Girona - on the bus. Ticket into VIP-zone is secured

Arsenal has secured the third spot in the Champions League group phase. It means free days in February and not very powerful opponents in the first knock-out round. Nwaneri has scored a first Champions League goal in his first start, so all-in-all a very good evening.

Transfer shake-up

Wednesday started with early news about Arsenal submitting a bid for Ollie Watkins that has already been rejected. I think, on paper, it's a great deal. He’s Premier League proven; he's a player ready to contribute right now with goals. He has expressed some sympathy for Arsenal, and he could offer something different on counterattacks. But it all doesn't matter much. Villa is accepting a 75+ million bid for John Duran, and they won’t lose two strikers in the same window. Even if the reporters are talking about an improved bid, Villa will definitely need goals and doesn't need money in the case of a Duran sale.

There are also rumors about the young striker Tel from Bayern Munich. That's actually a gamble I would be happy for us to take. I think that's exactly the needed profile – a striker who sits behind more skillful ones in a very good team. He has potential, but he doesn't have opportunities to realize it, and in our circumstances, with our lack of options, he would defnitely get these opportunities. If it's a loan with an option to buy – perfect. If it's somebody we can get below 30 million – again, why not?

I also followed the City game a bit – it was the only game shown on public TV, so it was freely accessible. It wouldn't make the evening happier to see City go out from the group stage, being in the bottom 12 of 36 teams. I was watching it on the side, and it was one of those two scenarios: either they get things done by halftime, or it is going to be nervous until the end of the game. Both teams looked quite slow – I am not even sure City still has their sharpness. Bruges got into the game and won the first half but got a bit shaky in the second, and unfortunately, City are through. Bruges are through as well, grabbing the last remaining playoff spot.

Back to Estadi Montilivi

As for us, I was happy to see a heavily rotated squad. Neto was finally in goal - if not in this game, then when? I don't think we can completely rely on Raya being fit for all the remaining matches. Anything can happen, and we need someone on the bench who has experience playing with this defence and understands the in-game instructions. As we saw in the first half, Neto doesn't have the experience to do that, and he needs it if we want to at least count him as a viable option. I'm a bit worried about Raya fully missing the game, but hopefully, it's just a precaution, as with Saliba. 

My other concern was Odegaard. If he wasn't fit enough to be on the bench on Saturday, I'm not sure he should be playing 90 minutes on Wednesday. I would have hoped to see him play no more than 45 minutes today, but he almost never gets rotated by Arteta.

And Partey - man, oh, man - he was caught out time and time again by Girona. Arteta changed him at halftime (could have been a planned sub). We can't have Benjamin back in the squad sooner! Because this position really needs some quality cover. I actually think it was a very good decision to only play Timber for one half because, on Sunday, he's going to have to put in a lot of work. I believe the result against City will very much depend on our defensive performance because, if we can keep them contained, we will find our chances at home. What we can't afford is them scoring early in the game and then using this momentum to build up their confidence, which is currently not at the highest level. Their defence was exposed by Brugge today, and I hope we can expose it as well.

And Ethan … just unbelievable. We missed you so much, boy! His movement, his ability to quickly get past defenders, his ability to get a sweet shot from the edge of the box - it's just unbelievable how we don't have anybody else in the squad who can replicate this type of movement and score such a goal.

We have Sterling though. Raheem, Raheem... He was kind of okay until he got to the final passes near the box. And there his passing was so out of touch that even Kim Kallstrom and Denis Suarez told him, “Come on, mate? How many games do you need to register an assist?” I seriously struggle to understand what happened to his confidence. He didn’t even take the “pity penalty” opportunity that Havertz took when he moved to us.

Arsenal were quite lucky to have the second goal canceled for offside because if we would have drawn the game, we would have had Man City, Real Madrid, and Bayern waiting for us as potential opponents. Instead, we have Feyenoord, Juventus, Milan, or PSV to wait for. Much less experienced players in this competition.

I would genuinely be against us playing a Premier League team. Every Premier League clash is a pain, even against Villa. English teams know us so well, and they have a good history and a lot of experience preparing for our games. They know how to deal with our players and how to shut down our attacking play. So those will be very tough games. European teams aren’t as prepared for our style. I think Barcelona and Real Madrid in their current form would struggle to contain our attack, whereas Italian teams would be having a hard time opening up our defense. That's what we havr seen already when Inter on San Siro scored the only goal from a penalty. I'm all for European draws. Funny enough, City would have to face either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich and I don’t fancy their chances against any of those teams.. 

Preview of our biggest challenge of the season

I think the game on Sunday is monumental. I know this term is being thrown around left and right. Many games were called extremely important, but this one stands out. It's not only the game, it is a mental challenge in front of this team. It's not just about the match itself, but also the mental challenge it presents. We're the favourites now, and we need to beat them on our home turf. There are no two ways about it.

A win puts us above them in the pecking order and sends a message to the league: "We're better than City now, so respect us." A loss, of course, would be a blow to our title hopes. The doubts will creep in: "It's City, they're just in a bad patch, they're still the stronger team..." It wouldn't be the end of the world, but it would be mentally damaging for the rest of the season, including our Champions League campaign.

I believe we are well equipped to beat them. Their defense is not well shaped it's not organized - on the right side they have Nunez and Stones and none of them is really convincing. Their midfield is not as strong without Rodri. So we have areas where we can dominate them.

Another interesting aspect, of course, is whether we will be able to bring a new striker in this game already. The way it looks now, we won’t bring anybody who can change games, who  can deliver already against City, so we'll have to make use of whoever we have in the roster. Still, having a new name on the bench can have a psychological impact.

Finally, I have one of the strongest beliefs in Ethan. He's shown us that he's not afraid of taking responsibility and that he’s not afraid of big moments. It’s understandable that he won’t start this game, but even in the last thirty minutes he could hurt a tired City team. He can deliver powerful mid-range shots past the goalkeeper. I don't think there are many others in our team who I would trust to score against City. There’s Calafiori (funny that he names pops up as on the first ones), there’s Trossard and there’s Martinelli. Martinelli is always up for the challenge, no matter the opponent, but in this eason his finishing is the coin toss.

As for the starting eleven, we need to put our best eleven. There’s not much choice there. The positive thing is that only Gabriel and Odegaard did 90 minutes on Wednesday. The rest have rested in some capacity. Trossard starting for first 60 on Sunday and being replaced for Nwaneri looks like a plausible cenario, Calafiori coming in in the later stages could also be an interesting move. The rest of the squad picks by itself. 

Let’s make sure they stay humble!