Morning all.

The penultimate day of Arsenal’s season is here as we face Manchester Utd at Old Trafford. Win and there’s still an ounce of hope, draw or lose and that’s it. Lose and we’ll need a win on the final day to secure second place should Liverpool beat Villa tomorrow.

Utd have had an awful season as far as Premier League goes with their last ten fixtures pretty much summing things up. Just two wins have come from those games, the worst result being at Crystal Palace when they were battered 4-0. Ten Hag has had to deal with a number of injuries of late but it seems that a few will be back for this match. Rashford, Mctominay, Fernandes are likely to be in the squad but Martinez isn’t ready yet according to ten Hag and Mount and Shaw have been ruled out entirely. Kambwala, Lindelof, Maguire and Varane are expected to be missing too.

Arsenal have a couple of injury concerns too as Bukayo Saka is feeling the after effects of a few hefty challenges during the Bournemouth game and Takehiro Tomiyasu missed midweek training. Late decisions will be made on both.

Arsenal’s Adrian Clarke has given his tactical assessment of Utd on Arsenal.com:

Ten Hag has yet to implement a clear tactical philosophy, so it is not easy to pin a label on United. In some matches they dominate possession, but in others they play on the counter. On occasion they press, but they don’t consistently apply that approach either. What we do know is that they usually start in a 4-2-3-1 formation, and looking at their other home fixtures against the leading sides, I would expect us to dictate the pattern of the game. Ten Hag does have a plethora of talented players, and that is the biggest cause of concern. Fernandes has created more chances than anyone else in the Premier League this term so needs shackling, Hojlund and Rashford have pace to burn on the counter, and no-one across the league has created more chances from ball carries than Garnacho.

However, conceding chances and goals has been a huge problem, and the Red Devils have at times looked disorganised and very uncertain in their off-the-ball work. Opta’s expected goals against metric claims they should have conceded at least 15 more times than they have – this is the largest discrepancy of its kind in the division. United’s defending has been poor in recent weeks, with many players looking disillusioned and way below their best. If we can move the ball at a high tempo, with as much quality as we have seen of late, then I would expect us to comfortably create 20-plus shots. It feels like a great opportunity for us to claim a rare win at Old Trafford.

Man City won their game yesterday as I think every Arsenal fan assumed they would so we need a win just to take the title challenge to the final day of the season. Scrap that, blow the title challenge I just want Arsenal to rock up at Old Trafford and tear ten Hag’s side to pieces. They’re in a mess, their season has been average and on the pitch, they’ve looked lost and out of ideas.

But, they’re still Man Utd, we’re still playing at Old Trafford and one just knows that for this game, they’ll be a bit more motivated. I don’t think for one minute that Utd fans will care if City win the league as they’re probably used to it by now, they’ll just want their team to beat us today.

One can hope the Utd players couldn’t care less about today and play rubbish, especially if the rumours about them being fed up with ten Hag are true but expecting that of them is nearly as bonkers as believing Totts can beat City on Tuesday. Expecting ten Hag to be thinking about the FA Cup Final rather than today would be foolhardy too. He needs a response from his players after being humiliated by Crystal Palace and the media afterwards.

Today is about Arsenal turning up and getting the business done confidently and convincingly before leaving Manchester with another three points in the bag.

Catch up in the comments.

 

 

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