Morning peeps. Happy Saturday, even if it is an Arsenalless one and in my head, I can’t quite work out if it is good or bad to have to wait until Monday night before we play.

The bad is that by the time the weekend is done we could see the Scum level on points with us – albeit with us having two games in hand over them, as well as Man United one point behind us, again with two games in hand, then suddenly this lead that we’ve had an the buffer that exists feels quite eroded. It also puts the pressure on us to get something against a good Crystal Palace side who will cause us problems on their own turf. Given our respective run in compared to The Scum, it will probably also see the ‘favourites’ pendulum swing closer towards their direction. We can talk about our good form of course, but they too are in good form and have won four of their last five, just like we have. They also play a Newcastle side who despite the decent-ish form since the start of 2022, have now probably hauled themselves away from the relegation zone and will probably not put up much of a fight.

United too have a Leicester side who are all over the place and so I’m expecting nothing from those two games. West Ham are clinging on to Top Four hopes but having played two more than us and being six points back, it feels like they are possibly a little too far, although a likely win for them against Everton this weekend means they are only three away.

So having had an international break of looking at the table and feeling pretty cool about our current position, by Monday it could feel a little more precarious. In fact, I’m 90% sure it will.

Which is why our players really need to step up and provide the goods and I guess the good news on that front is that after the international break and players returning, a game on a Monday night in which the players have an extra two days to be together, has to be a good thing. It means they can get back in to the groove of all things Arsenal, but also means they all get that extra couple of days to prepare for a tough opponent and rest legs before a vital away match – for all the reasons I’ve mentioned above.

We do need to improve our away form too. I was just looking at the table on the Premier League website and we currently sit seventh in the table on away form only. We’ve picked up 22 out of a possible 39 and that has included five defeats in 13 games. We are quite consistent at home, but that away form could derail us if we don’t continue our consistency. The good news is that away wins at Villa, Watford and Wolves have seen us progress up the league and if we can continue that on Monday then we’ll slowly creep up that away table too. But the business needs to be done.

The other good news was Mikel Arteta getting the manager of the month award for the second time this season. Apparently that hasn’t been done as an Arsenal manager since Wenger in 2007-8. That is quite some feat when you think about it with that timescale and he should be proud, but you do think that he probably needs to be close to getting it this month if we’re going to make top four. If he’s in the running for it in April I reckon we’ve won four of our five matches in the month and if that happens I’d be pretty confident we’ll be close to achieving those aims.

I’m also praying that happens because if it does then we’re up to 66 points and I would hope that the re-arranged game against the Scum has less meaning to it than it feels like it might have right now. It isn’t official yet, but all the chatter is about it happening week commencing 9th May and if we face up against them needing three points to keep the future in our own hands, well, I’ll admit to be less convinced that we’re going to do it. We have a pretty shocking record at The Scum and with so much riding on it, I wouldn’t be betting my house.

But there is a lot of football to be played before then and I am hoping that the game is as close to a dead rubber as we can make it. I will be surprised if it is, but even if we were still four points clear of them by then, I’d take it going in to the last two games of the season. We just have to hope that it is still the case.

There’s not really a lot else going on in terms of news at the moment. We’ve got a couple of days in which the plays will engage in a little light training I suppose, as well as a few video sessions in which Arteta maps out their every move on how to beat Crystal Palace. I might do an early match preview tomorrow from a tactical perspective, but haven’t decided yet and I guess it depends what other news permeates through the ether today and this evening.

Catch you wonderful people in the morrow. Have a good one and I’ll see you then.