Good morning all.

Tonight we play Sheffield United, comfortably the worse team in the league. After 30 games they are on 14 points with a goal difference of minus 35. This should be a stroll in the park, a gift 3 points, we should be a shoe in, but…….well you know?

Three points could see us climb back up to the dizzying heights of 9th place, exciting eh?

Apparently our captain, Aubameyang, is the first person in the country to catch Flu this year,. If you’re having that!. ESR is out and Odegaard is a big doubt, this on top of Luiz and KT both being out for several week. It never rains but it pours. Still, Arteta’s army have a ready made script should the worse come to the worse.

Having made a bit of a ballocks of our home leg in the Europa League, and with all of our eggs in that particular basket, can Arteta risk resting key players like Xhaka and Partey? Perhaps he should, but the natives are finally getting somewhat restless and he surely has to win this game. There’s a limit to the patience of even the more process trusting fans. The ice is getting thin.

There’s talk that many of the senior pros are fed up taking the blame for our results and performances and to be honest, I would be shocked if that was not the case. There’s only so many times they can roll out the remaining popular players to tell us how impressed with Arteta they all are and what a happy camp it is. Unfortunately there is no Mesut Ozil to scapegoat for leaks and disquiet in the dressing room, so even that tried and tested deflection wont wash.

Basically, yet again, I have no idea what team will take to the field and honestly, I’m struggling to care. It’s painful to watch this football and even more painful to write about it. I hope the rest of you are still engaged, and I could be again, but I need at least a little taste of something to be enthusiastic about.

Sorry

Pedantic George.