BRUTALITY THE ORDER OF THE DAY

ARSENAL NEED TO CAPITALISE ON WEAKER TEAMS, EARLIER

Welcome to your Friday dose of hot Arsenal thinkery.

It’s been quite a week. Manchester City has been deploying their dark arts in the media, allowing club-friendly journalists to pore over CCTV footage in an attempt to highlight the shocking behaviour of a teenager who *checks notes* was speaking to David Raya. They’ve also crucified our executive team for *checks notes* refusing to shake hands with their crew after yet another deeply contentious round of refereeing decisions.

I also have it on good authority that only one club in the Premier League has lodged a complaint about Arsenal and their absolutely disgusting behavior… and you’re not going to believe which club it was.

Yep.

But in the aftermath of all the drama — the Bernardo commentary, the northern mafia closing ranks on Arsenal’s lack of heart, maturity, and tone — one thing is absolutely clear:

Arsenal are back, baby.

You can choose to be a victim of the media, or you can embrace the bad press like Floyd Mayweather or Conor McGregor and use it to your advantage. Let it distract everyone. Make Arsenal even more watchable. José Mourinho, the king of spin, was absolutely world-class at taking the heat off his team and channeling negative coverage into blistering performances. I’m not asking Arteta to gouge someone’s eye for the narrative, but I do think he can use the boring nature of the attacks to his advantage and galvanise the fans and players behind out title push.

We breezed past Bolton midweek. Now, we need to crystallise our intent this season by blending Leicester smoother than a £14 Upper Street fruit smoothie.

There are some positives on the injury front — Mikel Merino is in contention for next week, as is Tomiyasu. Even better news? Raya looks like he could be available, as well as Ben White.

That gives the club plenty of options for a game ripe for a bit of rotation.

Things I’m interested in? Does Raheem Sterling come into the mix? Does Nwaneri get some Premier League minutes? What are we going to do on the left?

Leicester are a bit of a 'meh' team this season — not particularly electric up front and far from robust at the back. It should be a good game for Arsenal to try a few things, and if we can disrupt their game plan early, they could be in real trouble.

It’s deeply arrogant to suggest, but Arsenal need to make hay in the sunshine of games against smaller teams. We didn’t do that in the first half of last season, when our attack was clunky and out of shape, but we made up for it with some blistering performances in the latter stages that boosted our goal difference.

I want more of that tomorrow — fast starts with no mercy for a team that’ll likely go straight back down.

OK, short post. Check out the latest Therapy Session with Jacob, Matt, and myself. x