COMMUNITY SHIELD MATCH DAY BLOG – THE RESULT MATTERS!

You know I’m one for pro-Mikel propaganda – and I’d love to be creating some ‘it doesn’t matter’ content this afternoon – but it does.

Arsenal has one last boogeyman hiding under the bed and it’s wearing blue and white… we need to SLAY that beast today.

Win, and the team will realise they have what it takes against the literal best in the game.

Lose, and we’ll spend the next 8 weeks dreading the return episode.

Arsenal’s crop of young players likely know they are the 2nd best team in the country, perhaps in the world. If we’re to make moves on major trophies, they have to at least know they’re in the fight.

Preseason has been quite rocky for a number of reasons. Losing to a drab United side was painful, smashing an elite Barca team felt very special, drawing against Monaco was sobering. For a settled squad, everything feels quite unsettled, and that’s for good reason. Our last Premier League season crashed because we played the same starting 11 every week and weren’t physical enough when it mattered. To address that, we’ve added tall boys, with beef, and slowly built out the rest of the squad where there were weaknesses. To truly unlock the potential of the new signings, we’re going to have to watch some drab moments.

The fastest way to build connections and momentum is to win – we have a higher chance of starting the season positively if we have the monumental boost of beating City.

If we lose – who knows how the first 4 games of the season will go.

What do I expect today?

Team sheet is out in 20 mins, so this could age poorly.

Declan Rice and Thomas Partey will be in the starting 11. It’s an important statement to have your summer signing from he gods in the starting 11. It’s also symbolic to start Partey after all the rumours.

I’m thinking that maybe Kai Havertz starts as our 9, even though all preseason indicators point to Eddie. Havertz is tall, fast, and awkward for BIG defenders. Eddie and Jesus have tended to get eaten alive by City – so maybe we try something new?

Picking the defence should be easy. Ben White at right back, Tomi at left back, with Gabriel and Saliba. We need something settled and that’s as settled as we can offer. Clearly, our man Ramsdale is going to be between the sticks.

Arsenal were leggy against Monaco, but I don’t expect to see that today. We’ll hopefully be explosive out the blocks like we were against Barcelona.

What Arteta will do tactically is anyone’s guess. Getting railed through the middle is my main worry after watching us preseason. My hope is we’ll be sharper at Wembley under the pressure of a very exciting game.

You need to be clinical against Manchester City, we haven’t been over the past few seasons.

You can’t make mistakes against their attack, we have.

You need a bit of luck in these big games, it literally never comes.

I’m excited to see where this squad is right NOW.

This game is important to the season, but it’s not the season.

My amateur guess is that we’re going to have a rocky start this season, but we’ll pull it together and be where we need to be by March.

If we smack up City, I might have to throw all that out the window.

Before I exit – Flo Balogun is twerking for Inter Milan on his Instagram stories. Like, honestly, who give a rat’s arse. He’s getting no love from Arsenal and Inter Milan is a VERY sexy prospect for a 21-year-old. My fear here is we’re gifting Inter Milan a player for £35m – and if the shoe was on the other foot and we were chasing him, he’d be worth £70m.

Add to that Matt Turner is apparently exiting for £7m to a club that spent £26m on Morgan Gibbs-White last season. This is after we moved on Auston Trusty for a pitiful £5m. I really can’t for the life of me understand why the media keep running ‘really good business’ headlines about these numbers. £5m is pitiful cash for a Birmingham player of the season – and £1m profit on the USMNT team keeper is really miserable. We aren’t good at selling. I thought it was a deadwood issue, but Chelsea has done an incredible job this summer. At this point, it feels like we have a rep for selling low, and we can’t get out of that hole.

Still, it’s not my money, so who cares as long as we can afford big names ourselves!

Ok, get your Arsenal neon tiger shirt on and let’s roll!

Let me know how YOU think the Premier League is going to go this season.

See you in the comments!

P.S. We have a Patreon Discord going this season AND an FPL. If you want to join, get it here.