Let’s start in Bosnia, where Italy missed the chance to end their hiatus from World Cups by being knocked out on penalties, which I still find mad with regard to the lack of Italian competition. This is a four-time winner of the competition, a side who are one of the great international football nations, who now have kids who will have never seen their side in a World Cup. Three times = 12 years; if you’re a teenager, you basically don’t remember what it feels like. And as a kid of the 80s, I have just come to expect Italian sides in these stages. So this is a bit wild for me, if truth be told.

Under normal circumstances, I’d be a bit ‘meh’ about this whole situation, but we’ve got skin in the game these days. Riccardo Calafiori is an Italian national and, having played the full 90 in the last game, he played a full 120 minutes last night, although thankfully he didn’t suffer the ignominy of taking a penalty in the losing shootout.

He will be gutted today. He’ll head back to The Arsenal with his head down, and given we still have so much to play for at The Arsenal this season, that might have a psychological effect. My hope is that he’s a strong enough character to get over it, but we’ve all heard the stories about players and suffering after extreme emotions as a result of international football. There’s the well-documented Arshavin decline, but Big Per Mertesacker also said that he struggled in the aftermath of helping Germany win the World Cup in 2014, so it happens at both ends of the emotional spectrum.

Calafiori will have little time to mourn his country’s exit; he’ll probably be on a plane today, Arsenal will no doubt give him tomorrow off, then it’ll be back on the training pitch on Friday, I suspect.

Or will it?

After all, he is a guy who we all know too well what his injury situation has been like; it’s here for us all to see. So he’s going to be feeling it a bit this morning I think; not just the emotional intensity, but the physical intensity of playing 210+ minutes in under a week. He certainly hasn’t been doing that for The Arsenal this season. In fact, if my workings out are correct, the only time he’s played 180 minutes for us this season was on two occasions; in September when he played for us at away against Athletic Club Bilbao and then at home against City in the Premier League, then in December against Everton away and Palace in the League Cup. Those are the only two times this season he’s played, so I just don’t see him being remotely available this weekend – Arteta surely just can’t risk it.

Which is a problem in itself, because technically both Big Gabi and Saliba are out with knocks, whilst Hincapie limped off for Ecuador. Given we have so many centre halves, it’s quite amazing that we could find ourselves short on numbers for this weekend’s FA Cup game.

That’s an issue for debate this weekend, because as sad as it is for Calafiori, the opposite was happening in Sweden, as Big Vik Gyokeres was a late hero for Sweden to send them through to the World Cup finals. It was a classic poacher’s goal, but nobody in Sweden this morning cares; they go to the US and Mexico, and Gyokeres has just written himself into Swedish folklore, just like Beckham did for England with his last-minute free kick against Greece all those years ago.

And if we’re going to talk about the possibly damaging psychological ramifications for Riccy, we should probably also acknowledge the opposite effect that could benefit us from Gyokeres’ emotions right now. He too played 120 minutes, so I can’t see him getting much time on the pitch this weekend, but when he walks into London Colney over the next day or two, he’s going to be doing it feeling at least six inches taller. As Arsenal fans, we have to hope that this helps him with regard to his end product. We all know that there have been times this season where, frankly, he’s looked about as useful as Inanimate Carbon Rod, but we also know that he is a man who is fuelled by confidence. And in 2026, his confidence has definitely improved; I saw somewhere that for both club and country, he now has 15 goal contributions in 21 games. If you are a striker who relies on your form and a hot streak, getting goals as he has just done for Sweden this week could be massive for us.

We’re in the ‘Business End’ of the season. We need the end product above all else. The pretty/quality football is secondary to results, and you know what gets results? Goals. Lots of goals. We need that Swede to make his contribution, and we need it now. Again, as I’ve mentioned, I doubt that will be much this weekend, nor should it. We have Gabby Jesus, we have Kai who has played a few minutes to build up his fitness, so they can share the minutes with the Brazilian, probably getting most. But when it comes to Sporting Lisbon, you want Big Vik ready for a return there, for sure, methinks.

As the players all start to come back to Arsenal from today, we now turn our attention to the fallout on injuries from this round of matches, with Arteta due to speak to the press on Friday. We have to hope that there is no bad news to surprise us, so let’s just cross our fingers that he is his usual coy self on specifics of injuries, but that he doesn’t confirm that any  players are ‘definitely’ out for a period of time.

Catch you all tomorrow as we start to look ahead to another big weekend.

Because Last night he helped to get his Swedish team into the final of the World Cup playoffs with a hat-trick, all of which felt very much part of his MO. First one, a tap-in after a good move on the left, with the striker basically touching in to an empty net. Think Everton at home a couple of weeks back. The second one was a transitional moment in which defenders were backtracking, and he shifted the ball inside the box, to then slot into the corner. Think a little like the Leeds goal at home he scored at the start of the season. Then the third was a penalty he roofed into the net.

It’s good for us because it means he’ll be feeling uber happy and confident after the disappointment of the League Cup. We all said that we needed this break, but if it gives a double boost of positivity for players like Gyokeres to come back even more fired up, then I don’t think there’ll be a Gooner around who won’t be satisfied with that. He now plays for Poland, and apart from Kiwior – who is basically an Arsenal player in name only at this point – we have no Polish players that we really need to see boosted, so my hopes are now for Sweden to go through next week and Big Vik to come back feeling 10 feet tall.

Riccardo Calafiori will also be feeling pretty good, as he saw his Italian team go through at the expense of Northern Ireland and, more importantly, he managed the full 90 minutes. Given how he hasn’t played too much of late, that’s not too bad, but I hope the staff are mindful of his injury record this season, and of all the players on injury duty, he’s the one that I have my fingers crossed for the most. I’ve already shown my hand earlier in the week by talking about an early possible team for Southampton away next Saturday, but when I look at the fact that Calafiori may well play another full 90 for Italy, possibly even more if Bosnia send them to extra time, you do wonder whether he’ll be asked to sit that one out if he plays too many minutes whilst on international duty.

I think some of the games coming up mean I’d like to see Calafiori in there from the start if he can stay fit. The City game away, for one, is one I’d have him earmarked for. He played well there last season. He looked good and gave us more dynamism when he came on in the League Cup last weekend, so if I’m Arteta, that’s definitely one I want him fit for.

Christian Norgaard was on the scoresheet for Denmark, who now have to go to the Czech Republic to get themselves to the World Cup in the summer. Again, another player who hasn’t played as much and whilst I absolutely detest international football during the domestic season, getting minutes into his legs is probably a good thing for the context of the remainder of our season. Hopefully, he gets the good vibes and progresses as well, because like Poland, we have no skin in the game when it comes to the Czech’s.

Martinelli got 63 minutes for Brazil in France, who lost 2-1 to Les Bleus, but it seems he was fine when coming off, so that’s another one thankfully ticked off the list.

And so to the remaining players on international duty, and let’s start with Benjamin White, who Tommy Tuchel admitted the player will have to speak to his teammates about his absence. For his part, I think Tuchel has played it well, because he’s said he doesn’t care about what happened before, he has seen White do well in training, and that he’s a good lad. I suspect if Ben plays tonight at 7.45 against Uruguay, he’s going to be roundly booed by the England fans. That’s to be expected from some of the twats that will be in the crowd. Instead of asking the question: “Why did he leave the camp under Southgate and Holland and not return until he was asked by the new manager? I wonder if it was the old administration that had anything to do with it?”, they will bleat and whinge and sing ridiculous things like “you let your country down” and nonsense. But to anybody going tonight that boo’s, if I were able to speak to them as an individual and say, “Have you ever had a line manager who treated you poorly, didn’t look after your interests and made life horrible for you at work?” If the answer is “yes”, then perhaps those idiots who boo would take a second to have a think about what more than likely happened under the last manager. Because if Ben White hates playing for England, he ain’t picking up the phone and returning the first time he’s asked to under the next manager.

As for the others on duty, we have to hope that Madueke sees some minutes and is fine, whilst Saka and Rice are, I believe, not going to be selected for this game. Raya, Zubimendi and Mosquera will most likely be in the squad tonight, but given it is a friendly, I hope the Spanish manager is sensible about his minutes. I hope that Rodri gets a ton of minutes and Zubi is on the bench for both, but I suspect he might alternate. He’s another one that, if we’re all honest, probably needs a week off when he returns from international duty, so I wouldn’t even pick him in the squad for the FA Cup.

HIncapie plays in Morocco tonight, then Eindhoven on Tuesday, which hopefully can be a good thing, because it’s a very short flight back from the Netherlands, and so the long trip back to the UK from Ecuador isn’t on the cards. Martinelli is the one who will face the longest trip, because he’s in Orlando in the early hours of Wednesday morning, so I wonder if that puts pay to any possible start he might have next weekend?

There’s not a lot else worth talking about at this stage, though; we just have to cross our fingers and hope that no player picks up a knock. We haven’t been very lucky with that so far in these international breaks this season, so I’d like the football gods to at least cut us a break this time around.

Famous last words, eh?

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.

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. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They’re a good team. A physical team. A team who know their strengths and is good at reducing its deficiencies. The data nerds may well raise an occasional eyebrow at how well they’ve done this season, but having watched them frustrate us and stifle us in the first half yesterday, I have to admit I’m surprised that their away form has been a bit, well, pants.

It took a bit of Zubi magic to unlock them, which then also meant they would have to come at us a little more, but I was still impressed at how hard we had to work. Zubi’s scored more goals than he’s ever done so before, but I bet if you asked him, he’d tell you that his highlights reel for this season has never looked as impressive. I love a goal that cannons in off the post and that one just before halftime felt particularly aesthetically pleasing. A real ‘have it!’ moment and worthy of winning any match alone.

It’d been tough going up until that point though. I thought Calafiori looked oddly at sixes-and-sevens at points in the game, perhaps still getting up to match fitness, but there was also a couple of weird moments in which Raya was a little sloppy too. Thankfully we weren’t punished, and in fact we did what we tend to do with these kinds of games – we basically locked out Sunderland for most of the match (Opta had their xG for the whole game as 0.17). Apparently Sunderland had three shots on target, but I’m struggling to remember whether Raya was troubled by any of them. Last weekend Daniel Farke spoke about how they essentially just don’t get a sniff and this week whilst Regis Le Bris didn’t exactly say the same, I’ll bet he was thinking it.

One-nil to The Arsenal at home earlier in the season felt like ‘job done’. But in 2026 so far we’ve conceded a few goals despite being ahead, so it did feel as though the stadium might get a bit antsy if that scoreline remained until the dying embers of the game. But thankfully we have a striker in form in Big Vik, so him bagging that goal on 66 minutes did make me feel like the game was essentially done. He’d only been on the pitch for six minutes, but his introduction clearly proved to be a master stroke by Arteta. His replacement Gabriel Jesus had hardly been in the game, same as Madueke, but the two coming on will have made their case to start against Brentford in midweek quite clear with their end product. Martinelli on the right is an interesting one; he’s barely ever been utilised there during Arteta’s time, but finds himself getting a few minutes here and there this season. Hey, if he can deliver like he did for Vik’s second in stoppage time, maybe Madueke shouldn’t be the defacto ‘next man up’ when Saka isn’t available.

It’s probably more to do with game state though. At 2-0 on 66 minutes, Sunderland are goingt o push forward a little more to see if they can unsettle us, plus with the fact that they are already basically safe, this one becomes a bit of a Hail Mary free hit of a remaining 25+ minutes as soon as we get the second goal. So perhaps that kind of game, where there is space, where there are moments in which Martinelli can run in behind like he did on 93 minutes, are perfect and the reason that he’s looked so good when coming on as a sub.

The same can probably be said for Gyokeres too. I really liked his first finish. It was instinctive. It was poachy. It was a good strike and a big to relief to all involved. At the start of the season I was very much minded to say if he gets 20 goals in all comps, then he’s done his job. That’s 13 now I believe, with plenty of football matches left to play, so if he keeps up this form, he’ll get to his target. We still need the other attackers to step up, for sure, but at least we have a goalscorer who will be feeling himself a bit after bagging a fair few goals over recent weeks.

Now there’s an opportunity to rest up, for those players to have a solid few days of light training, before a really tough away game to an in-form Brentford team on Thursday. This league is relentless, the same intensity will be needed and Arsenal will need to keep up the winning ways, despite being nine points clear. It feels great this morning, it’s handy that Liverpool and City play this afternoon and we know those Arsenal players have done their job. But if you ever want an example of how relentless this competition is, we play away to Brentford and away to The Scum in back-to-back Premier League matches. If City win today, that buffer we’ve built up could very easily be eroded, so it’s game faces on now and focus on the Bees next week.

Back tomorrow with more musings.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Catch you all then.

All talk pre-game was about the fact that this could officially be classed as a ‘wobble’ if Arsenal do not win. Three without victory, two goalless draws, a team that can’t score open play goals, etc, etc, blah, blah – you know the drill as well as I do. So when we also got the news pre-kick off that Saka had pulled up in the warm-up, you could forgive any Arsenal fan for being a little more apprehensive. His form in terms of goals may have dried up, but he’s still a talisman in this Arsenal team, as Odegaard been seen in times gone by too. But he was unexpectedly dropped – an acknowledgement from Arteta methinks, that his captain’s form hasn’t been great – and didn’t see any minutes until the game was practically won in the second half. A sign of things to come? Maybe, maybe not, because it was Havertz who replaced the Norwegian, and I think Arteta will have Kai earmarked for more attacking roles at the spearhead of our attack, when his fitness comes back up to the required level for him to be able to play a full 90.

Side note: I actually think Odegaard played really well when he came on. There was a definite verticality in his passing; it was almost as if being dropped had shot a rocket up his backside, and he realised how effective he could be.

The game itself started a little stodgy, though. Leeds got on the ball, the home fans were in good voice, they were keeping us at bay for at least the first 20 minutes, I think. And although we completely restricted them – as we often do to teams – in terms of chance creation, we weren’t getting in behind too much and creating loads of chances. It’s funny though, because for me personally, when the game goes on, I find myself seeing games differently to how the commentators do. I was watching on Sri Lankan TV and they had Lee Hendry and some other dude talking about how dominant we were, but until that first goal goes in, you’re always wondering if it’s going to be a game like that Forest one.

We have Martin Zubimendi to thank for the fact that we did get that all-important first goal, although Noni Madueke might have something to say about his role in the proceedings. I don’t know about you, but seeing him celebrate, I got a feeling that he celebrated that a little harder than normal – perhaps last weekend’s mistake was still playing on his mind? If that’s the case, much like Big Gabi at Newcastle last season, the best way to respond is like that. The ball from Noni was great (another guy who had a very good game in terms of delivery and end product – assist-wise), his header was well met and sometimes those bullet headers straight down the ‘keepers throat are really difficult to save.

1-0 to the Arsenal. Lovely. What you then need before halftime is that second to really make your dominance count. So of course, it was going to be a set piece that did it. I have seen Man City fans, Liverpool fans, as well as some of those scummy Spurs and Chelsea fans, talk up how we are anti-football. I couldn’t be happier to read it. They can moan all they like, but you don’t get half a goal for a set piece. You also have something in your locker that terrifies teams, which is the only explanation for why Karl Darlow flapped one in his own net. Of course, queue the Match of the Day and Sky Sports graphics talking about how ‘Own Goal’ is now our top scorer.

Cry me a river.

Lately, a 2-0 scoreline hasn’t felt like it was the ‘sure thing’ for an Arsenal win, with goals against us for Bournemouth and United, as well as two for Chelsea in the League Cup, which is probably why I felt a little more nervous than usual in that first 10 minutes of the second half. Leeds were always going to come out and ‘have a go’; their home fans would have demanded it. And again, whilst I personally was quite nervous, I think with the benefit of hindsight, the Arsenal players just took control and rode out the mini storm with relative ease in the end. A final nail in the coffin by way of an Arsenal third was all we’d need.

Did I mention the narratives about ‘Own Goal’ being trotted out? Well, step forward, Big Vik, who decided that on this day, that narrative was going to be quashed somewhat. Now, it wasn’t a scintillating performance from the Swede (he should have taken his shot on from a great ball from Trossard in that first half), but I think we’re all coming to realise that we just aren’t going to get that from him. He was fine, strong in places, held up the ball ok and I think his connection with Havertz looked good. What I will say, though, is that his goal was EXACTLY the sort of finish I thought we’d be getting from him this season. Odegaard’s ball in behind to set Martinelli racing was a little wide, but he did well to get on to it, and his left-footed cross in was begging for some good movement.

We got it. Gyokeres used his strength well. He got in front of his man, his finish was a bit of a shinner, but who cares? He’s there to do exactly that, and much like Zubi, you could kind of tell that he was very happy with that ball hitting the back of the net. He needed that just as much as Zubi must have felt he did.

Job done. But whilst we’re having fun, why not get a cherry on the cake, which Gabriel Jesus decided he wanted to be in on the action for? His goal was the pick of the bunch from a build-up and finish perspective. And it was a very ‘Gabby Jesus’ type of move. The type of goal where you think “if you could do that every week, you’d be an absolute legendary superstar”. We don’t get enough from him on a consistent basis (he was pretty crap against United), but he is still showing that he can have an impact this season.

And I wonder what impact this comprehensive win will have on the team? After a little wobble, we’ve scored four goals, some open play ones too, we can put the recent blip hopefully behind us and we go into a semi-final against Chelsea at home in which a win would get us to a League Cup final (probably) against Man City.

A good day’s work. Let’s build on it.

Before a ball was kicked, yesterday morning and afternoon, I was excited for this game. The reason was that, like the League Cup game against Chelsea, it felt like a little more of a ‘free hit’ than the Premier League. I can absolutely guarantee that I won’t have the same feelings when we play Man United on Sunday.

And I think Arteta had that game in mind when he picked this starting XI to line up in Milan last night. He would never admit that, he might also say that minutes and load needed to be managed from the trip to Nottingham last weekend, but I think he’s well-aware of what kind of different and difficult challenge a refreshed and rested United might pose, so he selected his playing pieces yesterday very carefully, I think.

There were starts for some of the regulars; you’d expect that given the opposition – Inter rested players at the weekend for this game, and you can’t expect Arsenal to play all the kids with a calibre of opposition that we had. So I wasn’t surprised to see Raya, Saliba, Timber, Zubi, Saka and Trossard all start.

Complementing them was, of course, MLS, the returning Mosquera (who played really well given the physicality of his opponent last night), Eze, Merino, Gabby Jesus, which still made for a very experienced lineup. And you could tell, because from the first minute we were on top of them. We probably could – or even should – have scored within the first couple of minutes. We pressed high, we closed space, we forced Inter into a few errors, and it felt very much like the start of the PSG away game last season. Unfortunately for us, the similarities with that game also existed in the form of not getting that Blitzkrieg goal that I think Arteta probably wanted within the first minute or two.

Well, I say we didn’t get that early goal, but we actually did. I guess we did so much in the opening five minutes that I momentarily forgot that we were actually ahead by 10 minutes. Timber’s deflected shot was, I think, superbly poached on by Gabriel Jesus. He loves the Champions League, doesn’t he? We’ve said it ever since he signed, and I think it has more to do with the space afforded to Arsenal, plus the reduction in physicality of the Champions League (teams are all winners in their respective domestic competitions, so they’re used to playing football and not just low-blocking the shite out of football matches), that means some of our players can flourish. Ironically enough, I think Gabby Jesus has plenty of upper-body strength that does help him in the Premier League. But there’s just something about the Champions League that makes him more prolific. 

And prolific he was yesterday. His first goal was a predatory strike just outside the six-yard box, whilst the second was a nod in about two yards out. Although I think we have to say that there was a touch of fortune about the way the ball kissed the bar before falling for him to nod in ahead of any Inter defenders. “A penny for Viktor’s thoughts with those chances” I thought when that second one went in. Those are the kind of positions he’s been taking up (think his Burnley goal as one example), but the ball just hasn’t been finding him. I do think we need to have a serious think about whether he’s right for us in the long term. I’m just not sure his style fits, and when you see our former first choice number nine bag his third goal since returning from injury, you start to wonder. But these were goals that I would also have expected Viktor to get, were he on the pitch, anyway. 

It didn’t matter a whole deal, though, because despite coming on as an impact sub, he still bagged the best goal of the night. And it felt like the kind of YouTube goal we saw from his highlight reels last season for Sporting. Inter pushing up and pressing, Arsenal defend a corner well, Martinelli plays an absolute sumptuous pass in behind, and the Swede gets the wrong side of his man. He didn’t quite race away from his two centre-halves; he also sort of fluffed the pass to Saka, but you can’t argue with his pounce on the loose ball and finish.

That essentially ended the game as a contest, which was certainly a very good contest up until that point, with Inter having their fair share of shots and attacks on the counter. It made for a good game. We talk about the Premier League being a good advert for football, but in reality, the increase in tactical discipline and defensive risk-aversion often results in games in which Arsenal have to wade through the treacle of a low or mid-block. The Champions League has no such stodge and, as a result, proper football matches can unfold. This game had some basketball moments, it had some fine goals (the Inter goal is one that you have to begrudgingly say was a good hit from just outside the box), and it had two teams wanting to move the ball around purposefully. It even had a little bit of handbags with Bastoni pushing Merino over after he’d gone in on a couple of Inter players. It was fun to watch. Made all the more fun, of course, by the fact that we won. 

And that win allowed us to confirm our top two slot in the competition, significant because it means all of our knockout games will be played away first, then at home all the way to the final. Will that make a difference in helping us to progress? Let’s bloody-well hope so. 

The team will travel back today, they’ll be back in light training tomorrow, I suspect, which means the Friday session to prep for United and then also on Saturday. And with players rotating and resting like Rice, Timber too (whose job was shared with White on 60+ minutes – which I liked a lot), we hopefully have ourselves not only fresh players, but players rather buoyed and confident going into that game against United. 

Can’t ask for much more than that.

Back tomorrow as we start to prep for that big game on Sunday.

So why do I not feel completely sated this morning?

I think it’s probably the feeling that this tie could – and probably should – be practically over. We outshot them. We had more big chances. We won more duels. We had more corners. The only thing Chelsea had over Arsenal on the night was greater possession, but, as the eye test showed, that was a little more sterile for us. It felt like we gave Chelsea a bit of a lifeline with the goals we conceded to a Garnacho who I personally think is one of the most overrated players in the league. The goals he scored felt avoidable:

1. Garnacho at the back post, unmarked after Neto had been allowed to float the ball in from the other flank
2. A poorly contested corner that went through a sea of players as Garnacho semi-mis-hit his goal attempt.

This game felt like one that we should have taken a 3-1 lead back to the Emirates on, something I know Mikel Arteta also believed, based on his post-match comments. It felt like a game that – despite Chelsea getting a few chances throughout – was one that we were in control of. That feeling helps when you score early, and Ben White’s headed goal from one of the first corners of the game certainly did its bit to calm any initial lingering nerves I had. It was pretty shocking defending, though; if we’re going to say that we could – probably should – have done better on our conceded goals, I think Chelsea fans waking up this morning will be feeling a lot worse about the concession of their goals.

That applies to the second goal we scored as well. Sanchez won’t want to go back into the video room for this match this week, that’s for sure, because it was he who allowed the ball to slip through his palms for Big Vik to break his drought and put us two up on the night. And as I said on the ol’ socials, boy, did the Swede need that. He cut another solitary performance at first last night, and the stats guys who run the graphics on screen are never going to be his friend, with last night’s number on screen in that first half saying that he’d by far had the fewest touches of any player on the pitch.

It doesn’t matter if you score though

That’s what we’ve been saying for a while, so if I’m going to have choice words to say when he doesn’t score and looks forlorn like Liverpool this time last week, we have to hand out some flowers to the big guy when he does. Right place, right time, hopefully this helps his confidence.

And at that point, you’d expect Arsenal to shut up shop. We’ve been good for quite some time at closing down games, but Mikel Arteta will be a little disappointed in the concession of those two Garnacho goals. That’s happened a lot over the last six weeks or so. I think most of us Gooners have put it down to Big Gabi being out at the start, but he’s been back for a couple of weeks now. Yet, we’re still not keeping the back line completely water-tight, which is something I think Arteta will be looking at today and tomorrow when they do their analysis on this match ahead of Forest on Saturday.

From a tactical perspective, I really liked how high we pressured Chelsea in their half of the pitch. When Sanchez played the ball out from the back, it was never long, and Arsenal clearly knew this would happen, because there was always a guy in the midfield picking the ball up in their own half, which forced several high turnovers and presented a few opportunities. Rice, Odegaard and Zubi – all had their moments in which they did that, and you could tell it was clearly instructive. Arsenal had Chelsea’s number on the night, which is also why I guess I’m a wee bit frustrated, because it felt like we easily had the beating of them and were the better team on the night.

I definitely felt that when Zubi scored. What a player he is, eh? He does the six role to perfection, but he’s also been given the licence to go forward more than he ever did at Real Sociedad, which is resulting in goals for him too. He has four goals in all competitions this season already. Last season, he scored two. In fact, across his career, he has only ever managed a maximum of four in a season – he has only scored 10 goals in 236 games across seven seasons previously, so he’s already matched his best, and we’re only just halfway through the season. This is a guy who has very quickly become an integral cog in this Arteta machine, and you can see why Arsenal pursued him through such a long campaign as they did last year. He is a superstar, and I love that he plays in our red and white. I’ll also take this moment to say ‘props’ to the team themselves, who worked the ball really well for that goal, including Big Vik, who gets himself an assist on the night too.

The job isn’t done, as Arteta was pointing out afterwards, but we have ourselves a one-goal lead to take to our own gaff in a couple of weeks’ time, and that is good. Whether it will mean that players are rotated, I doubt, because that is quite a slender lead for you to be doing mass tinkering as we did against Pompey. But there is at least the breathing space, and Arteta was at least able to make a few subs last night too, bringing on Merino,Jesus and Havertz for Rice, Gyokeres and Odegaard. Martinelli got on too to keep his engine running as well and perhaps the subs made us a little less organised as those players came up to speed with the game, but I do just wonder if we just switched off a bit with their second goal.

Hey, I’m nit-picking though because let’s be honest, we’re in a good position, we scored three goals and should now be heavy favourites to go one better than last season. And you have to take that. All eyes now shift to Forest away on Saturday, which will be a really tricky game against a Sean Dyche who loves to spoil the mood, so let’s hope those players have those game-faces back on immediately, because we can’t afford any Premier League slip-ups, having had a bit of a hiatus from it over the last week.

Back tomorrow as we build up to that one.

We’ve all spoken this season about how impressive our squad is, how it hopefully will set us up for success, but so far this season the only way in which it’s really been able to be used is via the League Cup, and even then I think Arteta has prefered to go with a strong team given we’ve faced Premier League opposition most of the time. So today is another chance to see some of those rotational options get on the pitch and I think – with all due respect to Portsmouth – it should be one in which large-scale rotation is on the cards.

So for me, the team I’m lining up with today, if I was Arteta is:

1. Kepa
2. Salmon
3. Lewis -Skelly
4. White
5. Gabriel
6. Norgaard – DM
7. Eze – Left eight
8. Nwaneri – right eight
9. Gabriel Jesus
10. Madueke – right wing
11. Martinelli – left wing

I don’t think Arteta will do that, because I think he’ll play Merino, but I’ve left out Merino purely on the basis that he has played a lot of minutes this season compared to the others, and I think this game, of all of the upcoming ones, offers the most opportunity for large-scale rotation. It’s also why I’ve stuck in Salmon at right back, but again, I doubt Arteta will do that. If I go with what I ‘think’ will happen, it will be White at right back, Saliba and Gabriel at centre-half, Eze at right eight and Merino at left eight. There is an opportunity to surprise me though; we can also use the midweek League Cup game away to Chelsea as an opportunity for a fair bit of rotation too and I suspect Chelsea will go quite strong in that one, because it will allow Rosenior to very quickly get fans on side if they beat us over two legs and then also get to a final with a chance of winning a cup.

So if anything, that game in midweek probably needs a stronger XI, which means I hope Arteta goes a little harder on rotation today. I spoke yesterday about how Portsmouth is doing, having reviewed some of the available statistics, and it is a team that will likely play a long game, sitting compact and looking to counterattack on the break. In an ideal world, you need players who can probably operate in small spaces and I think Eze can definitely do that, I think Ethan has tight enough ball control and dribbling ability to do that, so given this game at Pompey might need a few more lock-pickers on the pitch, why not go with two creative eights, rather than Merino who is more of a physical, duel-winning, box-threat eight?

There’s probably also an element of protectionism of Ethan too, because I’ve seen a lot of fans online, on pods, videos, etc, all talking about Ethan and how we get him minutes. We all have a lot of affection for the boy, and we want to see him, hence why I think I – maybe like you – am desparate for him to be slotted in to this team today. Let’s see if it happens.

Let’s also see if we get some Havertz airtime too. That would be brilliant. By the sounds of it in Arteta’s pre-match press conference, the signs are good, so if I was a betting man, I’d probably say that there’s a job share opportunity with Jesus and Havertz today. If Jesus gets 70 minutes and we’re winning, let’s see if Kai can do 20 minutes up top. Much like Jesus’ minutes have been managed so far, we need to do the same with Kai, and so I’m looking at this game as the perfect introduction. It sounds like Arteta is judging by his comments. It will be so good to see him back, although I think most of us are reasonable in our expectations; this guy has basically been out for over a year, and expecting him to have any major impact in the coming weeks is probably a little too far-fetched. I’m looking at February-time for him probably being able to start a match, and by Marc,h he might start to look a little like the Kai of old. But for now, what we need is glimmers of the old Ka,i and with Big Vik looking more and more confidence-shorn, having another option from the bench feels like it’s a big plus for our aspirations this season.

For Gabby Jesus, this represents an opportunity to say to the manager, “Remember – I was THE guy at nine. So here’s my re-audition to be a starter,” and, given that Big Vik has looked anything but lethal in recent games, if he performs today, I think the clamour from the fanbase to start him will only grow. I’m getting there too. That Liverpool game feels like a bit of a watershed moment for Gyokeres; he wasn’t great, he didn’t offer a lot, and when Gabby Jesus came on, you saw a guy so much more involved. Yes, he also wasn’t great, but I think the challenge Big Vik has is that people can’t ‘see’ him. Everyone can ‘see’ Jesus because it’s the kind of wasp-like character he is across the pitch.

I want us to win this game. In previous seasons, our squad hasn’t been big enough to cope on multiple fronts, but given I’ve just been able to name an almost completely rotated XI that still looks very good and doesn’t even include Merino in it, that is evidence of the fact that we have the squad that should be able to challenge. And we’ve been knocked out in the third round of this competition too many times recently. Last season to United (which was a joke), the season before to Liverpool, two seasons before that it was Forest. In fact, since we won it in 2020, we haven’t progressed beyond the fourth round of this competition. It’s time to change that. And this team has the depth and quality to do it. Now go and prove it, Arsenal.

I’ll be back tomorrow as usual to do a bit of a de-brief, but for now, I’ll leave you with the rest of your Sunday and let’s hope we can do the business this afternoon.

Laters kids.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Arteta wouldn’t be drawn on Havertz and Gyokeres, saying that they are both close and whilst Nagelsmann’s comments the week before last suggested that Havertz would be somebody probably closer to Christmas playing for us, we’re still a little more in the dark about Big Vik. I do think it is weird; we haven’t really been told anything other than he picked up a muscular injury which was reported as a hamstring strain. A quick Google tells you that a hammy takes anything between a few days to months for a complete tear. We know it wasn’t a tear, it clearly wasn’t what they call a ‘Grade 1’ because that takes just a few days or a week or two. But there has been no mention of a ‘tear’ at all, which puts the recovery at between four to eight weeks. If we’re ok to assume it isn’t a tear of the hammy and just a strain, then as of Sunday Gyokeres has been out for essentially a month, because the Burnley game was on 1st November.

My hope is that he is surely in contention for Sunday, but I do find it interesting that nobody asked (unless they did and it hasn’t been picked up) about the two players in isolation, because surely Big Vik is more likely to be returning sooner than Havertz? I would have hope that we can see him this weekend but if not, you’d hope that we could see him on Wednesday against Brentford, surely?

In the meantime, it might mean Mikel Merino once again reprises his role in attack and Arteta was of course happy to give some flowers to a guy who I think almost all of us now are much more appreciative of than we were a year or so ago. I remember this time last year thinking we’d bought an okayish central midfielder who would be a backup if we needed it (and it turned out we bloody-well did need it). We ‘found’ ourselves an auxiliary centre forward last season and now that he’s bedded in, he’s been acting as a fantastic deputy for our injured guys. And in the meantime, we’ve shifted our playing style and I’ve noticed our Merino has adapted too, dropping on to the right at times, tucking in to midfield at times and then rotating with either Trossard moving into the central space, or Eze taking up those positions for which he scored his goals last weekend.

If Merino plays tomorrow it will be interesting to see what Chelsea do, because I suspect they might have seen how Merino is vacating those attacking spaces and they might put somebody on him to do a tracking job. I’ll save a little more tactical thinking about how the game might line up for tomorrow, but I do think this is going to be a fascinating tactical chess match between two of Guardiola’s disciples.

There was a question asked about Gabby Jesus, who along with Nwaneri played in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Watford this week (must be bloody handy to shout over a fence and see if the lads want a kick about) and whilst Arteta wouldn’t be drawn on how available he might be soon, I suspect we might see him in a match day squad or two in the next couple of weeks. If you remember what happened with Timber when he did his ACL, the club really took their time to bring him back and he only read made the return on the last game of the season, a full 10 months after he picked up his injury on the first day against Forest. Gabby J is a few years older, so the healing will take longer, but he’s done 11 months now and so I think Arteta might be thinking about maybe an additional week of training before he’s in for match day squad inclusion. He apparently came through that friendly unscathed, he’ll probably have some sore legs for a few days, so who knows? Maybe a cheeky subs appearance in midweek against Brentford isn’t off the table?

He was asked about Rice winning the Balon D’Or, which is the type of question I hate, plus about Estevao’s quality, which of course he didn’t want to talk on an individual, but I do wonder if we have a game plan for certain players if they play or not. For example, Maresca predictably said that Palmer is back in training, having said he had ‘no chance’ just over a week ago. He hasn’t played since September so it’s a little like Odegaard for us in that regard in that you wouldn’t think he could get a full 90 from Palmer, but does Arteta plan for Palmer from the start? Does he plan for Estevao from the start? Or the bench? We talk a lot about how our squad depth is immense – and it is – but Chelsea also have quite a deep squad, having spent the best part of three years stockpiling every player they could get their grubby mitts on. If you take their attack, for example, you’ve got the aforementioned two players, but also Delap, Joao Pedro, Garnacho, as well as Gittens. They’ve even been giving Tyrique George games too, so it isn’t as if they have a ‘bare bones’ team.

That’s a challenge Mikel is going to be set tomorrow but the good news is that we’ve seen how he can spot things and adapt in-game to them, evidenced by the second half against Bayern in which we just upped the gears and showed our power against the German champions. You feel like once the game kicks off and the patterns of play start to get set, we might need to see Arteta making similar tactical adjustments when he see’s what Chelsea and Maresca are doing.

But, as I said, perhaps that is for tomorrow’s blog, so I’ll leave it for today and hope you have a great Saturday and maybe we can get another splendid hate-watch day like last Saturday.

Let’s start with some positive news, which is that yesterday afternoon Big Vik took to his Instagram to get pictures of himself in training. Given how Arsenal spend so much time trying not to give anything away by clearly selecting pictures they know won’t include any players who will have had question marks over them, this will have left Arteta absolutely FEWMIN’ I’ll wager. He loves every single marginal gain he can possibly grasp his mits on, so when he’s asked today about who is back, whilst he might still be coy and say “we have some players back who were injured” and not name names, I think a lot of us can guess who.

My original guess was Noni and Martinelli, but news also emerged yesterday that Odegaard was back in training and whilst I suspect the skipper doesn’t have a place from the start, having a bench that could include him, Noni and Martinelli to give us options, is a huge boost. In a week in which we lost Big Gabi to a needless and preventable injury (thanks Brazilian national team and Ancelotti, by the way), the boost of potentially Odegaard AND Gyokeres making the match day squad is EXACTLY what we all read right now.

And having listened to a couple more podcasts and videos yesterday looking at the North London Derby, where it might be won or lost, this was just what I needed as a bit of a boost going in to what is going to be a really tough weekend and subsequent week for us.

But how are those Scum fans feeling? Welp, as is my wont these days, I ventured well into enemy lines again to have a look. And I tell you what, they are not confident at all. There’s lots of talk of just making this a physical game, of giving it their best shot, ‘it’s a one-off game’ and the like. I’m really surprised actually. It’s funny that compared to the likes of Villa, Forest, Sunderland, etc, their fans are so negative. Maybe it’s a London thing because when we were in their shoes and coming up against Chelsea in their pomp I’m pretty sure that would have been the Arsenal forums, but I’d have expected more optimism given their away form. That’s what is doing me the most nerves this morning and has been all week. I had a look and going backwards from most recent it is an away win at Everton in which 3-0 really did flatter them, a tight 2-1 against Leeds in which again they had fewer shots, less possession, less passes, corners, etc. Then there was the 2-2 at Brighton in which it looks like they edged that one in terms of dominance, which came after the smash and grab at a struggling City side who had all the possession but didn’t really create too many chances for what you’d expect from City at home. I’ve just watched that game and Marmoush should have had two before they scored a counter attack from a long ball to Richarlison, a slip by the last man and then a tap in from wide runner Johnson. That is 100% what they want to do on Sunday, by the way. I’ll have a look at the style of play and approach in the pre match blog on Sunday, but the Blueprint for the Scum is to be compact and spring long balls to get the likes of Kudus and probably Johnson running three-on-three with Richarlison as well. The second goal was an absolute shocking from City playing out from the back and that came from them having seven of their ten outfield players in or around the penalty box. It came from City fannying around at the back and then making an absolute howler rather than spotting what the Scum were doing and going long into the middle of the park to contest longer balls. Within five minutes on Sunday we’ll be able to tell if the Scum are adopting the same tactic, so I expect Arteta to be aware of this and to be planning accordingly with Raya ready to go long if needed. City did create chances though and I’m stunned they didn’t score to be fair. But what I have seen is that when the Scum were ahead, it was all the bodies in their own box.

But what about the pundits? Well, for the second week in a row in the Premier League, Jones Knows on Sky has an Arsenal defeat in mind and I can understand why. Frank is a man who loves an ‘underdog’ tag as he points out and whilst that won’t be sustainable long-term with what their ambitions are, this is exactly the type of game he’ll fancy doing that and playing low-block, scabby football against us, which I will reiterate – I do fear.

Merse is going for a 1-0 and calls it right I think when he says he thinks it will be a cagey affair. Sutton thinks this has got 3-0 Arsenal stamped on it, saying that it is their front line he is worried about, which I get but I would say to be fair to them, they’ve had almost as many attacking injuries as we’ve had this season. I cannot see that in a million years becuase there’s no way we get three goals against a low block Spurs outfit. Olly Murs said he wasn’t impressed with Spurs last time out (he was the celeb doing the predictions) so he’s said 2-0 to The Arsenal. Finally, Alan Shearer has completed the (almost) full house by saying that we’ll ‘edge’ this game.

Heck – however it comes about, I’ll take any kind of win, but what we need now is some fighting talk from Arteta and some confirmation that we have some fresh, new bodies arriving to the match day squad come Sunday. Fingers crossed.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some post-press conference thoughts from both managers. See you then.

I think we’re getting a Mikel Arteta press conference this morning ahead of the Sunderland game and I don’t know about you, but the main question I’d like answered is:

How long is Viktor Gyokeres going to be out injured for?

The talk is that it’s after the international break, as well as a few players expected to be back, but if you think about how long Havertz and Madueke have been out for, it would be a surprise to see them walk straight back in to the first team. They will need to have their fitness built up and therefore whilst it will be good to have them back in training, I do hope that Big Vik is going to be fine after this weekend. Let’s hope the plan is to keep them all at London Colney, get them a full week of training whilst the internationals are on, maybe even a behind-closed-doors game or two, before being ready for the North London Derby.

The fixtures get scary after the break, but Sunderland away has it’s own treacherousness about it, because they have played well all season and will also be buoyed by the fact that we are running low on attacking options. The game is still two days away, but given there will be a press conference today I thought I’d start taking a look at what we’re up against from a team perspective and Sunderland at home have played five, won three, drawn two and lost none. They’ve scored nine at home in that time and conceded three, although their xG is 5.1 so they have been scoring from less than likely situations (that figure puts them 15th in the league). They have been good defensively though – as the three goals conceded suggests – and they’re one of the teams towards the top of the league when it comes to tackles won in their own defensive third.

From an attacking point of view they’ve had the fewest number of shots on target and they’re in the bottom half for total number of shots, which tells me they are a side who have been taking their chances – but is it sustainable over the long term?

Without wanting to jinx it too much (which I may well be doing here but I’m going to say it anyway), I think Sunderland will probably revert to the mean and they won’t sustain a European spot place for the entirety of the season, mainly based on some of these underlying metrics, but unfortunately for us we’ve caught them when they are riding high and we’ve got a bit of an attacking injury crisis, despite the two goals and good form of the likes of Merino for club and country. So some early thoughts for me ahead of this game are that I think we’re going to get a very tight encounter, because of a) their confidence and home ground advantage, and b) our attacking challenges in having to play a central midfielder up front.

And hey, I hope Merino does well and I hope that we get a good game and some goals out of him on Saturday evening, but whilst his goalscoring has been great overall in 2025, I do think we all need to remember that he isn’t a striker. He doesn’t make the kinds of runs that our actual strikers make, his inclusion means we’ll have to adapt our playing style and when he came on against Burnley on Saturday last weekend I think we definitely didn’t look as potent as we were in that first half against the Clarets. I’m not trying to bag on Merino here by the way, I’m just saying that I think we’re probably going to be saying we missed a striker of a certain style on Saturday, by the time the game ends. Last season when Merino had the role over a number of games it worked some of the time, but at other times it kind of felt like we were lacking a little bit. I had a quick look at the end of last season when he played up front and his stats were:

• Southampton away = drew a blank
• PSG at home = drew a blank
• Real Madrid away = two assists
• Real Madrid home = scored
• Fulham home = scored
• Chelsea home = scored
• United away = drew a blank
• Forest away = drew a blank
• West Ham home = drew a blank

So it is a good return to be fair, but I seem to recall in some of those games we really struggled to knit together any kind of attacking link up – like United away and Forest away – and I think what this small sample size tells me is that over a short period of time I think Merino up top is fine, but over a prolonged period, it isn’t really ideal.

And that’s why we went out and bought Big Vik in anyway, right? I listened to two of the prominent Arsenal podcasts over the summer and they both said “the Merino experiment was fine, he’s a good player, but we don’t really want to see that too often” and I don’t know about you guys, but I really didn’t think we’d be seeing it as early as the beginning of November in the season, but here we are. So for me if we can get some kind of words of comfort from Arteta that after the international break we’ll have some players back for that big NLD clash, then that will at least mean that we just need to use our ‘break glass in case of emergency‘ approach just the once more.

A final note from the game this weekend, as I try not to sound too down on Merino (honestly, I am genuinely not, I feel like he’s been really good in filling in and has scored some vital goals for us) up top, is that I looked at the stats on what teams do against Sunderland and Sunderland have had the third most crosses in to the box that they’ve faced of any team this season. What do we all know Merino is good at? Heading in from crosses (think Newcastle away). If we’re going to play to his strengths, I think Leo, Saka and our full backs, as well as the likes of Rice or Eze, need to be looking for that barnet of Merino’s in the box – it might be a secret weapon.

Back tomorrow with some post press conference thoughts. See you then.

Firstly, we have to ponder who on earth is now going to be playing up front, after Big Vik succumbed to muscular injury, in which Arteta would not be drawn on how long he is out for. I think, given our luck both last season and this season, we could probably be forgiven for thinking the worst and whilst we have a hurdle to overcome this evening, I’m wondering when we are going catch a frigging break on injuries, because as Arteta pointed out in his press conference also talking about when we play Crystal Palace over the Christmas period, we now have a vast array of attacking players out injured as it stands in this point in time.

No Gyokeres.

No Kai.

No Gabriel Jesus.

No Madueke.

No Martinelli.

No Odegaard.

It’s honestly ridiculous that we have a situation where we stockpiled ourselves to guard against injury, yet we STILL find ourselves possibly calling on makeshift starting front lines as we enter into November. The footballing gods are really doing their best to test us and what’s also annoying is that in about a month’s time, you just know we’ll have everyone back fit and we’ll be wondering  how we are going to spread the game time out.

Fingers crossed it’s just this game and then potentially Sunderland away next weekend, which is looking all the more trickier with Gyokeres possibly missing from that too.

As for tonight, it’ll be Slavia Prague who we need to work out how to overcome, with Arteta admitting how they haven’t lost at home in an age. They’re sitting top of their domestic league as a result of form like that, but their Champions League form tells a different story, with a draw at home to Bodo/Glimt and an away point at Atalanta, whilst being roundly beaten in Milan to Inter on match week two of the Champions League. I haven’t watched the highlights of the games, but I did check out the formations and how they set up against each of their Champions League opponents and I certainly found it interesting, because they’ve never played the same formation twice in the admittedly small sample size that I’ve looked at. Google had them lining up in a 3-5-2 against Bodo, a 4-5-1 against Inter and a 4-3-3 against Atalanta. Now, whether that means they’ll be looking to flip to something different or not tonight remains to be seen, but it does mean that there might be some thinking to do for Arteta. Equally, perhaps there is little thinking to do at all, because whilst on paper formations can look quite different when handed in to the UEFA officials, the spaces that players occupy can quite often be very similar whether you’re in a 4-5-1 or a 4-3-3, so I might be talking a load of old b*llocks here.

What Arsenal need to do is ensure that we control possession and ensure that we are not transitioned on. The good thing about Champions League games is that teams are used to winning and being the dominant forces in their respective leagues, so they don’t usually turn up to a game of football thinking about camping in their own half. Sometimes that’s how the game can play out, but it doesn’t usually work out like that. So I don’t think we’ll see Slavia Prague low block the crap out of us this evening. I do think they will try to open up space a bit and if that happens, then we need to be able to capitalise.

What Arteta does in the front three will be the biggest question mark I think. With all of the above mentioned players out, I think it limits our options significantly, plus the absence of Zubimendi means that we’ll see rotation further back on the field and as a result, I think this team might have more than a whiff of the Carabao Cup side from last week. I think he’ll start Raya in goal, I suspect one of Gabriel or Saliba will come in and one will drop to the bench, then I wonder if he’ll think about rotating one of our full backs? I suspect we might see Norgaard but because of that I think that despite the fact Rice is on a yellow and that could be dangerous if he picks one up for when we play Bayern after the international break, I think Arteta will get him on the pitch, along with Eze too. Then across the front three I think he goes with the same three that ended the game on Saturday. So it’ll be Trossard, Merino and Saka in attack. And that attack needs to be able to deliver more of a threat than the second half against Burnley for sure. Some of that might have been game state and us happy to pick up the three points by shutting down any kind of football match against the clarets, but tonight we need to see more.

It does mean, I think, that we will have to see a different style too from our attack, because whereas we’ve been learning to play to Gyokeres’ strengths and his running of the channels and balls in behind, Merino just won’t do that tonight if he starts. He will drop in and connect with fellow midfielders, he will be an aerial threat into the box, but he isn’t going to put in the kinds of yards that Big Vik does. So creativity of approach might need to see Trossard and/or Saka make more central runs if Merino is dropping in at times. The good news is that I think both of those players are capable of that and Trossard in particular has been in good form, so that’s a positive for sure.

It’s three wins out of three and zero goals conceded in the Champions League as we stand, with the opportunity to set a new club record (I think) with another shut out this evening. That’s amazing, but it’s up the other end of the pitch that the focus needs to be and if we get that right, then I think we’re getting close to the point where automatic qualification for the next round is within our grasp. I’ve said previously that 15/16 points probably does it and a win tonight takes us to 12. That would be massive in the context of our season, because given there are eight games you have to play in this blasted big league format, if you win your next two (which includes that win against Bayern) then you could find yourself able to rotate for the final two games at least, at a time in which the season because very congested indeed.

That’s permutations for another day, but for today it is just about finding a way to win away from home to keep our momentum. Let’s hope the boys can do it.

Catch you all tomorrow for a post match review.

Routine.

That needs to be the definer of Arsenal this season with games like this and if Arsenal can continue to put in performances like they did against a functional, not terrible, but ultimately limited Burnley side, then we will indeed receive that glorious pot of Premier League gold at the end of the proverbial rainbow.

Arteta brought back the big guns for this one following the League Cup rotation at the weekend and the impact was obvious. Where – understandably – the team on Wednesday who had not played together allowed Brighton a few opportunities to capitalise, this first XI gave absolutely no quarter. Burnley got nothing and for the third time this season in the Premier League, Arsenal reduced a team to speculative hopeful half chances, with not a single shot on target. The closest they came was when the ball struck the post on 96 minutes but by then the game was done.

But perhaps, in reality, the game was ‘done’ as early on as 14 minutes, when Viktor Gyokeres headed in from about a yard, following Gabriel’s head back from – yep – a corner. Set Piece Again Ole Ole rang out from the away end and online Arsenals watching on TV took to social media to double down on that sentiment. You can cry all you like rival fans, media pundits and muppets like Jeff Stelling, because we don’t care. This is a part of the game that Arsenal appeared to have mastered and when you’re coming up against low blocks each week (yesterday was another five at the back jobbie, with two holding midfielders in front of them), if this is the way you have to prize open that low block like shucking an oyster, then so be it.

I don’t know about you, but I was happy that it was Big Vik on the scoresheet too. He clearly measures his impact on goals and that one will do him the world of good, as he is now up to six goals at the quarter point in the season and as I said the other week on the Same Old Arsenal podcast, my expectations are 20 goals in all competitions. He is well on track to get that.

But as Arteta pointed out afterwards, yesterday he was so much more than that. He ran the channels, he looked lively on the ball and his diagonal pass across the field to Trossard for our second goal of the game was a key moment in this match, such was the clever vision. Trossard’s clip was perfect and man-of-the-match Declan Rice headed home to really make you feel like the game was won as an Arsenal fan. Rice wheeled away and celebrated for his auntie he’s recently lost and that performance from him was one for the ages. He was everywhere. He won tackles, he dictated play with the ball at his feet, he was a metronome when distributing his passing and he popped up with an important goal. And an open play one at that. You lot over there complaining that we don’t score enough open play goals – have some of that with bells on.

It was a super counter attack from a Burnley throw in and showed that when there is space, we can capitalise, which we duly did and whereas I try not to say or think it when we’re ahead, at 2-0 I was saying to myself at hoem “that should be it now. We should be able to see this game out”. That’s very much what the second half felt like to me. Arsenal were happy to see if they could get additional goals and we forced some good saves from Dubravka at times in the second half, but it felt much more of an even game and Burnley had a bit more of the ball than they did in the first half. In that first half we were imperious and ruthless. In the second half we were contained and professional.

That’s all you need to be in games like this. Our goal difference – thanks to our absurd lack of goals conceded so far this season – is already far greater than any other team, with only Man City getting close with +10 GD, whereas ours currently stands on +15. We’ve scored the joint most goals in the league, by the way, for everyone calling us ‘boring’, although I suspect that City might eclipse that today if they beat Bournemouth by scoring more than one goal. They’ll also go second with a win too, although that would put them up to 19 points and so we still would have a six-point cushion.

But as we know having seen it with Liverpool earlier this season, that can all change very quickly, so the game faces for this Arsenal team need to stay on ahead of a tricky away trip to Slavia Prague and then possibly an even trickier away game up at the Stadium of Light next Saturday.

But for now we can be very happy with the way the team are playing and I must say, there were plenty of individual performances that there was a lot to like, I thought. Gyokeres, of course, was great, but I also thought Eze had one of his best games too. I thought Timber did his usual best right back in the league tings, whilst Big Gabi and Saliba were once again impenetrable. Trossard was lively and Saka created chances too, although he’ll be frustrated to have not scored with his one-on-one in the first half and I do think he’ll feel like he left a goal or two out there on the Burnley pitch. But there’s nothing to worry about when you are able to get goals from across the pitch and across different players in different positions too. That’s the beauty of this Arsenal team: They don’t over-rely on any one player any more. If Saka doesn’t take his chances, somebody else will, which is something we have to hope continues for a long time to come this season.

There were some negatives from yesterday, which of course were related to injury as Gyokeres was off at halftime with what Arteta described as a muscular ‘niggle’ and I think we probably need to have him sat out in midweek. He had last midweek off and look at the difference it made in his performance. Let’s do the same in the Champions League and cross our fingers that he can be fit for the trip to the North East. LIkewise too, Zubimendi apparently asked to come off and that one is a big worry too, because he’s become an integral cog in our machine with the way he moves the ball and keeps us ticking over. If we weren’t playing so well and we didn’t already have such a big squad, you’d be cursing our luck with injuries, because by my count if those two are now out we’re up to seven first teamers who could now be out. Seven. Having already missed so many players already this season, we could now have potentially picked up more, so what Arteta will be hoping this morning and tomorrow is that these guys have the minor of knocks that can be resolved with just a few days with their feet up.

But let’s not end today on any kind of negative note, because Arsenal are top of the league with some daylight between the other teams. They have done everything asked of them when we look ed at the start of this run and two more wins will boast an incredible streak going in to the international break. They have to do it, of course, but so far we’re in great shapes and I don’t think you’ll find an unhappy Arsenal fan out there this morning. Well, not a real Arsenal fan anyway.

Right, I’m offski, but we’re doing an early morning Same Old Arsenal pod here if you want to join us.

Yesterday I woke up feeling terrible. I’d started to come down with a fever on Tuesday afternoon and by the time the Arsenal game on I was running a high temperature and got barely any sleep, going to bed straight after the game. That mean that yesterday morning I really didn’t feel like doing anything and the only thing I could really muster was 300 words from my iPhone for the BBC Sport ‘Fans Voice’ that I do after each Champions League game. Even that was a bit of a struggle. But a day of rest and sleep has helped to make me feel a little more human again, yet it feels a little belated to write a match review following the 4-0 victory over Atletico Madrid.

Certainly for Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal team, there will be very much a focus on Crystal Palace on Sunday, with Arteta even commenting on his pleasure at Saliba caught watching Atletico’s game against Osasuna on the team bus coming back from Fulham last weekend. That exemplifies the mindset Arteta wants to instil in his team; relentlessness in the pursuit of silverware and for us Arsenal fans it is a real positive that the players have been built with this mindset over the five+ year’s that Arteta has been in charge.

Enjoy the win, savour the moment, but then park it, because the next game is around the corner and your game face needs to be on way before you’re in the tunnel.

I’ve said it before, but we can enjoy the win, it’s just the players can’t. We can enjoy the victory maybe 48 hours afterwards and even last night as I was going to sleep I was thinking about how good the goals were for us. The first one because it boils the piss of rival fans that we’ve got another set piece. The second one was just a brilliant all-round goal from MLS’ mazey dribble in the middle of the park (which we’ve seen on display a few times now and really is a potent weapon for us), the third one because it got the monkey off the back of Big Vik, then the four won because it enabled us to see a little bit of fun at the end with Big Gabby and Big Vik doing their alternate versions of the ‘Bane’ celebration that is his own.

I also think that him getting up to five goals in all competitions is good for him too, because he’s a striker and will ultimately rank his season based on the goals he scores. There has been plenty of talk outside The Arsenal fanbase about this goal drought, as media narratives always need to be written about The Arsenal, but for us and Arteta we’ve known what his effort and contribution has been. He is not the goal-machine that some were expecting (I will say that I never thought he would be), but that’s because of the style of football we play; teams just don’t give us the space and he’s perma-marked by centre halves. So he is never going to get three-to-five shots away every game. But he needs to be in the spaces like Tuesday night to give himself a chance.

I actually think he’s on track for where I would have expected him to be. In my head – and I think I said this at the start of the season – a goal tally of 20 in all competitions is absolutely fine. In 2023/24 we got 113 goals in all competitions. We had Saka on 20, Trossard on 17, Havertz on 14 and Odegaard on 11. Those were our creative players on double digits. I think Saka probably has to be looking at a 20-goal all comps season. I think Havertz must be looking at 15. If we’re targeting similar numbers, we probably need to see Big Vik, Havertz, Saka, Martinelli and maybe one of Eze/Trossard/Odegaard on double figures too. As it stands, with us just about to hit the quarter way through the season, we have in all competitions:

• Big Vik = 5
• Martinelli = 4
• Saka = 3
• Leo = 3

Odegaard has barely played, Havertz has had a few minutes at the start of the season as a sub, Eze has assists and a goal in the League Cup, plus we have guys like Calafiori, Big Gabby, Mikel Merino and Noni Madueke who are all known to be goalscorers. Heck, even Ethan proved it yesterday. The point I am making here is that I think we have enough goalscorers in the side to get us to similar numbers to 2023/24 in all competitions and if we get to those numbers, I think we’re winning one of the big prizes. If you take the above as a cumulative of where the players are at then you have Big Vik on 20 for the season (I’m arbitrarily taking each tally and going x4 on the numbers), Saka on 12, Martinelli on 16 and Leo on 12. Remember, these days with players like Leo, Martinelli, Havertz, Saka, etc, we also look at assists too but for this comparator of where we’re at, I’m just looking at getting the requisite number of goals. And we’ve already missed some of these players through injury already.

I think if you look at the difficulty of opposition in the opening quarter of the season, you can mitigate the fact that we haven’t scored a hatful of goals, but we still have a pretty decent tally. Everyone is making – rightly – a big deal of our amazing defence and clean sheets, but we’ve also scored 25 goals so far this season. If we get to this weekend and get a couple or maybe, hopefully, fingers crossed, more than that, we’re knocking down on the door of 30 foals from the opening quarter of the season and if you’re looking at some numbers to give you projections on where we’re at based on what has transpired, that’s 120 in all competitions. I’ll probably take that the way the league is structured these days, because I would be surprised if teams reached the heghts of the City team from a couple of season’s back that scored 149 goals in all comps. That City team also conceded 54 in 2023/24 and the way we are going at the moment, it feels like you could half it!

I know what you’re saying, “there’s a long way to go” and I hear ya, but we’re in decent nick at both ends of the pitch and I think the initial numbers (when you have the context) look good.

And with that positivity I’m going to leave you be for today.

Catch you all tomorrow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Catch you all tomorrow for a de-brief.

Well, probs not for poor ol’ Viktor Gyokeres, whose Sweden side were beaten 2-0 by a Granit Xhaka-fuelled SWitzerland side at home yesterday evening. I had a little look on Sofascore at how he got on and they rated him as a 7.2, so he can’t have been that bad, especially when £125million Alexander Isak dropped a 6.5 in proceedings. I am doing that right, aren’t I? Because whenever Nico Pepe was mentioned in the press it was “£72million Nicoholas Pepe”, so we’re applying the same rules to the guy who is the most expensive signing in Premier League history. Let that price tag be a millstone around his neck. Hopefully.

But back to Big Vik, who looks to have had a Big Vik kind of game; made 33 touches in total, made a couple of dribbles, a couple of key passes, created one big chance, won half of his ground duels and half of his aerial duels. He lost possession nine times, was fouled on three occasions and had a couple of shots. By looking at some of the numbers it very much looks like it was Switzerland’s night, who had more of the chances and ball and without having watch the game, it looks to me as though he and Isak probably cut a bit of a lonely figure.

Admittedly this is all speculation though because, as I say, I haven’t watched the game. But I think it is interesting to spark up a conversation about our Swedish number nine who, having listened to a few post-match pods after the West Ham game, has a few Arsenal fans expressing a modicum of concern.

Not me folks. I am happy with what I’ve seen so far. He is battling, he is pressing, he is making the runs and his engine is such that he has been seen chasing down defenders well in to the 80s in minutes in our matches. The concerns, from what I can see, seem to be predicated on the lack of goal output, particularly in some of the ‘smaller team’ games, if you will. He went goalless against West Ham and I think a few people saw that as a game in which he should be feasting. But I think there are some mitigating factors in there. Firstly, let’s not forget that he didn’t have a full pre season. Those players who haven’t had a full pre season with their clubs are having to get up to speed ‘on the job’, so to speak, with Isak being a perfect case in point. Liverpool have the luxury of being able to bed him in and only recently has he began starting in games. He has a total of 266 minutes so far this season. Gyokeres has played a total of 730. I think most of us are in no doubt that had we had a fully fit Havertz, maybe even a fully fit Gabriel Jesus (I know, I know), then his minutes would have been managed and there would have been a settling in process. But he’s been asked to do the hard yards and play all the time and even last night he was doing 90 minutes for Sweden. I think that context and factor has to be taken in. Bergkamp took time to settle in. Henry took time to settle in. The stories about Pires sitting on the bench just to see how fast the Premier League is for his first match are legendary. So if we take all of that context into our thinking around Gyokeres, I don’t think there’s too much to be concerned.

I heard a good point on the Arsenal Vision podcast (Or it might have been the Arsenal Opinion – apologies) I think it was, where the chaps talked about how your perspective on Gyokeres will probably depend on what you thought you were getting. I didn’t believe for a second we were getting a 30-goal a season striker in the Premier League. The two leagues just don’t match up. What I did think we would get is a 15-goal rotation option with Kai Havertz, who will offer something different in his hard running, his direct running, for which his teammates will have to be looking for if he’s to succeed. And I think that’s what we’ve got. He is making the runs and against Olympiacos I saw for the first time in the flesh how the team – and Odegaard in particular – were looking for those balls in behind. And he nearly scored in that game. Wer’re talking fine margins here peeps. If that Martinelli goal creeps in and doesn’t hit the post for the Brazilian to score, he’s got his Champions League campaign underway, and if he is a second quicker on to the Rice chance that flashes across the box in the West Ham game in that second half, we’re talking about a striker who has five goals already this season. There will be those who will say “yeah but it didn’t go in and he didn’t get to that Rice ball” but I look at it like this: If he makes that run another ten times and that ball comes in another ten times, how many of those is he bagging a goal? I think at least seven. Heck, we’ve already seen it with the goal he scored from Eze’s ball in. He takes up the positions, he finds the space in the box and he is a presence.

Teams don’t play high lines against us; they sit in their low blocks and he’s having to adapt his game to recognise that, but he’s also enhancing the space for others in his team in attacking positions, as we’ve seen already with the number of times Saka has been doubled up on. I don’t have the data, I have only my own eyes, but I haven’t seen as many teams double and triple-up on him. That’s because we have other threats across the team and if we’re now using a strong and powerful centre forward for the centre-halves and defensive midfielders to keep an eye on, the likes of Saka, Martinelli, Trossard and Eze could all profit from more space. Martinelli has already racked up three goals this season and Trossard is off the mark too.

So whilst I’ll admit it hasn’t been 100% perfect from Big Vik just yet, what I have seen is enough for me to know that we have a good striker, who will score goals, just not in the mega volumes that I suspect some people thought we might get when he first stepped out on the pitch as an Arsenal player.

Catch you all tomorrow as we await news on our international stars and their health/fitness.

But there’s a little more nuance to last night’s performance because, give Olympiacos their dues, they came and I was quite impressed with them by the time the final whistle had gone. Perhaps more so in the second half than the first, but they didn’t come to sit in and just play low block football against us; they pressed, they harried, they put our back line under a little more pressure on the ball and I thought in the second half in particular it was Olympiacos who made us feel a little more hurried than most of us in the ground thought we would be.

Arteta had rung the changes to the side and that meant in came White, Lewis-Skelly, Merino, Martinelli and a return for the captain Odegaard and we pretty much dominated the first half in its entirety. Martinelli really should have put us one up within two minutes, but he had a touch of the ’50p heads’ with his finish and the chance went begging. It was frustrating but given we got that chance so early I was pretty confident at that early point in the game.

And we pretty much bossed the first half I thought. There was one superb save that came from David Raya and you have to say with that one tip over the bar he earned his clean sheet bonus. It was good movement at the back post, Ben White as on heels a bit, but no harm, no foul.

What wasn’t foul was Martin Odegaard. He was by far the best player on that pitch in the first half. He dropped deep to collect from Raya, he popped up on the right hand side in his usual ‘right pod’ position, but he was all over the pitch pressing, harrying and generally dictating all of his plays. His ball in behind to set Gyokeres in for Martinelli’s goal was sumptuous. Not too hard, not too weak, it was perfect and Big Vik did his part to wrestle control and although he was unlucky to have his shot hit the post, the gamble of Martinelli was enough to tap in and put us one up. It was the kind of positioning and anticipation from Martinelli that you see when he’s on form and full of confidence. This Arsenal team needs goals spread around it and Martinelli already has three goals and one assist to his name this season. That’s the output we need and if he’s targeting 20 goals and assists this season, then he’s certainly on track to do it already.

I also thought it was interesting to see how the team changed too. You can see that the team has been given the instruction to go longer and looking for Gyokeres’ runs in behind because we went in behind a number of times. Raya was happy to go long and have him wrestle his centre half and as this Arsenal team starts to learn about the runs he makes, he’s going to create more chances. I thought he had a good game; he was strong, he was an outlet, he ran the channels and he is a machine when it comes to his sprinting both forwards and backwards. Towards the end of the game – I think we might have been two up – Olympiacos caught us in transition on our left hand side and Gyokeres sprinted about 40 yards to cover ground. Arteta will love that and with him getting lots of game time with Havertz out, it feels like we’re starting to see a shift in the teams understanding of his runs too. I just hope – and have a feeling – that he is going to start racking up some goals soon if they keep trying these kinds of balls in behind. We’ve missed that central running presence for years, but the team are starting to look for it, Odegaard – easily the man of the match – is looking for it. He is going to get chances.

There was one blot on the copy book that Odegaard had on a night that was definitely his, which was that miss towards the latter stages of the game. I’m not quite sure how he missed that from inside the six yard box, but he did and the ball spewed out for a corner. But there was ‘no harm, no foul’ as yet another sub delivered for Arteta in the latter stages of the game. Step forward end-product-merchant Bukayo Saka. I thought it was really interesting that he got his goal from a switch of position with Eze. Bez hardly had a kick in the game but by switching with Saka it caused a momentary lapse of concentration for the full backs and when the ball floated across to Saka on an unusual right hand side, he needed no invitation to have a shot. There’s probably a fair few question marks you could label at the ‘keeper there, as the ball went through his legs, but you buy a ticket….etc etc….

And so the final stages were relatively comfortable. Arsenal do the job on an evening in which City slipped up away from home and a match week in which Liverpool lost and the Scum drew. The name of the game for this format is a bit of a race to 15/16 points in my opinion, so by making it two from two Arsenal have done all they can do at this stage. Next up is Atletico Madrid at home in a few weeks and if we can get over the line on that one – which will by far be the trickiest of opponents so far – then we’ll be well on the way to that coveted automatic qualification in the top eight.

And on that note I shall bid you adieu and be back tomorrow as we start to look at West Ham at home on Saturday.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now, on to Bilbao. Catch you all tomorrow.

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

I’ll be in Greece just as we kick off, having got a flight to Santorini at 9am, so I’ll miss the first 30 minutes, but the second we touch down I’ll be firing up my phone to watch the remainder. Hopefully we’re a goal or two up by then (fingers crossed).

Whilst I’m flying out this week, our players will be flying back in and yesterday evening we had yet more players serving their international sentences, with Big Vik on the end of a big shock with a 2-0 defeat to Kosovo. I don’t know why, but given that the world rankings are universally deplored as being a waste of time, defeats like this  – or just any match playing a smaller country – always end up with the world rankings being referenced. I saw it with Andorra game and my instant instinct was to have a look at Kosovo and Sweden’s respective world rankings. It’s 29 for Seeden and 95 for Kosovo, by the way…

Anyway, Big Vik played the full 90 and, I guess much like with Odegaard and playing himself back in to fitness, that’s probaby a good thing. Most of us have said that he still doesn’t look 100% and a little sluggish at times, despite the fact that we’ve played at Old Trafford and Anfield as our first two away games of the season. Not exactly easy places to go where you won’t exactly get a ton of space as a striker, but by all accounts last he had an okayish game if you go by the stats. Had a couple of shots (one on target), created two chances, managed 44 touches, which is on the low-to-medium side for an average Premier League footballer in a game (they normally manage between 40 and 80 touches depending on various stats), had a couple of take-ons and won four duels. I haven’t watched any of the game but by all accounts not a fun night for him or Sweden and we all have to hope he takes it out on Forest in a few days time.

Riccardo Calafiori will also be heading back to the UK and thankfully he wasn’t even involved in Italy’s dramatic, late five-a-side-style game against Israel. 5-4…sheesh…bet that was fun for ‘the neutral’. I don’t care; as long as he’s fit, comes back fine and doesn’t injure himself on the plane by having the metal cutlery in first class fall on to his lap and shattering his knees, I’m all good. Back you come Ricci, let’s have no more of this international nonsense for a while, eh?

In the under-21s I saw Ethan’s fine finish for England against Kazahkstan and that will do his confidence a world of good methinks. There were some suggesting that the introduction of Dowman ahead of him on that right wing was a little bit of a knock for last season’s starlet, but I didn’t think I’d read too much in to it. As I said yesterday, I kind of get the feeling that this was almost to ‘get it out of the way’ with Dowman and with him having got some minutes at Anfield and understandably not been able to shine, I think it was a reminder to us all of the difference between Leeds at home when you are cruising and Liverpool away. Questions can certainly be raised given the noises over the summer were Arsenal see Ethan as a central player but I don’t think that means we won’t ever see him in those wide positions again. I think Arteta will still use him at times to come on from those positions and I think that’s right too; he showed last night he still has that eye for goal and at 18 he’s more advanced than Dowman. If you’re going to throw a Hail Mary late in games I still think Ethan from wide positions is a very viable option. I know there is Noni, Bukayo, Trossard, Eze and Martinelli in those positions, which may look a little crowded, but Ethan offers something different to all of them and I would still have him as a wide forward option this season. Let him ply his trade as a versatile player across the attacking positions, Mikel.

Today we’ll be able to get Norway and England matches out of the way and hopefully we get a clean bill of health with Odegaard, Rice, Eze, Madueke and Lewis-Skelly. With those players returning tomorrow, it’ll mainly be the Brazilian boys we need to worry about, who play Bolivia at 12.30am UK time in the early hours of tomorrow. That’ll be a Brazil team with Martinelli in it, who has this last week been talking about the arrival of Eze and competition in Brazil and Arsenal, welcoming it and saying it doesn’t bother him. At this stage you can take him for his word, because he’s starting for Brazil and he started against Liverpool. But his form has – as we’ve all noticed, dropped off in the summer and he wasn’t great against United or Liverpool. I do think Arteta loves him and wants to use him, but he’s a ruthless man and I suspect that this weekend it might be an Eze who starts and Martinelli is relegated to a place on the bench. If that happens, then whether it is a changing of the guard or not we’ll have to see, but Eze’s cameo against Liverpool was promising. Martinelli might like competition and be ok now, but unless his end product starts delivering, he’ll quickly find he’s out of the team on a more regular basis and that can quickly lead to footballers looking elsewhere for minutes when you get to the top tier of the football pyramid.

Right, that’s me done for today, so I’ll be back tomorrow with hopefully no lamenting news about how an anvil has fallen from the sky onto Declan Rice’s ankles.

Unfortunately for us we had to have some bad news, which came in the shape of injuries to Odegaard and Saka and whilst Martin’s I think might hopefully just be some shoulder bruising and hopefully won’t keep him out for too long, the sight of Saka holding his hamstring didn’t exactly fill me with glee. If you’re going to go ‘glass half full’ then you could say that at least Arteta confirmed it wasn’t the same hamstring that required surgery last season, but as Arteta admitted for Saka to come off it means it is in his words ‘significant’. I suspect it almost certainly rules him out of next Sunday’s trip to Anfield and just as you were thinking that this would be the perfect prep for that game, we go and get this happen to us.

Saka is a big blow, it will weaken us ahead of the weekend’s trip to the North West, but at least this season we have options. Madueke played on the left yesterday and was good, but you could tell he was more comfortable on the right and it was for just such a situation like this that he was purchased, so if Saka can’t make it we need to see him step up on that left hand side. If Odegaard is out then there is Eze who could come in and maybe we shift Rice to the right, or Nwaneri gets the start as the understudy to Odegaard. I thought Ethan did well yesterday for the 50+ minutes he was on the pitch for; tidy in possession, was involved in two short creating actions and one goal creating action on the day and on a day in which our end product was on display, he was part of the side that did the business.

That business started in the first half and started just over a third into the game with Set Piece FC Ole Ole once more proving how valuable they are for us. Up until that point it’d been a story of Leeds sitting a little deeper, not really venturing too far forward, but having the one big chance of the game when they forced Raya into a smart save from a corner. That was pretty much it from them but as soon as the first goal went in, you kind of sensed that Arsenal were ready to go up through the gears. That we did just over ten minutes later and on the stroke of halftime as Saka was slipped in by Timber to rifle the ball home on his weaker foot. Timber had one heck of a game yesterday and the kind of game that if you’ve got him in your fantasy team, you’re laughing all the way to the bank because he bagged two goals from set pieces and one assist on the day and when you’re delivering on that level of end product, you have to give the guy that man of the match gong I would have thought.

The second half very much felt like a case of ‘how many?’ I felt. And just three minutes after the restart Gyokeres was set free down our left hand side in front of me in Block Five and he bulldozed his way through the Leeds defence to bag his first proper goal in an Arsenal shirt. It felt like a very ‘Gyokeres’ style goal I thought. Running down that left hand channel, peeling away from his marker, then steamrollering through two defenders as he drove into the box to get his shot away. I was obviously in the ground so didn’t see any of the commentary until I’ve had a re-watch of the goals this morning, but Gary Neville was right to say that it was a big goal for him. With that goal – and the second penalty to be fair – he’s off the mark and we don’t have to have it become a ‘thing’ if he doesn’t get on the scoresheet. The way he also took the penalty that Dowman won (more on him in a sec) was also really well struck too. He does like to give that ball a good wallop. Love it. We knew it already, but he knows where the goal is and this will also give him the lift and confidence that he belongs in the Premier League. Let’s hope for more of the same next weekend.

And more of the same from a set piece perspective too, because that’s three out of our six goals scored this season from set plays, as Timber’s second was fumbled in through the melee after another good Rice delivery. It’ll be interesting to see if we can unsettle the experienced Liverpool defenders next weekend like we did with the Leeds lads.

Speaking of ‘lads’, how about that young one we’ve got who is still doing his GCSEs, eh? Max Dowman, lad, take a bow. He is just so full of energy, running and spirit. To be getting on to the pitch as a 15-year-old and look like he’s a seasoned pro whose been playing for 10 years is remarkable. As soon as he came on what he wanted to do was just run with the ball. He commits players and that’s his third penalty he’s won if you count pre season too. We keep telling ourselves that we need to be mindful that he’s just a kid, that the expectations should be managed, but every time you give him a new obstacle – and this one was a debut for The Arsenal – he just knocks them down. He’s gone up against the physicality of Newcastle, he’s sat down Leeds defenders on their arses yesterday, he’s delivering in the final third and after seeing what we’ve seen yesterday, he has to be a viable option from the bench and I think we have to be looking at him for next weekend too. It’s a massive difference playing away at Anfield compared to when you’re 4-0 up against a newly promoted Leeds side, but as I just mentioned, he keeps knocking off milestones, so why can’t this be one as well? He even had a really good effort that just whistled past the post too.

All-in -all it worked out to be a very good day at the office for those Arsenal players, injuries aside, and now they can get back on that training ground knowing that there’s a solid base that has been built on.

Catch you all tomorrow with another instalment of whatever Arsenal-related things come in to my head, plus I think we’ll be going live with a Same Old Arsenal pod at 10am if you fancy joining us.

It’s because of that lack of jeopardy that I am trying to parse in my mind what any particular outcome may mean. If we beat them, does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? Not really. Yet on the other hand, if we lose to them, it’ll be a world of “Tottenham are back!” and “Frank is going to steer them to glory!” that none of us really wants to hear. Equally, what we don’t want is a high intensity game in which players go down injured, like Joe Willock did yesterday for Newcastle out in South Korea. Thomas Frank’s sides have always been quite physical, played a bit of long ball and been tough to beat, so it will be interesting to see what approach he takes with a Scum side who are hardly a bunch of bruisers.

They’ve had an indifferent pre season so far, drawing with Luton and Wycombe and beating Reading, with a smattering of first teamers in their side, a little like us. It looks like Frank is adopting a 4-3-2-1 formation and that’s stayed pretty consistent, but the players have rotated around and they look like they’re about a week behind us in terms of their training schedule, so maybe that will play a factor. Frank himself ahead of today’s game said nice things about us, but he also said they ‘will be ready’ which I hope doesn’t mean there will be a few reducers on show.

Mikel Arteta did his presser and of course he said it was great to do a derby like this, that he respects Frank immensely and that our goals for the season are to do better than last season. I liked how he didn’t fall into the trap of saying the words out loud “to win the Premier League” because in this day and age of weaponised banter – from media sources too and not even just rival fans – you’re better to just take any kind of soundbite opportunity out of your pressers and go a bit vanilla with what you say. He did give an update on how Calafiori and Big Gabi are out and at this stage on the Italian I do believe we have to be looking at the Kiwior situation and saying that we simply can’t let him go. I’ve said it for a long time, I had worries about it last summer, but as good as Calafiori is, there’s no point in relying on him because sadly it feels to me like his body just can’t handle top flight football. Perhaps that sounds like I’m writing him off, maybe I am a little and that makes me sad, but I can only say what I see and feel and the fact that he’s missing another game and his pre season might be affected by yet another injury, doesn’t bode well for him from where I’m sitting.

Arteta also inevitably got asked plenty on Gyokeres and how he will fit into the team and there were a few bits I liked the sound of.

Firstly, although he wouldn’t be drawn on how much he might play today, I think what he did say points to him potentially at least being involved. Inevitably because of all of the hype around his arrival, there has been a clamour for videos and I’ve already seen one of Arteta giving Big Vik a plethora of instructions, as well as somebody filming a session in which Saliba and Gyokeres were up against each other in a training drill. Suffice to say I think Big Will beat Big Vik on that one, but for a one minute clip I hardly learned anything major.

Secondly, I did like how Arteta singled out his determination, which I think he will have loved from the Swede. You’re playing at The Arsenal, you’re now the ‘big number nine’ and you need to make sure you fill that shirt. He took the number 14 because he believed in it and for me – and clearly Arteta too – that’s a really good sign. So was his comment about him handling the pressure of being at The Arsenal – I think Gyokeres has already started to impress Arteta and hopefully if he gets on the pitch today he can do that more with his performance.

Martin Odegaard was with Mikel too and he was asked similar questions about Viktor and he talked about speaking each others language and how the Scandinavians always bond well together. He also talked about his experience at being a wonder kid and it was only when the press referenced it that I remembered how he had all of that pressure on him as a 15-year-old too. His was probably dialled up a notch too, as he went to Real Madrid, but despite it not working out for him and his career taking a few turns, when you look at how he has turned out as captain of The Arsenal, you can tell that he is happy and we are all happy to have him too. I think sometimes there’s a danger of projecting too much on these young kids; you see what they do at 15 and you think that by 20 they will be twice as good and by 25 they will be Balon D’Or winners. But rarely does a career take that path like a Messi or a Ronaldo. What is important is that these young kids have the right people around them, the right grounding, then they get the right opportunities at the right time. A big performance from a cameo appearance today from somebody like Dowman, for example, will go a long way to having people ask questions about getting him in the squad for the new season like we had Ethan there last season, but the reality of him getting serious game time I think is a little lower. And that’s ok. His career needs to be managed appropriately. He will get his chances and it wouldn’t surprise me to see he’ll get a few minutes today. Whether it’s 30+ minutes like last time out against Newcastle remains to be seen.

It’ll be a challenging one today, but hopefully what we get is another good step in the direction of the season, with it just over two weeks away. Fingers crossed for a win, but at the same time, ‘meh’ and – don’t get injured.

Catch you all tomorrow.

Of course the article is more about the demand for his number given the club was giving away free printing for a limited time if you bought the Arsenal shirt, but the very fact that we’ve had such demand and there is this direct purchase, meaning more money going to the club if you buy directly from them. At least, that’s what I think happens, although this article from a couple of years ago shows that in fact, football clubs don’t get a big chunk of the money. I think that’s fair enough though; it’s thee club’s IP for sure, but if they are essentially subbing out everything – shirt design, production, distribution and shipping, etc – then why should they get the bulk of sales? The likes of Adidas also pay them a sponsorship fee too, so there’s ample cash going to the club. But if they’ve sold 100,000 Gyokere’s shirts since he signed and they get 10% of every sale, for example, that’s around £7.50 and around £750,000 – no small change indeed!

But it ain’t paying for Big Vik’s fee I’m afraid. That’s going to take 733,333 shirts to get to that £55million number. With the age of the internet and access to information that we have, we all know that the whole ‘it’s paid for his transfer’ is a myth, but it’s still fun to trot out little stories like this I think.

In the meantime, we’ve got our first pictures of the big man in training and whilst that’s also good to see, my favourite picture was the one of Zubimendi and Norgaard tussling for a ball and Zubi holding on to his shirt. Given they both play in the same position, I couldn’t help but feel like there was some kind of symbolism or metaphor in there somewhere…

I also liked picture 36 from 36, in which Merino looks like he’s holding court and telling the others around him “so I told her, I am not putting chia seed on my polenta, it’ll ruin the dynamics of my lunch”…

They are, of course, gearing up to a ‘North London Derby’ tomorrow in Hong Kong and I have to say I’m not a fan. Those are the worst games of the season for me and I get so nervous beforehand. Tomorrow won’t be anywhere near as worrying, but even thinking about it I find myself saying “we can’t lose to that scummy lot – they’ll be proclaiming Frank as the new Messiah if we do”, which is silly because it’s a friendly and there will be yet more mass rotation at varying intervals. But what we don’t need is a game full of clatterings. I hope – but will not expect – that Frank will talk to Arteta beforehand and both will agree that players need to go easy on the gas tomorrow – both teams had their injury problems and so neither needs to have players going down with injuries that will impact the respective starts to their season’s. Let’s just have a game of football without any crunching tackles please. Oh, and keep Calafiori away from the pitch! The last thing we need is him going down again like he did against Newcastle.

There’s some tenuously-linked Arsenal news that Ramsdale could be on his way to Newcastle to compete with Nick Pope, but I can’t help but find that one a little odd. If Pope is the defacto number one, doesn’t that just mean that Ramsdale is back to where he was at The Arsenal? In which case, why didn’t he just stay with us? I guess being a number one and then effectively being demoted forces you to seek a move elsewhere, but surely there are better options than being Newcastle’s backup? A quick look at the number one’s in the Premier League tells me I think he could go to any of the following clubs and be better than what they have:

• Chelsea (they buy anyone for any fee, so finding money will be no problem for them)
• Crystal Palace (price might be an issue but I think Ramsdale is better than Henderson)
• Man United (In money troubles but they’re looking at a striker so surely they should have a go at a ‘keeper first)
• The Scum (he’s not doing that though)
• Fulham (he’s already dislodged Leno once)
• Brighton (might be a money issue)
• Wolves (same again re: money)

That’s just a few but it feels to me like there should be more options for him. Hopefully that’s just a rumour in which will die. We don’t really want him going to that Orcky lot in the North East, do we?

There’s still some rumours about Eze knocking around but I suspect that one bubbles along a bit for a few more weeks if I’m honest. Feels like one in which Arsenal need to keep him sweet by telling him “we’re coming”, but I suspect there has to be some people going out the door first to free up space, so I’m not expecting anything any time soon on that one. And as a result I don’t really feel like talking much about it. The ITK stuff can be a bit weary with the whole ‘edging closer’ nonsense; we’ve just gone through that with Big Vik, so I’m a little reluctant to invest more time and energy in another saga. We’re in a good shape right now and there’s a ‘friendly’ tomorrow to focus on.

So I’ll catch you all tomorrow for some more thoughts ahead of that game. See you then.

Because the Arsenal Women did the job.

Yep, we get to claim this as an Arsenal victory last night, because Michelle Agyemang is an Arsenal youth product and one of our registered players (even though she played for Brighton last season) who salvaged that last-gasp winner. Then Chloe Kelly, another one of our lot having been on sabbatical at Man City for so long until January this year, bagged the winner after her penalty was saved by the Italian goalkeeper.

Made in Hale End folks, made in Hale End…

I felt ‘somewhat’ sorry for the Italians, because they’d played quite well and as underdogs they were seconds away from a big upset in this competition, but that feeling was tempered somewhat by the gamesmanship. Time-wasting, going down with cramp and then getting the medical team on (instead of one of your own players) to adminster it, some of the theatrical falling to the ground, well whenever a team does that it always feels like a little bit of karma when they get their comeuppance. So from that perspective I was happy. Had there not been as much falling to the ground on their part, there might not have been the seven minutes of added time…

So they will once again represent at a major final and let’s hope they can do the business again this weekend.

As for the men’s side, we got the expected and anticipated Ornbomb yesterday with regards to Viktor Gyokeres, with the noises being that the two clubs has finally struck up a deal and the Swede will now head out to Singapore to complete his medical and sign for The Arsenal. It’s probably going to be about a week later than Mikel would have wanted, but if it’s all done by this weekend then that still gives him plenty of time to adapt to his new environment in and around the Arsenal team, which I think is key really. In a normal business environment I would say – in my experience – you don’t really ‘get it’ with regards to your new company until about at least six months in. There are ways of working, systems, relationships you need to forge with key stakeholders, etc. It takes time and whilst football is of course very different to the world we live in and the adaptation period doesn’t need to be nearly as long (or in some cases isn’t allowed to be with the media that surrounds the game and the players), if he signs within the next couple of days he’s got a couple of weeks to start meeting people and sussing out his place in this squad. I think that is invaluable. It means that by the time that United game rocks up he’ll also have got a bit of rust out of his boots from the summer off, he’ll have been exposed to a few friendly matches in which his teammates will see the types of runs he makes, what his strengths are, etc.

I also think it’s lovely how people like MLS are reacting to this possible arrival. There’s a video doing the rounds of Myles smiling and saying ‘here we go’ reacting to Fabrizio Romano’s message on social media and I think this also tells you what the players think of this arrival. We as fans have ourselves questions as to how he fits in, there’s obvious questions about how the return in the Portuguese league translates to the Premier League, but sometimes the response of players themselves tells you a lot too. It’s why I’ve warmed a little bit more to the Madueke stuff. It wasn’t a signing I was overly enthused by, I was confused as to why we’d shelled out that amount of cash, but when you supposedly get glowing reports from all of the England lads in the camp, it gives you pause for thought and hope that Arsenal have unearthed a gem.

In the Gyokeres instance it is players who have played against him and I think that will also tell its own story when the Swede finally links up with them.

There will be more to come over the upcoming days as this one plays out, no doubt, but the good news is that this protracted saga appears to bear nearing its end. And I’ve heard (and been in on WhatsApp groups) where people have jokingly (half so – and half seriously) said “now bring me Eze. I also listened to the Arsecast from earlier in the week where Andrew and Phil Costa talked about whether the Gyokeres and Mosquera deals along with other players we’ve signed ‘is enough?’. The gents pondered on that and concluded that we probably need one more in the creative spaces and I get that we’d all like to see that. But I also think that we are 100% stronger than last season for sure. Zubimendi is an upgrade on Partey, Gyokeres will be an upgrade on Gabriel Jesus (if nothing else, hopefully on availability), Madueke will 100% be better than Sterling was and Ethan and Myles are a year older and better. When you factor all of that in alone, we are in a better place than last season and if Trossard and Martinelli remain as our attacking options on the left – as well as Madueke – I’m still good with that and think we will still be competitive.

So whilst I would love to see an Eze-shaped signing for us, I still think we’re going to be very good, we’re still going to be up there and I will go into the season full of excitement.

Back tomorrow for some more musings.

He also spoke about those already in the door and you can tell he’s super pumped about Zubimendi above all. That was the one that we know he coveted and he talked about how it was a long process to get him, how the club did a great job of convincing him, but this signing feels like it has all the hallmarks of it being an Arteta deal. Sometimes you never know how much involvement Arteta has. Take Gyokeres, for example, who most people pretty much universally accept that it’s one of Berta’s guys. I’ve heard multiple journalists and podcasters talk about how Arsenal were hot on Sesko, Arteta was desperate for the Slovenian, that was ‘his guy’, yet Gyokeres is the one we’ve landed on, mainly because Berta is backing him big time and I think Arteta is like “ok cool”. Madueke feels like he’s Arteta going “you get Gyokeres, I get Madueke as my pick” in that forward line, but the Zubimendi deal was one that was really clear that everyone wants and Arteta clearly feels that he’s a guy who is going to take us to the next level.

The exit of Partey meant a hole needed to be filled and I think Arteta feels like he’s definitely got an upgrade in that respect. He was asked about the Partey situation and of course he said that he felt the club acted 100% correct and he can’t talk about it for legal reasons, but I suspect even Arteta is glad that sorry mess is behind him and now he can focus on Zubimendi, who he mentioned he was very excited about. It’s easy to see why – he himself adopted that position when he arrived at The Arsenal and I suspect Arteta see’s a lot to like from the way Martin plays and his style. He intimated that by saying that after 10 days of training now he’s been very impressed. He doesn’t have to say that; he could just say he’s very happy, glad he’s in, happy to have signed somebody with that level of experience. But he chose his words very carefully and when he’s talking about Zubimendi’s character and personality, you can tell he’s got a guy who is a perfect fit for the environment and culture that Arteta has built over these years.

He spoke positively too about Madueke and that one was more general soundbites I think. I think Arteta and the club know full well how it went down amongst the fanbase pre the announcement. They know there’s a bit of work to do and I don’t think talking too much will do anything any more. So what everyone needs to see is him on the pitch and making an impact – which I think is fair enough.

Apart from that there’s a little bit from Gabriel talking about how he wants to win things at The Arsenal, how he’s happy to have signed a new deal, etc. It’s nothing majorly ground-breaking in terms of what he said, but it’s nice to hear that he’s bought in for the long term. We need that energy from Bill Saliba now, as the second part of that double act, which will need to be the next thing Berta and his team get sorted once the transfers are done. In a way, you want us to get the Mosquera and Gyokeres sorted ASAP this week, because it will mean that he can focus attention on outgoings and also contracts, so hopefully that’s the second half of the summer that gets sorted for us. We need to hear that positive news on contracts as much as we need to hear the new signing news. Let’s hope Berta is on it. The initial signs have been positive though. MLS and Big Gabby seemed to be done with little fuss. The Nwaneri deal is – if all is to be believed – done and dusted too. So we need Saka and Saliba the focus of attention next and if that can be done by the time the summer is over, that will be hugely positive for all of us and the club too.

Hopefully we see a little movement this week, whilst the team get on with the process of bonding on the pitch with the upcoming friendlies.

Catch you all tomorrow.

Sixty million down the drain…

And that’s exactly how it should be. I didn’t want this deal, I am sceptical on the player, I think we’ve paid about £10million more than we should, but I am absolutely going to be singing his name loudly and proudly if he gets on to the pitch for that first home game against Leeds in August. He will need it and he will want it and I think as fans it is our job to now do our bit.

Welcome Noni.

The initial noises are good too. He’s said he wanted to join the tour as they jetted off yesterday for the pre season tour of Singapore yesterday, but the club have told him to take some rest, so he’s clearly eager to get started. I thought the announcement message was cleverly crafted actually. The statement made by Berta and Arteta talked about his ability, his pace, but also his ‘professionalism’, which is something that we’ve actually heard the opposite about in recent years. He’s been dropped from match day squads, we saw the fighting on the pitch with Jackson over a penalty and clearly there’s something in this player that has a bit of spice to him. I listen to the Arsenal Opinion podcast and Johnny and Pete talk about this on their pod so I’d urge you to go have a listen if you want another couple of perspectives on the player. Here’s a link to the show – you can get the free version wherever you get your pods.

But I do think the club have been very careful in the wording of their announcement on Friday. They know that this deal hasn’t gone down amazingly with the fanbase, like Kai two year’s ago and like Ramsdale four years ago, but they also know that the Arsenal fans – because of those two deals as examples – know that they have tended to get behind these deals and that the club has tended to get these signings right. So I think a lot of us are willing to sit back and let this play out with the hopeful positive consequences.

There was also the accidental Mosquera video release and supposedly there’s some technical stuff around the medical which is just delaying the formal announcement, but given the player has already done his interviews and been pictured, that deal clearly is just going to get over the line. And it’s a good deal that brings that depth we need at centre half, but as a result of it, I’m convinced the club will try to move Kiwior on for decent money this summer. We brought him for around the £22million mark and if a club comes in and offers £35 – £40million, you have to take it, after he showed his capabilities at the end of last season deputising for big Gabby. I think given Mosquera can play left or right centre-half, the reason he was dead set on signing for Arsenal is that he’s basically been told he’s getting any centre-half minutes that our two main men at the back don’t take. That means Kiwior doesn’t get them and I think flipping him for a profit also means that we recoup back some of the cash we’ve outlayed on players already this summer.

And we still have to get that striker in, which has all gone weirdly quiet given that it was a week ago that we saw that Arsenal and Lisbon had finally agreed the fee. I liked Arseblog’s work this morning in giving us the amusing comments from the A Bola article about the deal potentially being off because it’s stalled. Have a read if you want a little light-heartedness on your Sunday morning. The reality is that both clubs are just driving a hard bargain. Everyone expects this deal to happen and it’s so far along right now, that nobody is going to want it to collapse:

1. Sporting want their money so they can move on. They also don’t want an unhappy player and I don’t think given how much they’ve messed around on this deal, Gyokeres is just going to shrug his shoulders and say “oh well, never mind, it’s back to training in Lisbon for me” is he?
2. Arsenal want their player. They have set their stall out and starting all over again for another player is probably just not something that they want to entertain at this late stage in the transfer saga.
3. Gyokeres wants his move. He’s packed up his house and has already said his goodbyes. The last thing he wants is to have to do a full U-turn and move himself back in.

So this deal is happening, it’s just a matter of when, as well as somebody finally blinking and I suspect both clubs will move a little more towards each other to get this over the line.

Other than that, we play the waiting game, as Arsenal will be playing during next week and we’ll start to get things like press conferences ahead of the next pre season friendly. What will be exciting is to see whether some of the (really) young players who have joined the tour get any minutes. I think most of us are looking at Downman and thinking he might be the one to watch, but sometimes on these tours another player comes from nowhere and has really good pre season. We saw what pre season did for Lewis-Skelly last year and here we are one year later with him as our starting left back. So it will be good to see if we have another one of those waiting in the wings.

Right, that’ll do for today I think – have yourselves a good Sunday and I’ll catch you all tomorrow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One.

Hundred.

Thousand.

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

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

Back tomorrow as the team depart for Singapore.