Oooooh it’s a Super Sunday of outrageous magnitude. Chelsea are falling behind in the race for Champions League football. Belief is fading, Liverpool and United are soaring, and this game could be defining for Liam Rosenior, who is looking a little Graham Pottered at the moment.
For Arsenal, the mission is clear: Start your 10-game countdown with a huge win against a much-despised rival.
For the players, this is another chance to show they are in the race, they want to be brave, and they want to have a crack at being heroes.
There are a lot of games left in our season. We’re still in everything. 21 games max. Plenty to go around. This is the part of the season Alex Ferguson would say there is no such thing as fatigue.
The days get lighter, the sun starts to shine, you can smell the silverware amongst the daffodil aromas. Ok, maybe that line went too far. No one is smelling daffodils in North London. It’s fried chicken and buses, baby.
If Arteta rolled with the exact same starting lineup he used against Spurs, who would be angry? Not me. The only exciting puzzle pieces we might have are Kai Havertz and maybe an outside shout of Max Dowman, who played on Friday night for the first time in a while.
The bench is going to be uncomfortably strong for the run-in—this is something we’ve never experienced. Great players, ready to affect the game when called upon. One player who has an uncertain role in the team is Martin Odegaard. He’ll be close to full fitness now. Does Arteta include him in the same team as Eze? Possibly shifting the Englishman out wide? Or does he double down on the form player and give him a boost of confidence?
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 he’s dropping deep to avoid being kicked, and we’ve also seen the dipping in and out of the team. You need consistency at this stage of the season, and you need desire.
Who has more of that right now? Who has more 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 final big hope of this game is Bukayo Saka. He’s been great lately, but the G&As need to flow at a toxic rate in the final push for the league title. If he can unleash the beast within, I’ll feel a lot more comfortable about us going on a mega run. His output this season is 8 goals and 7 assists. Not a crime by any stretch, but also not where he’d expect to be.
The shooting needs to sharpen. I want to see him be a little more selfish. We need to see him show that he’s the big man at the club.
In short, I have a lot of attacking dreams… my one defensive one? Don’t do anything dumb. We’ve seen a bit of that lately. Need to get back to suffocatingly boring in defence.
Ok, that’s me done. See you in the comments. Sign up for the AOP Live Show right after the game. Membership is the cost of a pint, you get access to the Discord, all the bonus content in real-time, and all your content will be advert-free.
Plenty of time for those G's and A's to improve.
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