Dry Powder

The football gods appear to have been kinder to the likes of Michael Carrick than myself this week as I was hoping to write this off the back of another clean sheet in Europe... But to be honest I'm quite comfortable with pretending that last night's second half didn't really happen.  William Saliba is the best defender in world football but he’s probably not the best defender at our football club… Try and work that one out? When we learned that we would be without his services for an extended period of time with the potential of back surgery being whispered in the background, it felt as though it might be the end of the world... Everything hurts a little more in the summertime. The absence of a player of his calibre from our starting XI felt catastrophic for our ambitions this season.  Mikel Arteta was questioned in his press conference before the Slavia Prague game about the delicacy of his recovery following his return to full training on Monday and atypically voluntee...

The mornings be goodly and the vibes are strong as we prepare for what must surely now be our 15th consecutive away fixture of the season this evening. Whilst indulging in the digital ecstasy that is our current timelines, it became apparent that Arsenal’s own media team appear to have found it necessary to broadcast video footage of the return of William Saliba to full training with the rest of the squad, rather than conceal the evidence in the Stuart McFarlane archives to deliberately withhold until the conclusion of the interlull. This is beautiful news.  I’ve been taking particular pleasure from the subsequent  meltdown following the fan-led quest to find a Liverpool shot on target (they still haven’t found one yet), which inadvertently led me to an X post from The Athletic detailing an extract from Liverpool correspondent, James Pearce’s recent piece: “Sunday merely served to reinforce the belief that Liverpool as a team are far too nice. There’s a difference between bein...