Cech wants London move. Per Mertesacker believes the key battle on Sunday will be between Fellaini and Coquelin..

Morning all.

On this day back in 1991, Francis Coquelin came into this world so a big happy birthday to him. 24 years old today.

Back in 2012 on this very day, Arsenal beat WBA 3-2 away from home. We finished 3rd in the league and secured Champions League football. This game was also the last for Pat Rice in his role of Assistant Manager/first-team coach. Benayoun, Santos and Koscielny were the goal scorers and West Brom keeper Marton Fulop helped us along the way as he was awful.

After the game, the manager said:

I’m proud of the season. The mental solidity, the unity and solidarity inside the club has been tested. We didn’t show any weakness and kept united. In the end, we came back. It’s a good lesson for everyone. I told everyone to keep doing what they are doing and in the end we got there.

We were 17th in the league and in the first seven games we had lost four of them. When you have played seven games, there are 31 to go. It’s very difficult to imagine you can finish third.

This season didn’t start quite as badly as it did back then but nevertheless, we dropped far too many points, points which fundamentally cost us any hope of challenging for the PL crown.

We face WBA on the final day of this season too, again, hoping that 3rd spot will be ours as unless City slip up as we did on Monday, second place is gone.

If we get 3rd, I strongly suspect we’ll hear words very similar to what Arsene Wenger said back in 2012 about unity, solidarity and being united and focussed in our chase for CL football. In fact I think he’s been saying that since the day he arrived.

It would be nice to see us display all those traits from the start of next season and not just when top four looks like it’s out of reach and if we suffer a few injuries, I hope the summer transfer window ensures we have enough depth and strength to cope.

Next up is Utd away from home and Per Mertesacker believes the biggest duel on Sunday will be in midfield:

I think most important are the duels in midfield, around Marouane Fellaini. Francis Coquelin did really well last time. I think that is a major part of their game so we need to try to control this.

It’s not going to be easy. They obviously want to keep the ball as much as possible. Can we restrict it? Can we get the ball in their half and break? That is what we did last time and we did really well.”

Little v large, elbows and dirty stuff from the Belgian against our workhorse of a Frenchman – it should be a very interesting battle. Mike Dean has been appointed to officiate the match so I hope he’s got his eyes and ears open wide! One thing is for sure and that’s that we have to play better than we did on Monday. Players need to focus on what their own job is and not all bomb central in order to score as it doesn’t work.

Neither does shooting straight at a keeper and when facing one as good as De Gea, the shooting boots need to be on and accurate.

Talking of good keepers, The Telegraph report that the decision to sanction Cech’s move to Arsenal rests with Abramovich. Keeper prefers to remain in London.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings, have a good day guys….