Here we are folks, it’s a lovely day in London (albeit a little chilly), that most sacred of things in the shape of a 3pm kick off and I’m bringing The Management along to the game today in the seat next to me. As a hopefully advantageous twist of fate, the last time she rocked up to The Emirates was the season-before-last when we beat Leicester 4-2 at home, with a brace for Gabriel Jesus, one for Xhaka and one for Martinelli. If you recall, it was also that game in which William Saliba scored an own goal with us 2-0 up and the response from the home crowd was just to cheer him and his name as a gesture that “it’s ok mate, these things happen, we got your back”.

Thankfully Xhaka scored two minutes later to restore the two goal deficit, then when they brought another on back with Maddison on 74 minutes, Martinelli scored a minute after that.

You only thought you had the illusion of being back in the game. The Arsenal did that to you.

She’s got a pretty good record to be fair, she’s seen us smash the Watford’s, the Sheffield United’s, the Wigan’s and the Bolton’s and even when I tested her after saying that she’s a good luck charm for The Arsenal and her saying “you only take me to the games where they should win comfortably”, I took her to both of the North London Derby’s in which we won 5-2. The guy behind me Nigel told me I couldn’t have my ticket back and I’d have to give it to her after the second 5-2. “We’ll never lose a game again – you’re the curse it seems”.

Bit harsh, I thought. And anyway, she wouldn’t turn up if it was four degrees and pissing it down, so you’re stuck with me guys.

So it’s Leicester today and it’s a team in which I read last night haven’t kept a clean sheet in 28 Premier League matches. So we need to extend that to 29 and do it without fluffing our lines at the back. That task might be a little bit more difficult than usual because of the potential absence of David Raya, who apparently wasn’t seen at the team hotel last night, but unlike in midweek we have an experienced Premier League option in Neto and you have to hope that regardless, he won’t be troubled too much today – touch wood.

Arteta’s press conference yesterday seemed to suggest that there were no other troubles in the team and after Timber limped off against City, he appears to be back in training, so that’s good. Tomiyasu was also confirmed to be back in training too, although I suspect he won’t be part of the match day squad today; they’ll be super cautious with him I suspect and given he’s missed a chunk of pre season too, I think we’ll probably not see him near a first team starting position until late October at the earliest. But that’s ok, providing we keep the likes of Calafiori, Saliba, Gabriel, White and Timber fit. That’s five players for four positions and I also think Kiwior had a decent enough game in midweek too, so we have plenty of cover.

Midfield is the one that Arteta will have to continue to juggle for the foreseeable future, but his confirmation that Merino is back on the pitch and training now shows that re-enforcements are on the way and so hopefully in the next couple of week’s he can start to make match day squads. We’re going to need it; there’s pretty much games happening every few days between now and what feels like Christmas, so rotation isn’t a luxury, but a necessity for the remainder of 2024, it seems.

From today’s line up expectations I suspect there will be an air of familiarity, but because of the Raya rumours I’ve gone with:

Neto

White   –   Saliba   –   Gabriel   –   Calafiori

Partey

Havertz   –   Rice

Saka   –   Trossard   –   Martinelli

I think that because Gabriel Jesus played in midweek, he’ll start from the bench today and with Trossard suspended, he’ll be nice and fresh. Trossard and Havertz tend to rotate in position anyway and because of what we should expect from Leicester today, that extra box crasher in Havertz playing in midfield means we’ll have an extra man for Leicester to worry about.

So, what should we expect from Leicester today then, eh?

Well, away from home they’ve played two, drawn one at Palace in which they had 20 shots against them and nine themselves, doing a bit of a smash and grab by going two up and then being pegged back. Palace should have won that game though and definitely had the chances. In their other game away they lost away to Fulham with ESR scoring and you can see from some of the chances just from the short highlight reels in those games, that they do give up chances and they do make mistakes at the back. They have Connor Coady who’s joined their ranks, But Wout Faes always seems to have a mistake in him when I watch. I think Coady hasn’t really played much of late, so whether or not he’ll start I’m not sure.

They do have a familiar couple of adversaries though in Jordan “foul with impunity” Ayew and Jamie “can he stop bloody scoring against us” Vardy. It was Ayew employing those ‘dark arts’ last season at Palace that got Tomiyasu sent off and I remember the season before that making tactical foul after tactical foul whilst not getting punished, so I’ll expect the same today. And if we give Vardy a sniff, he’ll take it – his goal against Palace showed just that and although the Scum absolutely battered them at their ground, Vardy was still on hand with the few chances he got. At 37 he doesn’t have the same pace as nine year’s ago, but he knows where the goal is.

As a team Leicester are very much a counter-attacking side; they have had the second-lowest number of shots in the league and whilst stats this early season can be misleading (we’re third from bottom on shots, but that’s because we’ve played Brighton and City with ten men, as well as a low block Wolves, the Scum away with players missing), I do wonder if this will be Leicester’s approach this season. This bears out in the possession stats – Leicester are fourth highest in terms of defensive penalty area touches, sixth in terms of in their defensive third, tenth in the middle third and second from bottom in terms of touches in the attacking third and penalty box. Leicester don’t want a lot of the ball in the opposition half, they want to spring quickly and make as much efficiency as possible with what little chances they get.

That means the game is being played today in their half and we need to answer a different challenge to the start of our season: we need to break down a team for the first time since the start of the season against Wolves. Leicester will try to frustrate, try to be compact, we might need to be patient and not rush it. An early goal for us changes this game, if they get the first goal, it’ll be camping time like City did to us last weekend.

We need to find an answer, but also not give them the sniff. Here’s hoping to that.

If you are up tomorrow morning at 9.30am UK time then I’ll be on with my ol’ mate Dave to dissect the game – you can join us here for that one.

Other than that, have yourselves a good Saturday and here’s hoping for three points.