Oooooh, it’s a Super Sunday of outrageous proportions. Chelsea is falling behind in the race for Champions League football. Belief is fading, Liverpool and United are rising, and this match could be decisive for Liam Rosenior, who is looking a bit Graham Pottered at the moment.
For Arsenal, the mission is clear: start the ten-match countdown with a huge victory over a much-despised rival.
For the players, this is another opportunity to show that they are in the race, that they want to be brave and try to be heroes.
There are still many games to play in our season. We’re still in everything. Maximum 21 games. Enough to go around. This is the part of the season that Alex Ferguson would say: there is no such thing as fatigue.
The days are getting lighter, the sun is starting to shine, you can smell the silverware among the daffodil scents. Okay, maybe that line went too far. No one smells daffodils in North London. It’s fried chicken and buses, baby.
If Arteta rolled in with exactly the same starting line-up as he did against Spurs, who would be upset? Not me. The only exciting pieces we might have are Kai Havertz and maybe an outside shout-out from Max Dowman, who played for the first time in a while on Friday night.
The bank will be uncomfortably strong during the run-up – we have never experienced this before. Great players, ready to influence the game when called upon. One player with an uncertain role in the team is Martin Odegaard. He will now be almost fully fit. Will Arteta include him in the same team as Eze? Possibly shifting the Englishman wide? Or does he double down on the form player and give him a confidence boost?
Odegaard doesn’t deserve the start for me. His form has been very poor this season. We’ve seen flashes of WOW, but not consistently. Arteta has clearly noticed him dropping deep to avoid being kicked, and we’ve also seen the team’s in and out. At this stage of the season you need consistency, and desire.
Who has more of that now? Who else has to prove? Who is more likely to be decisive in big moments and create bang-bang magic?
Whoever Arteta thinks that person is will be the player who starts tomorrow.
My last big hope from this game is Bukayo Saka. He’s been great lately, but the G&As need to flow at a toxic pace in the final push for the league title. If he can unleash the beast within us, I’ll feel much more comfortable when we go on a mega run. His output this season is 8 goals and 7 assists. Not a crime by any means, but not where he would expect to be either.
The shooting needs to be sharper. I want him to be a little more selfish. We need to see him show that he is the big man at the club.
In short, I have many offensive dreams… my only defensive one? Don’t do stupid things. We’ve seen that a bit lately. We have to become suffocatingly boring in defense again.
Okay, I’m done. See you in the comments. Register for the AOP Live Show immediately after the match. Membership costs a pint, you get access to the Discord, all the bonus content in real time and all your content is ad-free.
#SUPER #SUNDAY #MAGIC #MEN #STEPUP