Don’t think there’s any other place to start today than to congratulate the Arsenal Women for overturning a 2-0 away first leg defeat to Real Madrid, to win 3-0 with those second half goals to send the Emirates wild last night on full time. Fair do’s to the ladies, because in a similar vein to the men’s team, their domestic season hasn’t really gone anywhere and they’ve been out of the title race for a while. So European hopes have been the thing to cling on to and the spirit and belief in that team to go and do the business against a good Real side will hopefully make others stand up and take note.

The parallels between the men and women situation are striking in that regard. Domestically it’s a lot more difficult for the ladies because essentially if you lose anything more than a match or two in that league then you’re probably not winning the title, such is the dominance of the top teams. But they find themselves a bit adrift of Chelsea as do the men’s team adrift of Liverpool. Therefore those hopes of the season not petering out for the ladies have stayed in place and I think we will all hope that the men’s team can take inspiration from that.

Obviously the men’s task is probably a little bit more difficult on paper, as Real Madrid are one of the top two or three sides in Europe, whereas I’m not sure the same can be said in women’s football, but I hope all of those Arsenal players coming together at London Colney over the coming days will be able to be buoyed by that excellent display on our patch of North London last night.

For the men there’s a bit more time to prepare before our next game, which is on Tuesday next week against Fulham, for which it kind of feels like we need to just keep cracking on and winning our home games to make sure we remain the ‘best of the rest’ in the league. There will be more of that to come in the coming days as we lead up to that game, but because it’s so far away, I find myself being drawn into far too much introspection, hand-wringing and general concern over things that haven’t happened or may never happened. Yesterday it was worrying about how we’ll all feel if Saka left us like Trent is supposedly doing. The day before it was the conspiracy theory that MLS’ arrival as first-choice left back could spell the end of Gabriel’s time at the club if a big money move comes in and we shift Calafiori to left centre back. Today I’ve been paying far too much attention to these noises about Zubimendi being ‘hijacked’ by Real Madrid.

For what has felt like months all we’ve heard is that Arsenal were in control of the situation, that they would be his destination and even the respected journalists were saying things that made you suggest it was all but done. I think I heard about one of the top sports writers at an AST meeting say that expectations are that it’s just a matter of time. And it all felt very Declan Rice to me. What I mean by that is if you think about the January window before we signed him, we bid for Caicedo which was rejected, but Ornstein had reported that plenty of really positive talks with Rice had taken place and Arsenal were really confident in signing him in the summer. I remember thinking at the time that was a pipe dream, mainly because all the noises I’d heard were that Chelsea were going to just throw a load of cash at him and West Ham and because of his historical ties, that’s more than likely where he would end up. But after a season in which we competed for the league, suddenly we were a side who could be in the conversation. We were serious contenders and we all know that Arsenal pushed the boat out to get their man that summer.

But do you also remember about how City came in and were bidding hard with us. The noises from the likes of Ferdinand were “go to City” and I remember being in Portugal on holiday watching the saga unfold as it finally swung in our favour and we learned that City backed away as Arsenal pushed the boat out to meet the West Ham asking price of £100million (everyone always says £105million, but it was £100million with £5million in add-ons – we don’t know if any of those have ever been met).

Why am I recounting this saga? Well, because it feels like all of the similar boxes have been checked:

  • Arsenal have been tracking him a long time
  • Arsenal have done a lot of ground work to court him and make sure he’s keen
  • There’s an expectation that this summer he will make a move, having stayed at his boyhood club and served his time
  • There will be a bit of a bidding war that will go on as he’s a talented player

The vibes I get are very Declan. The only element of this that perhaps is something we don’t have control over, or at least less control, is the cultural change the player would have to go through. Declan is from London, he preferred to stay in London. Arsenal were a clear preference. Zubimendi is Spanish. Uprooting and moving to England would be a lot bigger deal for him than it was for Declan to move from East London to North London. So in that regard, you’d say Real have the upper hand. Then, it’s also Real Madrid and if we’re all honest with ourselves, when they want someone, they tend to get them. If Real are going for Zubimendi and they pay what Sociedad want, then I think our chances are slim.

And so the neurosis kicks in for me again, which is to start thinking that I hope Arsenal have a very good Plan B in place. I really hope we don’t – like we did last summer – have a ‘Sesko or bust’ mindset on Zubimendi, because we will 100% be losing Partey and probably Jorginho, which means there is a necessity to find a suitable replacement.

These are, of course, all worries for another day. The season is still ongoing. But that’s what happens when you have too much time on your hands to think and not enough football matches to be watched.

Catch you all tomorrow.