Morning all. Although I have also just seen it is the afternoon.

Later than normal blog from me this morning. Sorry about that. Few house chores have gotten in the way.

Had new carpets laid in the office yesterday so this morning has been spent moving the furniture back in, putting the pictures back up on the wall and giving it a good hoover. Also smashed a goat curry in the slow cooker.

West Ham tomorrow, so once again we will know the result of the Manchester City game before we kick off. I can not see them dropping points at home to Leicester City.

Leicester show how quickly things can change for those “also rans” team. It was not too long ago they were Premier League champions, and more recently they won the FA Cup.

About 18 months ago, pundits were saying they now had to be considered a member of the top 6, with many writing Arsenal out of it. They will probably get relegated this season.

In Arsenal news, Eddie Nketiah is back fit, William Saliba is not.

The Saliba back injury is a concern. It feels like every week the update is the same – he is back in light training but not yet fully fit. It feels like one of these injuries that could drag on, and I would not be surprised if he ends up out for the rest of the season.

Anyone who has ever injured their back knows it can be potentially life changing, and many never recover.

Thierry Henry suffered from choronic back injuries throughout his career. He was able to play through them for much of the time but the issues certainly contributed to his drop off in his final season at Barcelona and decision to go play in the MLS at just 32.

Saliba is just 22-years-old, and the concern will be that this back injury could end up plaguing his career. He will always have to be managed carefully, not putting in 100% in training and so on.

So we continue with Rob Holding in defence at West Ham, and I am not worried.

Holding gets a lot of greif from some sections of fans. I have a theory that some non-English based fans attack him as a way of attacking match going fans.

Those that go week in week out love a working class English lad doing well. Someone like Holding is easy to relate too. It is no different to an African fan idolising African players.

But that leads to criticism of “you only rate him because he is English” and also fans dismissing him because he is white, working class. You see the same with Mason Mount at Chelsea – much of the criticism of Mount comes from foreign shores.

And it is beyond race. These same people were always putting down Bukayo Saka, demanding that Nicolas Pepe start ahead of him. They just take an instant dislike to “terrace heroes”. They would probably hate on Rocky, Tony, Wrighty and more.

And there is something special about seeing a boy living out his dream in front of your eyes. Especially if they are a local lad.

Anyway, I digress.

Tomorrow we have to beat West Ham. We have some tricky games coming up away to Manchester City and Newcastle. We can not afford to drop points at the London Olympic stadium.

For once we will have the “no Europe advantage”. Usually it would have been us playing on a Thursday and suffering playing on a Sunday whilst out opponents had a clear week. The Hammers played in Belgium Thursday. It was a tough game for them.

Win the game, get 3 points, then on to the next week.

Have a good rest of the day. Goat curry will be ready for around 6pm. Eating it will be the highlight of my day.

Keenos

Arsenal fans – how about a new golf towel? #Arsenal #ArsenalFC #AFC https://t.co/7tJXfjwte6 pic.twitter.com/8bvWgQd03v

— Kick Off Merchants (@KOMerchants) April 5, 2023