Honestly, which one of the footballing gods did Liverpool sell their souls to, in order to have the kind of rub of the green that they have been getting this season, eh?

I don’t want to say “luck” because it isn’t lucky that they have a world class ‘keeper in Alisson, but bloody hell, they got away with another one last night against PSG, didn’t they?

Enough about them, however, because I don’t want to go down rabbit hole theories of how Arnie Slot has been seen at a cult of Devil worshippers and apparently the man in the heat has granted his wishes this season in return for one soul. Certainly a better deal than Homer Simpson got all those year’s ago, that’s for sure…

In the Arsenal world, not a lot going on ahead of the trip to Manchester this weekend, although they play tonight so my hope is that they are all tired, fatigured and rubbish come Sunday. We all know they won’t be; no matter how shite United are, games at Old Trafford have historically ended in their favour and last year was the first time we beat them in the league for about 15 years prior if I recall rightly, so I’m expecting them to turn up against us, having stank that dilapidated old stadium out for most of the season already to most other teams.

Let’s hope that Sociedad win but not win by such an amount that they have no chance next week at Old Trafford (think PSV levels), because what we ideally want is for Amorim to do an Emery and throw all of his eggs in the Europa League basket. A nice rotated team against us would be grand, although I’m not going as far as to want Heaven and Chido Obi-Martin to play a part in any way, shape or form. I still have PTSD going back all the way to the Anelka years when he’d rock up playing for a different Premier League team against us every season, yet still end up on the bloody scoresheet. So I don’t want to see these two youngsters trotting out and having their big day out in the sun (har-har – it’s in Manchester this weekend so at least that ain’t happening) against us.

There will be team news from Arteta tomorrow in his press conference and so there’s time for a look at to that game on Sunday both tomorrow and on Saturday morning. That’s on the pitch, but off it, I got an email yesterday telling me that my ticket prices are going up another 5% this season, having also gone up by that amount last season. Hey, I’m lucky, because a) I have a season ticket and by the sounds of it the waiting list isn’t moving much right now, and b) I can afford it thanks to the job I have and lack of dependents. But it’s still £50+ that is being added to my bill for the same product, which does feel galling because when you put it in to the context that it’s essentially like being told by the club that I have to pay for an extra Category B game, but I don’t actually get an actual match that is assign to that cost. It just sticks in the throat a little bit when I think of it like that. I appreciate that this is a problem for a relative minority in the Arsenal fanbase, but upping prices for match going fans just to make a couple of extra million, when the big money comes from the sponsorship and TV deals, feels a little out of place to me.

But what can I do? Just got to suck it up I suppose, because I’m not giving up what has become an obsession to me. I was paying up when it was freezing cold, we were rubbish, nobody turned up to Man City in the winter amongst the snow and I had five seats to myself, I’m certainly not walking away now.

So what else is there then? well, we’ve got some rumblings about Sesko’s release clause being made a little more public, which apparently stands at 70 millions euros. That’s £58million and personally, for that price, I think Arsenal need to go and have a go at that deal. It feels like the groundwork has been laid already; we went in for him last summer, so he knows there’s interest. He will have seen that we decided to keep our powder dry in the January window and he’ll know the context of how our season has fallen away. Against that backdrop, it feels to me like the ‘sell’ is pretty easy. The question is whether Arsenal can get in there quick enough, offer the right package for him and his agent, then who else is in for him. I’ve seen Barca might be interested, but the Premier League, the fact they will have to sell before buying, the opportunity that Arsenal could put to him if they move quickly, it feels like a deal that could be done.

And to me, I think I’ve been fairly consistent, he’s been my main guy I think we should be after. Isak is far too expensive and the second he puts on that Arsenal shirt you just know he’ll be on that plush red leather treatment table at London Colney. I’ve seen that lad from Frankfurt mentioned and he does look impressive, but I just think the Sesko relationship has probably already been well cultivated and if Arsenal can move early in the summer, I think a lot of us will have our fears allayed of a another late-grab transfer window.

Right, I’m going to leave it there today. I have a hella day of meetings so I better crack on.

Catch you tomorrow.