It’s a big one today As Arsenal face off against Manchester United in an epic top-of-the ta…

..Oh wait, it’s not. I love how Sky Sports have tried their best to dress this game up as having some kind of significance, when in reality:

  • A win for Arsenal does nothing other than keep a bit more of a gap from Forest
  • A draw does pretty much the same for us, whilst it might put United up to 14th, where they were yesterday before Everton drew at Wolves
  • A win for United does nothing for Arsenal and moves United up to 14th if The Scum beat Bournemouth at home.

Today’s match very much has the feeling of a game that is getting towards the end of the season and by the time we get to 7pm tonight we’ll have ten to play and no matter what the outcome is, we’ll be in second place.

At this stage it feels like if we win our remaining five home games and pick up a couple of wins on the road – Maybe at Southampton and Ipswich – we’re probably guaranteed Champions League football and we might even stay in second or third. So what Arteta and Arsenal are playing with today is maintaining our status as runners up.

I guess a win is good because it’s always fun to beat United and condemn them to being lower-mid-table mediocrity, but there’s not really loads more at stake other than that.

That doesn’t mean that Arteta won’t be going all out for a win and as much as I’ve cut a demoralised literary figure as I type this, I really want us to continue to pile on the misery for United. They are not good – their league position shows that – but our record is woeful at Old Trafford and we need to rebalance that with more wins up there. Last season was the first time we picked up three points since Adebayor had won it for us with a dodgy goal that these days would be ruled out by VAR. That was 14 years ago and much like we’ve had a terrible record at theirs and they have been terrible, one good thing about Arteta is that he’s been able to pick up wins at places we’ve traditionally struggled. We’ve one the last three at Shite Hart Lane, for example. So despite all of our injuries, despite our struggles for goals (or lack thereof), I go in to today’s game hoping that the 7-1 smashing of PSV can have sparked the team in to more fluid movement and a better attacking threat than we saw against Forest or West Ham.

The difference today – we have to hope – is that United’s mindset won’t be the same as those two teams. Both the Hammers and Forest went low-ish block and try to catch on the counter, but the home crowd won’t stand for that against us, I don’t think. The mindset will be that “we’re Man United and we’re at home – we attack” and if they do that you have to hope that there is space for us to profit. There’s been some talk about the fact United have picked up a draw against us (which they then won on penalties) and against Liverpool, but both of those games were away from home, so you’d expect them as the away team and underdog to sit in and say to both Arsenal Liverpool “come on then, break us down”. But I can’t see them adopting the same approach today. I hope not, anyway.

What I can see is Chido Obi Martin getting some kind of minutes, playing well and probably scoring against us, knowing our luck. Apparently he’s looked good for United having poached him from us last summer and we all know what happens when ex-Arsenal players come back to play against us – even the ones that never played a minute for The Arsenal team.

We’ll probably just see him from the bench though, although I’ve seen a few United forums saying that Amorim should go all out and rotate this game with an eye on the game at home to Sociedad in midweek. I get that; we’ve been in that position before and if we were in their shoes I’d probably also be saying and thinking the same thing – rest players and make sure we are fit for a European game that is still in the balance. They are level with Sociedad having drawn 1-1 and with away goals not counting, they need to be on it next Thursday. Amorim has also said how the team was tired on Thursday and given they played into extra time against Fulham, given they also have some injuries (they reportedly have up to ten players out today including Martinez, Amad Diallo, Luke Shaw, Mason Mount, Kobbie Mainoo, Dorgu – suspension, Evans and even Maguire and Ugarte there is a question of), I wonder if Amorim might see this as a game he can throw away. I certainly hope so.

For us we need to secure our spot in second and so I suspect there is more impetus and onus on us to get a result and the news that Martinelli is with the travelling squad today (pictures emerged last night of him with the team and in his tracksuit), there’s definite positivity to be had if we get the boost of having him on the bench. He hasn’t played for just over a month so even if he’s on the bench I can’t see him getting more than 10 – 15 minutes, but any minutes at all would certainly be very welcome for a player in a position for which we really need some good news soon. It’s no guarantee though; we’ve seen Arteta get Saka track-suited up for games before to try to throw the opposition and so we can’t put it past him to be doing the same in this instance too.

Team-news wise, I think there won’t be much change from Tuesday night, because we don’t have many other options. So it’ll be more of the same with perhaps a question over where you put Calafiori, because he was excellent when he came on for Lewis-Skelly, but Myles is clearly first choice at the moment and has the shirt. Let’s see what Arteta does with that one.

We’ll be going live straight after full time on the Same Old Arsenal podcast so if you fancy joining us from about 6.30pm then it’ll be over on the YouTube channel here.

Have a good rest of your Sunday peeps.