It seems there is a bit of a dispute with Man City. Well, it’s not really an argument, but rather a ‘discussion’, if reports are to be believed, why City want to play Bournemouth in their rearranged match slot before Palace. I didn’t really understand the importance of this until I saw this Tweet from an account I follow:
@SamiMokbel_BBC confirmed the following.
For clarity, City’s aim is to manipulate matches and avoid playing Bournemouth with a few days off when Bournemouth have more than 10 days off… just like Arsenal had to do the other week.
This would damage Palace’s eventual final
also prepare pic.twitter.com/u79BFpYoek— Magic Hat 🎩 (@themagic_tophat) April 28, 2026
I don’t think I want to spend too much time on this topic, but I feel like there should be little wiggle room here. Arsenal had to suffer playing a very good Bournemouth team after their absence in the FA Cup, and we played FA Cup and Champions League matches between our Premier League matches. If City also play a fresher Bournemouth, so be it. You can’t rearrange things just because of the TV companies’ hope (because you can bet your bottom dollar that Sky will want this rearrangement, to carry it to the last day of the season) that they will have more drama last week.
They’ll get it anyway! Have you seen how nervous we look when we play!
That nervousness was heightened somewhat this weekend, when we thought we were going to lose Eze and Havertz for a while, just when they were coming back just right for us and were able to play meaningful minutes. Fortunately, Eze dispelled that almost immediately by performing his media duties and being seen on the field subsequently on Saturday. Phew. A sigh of relief.
Then we got a “sort of” sigh of relief last night, when news emerged from The Athletic that Kai’s injury wasn’t as serious as feared, which again is a good thing. Depending on what you read, there are variations on when he could potentially return. I think Arteta will confirm to us tonight that he will not play any role tonight. I saw a report suggesting that Arsenal thought he could play a part in all of our remaining Premier League games. If that’s true, then happy days, as it means he would at least be fit for the Fulham home game next weekend.
I suspect, however, that this might be a little more hope than reality.
There is no doubt about what he brings. We talked about it on Sunday, and Scarlet spoke the truth when she said we looked a lot different after Kai left. This is indeed very true. I took a look at some stats until the 34th minute, when he limped off, and we got:
- Best possession (fair) – leading 51% to 49% (we finished the match on
- More through balls (four against one)
- Level of shots (they ended up surpassing us at the end of the game)
But the way we played seemed smoother to us. Kai connects players all around him, where Gyokeres seems much more isolated. A lot of this, I think, comes from the fact that his technical quality is so low that players don’t want to lose the ball, but rather than making this a piece bashing Gyokeres, I want to lean more into what Kai brings us.
We were much better against City. It “felt” better against Newcastle until it came out. I also think we played the game well against Everton, although Big Vik did his part by coming on later in the game and making an impact. The prospect of not having Kai for longer than Fulham next weekend was very real, so having him potentially available afterwards is huge.
The next concern we have this week is the volume of games in a week. Jamie Carragher pointed this out last night on Monday Night Football, but we’re playing Wednesday-Saturday-Tuesday, at a time in the season where we still have players who aren’t fully fit yet and haven’t returned to full fitness. It’s going to be a pretty grueling week, and when I look at tomorrow night’s game against Atletico Madrid, I can’t help but think that it just has to be one of those “just get through it” games. Get over it, try to stay tight, then see how much rest you can get before facing a Fulham team who have had a week off, and will come out after a 1-0 win against Villa last weekend.
I didn’t watch the game Fulham played, but I looked at the numbers, and it looks like a classic game in which one team (Villa) had all the possession, but Fulham created more chances and eventually, like us, had that moment of magic. Before this win they had only had one win in six games, so their form was patchy, but as we know so was Newcastle’s, and yet they made us look very leggy at times on Saturday.
I don’t know how we got over that, to be honest, because Arteta has just been patching players up and sending them off lately. I doubt Saka can play many 90 minute games, and given he only got around 20 minutes on Saturday, surely he can’t start in Madrid?
Odegaard and Eze will also need to be managed carefully, so despite our great squad, it’s all looking a little thin in some positions at the moment.
We’ll know more later who’s likely to start, and wouldn’t it be nice to have some positive news regarding Jurrien Timber, eh? Let’s see what the boss says later.
Otherwise, I’ll be back for a match preview tomorrow, so I’ll catch you then.
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