Hello and how are you? Saturday the 31^st of January sees the Mighty Cannon take a trip to the Western marches of Yorkshire to take on 16th -placed Leeds Utd at Elland Road. KO is at 3.00pm local time. Expected weather is partly cloudy with temps at 7°  (feels like 2°) and 11 % chance of rain.

So here we go again, back in the PL, and up to our old 70s /late 90s rivals Leeds. Although Leeds have struggled away from home, they’ve turned Elland Road into something of a fortress, with only two losses all season. Of course, much expectancy is now resting on Mr Havertzs’ shoulders, and if he plays as well as he did against the lads from Almaty, Leeds better watch out?

 We really could do with a win after the draw at Forest and the high-blood pressure loss against United. One thing I personally got from the United game was that at this moment I wish we could have some clearer laws (handball-ball/offside/ and holding at corners), the more unclear elements are, the more we have discrepancies, game to game and the long inquisition from VAR. 

This creates too much bitterness and tension, plus don’t get me wrong, VAR is important and there will always be problems with how to interpretate fouls/cards etc but in some areas by changing the laws to make them more simplistic might make for easier judgements? What do you think? In the days of yore, it would have made an interesting article / discussion? 

Secondly, if you’re reading this via a server or on twitter etc and not a regular on the forum, can I ask you to please drop in and leave some thoughts, a blog without an diverse interactive forum is like taking a leak in the sea to make it deeper, absurd and pretty much a waste of time. So please come on with your thoughts about the Gunners this season, it really would helps us keep going and in recent weeks its been a really struggle, with PA demise looking likely, something I’m sure many of us don’t want?

Looks like Young Gun Dowman is the only one missing for us, but I’m sure we will have a massive amount of changes after the Kairat game. Leeds played without Daniel James, Gabriel Gudmundsson and Jaka Bijol in the 1-1 draw with Everton, but James and Gudmundsson aren’t ruled out of this one. 

I headed over to Statto and they left a note on the door saying that the Arsenal have a 61.9% chance of victory, and Leeds have a 15.5 % chance. Next up the return leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Chelsea. So COYG!

Mills

We need a win and a good performance, and not mostly for the fans, the players must not start doubting themselves of the system.

Arteta and the players have had a “clear the air”, just what that will achieve is anyone’s guess, I suppose it will have been Mikel insisting that he wont change anything and the players must score more from the limited chances our system coughs up. Now that might sound like a moan up from me, but it’s not at all, Arteta will ultimately stand or fall on his convictions, just like Arsene did before him, so why ask him to compromise, we should accept that this is him and hope he’s right. Our league and CL standing suggest he could very well be.

We can be critical, want something different or yearn for the liquid football of Arsene, but we should never undermine the players, manager or club, in any way that could make things more difficult for them or create an atmosphere that becomes toxic. There will be pleanty of time in the closed season for we armchair experts to show our genius to all and sundry.

Enjoy the game.

Pedantic George.