Morning fellow Arsenal fans, hope you’re all good? Where are you at in terms of the unpleasantness hat happened over the weekend – still mad?

I kind of am, but I’m also pleased that the appropriate media response has come out about the situation, which I think has been helped by the few ex-Arsenal players flying the flag as well. I saw the ‘Ref Watch’ clips of Dermot Gallagher trying to explain away the unexplainable, suggesting more training is needed for Lee Mason but as big Kev Campbell pointed out on the show, that simply won’t cut it. This is a man with decades of experience and who has probably already had enough training. Some times people just aren’t good at their job and need to be relieved of their duties.

I’ve also seen Martin Keown make a few great points on TalkSport, again talking about how this kind of incompetence can’t be allowed to go on. Then finally, I read this webpage on Sky Sports and oddly it gave me some comfort. That’s because there are now major media outlets looking at what has happened to us this season and asking big questions. Up until this point we’ve just been told to get on with it, that it happens to every team, that ‘it all evens itself up in the end’. But it’s hard to think like that when there are such a litany of mistakes that have happened to us now, so much so that the media are running stories like that, where I don’t see those stories with other teams. Yes, we’ve had the rub of the green this season and you think back to the Liverpool game, but name me another one that was so obviously the difference between three points and one? I can’t think of any off the top of my head. Yet we have four clear cut instances where there have been very – VERY – contentious decisions.

So, anyway, my ‘relief’. I guess that comes in the hope that the PGMOL and everyone watching us now will most likely start to pay a little more attention to when obvious decisions don’t go our way. Maybe if there’s that shirt pull on Gabriel like there was in the Newcastle game, the VAR or referee take a little closer look towards it. Maybe the ‘rebalancing’ of decisions tips in our favour because there is a recognition of multiple wrongdoings?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not holding my breath or anything, but if there is one thing for sure I think that a Jack Grealish dive like he did against Villa, gets more thoroughly looked at on Wednesday night as opposed to just being waved away now. I certainly hope so.

So, what else is going on relating to The Arsenal, then? Well, I saw that Wenger was interviewed by those two weirdos Keys and Gray at the weekend. Whilst I hold little stock in their opinions, enough time has elapsed for me to come back around to appreciating the erudite words of Wenger and when he was speaking about the current team and when he visited earlier in the season, he spoke about the atmosphere in the dressing room and the unity that is coming from the squad and coaching staff right now. Of course, off the back of a win you’re always going to get a more jovial dressing room, but he’s a man who has seen many a post-match dressing room and so he will know when there is a focus and unity as a group that could be the mark of a potential title challenging side. That absolutely gives me comfort from his words and whilst I don’t expect  him to say negative things about the club or the current set up, he was effusive enough in his praise to make me feel like we have a good thing going on in our team.

I think now is the biggest test of their character though. We’re three games without a win, two defeats and a draw, we’ve got some really hard games coming up starting tomorrow where we have a horrendous record against City in all competitions in recent years. I think tomorrow is going to be really tough to get either a draw or a win but I have hope that these players step up and I certainly know the crowd will too, because we’ll all be baying for blood. But tomorrow feels like it could be a bubble-burster if we once again get the usual result that we get in the league against Man City. I’m just praying we don’t.

We’ll have Mikel Arteta’s press conference today and, as always, he’ll give little away. I’m not expecting any revelations, but what I do hope to see is something in his eyes that shows a fire and steely determination for tomorrow. I want to see a laser focus from him that says “this guy wants revenge” and whilst his words may not provide that comfort, hopefully his body language does. I have no doubt he’ll be asked about the shocking decisions by PGMOL but my hope – and expectation – is for him to bat it away and simply say “we move on. We cannot change anything. We can only change what is in our power and that is to play better”. But behind closed doors, you can bet your last shiny pound that he will be using it as fuel for his players.

“Everyone is against us. Look how they fight not to give us things. Let’s stick together and show them all. Let’s win this thing in spite of what they are trying to do to stop us”.

There’s not really a lot else going on worth talking about yet, so we’ll just have to see what comes out of the presser, so I’ll leave it there for today and catch you lovely people tomorrow.

Have a good one.