Morning folks, how we all doing this Tuesday? A lot better than 115 Charges FC, it appears, as they now have the utterly scandalous situation of playing Watford this evening at home, just 48 hours after playing us (which they were at home) on Sunday, as well as having played Inter (which was at home) on Wednesday, having also played Brentford at home the following Saturday. I’m glad the media are picking up this scandal against poor little downtrodden City. After all, they’ve had to do all of this travel, they’ve had to endure a torrid time against Arsenal in which the referee was completely against them, oh, did I also forget about the small amount of recovery time they have had in comparison to their rivals.

That never happens to anybody else. And against Watford too, a game in which I’m absolutely sure they’ll play exactly the same team that played on Sunday. After all, the squad that they have amassed over many years just simply isn’t big enough to play a team currently eighth in the Championship…

And after a game in which they were treated so harshly by a referee who has got a history of picking on them. Why, only last season they were subjected to having people question the justice after they scored a goal against Fulham that was offside with this referee, had fans saying mean things about them after Doku left holes in a Liverpool players’ chest in side their penalty box, plus there was a number of people scratching their heads after poor Kovacic was called out for a studs up challenge on Odegaard when already on a yellow. Still, at least good ol’ Howard Webb stuck up for them last season on that one. Maybe he can be the shining light, the bastion of integrity when he calls out horrible Arsenal for being frustrated that Michael Oliver sent one of their players off less than a second after he’d blown a whistle. At least PGMOL circling their own wagons within the next week will give them some comfort.

The fall out of the game on Sunday continued yesterday and now we’ve heard from Walker, Stones, Akanji, Bernardo Silva, all having their say – or rather bitching and moaning about Arsenal and our approach and Walker went on BBC Five Live to have a moan at Michael Oliver about not being able to get in to position. Bernardo Silva made gestures about the number of trophies Arsenal players had won, Erling Haaland squared up to a 17-year-old, Akanji scoffed at Arsenal playing for a draw, whilst Stones talked about the ‘dark arts’ of Arsenal players. Sure John, because you guys have never employed such tactics like rotational fouling on the halfway line to break up play, eh?

This needle, this rattling of those City players, is perfection. We need to use this as ammo. We need to be ready for them and we need to have an answer come February. And you can bet the home crowd at The Emirates will remember. We will have our receipts and those City players will know it come the time that kick off comes around. The touch paper has been lit and the return leg will have an edge to it that I think most of us are quite excited for. Yes Bernardo Silva, we won’t be like Liverpool and give you a friendly rivalry, we’re coming for your throats. We’ve done one tetchy and edgy rivalry, with spats and tension, with another club in Manchester. Doing it with another one – albeit one sanitised and an imitation of a proper big club – will be no problem for us.

Bring. It. On.

There’s a fair bit of football to be played before then and tomorrow night it’ll be League Cup duties for us, with Arteta most likely to talk to the press today at some stage. I think the key question that should be asked will be “who is going to play in goal?”. David Raya had a bandage on Sunday and was seen limping in the mix zone (despite being accused of feigning injury on Sunday) and so I’d be stunned if he’s risked, yet Neto is also cup tied, so it’ll mean that we might even turn to new boy Tommy Setford. Honestly, I’d rather we played a kid than risked Raya tomorrow and given we also have a few other injury concerns right now, I suspect Arteta might be tempted to throw a few of the youngsters in tomorrow night. He doesn’t normally like to do it, but I’ve just had a think about players we really shouldn’t be risking, which included:

  • William Saliba
  • Ben White
  • Gabriel
  • Jurrien Timber (been playing a fair bit of football already this season, so maybe give him a rest for Saturday?)
  • Riccardo Calafiori (even though he’s only started once, my thinking is that he’s only just back from a knock himself)
  • Thomas Partey
  • Kai Havertz
  • Declan Rice
  • Bukayo Saka
  • Gabriel Martinelli

From the first team squad, of the players who could probably get some game time, we’re looking at Kiwior, Jorginho, Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling. That fills four positions, which lease another seven that need to be filled. If you’re talking about Nwaneri as one spot then that seems obvious, then you’ve got Miles Lewis-Skelly who can fill in at left back. Arteta could give Ben White the nod as he didn’t play on Sunday, then put Timber back in for the home game at Leicester as they do a bit of a job share this week. That still leaves you with four more spots to fill and if you look at how many players have had senior time from the academy, you’re talking Ayden Heaven who could fill in at centre half to give us a back four, Tommy Setford in goal, then you still have to put somebody in as a winger, as well as somebody to play in one of the number eight roles. Oulad M’Hand has seen a little more time with the first team and he could come in to play midfield, but that would still mean you’d need another winger, so I wonder if Arteta does another job share with Martinelli and Trossard, with the Brazilian playing tomorrow because Trossard is suspended, for Leo to be back in for Saturday’s game at home to Leicester.

What this exercise has shown me is just how close we are to having some big worries in terms of first team player availability. It’s true that we still have a fair few injuries which is making this situation a little more difficult, but we can’t really afford many more knocks and if Bolton come to ruffle a few feathers and ‘get stuck in’ tomorrow, then we will need to be mindful of keeping some of those Arsenal first team players back a bit.

We’ll find out later what Mikel is thinking, then tomorrow I’ll have a look at our opponents to see what’s going on with them in tomorrow’s preview, but for today I’ll wrap this up and catch you all tomorrow. Have a good one.