This weekend’s game feels like one of the most low-key of games against United that I can remember. I’ve been watching Sky Sports attempt to build it up as some kind of crunch match, but I think all of us know that it really isn’t anything of the sort:

  • United have nothing to play for in the Premier League and I’d imagine their fans would probably be just as happy to throw in the towel on the domestic season based on where they’re at right now.
  • Arsenal have to fight for maintenance of second spot, but it’s hardly a blockbuster slog to the end of the season, so we just want to fast forward whilst making sure we maintain our top tier credentials.

Nevertheless, however, as a professional you still have to do your job and you get the feeling that Arsenal and Arteta are approaching this game in just that manner, judging by his press conference yesterday. He rolled out the usual format – talk briefly about the previous game but quickly say it was in the past, talking up Man United, whilst also reflecting on 200 matches as an Arsenal manager. There wasn’t anything ground-breaking in his comments, but I did like his comments about taking MLS off early in the PSV game. He said the situation was a ‘liability’ and that we’ve ‘learnt from that experience’ and I think given the number of times we’ve had trigger happy referees this season, it doesn’t matter if it’s PGMOL or not, Arteta isn’t taking any chances. He did the same by hooking Calafiori at halftime and whilst in previous seasons and maybe next season he might not react like that, given the context of how we’ve been shafted by referees in 2024/25, I think it was a prudent move and the right one given the current context.

We’ve got Anthony Taylor this weekend for the match at Old Trafford and that can go either way with him. He’s reff’d us three times this season and in that time we’ve seen him rule out the Havertz late goal against Liverpool (which was probably right in fairness), oversee the win at West Ham, then given another one of those “you’ll never see again” by awarding Brighton that penalty from the clash of heads of Saliba and Joao Pedro of Brighton, so I’m not quite sure whether we’ll get shafted or not on Sunday. We’ll have to see.

Arteta did also talk a little about Calafiori and how unpredictable he is, admitted that he’s been surprised about Calafiori’s attacking threat. Lad has dropped three goals already this season and when he finished the goal on Tuesday from an Odegaard through ball, I saw a fair few calls online for us to stick him up top. He certainly has the physical presence, that’s for sure, but would this be just another Merino situation for us? I don’t know. Apparently he did play up top when he was a kid (although in a recent interview he said he didn’t – I wonder if that’s since he turned professional) but he’s said he thinks he has the tools in his locker to do it. You wouldn’t bank against him making a good go of it, but I still have my doubts. His finishing for the goals he’s scoring has been great, but being a centre forward in a team like Arsenal isn’t about bagging goals like the screamer he did against City, or arriving as he did against Wolves. The goal against PSV is the sort of one you expect to see of a centre forward play, but even that one had an element of a run from deep to trick the defenders. Imagine if he was playing centre forward in that game; the position he would be taking up would be higher up the pitch, possibly occupying centre halves, so he might not get the running start he did on the defenders because of where he was situated on the pitch.

It’s why I think the fluidity of movement of his players is such an important part of how we are going to get goals without a Havertz focal point. Arteta was asked about that and said that we need to look at threats from all areas and you look at the way Rice is box crashing lately, as well as Calafiori too, and you understand that the disruption in opposition defenders we have to cause is going to come from that fluidity and deep running. We can’t really afford to be static and that’s one of the problems we had against both West Ham and Forest. Part of that was because of the opposition sitting in low or mid blocks, but I never saw enough movement from our forward line when off the ball, if I’m honest. Nwaneri is a guy who wants to cause damage with it at his feet. Trossard too, so that leaves Merino who doesn’t have the movement (not his fault – he’s not a striker) to pull apart defenders. SO we do need to rely on other players from midfield or defence to be taking more risks and getting in to those box positions.

You’d hope this weekend that United will want to come out at us a bit more. They might not, they might sit in a low or mid block, but at Old Trafford I just can’t see that happening. So maybe (fingers crossed) we can get a more open game like PSV offered us. I doubt it will be as open and i doubt United will be as bad as PSV, but with this game wedged in between a Europa League one and with a few injuries piled up on United’s side as well as ours, it does feel like this game will have a very different flavour to it than some of these matches of the past have had.

Right, I’ll leave it there for today I think. Back tomorrow with a match preview and possible lines ups tomorrow ahead of the game in the afternoon. Have yourselves a lovely Saturday.