Morning!
A little later than normal blog from me this morning. Blame it on those Thursday night city beers. Apologies if the spelling and grammer is worse than normal. I am still trying to get the old noggin going.
We are finally on the eve of The Arsenal returning. This international break seemed to have dragged on forever.
Like the last break, we return with an away trip to West London, and Brentford may well prove to be a tougher proposition than Chelsea.
Last season, they lost just twice at home – against Arsenal and Newcastle United. Brentford Community Stadium might be one of the worst grounds in the league, but it is also a bit kof a fortress for the Bees.
I think we got through the international break fairly unscathed, and yesterdays club pictures showed that almost everyone was back in training. The only players I could not spot were the lads from Brazil and Takehiro Tomiyasu. Not a surprise when Tomi would have been flying back from Japan, and the Brazilian boys were playing during the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Gabriel Jesus played the full 90 minutes, which is a good sign. The international break has given him the opportunity to get games under his belt following his latest injury. But that does not mean he will start on Saturday.
He picked up his most recent injury following the last international break, so Mikel Arteta might be advised to take it easy with him. Maybe off the bench against Brentford, start for an hour v Lens and then ready to do 90 minutes against Wolves next week.
In the most obvious news of the week, Aaron Ramsdale will return as number one this weekend.
Today is Black Friday. Our friends over at Kick Off Merchants are giving away free Arsenal bottle openers. All you have to do is buy a set of their 4 Arsenal ceramic beer mats and then pick which Arsenal bottle opener you want for free. Add all to your basket and then use the code BlackFriday2023 at check out!
Have a good day, I am off for coffee number 3.
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 