We’re back to another match day people, and it’s Champions League match day numero tres for the Arsenal squad, who travelled to Seville yesterday afternoon ahead of tonight’s game against Sevilla FC.

I gotta tell ya, I have absolutely no idea what we’re going to get this evening. Usually I have a feeling one way or another; we’re either playing a very good team and this will be difficult, or a team that we should beat because we are better than them, but it comes down to the variables. But tonight I really don’t know. It feels like I have two competing opinions in my brain about how this match should pan out.

On one side I am looking at the fact Sevilla have already sacked their manager, they sit 13th in La Liga having won just two matches of their first nine. They have an ageing squad of players like Sergio Ramos, Adil Rami, Ivan Rakitic, Jesus Navas, as well as a few players north of 30 like Erik Lamela. They are a side with whom I hear will like to be physical and aggressive in the tackle and that they will look to ruffle us up this evening, but that we should have enough to be able to play around given the quality of players we have in our team.

On the other side I have already seen us fall foul of one Champions League away day defeat to RC Lens in which a vociferous home support, coupled with a couple of wonder strikes and a goalkeeper mistake from Raya, that all led to a defeat in a game that really we shouldn’t have lost. Sevilla picked up a respectable draw at the weekend against Real Madrid and by the sound of some of the podcasts i’ve listened to in the build up to this game, they could have even won it at the end. They have players like Ramos who love a big game and tonight their home fans will bring the noise to make it feel like it. As well as that, however, there is also Arsenal in Europe. We don’t tend to travel too well and haven’t done over the years, so I’m really not sure what sort of flavour of Arsenal we will get this evening.

My hope is that it is a side looking to make amends for what was a poor performance for three-quarters of our game at Stamford Bridge on Saturday evening. It was played under torrential rain and as I went for my run this morning I listened to the Arsecast in which James reported from Seville that it was bucketing it down there too. Some sort of bad omen or sign of what might come this evening perhaps?

We must hope not. And Arteta must have a think about what he needs to change for tonight’s game, because we can’t have the same lacklustre display as the weekend. The passing was off, the rhythm was never set until towards the end of the game and just like that match against Chelsea, Sevilla are in this competition because if you aren’t on it from the first minute, they will punish you.

So, what sort of line up do I think we can expect tonight?

I think that we’ll probably continue to see Raya in goal. He’s looked a bit shaky but I actually agree that it is probably the best thing to do; after a performance in which he looked shaky this weekend just gone, you can’t kill his confidence by hooking him from the team. I do think there is a conversation to be had about Ramsdale for  this coming weekend against Sheffield United, but for now I would stick with Raya and hope he picks himself up and gives us a good game this evening.

In defence I don’t think he will make many changes, although rewarding Tomiyasu by giving him a start at left back this evening could be an option. But I’m not sure Arteta will. Suso is a good player, but I’m not sure if he’s the same style as Raheem Sterling and with Jesus Navas likely to play behind him he may get overlapped and doubled up, but I think Zinny could probably handle that. What will be key is the likes of Martinelli pinning Jesus Navas back in the evening and that’s why I think Martinelli will certainly start tonight, alongside Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka to complete our front line. We need to keep that Sevilla back line busy and pushed back and I think given the personnel they have, we should be expecting Arsenal to be able to create spaces and fashion chances. I don’t know enough about Spanish football to be sure, but I’m pretty confident that our front three have the beating of their defensive unit if we have space and time to find the right passing, but we have to be better in the final third than we were against Chelsea.

A lot of that will also come down to Odegaard, who was really poor at the weekend and barely featured for large swathes of the game. He needs to be able to find space in between the lines like Havertz did when he came on and we need that connection between Odegaard and the attacking trio to be better than it was in our previous game.

This is a must win, or at least a ‘must not lose’ game and as a result I’d complete the midfield line up by having our best three players in there, which would mean Declan Rice and Thomas Partey joining Odegaard. We need Partey’s line breaking passing tonight because I think that will help Odegaard and if Arteta goes with that then I’d be feeling pretty confident that we’ve got a good chance of getting all three points. Zinchenko, Partey, Rice and Odegaard as that midfield box would give us a lot of technical security on the ball and I think it is also intense-running enough to be able to cover the ground if we’re hit in transition by Sevilla. The rest of the defensive doesn’t need mentioning because we all know who is playing at centre half and at right back.

And I just wonder if this is the closest to the ‘best’ XI we have that will start tonight. I also wonder if Arteta might have had an eye on this game as an important one to play that ‘best’ XI and that’s why he opted for Jorginho on Saturday evening, perhaps? A win here puts us in a commanding position to then play Sevilla at home to take control of the group; we can ill-afford another defeat to see us probably drop to bottom, so I could understand if Arteta’s juggling of the XI happens more at the weekend at home to Sheffield United, as opposed to tonight away in Spain.

Unfortunately I’ll miss the first half at least this evening as it’s the mother-in-laws birthday, but I’ll hopefully be able to get the second half in if the Management drives me home from the restaurant, so fingers crossed there. And fingers crossed The Arsdenal do the business tonight. Catch you all tomorrow for some thoughts.