Was travelling back from South Africa to Blighty yesterday, so didn’t get to pen any thoughts in the wake of that FA Cup exit to a United side who – like a few before them this season – basically scored with the one chance they really fashioned. And with the games coming thick and fast, including the daunting prospect of the NLD tomorrow night, I’m half-minded to just pretend it didn’t exist. Bury the head in the sand about why everything seems to be going wrong for us this season. Getting on a plane and pretending for a few hours just after I’d watched the shoot out (David Raya by the way. Mate, you might as well have put big flashing neon arrows in the direction for the players to take their kicks – shape up for future ones of those please) helped, but it only delayed the inevitable, which was to think and overthink about what is going wrong.

We all know the solution (score more goals, idiot!), but when you look at the chance creation, the data, everything, it all seems to be there. But for some reason the ball is just skewing wide from impossible angles, or being mis-hit, etc. When it happens once you just chalk it down to ‘one of those days’ but those are supposed to be once a season. It’s a kind of ‘shrugs shoulders’ situation, but when that becomes an occurrence you have to start looking at patterns. We know that Kai isn’t the best finisher in the world and he misses chances, but even by his inconsistency standards, some of the poor finishing has been off. And he’s a confidence player so we need to have something come off his arse to get that back right now, it feels like. Then you’ve got Martin Odegaard who misses a penalty; I read a start that said he was something like eight from eight on penalties. Apparently Kai had scored 20 from 21 penalties when he took that weak-ass penalty in the shootout. It can’t be luck when sh*t like this keeps happening, right?

We’re getting close to the point in which this season becomes a ‘meh, let’s just make sure we qualify for the Champions League’. I’m a superstitious man when it comes to football and I kind of feel like with all of the stuff that’s happened to us this season, we are using up so much of the karma bad juju that perhaps we should just give up on this season, do the basics to get us over the line, then look to getting some good juju for next season. I mean, surely the football gods can’t punish us any worse than we’ve had it this season with terrible reffing calls, a litany of injuries and unlucky draws in cups like United at home when everyone else seems to have played Part Time United FC, right?

RIGHT?!

And this morning we’re learning through the back channels that Gabriel Jesus has ruptured his ACL, which will mean not only his season is done, but we probably won’t be seeing him until the back end of this year too. That has implications on Arsenal because if there were plans to offload him in the summer, they will be done. But aside from that, the poor guy will be devastated. This move has turned out to be a pretty disastrous one for all involved, sadly, because his injury record has meant we have managed to get a good forward for a few months when we signed him, then he just gave us a few weeks over Christmas where things seemed to click. It’s such a shame and I really feel for him, but his career just hasn’t kicked on at Arsenal and by the time he comes back he’ll find himself in a similar position to Tierney at the club; token minutes at the end of his career because the team has moved on without him. Very sad.

And from a club perspective it makes a bad situation pretty worse, because he’s a top earner at the club, but also we are short on bodies. The reliance on Havertz, Martinelli and Trossard for the next month at least feels like it will probably derail our season. None are in particularly sparkling form and in Sterling we have a guy who just isn’t a player that Mikel has any real faith in. But he’s going to be forced in to chucking him in because we simply don’t have the bodies. He ran us down a few blind alleys against United and although there were a couple of bright spots, you can see why Mikel hasn’t used him. It’s been a pretty pointless loan so far and I suspect that’ll be the reflections on it come the end of the season, but the problem we have is that Mikel is going to be forced to use him because we just don’t have the warm bodies around. And making a signing feels a while away, although I’ve seen some Vlahovic rumours emanating from some corners this morning. I’m not really sure why Juve would sanction a loan deal for a guy who has played a load of minutes for them this season, unless it’s got a hefty wedge of cash attached and a promise of more at the end as a permanent deal. I can see why he might fancy it; Juve are fifth in the table and miles off Napoli, as well as 14th in the current Champions League format. He will be well aware of how Arsenal are doing and so you can see why it would be an attractive move for him, but I just don’t see it happening. So who else? Maybe another nibble at Sesko? I can’t see them letting the kid go when they’re in a Champions League race, with Leipzig currently in fourth, so I don’t see that being a thing – unless mega money is put on the table for them to get excited about.

But what is clear is that something has to happen now. Now Saka, no Jesus, no form from our current line, Arteta will surely be asked about it in his press conference today and surely he has to say “yep, we’re looking”. The challenge with that is that it fluffs up any price negotiation because club’s know you are desperate. But that’s where we are. desperate times, desperate measures, etc. Let’s see what Arteta says today.

Back tomorrow with a pre match musing ahead of a massive NLD for us. See you then.