Well good morning to YOU my pretties – what have we for you today?

There are two spicy games I’m excited about.

Spurs vs United

Are Spurs good or bad? Is Harry Kane leaving a weight off the shoulders – or will it sink them to the depths of averageness? Their new manager lacks experience at the highest level and we know how brutal the Premier League can be to people that don’t quite fit the mold. He plays nice football, has a good reputation, but being elite in Scotland rarely translates into this league where the competition of ideas is so much stronger.

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I am BACK. How are you? Is everything good in your world? Have you bought a pair of Skechers after that most excellent advert VO’d by the powerhouse audio vibes of Harry Kane?

Ok… let’s get into it.

Jurrien Timber is out for 7-8 months with an ACL injury. I am so gutted for the player. He looked so at home with the club and the fans adored him. To injure yourself like that so soon into your new career is tragic.

Few things I wanted to address regarding the weird narrative surrounding the issue.

1. Blame culture.

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Opening day of the season is all about three points. Players aren’t fit, new players haven’t adapted, and those games are very hard. Arteta and the boys delivered 3 points, we scored two goals, and we mostly controlled the game. So any moaning here is through the lens of perfection you need to be to win the league against Manchester City.

The big whinge: We lack killer instinct. When we go two goals up, instead of going for the jugular, we play with our food, and sometimes it runs off. Forest should never have been let back into the game, but predictably, at 2-0 up, we let them back in. This is a problem we’ve had for the full tenure of Arteta. The one common thread is our players are always very young. We aged down again this summer, so we’re still not past the experience issues, so it’s not a surprise to see this sort of switch-off show up so early in the season.

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It’s Christmas Eve for Arsenal fans worldwide – but for once, Santa has already delivered in full, and we’re happy.

The rest of the Premier League – they’re still in Tesco’s trying to work out if a Spice Girls Best Of album will cut it.

Manchester City bidding £100m for Paquets – feels weird.

Liverpool bidding £110m for Caicedo, only to find out he’s not interested.

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It’s going to be really tough to write this post today because I have so many emotions thrashing through my system.

David Raya has moved to Arsenal on loan.

Charlie Patino has NOT left the club.

Matty Turner is a Nottingham Forest player.

HARRY KANE IS OUT AT SPURS.

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Gary Neville suggested on his latest podcast that the new touchline behavior law the FA put in place this summer was inspired by Mikel Arteta last season. Now, you have to take this with a pinch of salt. He admits the source is a lower league coach, not something he’s been given directly. But here’s the thing – it wouldn’t surprise anyone, would it?

This is where the power of influence comes into play. Look at the makeup of the people who work at the FA at the highest levels, look at the 52-year-old who took over PGMOL, look at the average age of the referees in the game. They are all men that would have grown up on a diet of Andy Gray and Richard Keys. So when Mr Keys launches a vicious and unwarranted campaign against Mikel Arteta, it doesn’t matter that his reach is really low since he was blackballed to BeIN sports, because his small audience is currently in positions of power at important places.

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Arsenal won the Community Shield. It mattered. Two things should lead you to that conclusion.

1. Pep Gs reaction when City went 1-0 up
2. Arteta’s when we equalised after 100 minutes of play

The victory doesn’t impact the winning machine Pep has in Manchester, they already know how to do the business against everyone – they have the Champions IP coded into their very existence after a tremendous run under the best manager in the world.

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