Hello and how are you? Wednesday the 14th of January sees the Mighty Cannon take a short trip over to Stamford Bridge for the first leg of our clash against Chelsea FC. KO is at 8-00pm local time. Expected weather is with partly cloudy with 41% chance of rain, and temperatures of 9° (feels like 7°).

Here we are again making a bid for the Carabao Cup final, although many pundits have put the Arsenal in the driving seat for this one, my own unreliable (jelly-like) instincts are saying that Chelsea have the slight advantage (and the backing of the media?). However, one thing in our favour is at least three Chelsea old boys might get a start and an opportunity to prove they made the right decision to leave. All I hope is that if we do lose, its not by a score that leaves us without a chance in the second leg. Hopefully you feel more positive than I do!

Moises Caicedo (suspended), Mykhaylo Mudryk (doping suspension), Romeo Lavia (thigh), Levi Colwill (knee) will miss this one for rookie Liam ‘I know Arsenals weaknesses’ Rosenior’s side. Malo Gusto , Cole Palmer, Reece James  are reported to be doubtful ( and didn’t play in the FAC tie) but I reckon that we shall see them all starting…

For the Gun, Max Dowman (ankle), Piero Hincapie (thigh), Riccardo Calafiori (muscle), Cristhian Mosquera (ankle) won’t make the line-ups come KO.  William Saliba, Leandro Trossard seemed doubtful, which I hope is dark arts rather than serious.

I barged in on the boys at Statto HQ and whilst they were debating the Tate-Birch conjecture, looked up from grappling with the problems concerning the ring of integers of a number field and then told me the stats: Arsenal FC have been given a 42.6% chance of victory whilst Chelsea have been given 29.4%.

Next up, a visit to Nottingham as we take on Forest. So until then, COYG!

Mills

Chelsea have a boat load of very good players and it goes without saying that this is their best chance of silverware this season. From what I’ve seen, admittedly under a now gone manager, they can be fluid and expansive from time to time.

It’s a semi final away from home, so it shouldn’t be anything but difficult, I expect it will be just that. I’m of the opinion that we do indeed have bigger fish to fry and we should keep our best ingredients for those dishes. I’ll be happy to come away with a draw and fight another day, in our own backyard.

This could be a good game, enjoy.

Pedantic Gearge.