Happy Monday folks – how are we all doing? Yesterday morning we did the Same Old Arsenal pod and had a great session discussion Saturday’s win over Brentford, which was followed up by the perfect result at Anfield yesterday as Liverpool were held to a 1-1 draw against Man City. That second half was interesting, because despite their injuries and absentees, Liverpool still created a bunch of second half chances and made City look a little more average than they actually are. Much like we did at the Emirates, City didn’t get it their own way and dropped points again this season.

Does that mean that we will get the rub of the green when we go there in a couple of weeks time? I’m not so sure. City are a different beast at home and whilst they have been beaten before and have shown vulnerability, it will easily be our toughest game of the season when we go there over Easter. If we can go in to that game with a more fully fit squad than we’ve had in previous years, however, I’d fancy our chances of at least making it a closer affair than last season. That came at a time in which we relied on Rob Holding, Ben White wasn’t fully fit and Partey must have been carrying something, because he looked like he was running through treacle. But as it stands, barring any unknown injuries, we’ll go in to this game in a great run of form, playing good football, with a stronger and fitter squad that also has more depth to it as well. If one of Saliba or Gabriel goes down it will be tough, but we have more players who will be coming back I think. Tomiyasu will hopefully be back and so White could move in to central defence, for example, or Zinchenko could be back which would mean an in-form Kiwior moves centrally. So we have those options if there are knocks to players all over the pitch.

The one that might be the biggest player we can’t afford to miss right now is Declan Rice. He was once again superb on Saturday, bagged a good goal and as James said on yesterday’s pod, him playing in a more advanced position with Jorginho sitting at the base of our midfield, really has unlocked him in a more advanced position. If you’d have said to me last season that Thomas Partey would be missing for most of this season, I’d have probably have said that it will derail 2023/24. But with Rice and Jorginho bang in form, we’ve been able to slowly integrate the Ghanaian back in and that is a real positive. In the summer we will surely address him and his injury-proneness, but getting him back now to play a part in the remainder of this season feels like it’s another tick box in the positive vibes we’re getting from the squad right now.

But, as William Saliba has said in the aftermath of the Brentford game already, the focus and attention must turn to the most important game of the season tomorrow night. I haven’t really been thinking about it like that if I’m honest, such has the focus been on chasing down the City/Liverpool juggernaut tussle in the league, but I do understand when people talk about the importance of this Porto tie. Arteta doesn’t have a great record in knockout comps in Europe so far. Arsenal are back in the Champions League for the first time in ages and to go out of the knockout stages within one round will feel really annoying given how well we’ve played so far this season. WE absolutely breezed the group stages and when the Porto draw was announced I think most Arsenal fans fancied their chances. I know I did. But Porto rode their luck, got a skanky last second winner and now we find ourselves up against it against a side that will do exactly what Brentford did on Saturday, so we need to be ready, because the sh*thousery levels will be dialled up a notch under the lights and we need to be ready.

The other concern about this game in particular is that the worry is what it could do for the teams confidence if we do go out. Does it derail the momentum of the team? Does it impact the players psychologically ahead of a massive league game against the current champions? We just don’t know at this stage, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t have any effect, because all of these elite players want to play in the best competitions and the Champions League is the best competition. I guess if you’re going to look on the bright side, if the worst were to happen, we’d have a solid two week’s before City and that means the players can try to put it to the back of their minds before we travel up there. There’s also an international break so some of the players will just disappear off with their respective teams. But hopefully it won’t come to that and the player’s will get the job done tomorrow night. It’s a quick turn around from Saturday evening to Tuesday evening and that will mean Arteta has some thinking to do on who he starts. He’ll be in front of the press today at some stage I suspect and so it’ll be interesting to know what the team news might be with the likes of Martinelli, etc. We shall see.

I think that’ll be me done for today now. Will be back tomorrow with a Porto preview so have yourselves a good one and I’ll catch thee in the morrow. Ciao.