Howdy folks and welcome to Monday. They’re much more palatable when The Arsenal have picked up three points and have bagged a bunch of goals, eh?

I saw a few fans say that we should shut up about the Newcastle goal that was given now that we’ve had our own version of that goal allowed, which made me chuckle, because quite clearly those are two different scenarios. The first goal in particular on Saturday was Gabriel Jumping in the air and the Palace dude backing in to him, so I fail to see how Joelinton pushing Gabriel in the back is the same. But there you go. We had success last season, we proved we’re one of the better teams in the league, which has now put a target on our backs and means fans of other clubs start to hate us for our successes.

Ce la vie.

Unfortunately Bournemouth couldn’t do us a favour yesterday though as they got battered by Liverpool and it is starting to look like it’s their title to lose right now. City will win their game in hand and reduce it to two points, but Liverpool keep picking up results and I just wonder whether this eventual ‘blip’ that I’ve heard should happen will eventually come. They’re progressing through games, they’re picking up points and winning in cup matches, it’s looking ominous and whilst I am still holding out hope that we can start to string together wins that enable us to compete with the likes of City and Liverpool, I just have a gnawing suspicion that we might fall away. Which sounds a little defeatist on a weekend in which we’ve won 5-0 and have been able to get ourselves back on track, but it just feels to me like we’re hanging in there trying to keep pace, whilst those two clubs (City and Liverpool) are starting to ramp up their title efforts.

What we need to do is to start a run. The win on Saturday was great but there were times in the game where it didn’t exactly feel like we could say “Ahh, all good, we’re back baby!” because despite the eventual score line, Palace frustrated and handled us quite well at times I thought. They didn’t create a bunch of chances, but they did deliver a decent game plan and had we not have scored early it feels like we might have been in for a frustrating afternoon. What we need to do is get back to the free-flowing Arsenal and Arteta needs to be emphasising that in the next week I reckon. We don’t play for eight days and the team has the opportunity to continue the rest and rejuvenation that began in Dubai; get some players back, work on Forest and Liverpool’s weaknesses, then in a few week’s time life could feel very different indeed.

We do have to wait however and whilst it is probably good for the players to be given more recovery time ahead of a trip to the City ground, it’s bloody annoying for us fans having to wait for The Arsenal to be back on and playing. With no football we have to turn to other content and a quick look around the football internet quickly shows you that there’s little going on of any regard. We’re nine days away from the transfer window ‘slamming shut’ and this has been one of the quietest windows in living memory. Last week there was some questions around an Emile Smith Rowe loan to West Ham but Arsenal’s rejection of that says to me that Arteta will want to use him a little more than he has done this season so far i.e. sparingly. I get the feeling that Arsenal are – Cedric aside – happy to say the door is closed from both an incoming and outbound perspective and it does feel as though a lot of the Premier League feels the same way. There isn’t a lot of movement in the market and that is reflected in the fact that only the Scum seem to have made moves to bring players in, which makes sense given that they have £100million from the Kane sale helping to prop them up. City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Villa have all kept their powders dry and you just know that the people of Sky Sports are furious with the lack of activity. They probably rely quite heavily on those rumours fuelling clicks and views on their channel and website and with little action seeming to go on right now, they’re having to contend with some pretty naff guesswork from what I’ve seen in recent weeks. It’s a funny one though because whilst I want us to bring some new bodies in, with everyone else holding fire from pulling any transfer triggers, I think I’m kind of ok with us also keeping our powder dry. If City, Liverpool or Villa made a bold signing today, however, I’d probably start to get a little wobbly because I’d be thinking that moves were being made to strengthen a position whilst we’re standing still. That’s the irrational mindset of a football fan I guess. A new signing represents the unknown and whilst it’s true that a new signing can be a game changer for a club, more often than not they don’t end up being like an Erling Haaland or Mo Salah.

And with that in mind I think I might put a pause on today’s blog proceedings. You have yourselves a good one and I will catch you all tomorrow as we wax lyrical about how TRANSFER X is going to revolutionise our season!