Saturday miscellany: Tactics, strikers, archives, fundraisers

Good morning.

It’s Saturday and there’s a giant recreation tomorrow, however I don’t actually wish to speak about it as we speak. I can’t lie and say it’s not on the very forefront of my thoughts, however I additionally need to preview the sport in tomorrow’s weblog so I don’t actually wish to get into it an excessive amount of as we speak.

So, that is gonna be a brief/totally different one as we speak. Primarily I’m going to level you within the course of different stuff to learn and watch. First, Lewis has an awesome new techniques column about how Man Metropolis arrange in opposition to us at Wembley and in subsequent video games too, and what Arsenal can try to do about that if it’s the identical tomorrow. The massive query is: will this be a basic Pep Guardiola switcheroo? Everybody expects him to do one factor, however he then does one other. I assume we’ll discover out sooner or later.

Over on Sky Sports activities, the all the time wonderful Nick Wright makes the case for Kai Havertz to begin up entrance on the Etihad tomorrow. This isn’t simply private choice, that is primarily based on the stats and technical stage of Kai versus Viktor Gyokeres. The Swedish striker stays an ongoing subject of dialog regardless of being our prime scorer this season, however in a recreation the place we completely need to take advantage of our possession, his lack of technical safety doesn’t look like the suitable match. Maybe the choice will come all the way down to health greater than the rest, but when I have been choosing the staff, I’d have a look at Gyokeres as a greater choice for the latter phases of the sport, for certain.

Again to Lewis, and yesterday he pointed me within the course of a brand new function on the Premier League web site, which is an archive of all of the video games going again to its inception in 1992-93. You possibly can return, through it’s considerably fiddly search operate, and watch highlights of any recreation from any season. Possibly you wish to watch Mikel Arteta rating a late winner in opposition to Man Metropolis in 2012, or the total replay of a 3-0 win there in 2010 when Metropolis had a person despatched off within the first jiffy (what I’d give for a repeat of that tomorrow!), or the 5-1 win at dwelling final season when Myles Lewis-Skelly obtained that purpose and stayed so, so humble along with his celebration (some basic Conor McNamara comms on that one too). Take your decide of any of these, or the rest that tickles your fancy!

Lastly for as we speak, Elliot has a message concerning the ongoing fundraiser for the Arsenal Basis:

A really particular replace, and a message of gratitude. ❤️

— YankeeGunner (@arsenalvisionpodcast.com) 2026-04-17T13:11:31.273Z

In order for you simply the small print, we had a purpose of £200,000 to achieve earlier than the tip of April, and as of this date and this time of writing, it at the moment stands at over £220,000. As Elliot explains within the submit above, a splendidly beneficiant donation of £150,000 remains to be to return (🙏), and who is aware of the place we’ll find yourself by the tip of the month.

Arsenal followers on-line get quite a lot of stick, some it deserved to be truthful, and you’ll barely transfer as of late with out studying opinion items about our supporters, how they behave and are perceived. What I’ll say is that this, and I do assume it’s vital: virtually all of these are primarily based on the interactions the writers see or are concerned with on Twitter and different platforms, which can be consultant of that exact part of Arsenal followers, however not Arsenal followers generally.

Yearly the communities at ArsenalVision Podcast and Arseblog come collectively and help this fundraiser in probably the most wonderful means. The generosity is unbelievable, and the consistency of their help is mind-blowing to all of us. We reside in a troublesome world, the place all the things will get an increasing number of costly, the price of residing is being pushed up by lunatics doing mad, pointless shit that impacts all of us, and but individuals are nonetheless ready to offer what they’ll to help this good trigger.

Possibly it’s simply me, however I really feel like that facet of ‘Arsenal followers’ is way extra worthy of point out than individuals who spend all day combating with followers of different golf equipment, random blue tick wankers, and even different Arsenal followers on the worst web site on the earth. I get it although, it doesn’t actually create the identical form of engagement, however subsequent time somebody bleats off about our fanbase, please keep in mind that – on this slice of the Web no less than – these criticisms don’t apply within the slightest.

Lastly lastly, which I promise is the ultimate lastly, we have now a deep dive in tomorrow’s recreation on our Patreon preview podcast which is out now. Keep in mind that in April Arseblog will donate each penny of our Patreon income to good causes, and on prime of the €25,000 donation we made to the fundraiser, we’ll announce particulars of additional donations subsequent week. If you wish to join even a month, you get instantaneous entry to this pod and all our Patreon content material, and also you’ll know that subscription goes to assist individuals who actually, really want it.

It prices $6 per 30 days plus gross sales tax if that’s relevant in your nation, and you are able to do it at patreon.com/arseblog.

Have an awesome Saturday people, again tomorrow for the massive one. I can really feel the nerves already.