Hello and how are you? Hopefully excited and nervy as a jumping bean and counting down the hours and minutes to our showdown with Manchester City in the 2026 Carabao Cup final! Nice!

Let’s face, it’s great to be in a final, and it’s been a while (2020’s Covid Cup final). Calling this one though is beyond me, I lay there last night before sleep thinking about the possible permutations and came up with nix. This one could play out in any which way? What do you think?

One thing, I hope we can put to bed an especially painful moment for me in our last league cup final back in 2018, when we were soundly beaten by City. The worst moment for me was watching the bench cam and around the 65 min when they scored their third. It wasn’t that it was the final nail in the coffin that hurt so much, to me the Arsenal had looked zombie from early on, but it was watching Wenger on the sidelines waiting to bring Danny Welbeck on. The goal goes in and Arsène spins around looking for hope on the bench and goes back to the game and just rests his hand on Welbeck’s back as a sign of comfort, knowing it was over. Man, that one tore me up. In fairness, City were excellent that day, but like SE Hinton wrote: that was then this is now.

I think on Planet Arsenal we need the same sort of day-out and good cheer that Newcastle had last year, and it’s very possible. Of course City are struggling a bit this year, but here they are still in a final, still second in the league, and still in the FA Cup.

Five subs are allowed, including a sixth if it goes to extra time.

We go into this one, with several uplifting and encouraging recent results under our belts. So, the rest I leave up to Areta and Co. Here’s to us! COYG!

Statto HQ phoned through the chances and they reckon Arsenal FC at 39.4% and Manchester City FC at 31.2%. Next up the FA Cup quarter finals against Southampton, at Southampton. So COYG!

Mills

Win this and it could be the first of an unprecedented quadruple, lose it and we can still win the treble that United fans have been dinning out on for 27 years. So although there is a lot riding on it, there is a lot of opportunities, and huge ones, still to come.

I’m hoping Pep’s ego wont allow him to shut up shop and it’s a good game. I also hope we open up somewhat and we all enjoy a good game of football that gives us a decisive win.

Pedantic George.