Happy North London Derby Saturday folks. Well, I say ‘happy’, but when it’s away to them, it’s never really happy is it?

We hate them, they hate us and aside from going to the Toilet Bowl two season’s in a row and getting a win, that place has been a very unhappy hunting ground in the last 15 years or so. Last season was a 3-2, the season before was 2-0 to us, but before that you had to go all the way back to a Tomas Rosicky pearler in the second minute in 2014 to find yourself an Arsenal victory in the league. For most of that time they had Kane as our scourge and whilst he was there when we won two season’s ago, he was finally gone from there last season. Didn’t stop them bagging two though; thankfully we’d already notched three and came away with the points.

So whilst immediate history is on our side, the medium and long-term – not so much – but not that Arteta will be too worried about history right now. He had his press conference yesterday and as you’d expect, his cards were kept so close to his chest they might as well been glued on with some Locktite. He was asked on Odegaard’s injury and I think given how we all have heard from the Norway camp about it being a sprain, given how some pictures emerged of a massively inflated and swollen ankle, there isn’t an Arsenal fan out there who thinks he’ll be ready for Sunday. Arteta, however, likes to keep his opponents guessing and so he led with “I’ll leave it to the doctor but he (Odegaard) is willing”, as well as “”players with 48 hours to go are always available but let’s see what happens”.

I’m willing to go out on a limb (pun intended) here; Odegaard will not be in the squad this weekend. And if it is a sprain, nor should he, because there will be bigger battles to be fought and whilst this weekend is big, we can’t afford to lose him for a really long period of time. And with time hopefully can come some quicker healing; Arteta of course wouldn’t be drawn on how long he’ll be out, but he did say that Odegaard was very positive about it and given that he apparently didn’t have a protective boot on the ankle recently maybe gives some positive. The best I think we can hope for is probably that he’s back after the City game, but let’s see what happens.

Merino was also a positive update for Arteta, who said he’s also progressing well and ‘doing some stuff’ – I’m guessing that’s probably some gym work on his legs, etc, with Arteta also saying they can speed up the process because he doesn’t have any symptoms. If you’re going to look at positives with an injury like that, because it’s not in his legs it means as soon as he gets his mobility back they should be able to at least get him jogging, etc. There’s also the tactical side and Arteta sort of referenced that by talking about how Merino has lots of questions that he’s been asking. That’ll be a good thing; he’ll be able to watch his team play, train, but also spend time looking at how Mikel wants to set up tactically too. So hopefully when he is back in full training and available, he’ll be a little more up to speed than when he first arrived.

Then the final bit of really good news is that Gabriel Jesus is available this weekend and that has to be a huge boost for Arteta and us too. We’ve all done a lot of talking about how on earth our midfield will line up, but with Gabby J back and training it does leave the option for Arteta to drop Kai in to midfield and play the Brazilian through the middle. And then you think about our attacking options and we do indeed have plenty in that space. Midfield might be an issue right now, but in that front three we have Martinelli, Trossard, Sterling, Saka, Kai and now Gabriel Jesus; that’s six players available for three positions.

The other question that was sort of posed to him was whether Nwaneri could be involved tomorrow and whilst Mikel didn’t give any definitive answer, he did say on Nwaneri that we (the team) have to adapt and I suspect some have taken that to mean that he’ll get a start. And you know us Arsenal fans, then comes the rumours, for which I saw a few yesterday saying that Arsenal have rented a box tomorrow for Nwaneri’s family and that there is a bubbling expectation that he will start. I’ll give more thoughts on the line up tomorrow but I think that will be a massive risk to throw the kid in for a game like this, especially away from home, because the atmosphere will be tough and if it was on home soil at least he’d get the cheers of the home crowd. This time around it’ll be jeers; I don’t think that would affect him too much and he seems like he’s got a very level head on his shoulders for somebody so young, but to me it feels like a risk too far and I’d be surprised if Arteta went for it. Perhaps he gets some minutes in the second half if we need to go forward a bit more, but I can’t see him on from the start, if I’m honest.

To wrap up today, some words from the manager himself on signing the new deal and he was asked to comment on it yesterday, for which he said:

I couldn’t think of a better place to be to develop my career as a player, to experience an amazing football club with the people that I met and the experiences that I had. Now as a manager, that is been something far beyond and better than what I ever dreamed about probably.

Well said Mikel – we’re all delighted too.

Now go and win the North London Derby again.