It’s hard to know what to make of tonight’s away tie to PSV this evening. Ordinarily I’d be thinking that this is one we should be able to get a good footing on, so we can finish the job in North London, so tonight is about maybe racking a goal or two so we all feel more comfortable about our safe passage to the quarter finals.

But the challenges we’ve had in front of goal, the fact that we don’t seem to have many personnel solutions waiting in the wings to change things up, as well as the impact of being ostensibly out of the title race, have me not feeling as buoyant as I would have thought I would feel. There’s no ‘checking the watch to see what time the game is on’, there isn’t a ‘make sure I have social media feeds on between meetings today’ vibe. Heck, I haven’t even tried to re-arrange stuff to get me plenty of time to ‘settle in’ to the evening. I’ve got a 5pm meeting that finishes at 5.45pm in London before i head round a mates house to watch the game later.

It feels a little odd, if I’m honest, because this game tonight is going to be one in which our season hangs in the balance on. We are out of all domestic cups and we know we aren’t competing for the league, so this represents the only opportunity for silverware and that in itself makes for tough reading, when you think about our route to get there.

So I’m feeling a little low-key this morning as I write my preview thoughts. Perhaps it’s because of the league title stuff, perhaps it’s because we are traditionally pretty bad in Europe, perhaps it’s Arteta’s record in European knockout or perhaps it’s the fact that we once again look at our forward line and wonder where the goals are coming from?

I’m sure as soon as the team news comes out I’ll have the usual butterflies in the stomach, but right now, it’s all feeling a little muted.

So It’s on Arteta and those players to show me the error of my ways. That has to be with a lively performance, one with zip and movement, that shows that we have PSV’s number. The real pain point for me for the West Ham game was how slow we were; we’ve been like it for a lot of this season actually, which I know has cheesed off a few of my fellow Block Fivers in the ground on match days. The build up from the back was ponderous and many of us have speculated whether this is a deliberate approach to draw the opposition out to you so you can hit them front to back quickly if they are out of shape. That only works if you have the right amount of movement in the final third and so that’s what we need to see this evening.

We need some of the bigger characters in this team to step up. I’m looking specifically at Rice and Odegaard in this instance; Rice for his aggressive running and ground coverage, Odegaard for his final ball which if we can all be honest with ourselves, has been sadly lacking this season. He’s taken to those little chip balls over the top of late that i’ve seen in two or three games and sadly it has really come off. I’m not surprised though; elite football is played with such high-pace that if you are loop a little lob wedge like that over the top of a back line, nine times out of ten I think they are spinning and able to clear the danger. So what we need to see tonight is incision and precision in Odegaard’s distribution. Not Row Zedding his shots would also come in handy too, methinks.

I wrote a few week’s back about Trossard needing to step up and as one of the senior players you have to hope that too for tonight, because without him and Nwaneri providing service, I’m not sure Merino’s role is anything other than redundant in that false nine role. We need to see the Trossard that can beat a man and put a killer ball in like Leicester three weekend’s back, not the one who gets lost in amongst a sea of defenders, as has been the situation on a few too many occasions for my liking this season.

The hope is that we’ll get more space tonight than we usually do in the Premier League. PSV aren’t playing a Champions League knockout game, at home, under the lights, then giving their vociferous home fans a low block with two chances created all night. They will come at us and that will create space. What we need to do is find a way to exploit that space and I’m looking in the direction of that special 17-year-old we’ve got who will line up on the right wing this evening. If Ethan is in space, find him. Because if he can unlock, or draw out defenders to create space for others, then it is incumbent of the likes of an Odegaard, to find him.

PSV come into this game in a sticky patch of form too. They’ve had Ivan Perisic say he’s annoyed with how they played to Go Ahead Eagles at the weekend. They’re not flying in all comps and are in a similar place to us, except without the level of injuries we’ve got. So the hope has to be that we can quieten that home crowd down if we start well. And you have to feel like we need to start well and score first, to be honest, because as soon as we go a goal down at the moment you’re wondering where the goals are coming from. These players need something. They need something to go in off an arse, or an elbow, or a dodgy penalty, because the longer we go without scoring, the more it starts to feel like a ‘thing’ is bubbling under the surface.

Arteta has had the time to work with them for almost a week without a game. He’s had time to try new things out. Will he do that tonight? I’m not so sure. But an extra week of training with players in certain positions will hopefully give us a little more fluidity in our attack. We need it.