Liverpool have been rolling the dice and getting so many sixes this season, that when I went to bed at 10pm with it into extra time, I just expected to find out this morning that they’d won 5-0 on penalties. But they’re out, the media fawning over them winning the quadruple that we were witnessing a couple of months back have finished, so that’s at least something. If I was a Liverpool fan I don’t think I’d be too upset though; they’re walking to the league title and they’ll beat a pretty crappy Newcastle side* this weekend to pick up the League Cup. So the likelihood is that they’ll be picking up more silverware than us this season.

*Crappy against everyone but Arsenal, for some reason.

Our Champions League adventure – and the only trophy we have even the slimmest amount of hopes for – continues tonight and providing that there isn’t the world’s greatest ever brain fart from the Arsenal players at home under the lights this evening, it should see us progress to play one of Atletico or Real Madrid. I suspect it’ll be Real that goes through tonight which will set up one heck of a quarter final for us. In the other part of our side of the draw we know that PSG are through, so they will face off against Villa I expect for a place in the semi final and on the side of the draw which will result in us playing somebody in the final if we get there, we’ve seen Bayern, Inter and Barcelona get through. The big European players are starting to make their moves it seems and whatever our fate in this competition tonight and (hopefully) in the quarter finals, we’re going to have a bloody difficult set of games to play to win this competition.

That’s what you have to do though. You have to beat the best to win this cup. It’s why it is the hardest of all of the knockout trophies Arsenal have to play and it’s why our odds were the smallest f these compared to the others at the start of the season. We did a fantastic job last week of ensuring that our position in the next round is secured, but as Arteta will be stressing to his team to go out there and deliver a professional performance that does not lead to even the slightest hint of a wobble.

The one good thing you’d say about this Arsenal team this season, is that defensively we have been as assured as we were last season. We’ve conceded the fewest goals in the Premier League, we have one of the best defensive records in the Champions League and whilst Big Bill Saliba was up in front of the cameras yesterday saying he wants to play tomorrow, I suspect we’ll see some rotation for this one. Arteta was asked specifically about that and as usual he didn’t really offer up an answer either way. But I’ll be shocked (and surprised) if he doesn’t rotate and personally I’d rotate quite significantly this evening. I’d have Neto in goal, Ben White at right back, Kiwior at centre half, maybe Gabriel or Saliba to partner him, with KT or Zinchenko playing left back. I’d have Jorginho anchoring the midfield, I might even play Zinchenko in there (he’s now done that having seen him against West Ham a couple of weekend’s back) alongside Odegaard. I’d even play Sterling instead of Ethan tonight, to let the youngster get some rest as he looked muted on Sunday and that in itself would represent seven changes to the side, which you’d still expect should be good enough to progress us to the next round.

That would also ensure that we have fresher legs for an inevitable low block from Chelsea on Sunday (that’s what teams do against us now, right?) and if we can give Martinelli another 30 minutes tonight then perhaps we can start him against the Chavs at the weekend. We may be out of the league, but we still need to sustain our top four – and ideally top two – credentials in the Premier League. We’re without a win in three now and that is a worry for the remainder of the domestic season if you ask me, because we haven’t exactly looked amazing of late when faced against stubborn opposition.

Look at that, I’m three-quarters of the way through this blog and I’ve spent a para talking about Liverpool and a para talking about the game this coming weekend. It shows you just how much of an eye I’ve got on tonight. But whilst I can afford to take my eye of the ball, those players can’t and specifically, those who haven’t played that much this season. This is an opportunity to get minutes in to some legs and rest others and I think Arteta will do that. I’m sure he will. Right? Right??

He was also repeatedly asked about the Premier League title and he was clearly in no mood to talk about it. The press like to go after him if they can and after he walked off from the post match presser on Sunday you knew – and he probably knew as well, to be fair – that he was going to get this. And ahead of the game against Chelsea he will probably get it again. It’s just something he has to deal with. And I suspect he will with the same approach as he did last night, when he was asked if he’d bet on Arsenal winning the league and he said “yes!” unequivocally. He knows, the players know, but he’s not the kind of guy who gives up anything. They know in their hearts it’s done, but he won’t let that show publicly. And so for now he gets to look at the Champions League as a welcome distraction. The team have to go out tonight, make sure there is no initial worries and keep it tight and calm for 30 minutes or so to settle the home crowd down, then start to look at the next round and who we might face.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a look at how the game went down, as well as who we have in the next round, but until then you have a good one and let’s hope the team can put on a decent show tonight.