Happy match day folks. A midweek match day in the premier League. And what an opportunity we have that sits before us.

An opportunity to go five points clear at the top.

An opportunity for revenge against a side that beat us just a few short weeks ago.

An opportunity for us to start saying we truly are re-building some momentum at the most bum-squeakiest of times in the season.

Everton are in the doldrums. After getting a morale boosting victory against us at the beginning of last month, they were shocking against Liverpool, ground out a win against Leeds, then were poor against Villa at the weekend. Yet I am under no illusions whatsoever about tonight for us. This is going to be a slog.

We all know the blueprint that will be set out; Dyche will instruct his defenders to tuck in and be compact, to try to funnel Arsenal out wide where there is less risk of conceding goals statistically, then he’ll tell his wide players to tuck in and try to double up on our wide forwards, who I expect to be Saka and Martinelli again. Everton will not want the ball, they will want to create chances in transition and they will want to take advantage of set pieces and corners, just like they did at Goodison.

We have to be ready.

We have to be ready for this game to feel like it’s being played in a bog. Everton will slow play down, they will break up momentum where possible, they will play for everything and they will look to frustrate us. And I suspect they might today. The key that Arteta needs to be telling his players this evening, however, is not to rush things and not to panic. If it is 0-0 by halftime that is ok.

I do worry what happens if we go one down against an Everton side who has found scoring goals incredibly difficult, though. That’s because if it happens then we might as well just be prepared for 10 blue shirts and a ‘keeper to sit inside their penalty box and congest everything. However, if we can manage to score early tonight, well, game plan is out of the window and it might open up.

Usually I am saying on this type of blog that we need to get at them quickly and start early and of course that is what I want to happen, but I need to also check myself to make sure that we are prepared to wait to unlock them. It may be because they are tired having focused without the ball for most of the game, that we find spaces to exploit. But that is when it starts to get nervy – around the 70 minute mark – so as fans we also need to hold our nerves and be ready for what we’re about to watch.

Arsenal team news centres around Thomas Partey’s fitness. Arteta admitted yesterday that he only had one training session yesterday and that he needs to build himself back up after a few weeks out, but I am presuming he means one training session this week and given yesterday was Tuesday, he’d have trained on Monday having had Sunday off. So my hope is that he is back and ready to go. If he’s fit, he starts, in my book, because as much as Jorginho in midfield against an Everton team who won’t have a lot of ball is ok, Thomas Partey makes us much better. It is that simple. If he can only manage 60 minutes then fine, you give him the first 60 and bring Jorginho on for the last 30. But unless he is still feeling the after effects of his knock and that was felt when he came on against Leicester, then he should come straight in.

The rest of the team almost picks itself. Arteta hinted at rotation yesterday as the games come thick and fast, but I am not so sure he makes a ton of it tonight. Ramsdale will remain in goal, Saliba and Gabriel should start at the back, I can’t see him dropping Zinchenko. There might be a case to give Tomiyasu some minutes at right back, but that’s the only real change I see Arteta making from the weekend. That’s becvause I think he’ll go with Trossard and Martinelli again. Against a low block team a player like Trossard with his close ball control and ability to shift it on to either feet will be welcome. Eddie has done an admirable job but if you’re going to choose some minutes for both over the next two games I think you give Eddie the starting slot against Bournemouth and you play Trossard from the start tonight.

As for Everton, they are without Calvert-Lewin again, which is a bonus because he was a thorn in our side at Goodison. But instead they have the pantomime villain that is Neil Maupay, so I’m expecting a little sh*thousery from him tonight. I just hope he gets absolutely no change from our defence and after his antics at the end of the game against us almost a month ago, I hope the players are ready for him and ready to give him the treatment – on the right side of the law, but if there’s an opportunity to put a hard-but-fair challenge in on him, let’s do it.

I really want revenge tonight. Everton always seem to get one over on us at Goodison, so I want those Arsenal players to still be smarting from that defeat and to come to tonight’s game with their game faces on, ready to do the business. Let’s get at them from the start; pin them back, force errors from them, press high and force Pickford to concede the ball by lumping it long to our defenders. At Goodison they employed that tactic with Calvert-Lewin being a good target many to win the knock downs. But Maupay isn’t as much of a physical presence and so I hope that we have an answer to him every time the ball is lumped forward.

I’m not confident to the point of being arrogant over this game, but these Arsenal players need to be aware of the threat that Everton pose, be prepared to stand on their necks to hold them down, then as I said be able to draw the blood of revenge for what happened on February 4th.

That’s yer lot from me for today. Hopefully tomorrow we’re talking about three points.

Catch you all tomorrow.