Firstly, thoughts with those who live north of the border or anywhere else across the UK affected by the flooding. Stay safe, stay warm and look after your neighbours.

Chelsea away.

A 5:30 kick off in West London creates a bit of a headache as to what to do before the game.

For games outside of London, we would obviously meet in a pub local to Euston, King’s cross or Victoria, before getting the train. Then a few beers in the away put before heading to the game.

For the likes of West Ham, Tottenham and Crystal Palace, the meeting place will often be Islington or London Bridge. But for Fulham, Brentford and Chelsea, there is not a natural place for a few beers before hand.

Those West London clubs are a bit of a nightmare commute from Islington so that is off the table.

Victoria is usually the natural option, as you can then jump on the district line to all the grounds. But the area around Victoria Station does not really have a decent pub. Certainly not one that you can see yourself sitting in for 3 or 4 hours before a game.

At least with Fulham you have the option of going a little bit further south and heading into Putney, whilst the last time we went Brentford, we decided to head to Waterloo. Chelsea is probably the worst away day for a pre-match drink.

I am sure by the time I get a coffee down me and shake off last nights booze, a decision will be made. And that will probably be us sitting in a souless commuter pub outside Victoria Station. Probably a Weatherspoons.

During yesterday’s press conference, spoke about having 14 players away for international duty for 2 weeks, and a number of others in the medical room.

Reflecting on his selection dilemmas, he said: “We obviously haven’t had a lot of players. It’s the first training session we’re going to do today and we will know more after the session.

“I do have an idea [of his starting XI] but I have to see them all together today and how everybody is because we have a lot of people travelling around the world and with a lot of minutes in the legs.

“I want to judge what is the best for tomorrow, not only in terms of what I want to do tactically but also how the energy is, how the mood is, how the spirit is. In order to that, I will have a better clue after the session today.”

Bukayo Saka, William Saliba and Leandro Trossard’s fitness was also to be assessed in yesterday’s final training session,

I imagine this is a bit of “keeping my cards close to my chest”. The trio had remained with the club for the last 2-weeks and I am sure Arteta would know if they would be fit to start or not.

As we said in yesterday’s blog, I would not be surprised if Arteta has his prefered strongest XI start today.

Little bit of other Arsenal related news floating about this morning.

West Ham reportedly inserted a “first option on Emile Smith Rowe” into the Declan Rice deal. This basically means that if we receive a bid from another club, we have to give West Ham an opportunity to match the bid. If they do, we have to accept their offer before we accept any offer from another club. I think.

The final little bit of news is about Aaron Ramsdale.

He has spoken about needing to ensure he is playing first team football to retain his place in the England squad. The conclusion is that he would be open to leave for first team football. Not really a story and it is something we all knew was likely.

David Raya is an upgrade, whilst Ramsdale would command a fee north of £40m. We would basically be getting a better keeper at half the price.

Enjoy the game today.

Keenos

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