There are some big games in the race for top four this weekend.

United are having a good go at West Ham right now.

Lucky Spurs are going to get another crack at the fragile Thomas Tuchel operation tomorrow.

That means there’s no other option on the table for Arsenal, we have to beat Burnley at home.

January has been poor results wise, but really, the only true shocker was our second string against Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup. The rest of the games don’t sit in ‘OH MY GOD’ category. 75% of our games came against top 2 sides. We played incredibly well against City and lost in the margins. We did really well against Liverpool at Anfield with 10 men. We lost the second leg because we didn’t have enough fit players, but remember, we reduced Liverpool to 3 shots on target, 2 went in. No shame again. 3 reds in those games as well.

There will be shame if we don’t do the job against Burnley. We’re not expected to beat top 2 teams, but we are expected to beat teams sitting on 11 points, that haven’t played a game since early January. Having seen United, Spurs, and Arsenal do very little with a break, it’s starting to feel like COVID breaks aren’t that much of an advantage, unless you are Liverpool, and there was no COVID in the first place.

Decent performances without results can turn into a sharp upswing, or a miserable downturn. Our month on results paper has been poor, if we put a performance together with a win tomorrow, we’ve come out of January unscathed when it comes to the Premier League, then we’ll have 17 days in Dubai to regroup, recuperate, and plan the next attack on Phase 6 which is basically a group of games where you’d expect a high points return.

Transfer news still seems a little bleak. Nothing appears to be moving forward. Not that we’d know. The striker deal is the one that worries me. If can’t land our primary target, I hope we don’t get emotional and sign a second rate striker that we’ll be lumbered with for years. I felt we did that when we signed Giroud who basically became the replacement for Robin Van Persie. We moved from power, pace and poise to something that didn’t anything above top 4 aspirations.

Oddly, a Giroud in this system would be a huge upgrade on what we have. But we really need to try and have it all. Goals, power, pace, relentless work ethic, and a hunger to win. Don’t push strikers at me that don’t score goals, we have a superb link player right now. I’m also a wary of Arsenal signing a player with a chequered injury past. History is a good indicator of the future, as Colin Lewin said on The Arsenal Opinion Podcast a few months ago.

If we’re going to sign a striker, make it as perfect as you can, especially if you are waving mega pound notes at the deal.

The final story of the day is that Arsenal are looking to offer Arteta a two year extension to his deal. I don’t know why this is causing consternation amongst anyone. Well I do, certain people don’t have much vision, can’t fathom that young talent gets better, and they always think there is one manager that can unlock title-winning potential from the 15 top players we have.

Ask yourself these questions:

Do you like having the youngest team in the Premier League?

Do you like the ruthless deck sweeping that’s happened over the last two years?

Do you like that we’re in the mixer for top 4 at the end of January?

Do you like the new players we have and what they stand for?

Do you like seeing youth prospects develop?

Do you like the pride everyone feels for the club?

Do you like that The Emirates is a fortress of noise?

If you do, then I don’t understand why you’d be against a new deal.

Here’s the reality with Arteta, he’s one of the top young coaches in the world, without doubt. Whether you like it or not, he’s reshaped the club inside two years and outfitted it with a modern vision that feels very different to anything we’ve done in the last 5 years. You might want to see him finish 4th for us to get that deal out, but remember, 4th is a new objective most have put on the club because of the progress. There was a large section of the fanbase that thought he’d be out by November. If your expectations are 4th, then you must see the promise. Reality Check: The objectives he was set were not 4th this season. Europe this season. Top 4 next season. Title challenge the season after.

Also, the sort of people that say ‘we should wait’ don’t really understand the human side of this. Waiting is not a show of faith. If you don’t show faith in the manager, players will see that and that will affect performance. If you make a manager wait and he succeeds, do you think they’ll stay loyal to you? ‘Wait’ is what insecure execs do. Tie him down like Brighton did to Graham Potter. You think he’s not moved clubs because of his talent? No. It’s because he has an expensive buyout clause.

The irony of all the angst over all of this is if Arteta does make top 4, Manchester City and Barcelona will drop in for him, because they’ll look at the body of the project, the restrictions, and the age of the players he’s coaching, and say… this is a good coach that fits our philosophy.

Also, it’s quite fun to ask people what the alternatives are now, because we’ve seen literally all of them in action. How is Ralf doing? Does anyone watch lucky Spurs and want a piece of Conte? What about Thomas Tuchel, just 9 points ahead of us with 3 games in hand. Is that the levels everyone was telling me we were missing? Those are rockstar names. Not to mention those that have already fallen in this league.

Anyway, big game tomorrow, let’s deal with Burnley and make sure we go into the Dubai break on a high.