That negativity from me aside, we still have plenty of reasons for optimism, even if we didn’t get the deals we wanted on deadline day and right now we feel a little vulnerable with the injuries. Arteta confirmed yesterday that Elneny would be out for months, Partey for potentially weeks, plus the fact that Zinchenko is still not training and so would probably miss the game tomorrow, all feel like blows. We need to have a conversation about Partey at some stage because it’s starting to get a bit like KT and that needs a resolution one way or another (i.e. a replacement at some stage perhaps? As mad as it feels to say that…), but that’s not for today. We are also sweating on the fitness of Ramsdale and Odegaard and if both of those are deemed not fit to play, we are still in December and already missing a potential of five first team players in a squad of 24. But not just that, it would be four of those five that are our first team that could be missing. That’s half the team and we’ve seen what happens to top teams when they are missing two or three, let alone four or five, so it’s potentially a massive blow for us this weekend.

I think despite Arteta saying he was happy, deep down and maybe behind closed doors within the walls of London Colney, he’ll be disappointed that we don’t have a deep enough squad. He said it was the best squad and the best players that he has available in his press conference yesterday, but then said “there is nothing else we can do”, following it up by saying they have an academy we can use as well. I think to me that’s a slight showing of the hand and I think he’ll be disappointed that even at this early stage in the season we’re looking a little thin. He also said in the press conference – when asked whether his squad is capable of handling more absent players – “I hope so and I hope we can still play really well”. That’s hardly an unequivocal “yes” response, is it?

Asked about United and the game itself tomorrow and he referenced the spending of United and the players they have meaning that form would always come back to them and you have to probably agree there. Even the chaos in terms of approach by United in recent times can be masked somewhat if you’re willing to spend just under a quarter of a billion Euros to get yourself players in. United have spent a small fortune this window and recruited decent players that will improve them, but the hope we have to have as Arsenal fans is that they play like individuals. I didn’t watch the game against Leicester away and I saw only a couple of patchy minutes between them and Southampton and they weren’t great, but got the job done and were functional, but when you have the array of talent they have in their squad that is what will happen. I just hope our structure, approach and set up is more valuable than their “through enough money and see if something sticks” approach. Fingers crossed.

There was talk in the presser about there being a psychological barrier of Old Trafford and I have to say there probably is. Arteta of course dismissed that, but how can you not look at our record there and see that? We’ve failed to beat them in 14 of 15 football matches stretching back to 2006, and the only game we won there was without any fans in the stadium during the COVID era. So with fans in the stadium you have to go back to an Adebayor slightly dodgy handball goal in 2006 to see our last victory in the league on their soil. Now, in that time there have been some shocking refereeing performances, I’ll admit (Arshavin being drop kicked by Fletcher in the box, anyone?), but there have been too many games in which we’ve wilted and tomorrow Arteta needs to get his players in the frame of mind that they can get a result against United. If you’re going to look at positives it’s that this team should carry none of the mental scars that we all have from trips to Old Trafford and last season I thought we were the better team and it was decided on a clumsy challenge by Odegaard in the penalty box. There’s also the fact that we are actually playing good football right now and when you add to that the fact that we look more balanced as a team – all these injuries aside – then perhaps there can be a little more hope than usual.

He was also asked about Aubameyang and he was pretty straight faced in wishing him all the best. My feelings are that it’s unfortunate that he’s signed for them, he will inevitably score against us, but ultimately it is not the same as when Cesc signed for them, nor is it a case that they are getting a player in his peak. We had that Auba, he is now 33 and maybe he can recapture his form and score 25 goals for them this season, but I’d be surprised if that happens. The age curve for strikers dips a lot quicker than in most positions and the hope is that they get themselves an expensive ageing striker who doesn’t really do the business for them. He won us an FA Cup, for that I am grateful, but we have far superior options than him now and so we have to be happy about that.

And on that note I think I’ll leave it for today. I’m off in to London for some pizza and a show later so will enjoy my time off and hope that Fulham can do something against what I have seen so far as a lucky Scum team at their Toilet Bowl of a stadium.

Catch you all tomorrow for a match preview.

Laters people.

I hope not. The hope is that The Arsenal turn up in Prague today with a very clear intention and drive about what they need to do come 8pm UK time. If you can look at this situation we find ourselves in with a ‘glass half full’ mentality, you could could argue that what we have tonight gives more understanding and clarity compared to the Olympiakos game at the Emirates a few weeks back. We’d won comfortably away from home, we needed an almighty balls up in order to go out and perhaps that played on the players minds’, psychologically. But tonight there is no such psychology that exists because if they replicate that form from when we played the Greeks in the second leg, then we are most certainly going out this evening.

My next thought to myself is “well if they play like they did against Slavia in the last game they are going out too” but we had the chances to win it. You have to hope that we can’t be THAT profligate two games in a row. We hit the post, the bar, had Saka one-on-one, we got in behind. But our decision-making on the night was appalling. We have to hope it isn’t the same this evening. We need those players to take their chances when they get them.

As it stands we are going out right now. Slavia Prague have the away goal advantage and it will be interesting to see what mindset they adopt tonight. They play a high pressing intensity game domestically and that under normal circumstances will be their modus opperandi even against clubs like us in Europe normally. But seeing us cut them apart in the first leg at times will have given food for thought of the Slavia manager and I just wonder if they will try to enact the low block football we have been accustomed to seeing against Arteta’s Arsenal. They will know that we haven’t really dealt too well with it when teams have sat in, tucked in, let us have it and then sprung the counter. The best example of the was Leicester City at home in the league. I wonder if Slavia’s game plan tonight is to replicate that and if it is then I fear we might be in for a long and frustrating evening.

So we need an answer. The good news is that at least Arteta has a few more options confirmed than I worried about yesterday. Saka and Smith Rowe are fit and they trained yesterday. Brilliant stuff. However Aubameyang and Odegaard didn’t. That says to me that they’ll be unlikely to make it to the starting line up and at best we’re probably looking at them both from the bench. But it’s a tough one for Mikel because if he plays them, they break down and we get through, then it means we miss them for more games. It means he has to take a sensible and pragmatic view. Test the players, ask them, ask them again, look deep in to their eyes and see if they just want to play and might still be nursing some discomfort. Then make your decision.

My gut feel from a team line up perspective is that we’ll see Leno in sticks, Bellerin, Holding, Gabriel and Cedric as the back four. You could argue a case for Xhaka but I am not sure we want him isolated against Sima or Olayinka. Any of Slavia’s attacking players to be fair, because Xhaka isn’t winning any one-on-one foot race any time soon. So I would rather have him and Partey in midfield with the Portuguese at left back under strict instructions not to put his centre halves under pressure if he finds the ball in the corner with a minute to go and we’re winning.

In front of them you have to go Smith-Rowe and Saka, but it’ll be interesting to see where. My first thought is Smith-Rowe centre and Saka wide right, but he did a good job against Sheffield United and if you move Saka centre, shift Smith-Rowe across to the left, you can fit in Pepe for that extra spark of creativity that Willian absolutely 100% does not offer. The other option is Martinelli wide left with Saka right and ESR through the middle. Either Martinelli or Pepe work for me. Just don’t play Willian. Please.

That’s especially so if Lacazette starts because Auba isn’t fit. Lacazette and Willian isn’t exactly the dynamic duo, but if we surround Lacazette with runners then perhaps he can make a better fist of his performance than he did in the first leg. We have to hope so because I do think it will be the Frenchman who starts tonight. We need the one that bagged two against Sheffield United though, not the hapless plodder that took a week to run through on goal against Slavia.

The maths are simple. Win the match. But Arsenal and ‘simple’ are the antithesis of each other. They go together like chalk and cheese. Some I’m expecting a stressful evening this evening.

I just home i’m smiling by the time I go to bed.

Laters folks.

I sort of am. To tell you the truth, I’m quite glad we’ve got a bit of a wait before the next game, because it’ll hopefully allow absence to make the ol’ heart grow fonder. It’s fair to say that I’m not too fond of Arsenal right now. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love them. I just think a little bit of space will help me.

What also doesn’t help is the inevitable “we must respond”, “we need to bounce back”, or as Gabriel has put it “reflect and put us back in check“. It’s all a bit boring, though, I’m afraid. We’ve heard all of this for the last decade. For the last two years though, this team has exhibited a painful lack of mental strength when it comes to winning big football matches away from home. I’m pretty sure we’re at the stage in which even the Tiny Totts have a better away record against the top six. 

There has to be something wrong with the mentality of the squad though – in these big away games I mean – because there’s no way that any team in the top four should have as shocking records as we do. Not without there being some kind of undiagnosed psychological problem.  

I dunno, maybe I’m just still a bit too sore after those two displays last week, and so I’m just getting a little melodramatic. But if I’m thinking about what the problem is and why this keeps happening, surely Arsenal must also be analysing it, right? They’d be mad not to. Sometimes you can put results down to a fluke, a freak incident or something unusual, but when it repeatedly keeps happening you review each case and try to diagnose what common thread runs through it.

Is it mentality after half time? Does Arsène need to do more assessment rather than the well-known reflection he normally prefers? Is it the tactical set up? Does he need to rotate more to keep players fresher if we’re going to try to play the ‘rope-a-dope’ tactic we tried on Sunday? 

Whatever it is, we’ll never win the league unless it can be addressed, because as soon as we put a run together of wins we’ll eventually come up against a big side and we’ll once again wilt under pressure. The Arseblogger has offered some positive thoughts this morning and he’s right in what he says about our next half a dozen games: they’re all winnable. But then we have Chelski and whilst I’ll go into the game with all the hope in the world that we can get three points, I won’t truly believe it. I won’t be confident in any way, shape or form, because quite frankly I have no data to back up and kind of confidence. 

Last season we beat United at home to arrest a terrible run against them in the league. This season we did the same against Chelski. We have shown that at home the team are capable of results. But this time last week all we could read about our Arsenal side are that they had only lost one away game in 2016. So you’d think the side has a culture of confidence away from home that breeds more confidence? I keep seeing how our toxic home support is contributing towards the problems we have, but there’s no element of that in away games. In fact it’s the opposite. If we go down to an opponent, the away fans will sing even louder, so blaming any kind of team performance on the fans is a complete red herring. Especially when you consider Tuesday night and Sunday’s performance. 

To be fair to Arsène, he has always said the fans aren’t the cause behind the team performances, that the players need to give them something to cheer about. Well they’ve got just under a week to work out how to do that by reflecting on what has gone wrong, hopefully not doing a single interview about ‘bouncing back’, then just actually bouncing back against West Brom on Boxing Day. 

Just finally, on a non-related football note, let’s all have a thought or two about the horrible news story coming out of Berlin yesterday. I don’t care what religion you have, if you deliberately go out to cause other people injury and death, then whatever god you believe in, will not welcome you with open arms when you think you’re about to reach the gates of paradise. These people are innocent people, going about their lives at a time and f the year in which peace and love is supposed to be at its greatest. You don’t get to paradise by doing what you’ve done. You only get damnation. 

Right, that’s me for the day, so I’ll catch you tomorrow.