Good morning everyone, I hope you had a lovely day yesterday, whatever you did.
Today is going to be a very quiet day because according to the calendar we don’t play until Thursday (today is Tuesday in case you have lost count). I went back to have a look and the last time we didn’t play on December 26 was in 2017. That game was against another London club after our previous game was a draw against Liverpool.
Back then it was a 3-3 draw at the Emirates against the Mugsmashers, before beating Crystal Palace 3-2 at Selhurst Park thanks to two goals from Alexis Sánchez and one from Shkodran Mustafi. Mustafi (31) is currently “without a club”, Sánchez (35) has scored two goals for Inter Milan this season, both in the Champions League.
Mikel Arteta will not meet the press until tomorrow afternoon, so we will know a little more about possible injuries or comebacks for our game against West Ham. So given the time of year, I’ll leave it there for now. We’ll have a preview podcast for you on Patreon sometime tomorrow afternoon.
For now, there are probably still some cookies or chocolates left that need to be eaten, so I don’t want to stop you from that. And, of course, today there is football. In the games that matter to me, let’s have a solid win for Nottingham Forest over Newcastle, a confident Burnley taking a point at home against Liverpool, and chaos later at Old Trafford when Emi Martínez provokes Antony in an act of ultraviolence that triggers a 22-Man Brawl and sees Unai Emery kick Erik Ten Hag in the balls. The Christmas gift that we can all enjoy.
See you tomorrow.
