t exactly see it look great up at Sunderland and against Norwich nobody really stood out. But with City sure to play quicker and more mobile wide-forwards today, I think we’ll need extra players to sit in and also support in wide-defensive positions, which Coquelin will do more of than Ramsey.

I’ve seen a real mixed bag of predictions for today’s game. Merse reckons we’ll beat them, Lawro thinks we’ll lose and to be honest with you, it’s probably a reflection of both teams’ season. Nweither really seems to be in enough form to be able to call it one way or another. We can’t really play for a draw – we never seem to have been able to – but it would suit us if we got it. So I wouldn’t be too down if it happened. I just hope we get the Arsenal players looking up for this game. I really don’t want to see yet another lackluster display. We’ve had enough of those this season already.

Catch y’all tomorrow, with hopefully a post-match happy blog.

I’m a happy boy. I’m a happy boy and it’s not just for the three points, which were Sherie Bobbins-style fantabulous, by the way. Oh no, I’m happy because this Arsenal team said – through their performance – “what? You want to see what we can do? You want us to show you? Well kids, why don’t you take a long…hard…look…because guess what? We ain’t going nowhere”.

Like I said: today’s blog is half alcohol-infused, so you’ll have to pardon the over-the-top reaction to what was, essentially, just three points.

Except it wasn’t ‘just’ three points, was it? It wasn’t ‘just’ another game. It was a statement. It was a collective of players who came together to announce to the worldwide media that they were here to be counted.

I’ll level with you. I’d have taken a draw, pre-game, because I wasn’t sure what a defeat would do to the confidence of this team, such was the nerves. But as the first half unfolded before my very eyes, I must admit that I was extremely, joyously, surprised by the performance of the Arsenal players. Perhaps I should have been a little more confident in the team, as much as Tom, who confidently proclaimed (after a few jars of the amber nectar) that the game was ‘done’ at half time. But I fretted that we would be ‘Arsenaled’ by a – let’s face it – pretty poor City team on the night. Yes, they made life uncomfortable for the closing stages of the game, but even their goal felt like it had a tinge of fortune to it. I’m not convinced that Toure’s finish was entirely on purpose. 

The Arsenal goals however, were crafted perfectly and each one had an element of beauty, that would have had even the most grumpy of Gooners purring.

Walcott – pretty much anonymous at times in parts of the first half, stepped inside and curled a fantastically ‘Alexian’ finish beyond Hart, whilst Giroud’s ‘slot’ under the ‘keeper was controlled and synonymous with a world class centre forward. On a big stage, with cameras everywhere, as well as an opposite number widely recognised as the best in the business, guess what? Olivier stuck his finger in the air and said “a-hem. I ain’t half bad, you know?”

Yes Oliver, we know, but unfortunately it will only be until we win the league that people will realise your impact, but they will eventually. 

Let’s also ‘doff’ the cap to Özil. He does assists like my wife does lip-rubbing. As an aside, she rubs her lip: a lot. Like, every five minutes. So that just shows you how much the German nails a perfect pass. In fact, as I type, I bet he’s chatting to people post-game, wondering if he could slot somebody in between the salad cart. That’s the level of awesome we’re talking here, people. 

Act 2

It’s the morning after the night before and whilst I am nowhere near as fuelled by the beer as I was, I’m still pretty buoyant, I have to say.

Defensively I thought we were as sound as we’ve been for a while. Yes, we conceded, but I’m still to be convinced that Toure meant his finish. It looked like a mis-hit from where I was standing. 

Thereafter it was always going to be a bit nervy, because we are The Arsenal and it’s how we roll, but the team has shown a steely nerve to it this season and the ability to hold that lead is vital. Imagine if we’d have conceded and drawn 2-2? Both the online and print world would have been awash with stories about how Arsenal bottled it again. Reasons as to why they simply cannot win the league because they don’t have that ‘winning mentality’. Well, that their has been knocked into touch for the immediate future, because the team were great. 

I love that we can be good without the ball now, too, which isn’t something we’ve been able to say about Arsène Wenger teams in the past. For large parts of the first half City dominated possession, but we kept our shape and discipline, minimising the open space for the creative players to operate in. There was that one DeBruyne moment, but that is pretty much all I can remember from the City dominance in the first 30 minutes.

If we can be that disciplined without the ball against a top quality team, why can’t we go on and win the league? It ‘feels’ at the moment as if we’re on the verge of taking this league by the scruff of the neck. All we need to do now is pick up another nine points over Christmas and I think we’ll be top and starting to pull away. There’s plenty more football to play, but the signs are good.

Enjoy your Tuesday.

Tonight we’re up against a title rival in Moneychester City and whilst any result won’t rule out our title chances, you can’t help but think that victory will be a serious statement of intention, a ‘tick in the box’ of an archetypal title challenge. You have to beat your rivals – more often than not – to stand a chance of winning a league. Not just for the points, but for the psychological advantage it gives, so tonight is a time in which our squad need to step up.

On the face of it, you’d say we have the advantage, what with being at home and with City missing their talismatic centre half, Vincent Kompany. His absence is a loss for City, but Ottamendi looks like a decent and rugged enough centre half, and not just for his hipster-beardy looks. City have also been scraping results recently too, with the game against Swansea at home, one in which they can consider themselves fortunate not to draw or even lose. 
If defensively there is a perceived weakness, then in attack is where any potential issues melt away. Sterling, De Bruyne, Silva and Aguero are all fantastic players and even if Aguero doesn’t start, Bony is a very good deputy. But I think Aguero will play. I think City saved him from the Swansea game in prep for having him ready for this game.

Last year at The Emirates we looked like we might get a win from the game after Alexis’ stunning volley, but I think we were pegged back for large swathes of the game, which is what I think will happen tonight. We may have plenty of confidence, we may be at home, but the pragmatism that existed at the Ethihad, needs to also be prevalent today when you look at City’s attacking options.

Our options are all very well known to us, but whilst there’s a question mark over the fitness of Alexis, there’s always the opportunity for the manager to throw a curve ball in the starting line up. I’d be surprised if he does though. We will need our Chilean dynamo for the rest of the Christmas period, so bringing him in too early and risking him breaking down, would seem a bit suicidal to me. But if he makes the bench, if he’s a player who can make an impact in the second half, we should take that option. He’s such a fantastic player, who can make something happen and if he was to start from the bench tonight, think of the potential powder keg explosion we could get from him if we’re trying to salvage a point or even win the game.

So I suspect we’ll see the same side as the one that played Villa last weekend. The back five will remain, the midfield duo of Flamini and Ramsey in front of them and Özil further forward of those two. The flanks will continue with Theo and Joel and Giroud will start up top.

The players have had over a week since their last game and as a result should be massively fired up for this. I suspect we’ll see a cagey first 15, or maybe even the first half, but at some stage we’ll have to start asserting our influence, which I’d expect to be in to the second half.

Leicester’s win against Everton on Saturday may seem like we can’t drop any points, but they will surely drop points against the teams they play over the Christmas period; but that doesn’t mean we sho of rest on our laurels. Champions in waiting don’t do that. They go for the jugular. That’s what I want to see Arsenal do for tonight.

Take advantage of the inconsistency of this league Arsenal. Take the game by the scruff of the neck and prove we’re the ones to beat, by beating the ones everyone else thinks are the ones to beat.

If I had to pick a player to be the one to lead the way today, it would have to be Rambo. Two goals in his last two games, playing in his favoured central role, it is the kind of action we saw for his goal against Villa that could be the difference. Winning tackles in his half, then getting on to the ball in the opposition half. Players like that make you feel you have an extra guy on the field, so that’s what I’m hoping we see from our Welshman today.

I’ll be there, with Tom, terrified in the build up, but also excited as to the potential of this Arsenal team. All they need to do is show us they’re capable.

Come on The Arsenal!

Perhaps my grapes are on the turn and getting sour though, but I saw a Leicester side that were a little fortunate to get one of their goals (where Allbrighton handles a charged shot), but you have to give them credit. They are benefitting from decisions that all of the sides lower down the league complain clubs like United, Arsenal and City get, but they’re marrying it with confidence and endeavour that is getting them results. And I am now thinking that they are a genuine threat. Much like Liverpool of a couple of seasons ago, Leicester have the benefit of no European football and as a result are fresher than the teams that have been playing in Europe and will be continuing to do so. I also think they’ll be knocked out of the FA Cup away to the Spuds, so I think they’ll have an even clearer path.

The Tiny Totts also picked up a victory away at Southampton, but whilst 2-0 away from home seems pretty comprehensive, the Spuds were gifted their goals through some pretty awful defending, plus they had the gloves of Lloris to thank for their points. Hey, I know a goalkeeper is part of the team and they’re there as the last line of defence, but it still doesn’t make it look like they weren’t holding on at times against the Saints. You can bet your bottom dollar, however, that we won’t be gifted the same level of performance as both Liverpool and Tottenham have had on the south coast on Boxing Day. I fully expect to see a game in which Southampton play their best football of the season.

But at least we have United’s defeat to take some pleasure in. Van Gaal is in some serious doo-doo at the moment. They’ve not really played well ever since he joined the club, yet United fans – and the manager too – have been able to hang their hats on the fact they get results and they managed to get Champions League football this season as a result. But the exit at the group stages, the defeat to Norwich and home draws against West Ham, mean that they are clinging on to fourth at the moment.

The table is starting to look tight and every three points is starting to look like important ones. The Leicester win – putting them five points clear of us – means that we simply have to get something from the game tomorrow. The mantra has to be ‘don’t lose’ from the Arsenal team. I’m even at the stage now where I’m wondering if I would take a draw. Over Christmas we have the opportunity to pick up maximum points and if we do that by beating Southampton, Bournemouth and Newcastle, then I think we’ll at least be within a point of Leicester. Even if we draw with City. They play Liverpool away on Boxing Day, City at home and then Bournemouth at home, before going to the Spuds. That’s a bloody hard run and so if we can keep in touch with them by winning tomorrow night, I fancy us to be top come the New Year.

We need to be. Our away games in the New Year are hardly easy. We have the Spuds, United, Liverpool and City to worry about. Given that there are only nine away games after the Southampton match, that shows you that it will be the importance of our set up away from home that could either spearhead a genuine title assault, or lead to another 2013/14-style ‘close but no cigar’ season. I don’t want another one of those where we fall away after the New Year. I want this league title. I want it so bad. I wanted it in 2013/14, obviously, but I want it even more now. Even now, if you offer me instant knocking out of both FA Cup and Champions league, that will give us a 50% better chance of winning the league – not even a guarantee, just a 50% increase in our chance somehow – I would take it. The Premier League is the benchmark for a great team and winning it is my own personal marker of how good this Arsenal team is. Do they stack up to the Invincibles? The Double winning sides of 98 and 2002? Win the league and maybe we can compare, but not until you’ve done that, guys.

Every side since the Invincibles has been a ‘decent’ side, but never quite made it to be ‘great’. I like this group of players. A Lot. I think they are all capable enough of doing what we want them to do in the league. But as well as technical quality there has to be belief. Does this Arsenal side believe in themselves enough?

Games like tomorrow evening will tell us.

Probably not. His arrogance transcends all expected levels of humility. To bring this blog back to its core raison d’etre, a telling sign of how that person is thought of could be seen in Arsène’s presser yesterday, where he refused to talk about backing Mourinho. As the Evening Standard reporter James Olley said, Arsène always backs a manager to stay in his job, so for him to quickly move the conversation on after being asked it shows what he though of the guy.

And given what most of us think of him, let’s move on quickly too, because yesterday Le Boss was there to talk about the impending dual with City and give us a team news update. The biggest news was around the fitness of Alexis. Inevitably, the player himself believes he’ll be fit, but I hope Arsène is a trillion per cent sure that he is before he decides whether to play him. He’s an ‘X factor’ player, who brings something that others do not in the squad, but even without him we are strong and on our own turf under the floodlights, we should be strong enough to stand a chance of beating City without him. 

The rest of the team news is all positive, which means no new worries and with over a week’s rest, you’d imagine fatigue of the players is less of an issue than it would be if we’d have played midweek.

This week has been important and the rest is important ahead of the Christmas run-in, especially given Arsène’s comments about the number of points it could take to win the league. If he’s right, if 80 points wins you the title, mathematically it makes each point more valuable, but it also makes the bigger games more valuable too, because you are putting daylight between your closest rivals. That’s why the game on Monday probably takes on added significance. It’s also why you need a collective of players 100% fit. We should have that on Monday. When you then get in to the Christmas period, it’s about getting players recuperated as quickly as possible and essentially just ‘getting over the line’ in games, because this is the time of year where every team is feeling it and everyone is more susceptible to mistakes. 

It’s also why I’m glad – at the moment anyway – that three of our four Christmas fixtures are at home this season. Home advantage usually counts for something and you’d expect the team to perform better within the comfort of the home support. I don’t know why, but I always feel like players who are rotated, play better on home soil than away. I think it’s a League Cup theory I’m pulling in to my Premier League memory banks. When we’ve rotated players at home in the League Cup, they usually perform better than when we’re away. I’m convinced we’d have beaten Sheffield Wednesday if it would have been the same players at The Emirates. So, with that baseless theory out there, I think that it’s good that we have two easier games – in theory – after City at home and Southampton away, when Arsène will be able to rotate some of the squad. We’ll have to ponder that for the Christmas period though. 

In the meantime, let’s just be happy, because we’re in a good position confidence-wise, we have a great chance of beating a rival on Monday and it’s a Friday today too. Happy days.

Catch you tomorrow.

I have to say I don’t really remember too many ‘classics’, if I’m honest, because we were either dominant in beating a mid-table team at best, or we’ve been pretty much dominated since they were the second English winners of the football lottery, sponsored by Oil Whores Plc. Still, I suppose it fits a narrative for Sky to try and whip up expectation and viewing figures, I suppose.

We’ll no doubt hear about the squad availability from Arsène today, but I’m not sure when the full presser will be, given that it’s a Sunday game. It might still be tomorrow, but we’ll just have to wait with baited breath. A little bit like we’re waiting for some sort of transfer to be sorted for the problems of depth we currently face. Here’s a question: when does ‘baited breath’ becoming ‘holding your breath’? Because I’m sure there’s a few that would suggest avoiding doing that in terms of transfers.

There is one that is supposedly almost concluded and, when I asked The Management who she thought Arsenal might be about to announce as a signing, whilst not being able to name the person she did a pretty good job of getting the attributes right.
– A position where they don’t need to sign anybody
– A 17 year old who won’t make the first team
– foreigner

Two out of three ain’t bad, is it? It’s a worrying sign when even your loved ones can predict what sort of player the club are going to sign, and that player rarely ends up being what we need for the here and now.

Still, the club are active, the lad Bielik seems to be a hot prospect and one would imagine that there will be a need for him over the next couple of years as Arteta’s career begins to wind down and Flamini has another form of card created just because of referees overuse of the yellow one they bring out for him every game.

The club are active, that’s a positive, right? Yeah, definitely a positive. Definitely. We’ll definitely address our deficiencies within the next two weeks. Definitely.

Maybe.

Even if it’s just a loan.

Anyway, don’t crack Chris, because you’ve managed to avoid being sucked too deep into the transfer quagmire that is the January window thus far. Just two weeks to go.

For Poldi, it’s about four and a half months to go at Inter and, supposedly after telling the press about him wanting a little more respect from Arsène after his departure, he’s said that he’s not sure what his future will hold. He’ll return to Arsenal in the summer and find out, he says, but I think we all know (and he does too) that he will be finding a new club in the summer. Even if there was a chink of light at the end of the tunnel that is his Arsenal career, those words he spoke to the press will have hardly given Arsène any more desire to bring him back in the summer, will they?

That’s probably why I was so sceptical at first. I mean, why burn bridges at the club that still holds your contract, when you could end up going back there anyway? It’s a strange one. You don’t have to look far back into the Arsenal archives to see an example of a player who burned bridges, then ended up spending a season at the club because we were short of players in that position. It’s what happened last season when the ‘marriage of convenience’ was forged with Bendtner and Wenger. Bendtner had spent all summer telling everyone he was offski, had offers, didn’t want to be at The Arsenal, only to have his route blocked and end up having to spend a season as a man of last resort for Le Boss to call on. It wouldn’t surprise me at all for Podolski to have a similar situation in the summer if his time at Inter Milan is a hit. He’s on big wages and there are a lot of clubs that just can’t afford it.

There’s nothing else that’s really kicking around that I can see at the moment. Not related to the first team, anyway, as Benik Afobe never really got close to establishing himself at the club and I can understand why Arsenal and Wolves found it quite easy to come to an agreement over his signature. The player that they clearly want to try and tie down is Akpom, who has looked like he is being looked at by a number of clubs across Europe, and with his contract running out at the end of the season you can understand why he’s holding out to find out how close he thinks he can get to the first team. Unlike last season, where he would probably have been given more chances had he developed a year earlier, this season we’re quite well stocked in the attacking department. So if Akpom is finding his route to first team football a bit congested, you can understand his reluctance to sign on the dotted line. I suspect that will play out a bit more – possibly until the end of the season – where he might decide to move on. If the club really do expect big things from him though, we’ll know soon enough as they’d probably spend a few bob to try to keep him.

See thee tomorrow, my wonderful friends.