Hello and how are you? Tuesday the 30th of December sees the Mighty Cannon play out its last game for 2025, this time against title- contenders Aston Villa. KO at the Emirates is at 8.15pm. Expected weather is partly cloudy and the temperature is 4°(feels like 1°).

So the Arsenal go into this game having played relatively well against Brighton, but also wasted way too many chances, and I’m sure they will look to rectifiy that and show the third placed Villa what we can do if we put our minds to it, in what promises to be a very exciting game.

The Lions are on eleven straight wins after an amazing come back against Chelsea. Arteta’s boys need to keep their eyes on dangermen Watkins, McGinn and Rogers. Jadon Sancho has also looked good. But then after the match up on the 6th, we don’t really need any reminders, yet the Arsenal are unbeaten in five since that last-second loss.

Great to see Gabriel back (how much we’ve missed both him and Mosquera) but I also hope Saka finds his shooting boots soon and that big Vic can get more in the back of the net, he needs it as much as we do. Who knows who the Gunners might bring in this transfer window?

Ben White (hamstring), Cristhian Mosquera (ankle), Kai Havertz (knee), Max Dowman (ankle) will sit this one out for the Cannon, whilst Evann Guessand (Africa cup of nations), Ross Barkley (knee), Tyrone Mings (thigh), Pau Torres (calf), Matty Cash (suspended), Boubacar Kamara (suspended)are all unavailable for the Villains. However, I’m reading that Kai might be back for this one… Mosquera and White should be ready for the Forest game. Timber! might be also return having sat it out against Brighton, after landing awkwardly in the penalty shoot out against Palace.

I hunted down the boys at Statto HQ who were buying fireworks for New Years, and they offered me a cracker statto-wise: The Arsenal are at 63.3% for a win and Villa are on 14.7%. That’s it for 2025, and I wish you all a “Guten Rutsch!” into 2026. Next up an away-day on the south coast against Bournemouth. So COYG!
Mills

One thing about sitting top of the tree with City on our coattails is that every game becomes a massive game. Especially wen that game is against the team sitting in third place with a manager that seems to have a hex on our boss. The good news is that after this evening, we don’t have to play them again. I’m a bit of a coward and to be honest, this game scares the pants off of me.

Every game seems like it takes a pint of blood to get over the winning line, although we control most games, often dominating, the score lie never seems to reflect said domination. I saw a statistic that in recently we hve have an open play xG of almost 10 but only scored one goal. The good news is that this anomaly can’t last, it will even out and we will start scoring more goal if we maintain our chance creation. Let’s hope that tonight is the night that balance is restored, a comfortable will will make a “happy new year” an easier get.

Enjoy the game and I’ll see you all next year.

Pedantic George.