Happy Sunday campers – hope you guys are all doing well?

No proper football until tomorrow evening, but despite the fact I thought to myself that I wouldn’t bother watching Man United beat Leicester City yesterday evening, I flicked on the TV in the kitchen last night as I was cooking to see what was going on. And I’m glad I did, because as I watched Gary Neville repeatedly lament how poor United were, I was emboldened in my hope that we have more about us than this current United side in their current form.

Now, I know that United will almost inevitably come to The Emirates, be rubbish, but skank a 1-0 win against us with probably only or or two of their attempts on goal when we meet in a few weeks time. But right now,  having watched that game last night and seeing just how disjointed they looked, as an Arsenal fan you can help but have hope that we have more than them between now and the end of the season to better the points score that they get. In addition to that though, what it highlighted to me was that whilst over the last two weeks or so I have been steadfast in my belief that we will need some kind of mega run of winning 75% of the remaining matches we play to get top four, what I realise is that the teams around us are just as flawed as each other and everyone can – and will – drop points that they aren’t expecting too.

Just look at Chelski yesterday. I had that down as an absolute home banker and so when they went one up I expected it to be a comfortable home cruise to victory. But Brentford turned up with one of the shocks of the season and it is a shock that means if we somehow manage to pick up all three points against Crystal Palace tomorrow evening, then we will be within two points of them and level on points. They have an easier run in between now and the end of the season, for sure, but what with the additional Champions League and FA Cup games to play between now and the end of their season, there will surely be an element of fatigue setting in for some of their squad, don’t you think?

That’s my hope anyway, as well as the hope that we can continue our good form and again, if somehow we can manage to pick up maximum points in our next three away to Palace, at home to Brighton and away to Southampton, then we will be in a really good position to get one of the Champions League spots I figure.

At the beginning of this weekend I said that I wasn’t expecting any of the teams playing our rivals to pick up anything and already we’ve had Leicester City do us a big favour. I’m not expecting Everton to get anything at the London Stadium and Newcastle will certainly not be able to overcome a Scum side that appears to be – annoyingly – hitting some form – but if by some miracle the Geordies do get something, it will once again serve to highlight just how many twists and turns there are in this season yet to come, as well as the fact that all of the teams at the top are not going to win all of the games.

It also serves as a heads up to us too. We may well find ourselves level on points with Tottenham and with just one game in hand come Tuesday morning. If that is the case then it will feel like all of the hard work has been eroded away on the back of one game week. But it will also show us that every game week matters and every team fighting for top four has the propensity to drop points. Which is why any kind of consistency from Arsenal in the next three weeks could see us almost home and dry in this race. ALMOST. There are still a lot of points to play for of course and as we are seeing just this weekend it could all swing back in another teams favour. But a win tomorrow and a win next weekend keeps us putting the pressure on others to catch us and I hope the team has that laser focus for tomorrow night to make sure they give their all.

Aside from the run in, I wanted to briefly touch on a story in France from William Saliba and I have to admit, I got done by a headline yesterday. The headline read something like “I won’t come back to Arsenal and sit on the bench” and I’m not going to go in to specifics or link to it because I don’t want to gift the media company a free click on me as a result. But when you read the article in full he basically says he doesn’t want to sit in the under-23s and he understands about rotation at big clubs. I actually think that becomes a positive because what it means is that he knows he has to come in and fight for his position and that is exactly what we as Arsenal fans want to hear. Ideally what we want is for him to be on a four year deal too because if the club don’t tie him down in the summer then he has two years left and is at the peak of the fee we’d get for him. But the news sounds more positive when you read the article in full and so I am hoping that we get him back, integrate him in to the team, then hopefully give him plenty of game time next season and hopefully (fingers crossed) that can also be in the Champions League too. He’s showing what a talent he is by making the France national team and he is showing just how good he could potentially be for us. I don’t buy the ‘Arteta doesn’t like him’ nonsense in the same way that I didn’t buy the ‘Arteta doesn’t like him’ nonsense for Martinelli last season. It is about timing and making sure the player looks ready for the step up in the Premier League. He looks closer than he’s ever been so far.

Catch you all in the morrow for a pre match preview.

Laters people.