Match day ten this season brings about yet another familiar challenge to it that we have faced for some years now:

An away day low block.

It used to be a tenet of Premier League football that when teams are at home, they are a little more expansive; their fans urge them to drive forward, the team responds and sometimes as a team like Arsenal that is positive because it affords you more space with which to create openings. That isn’t really the case any more and today’s challenge of overcoming the 2025 Championship Champions is going to be quite the tricky one I suspect. Scott Parker employs a back five and he’ll do so today, with the hope of frustrating us and hitting us on the counting with rapid forwards like Jaidon Anthony. Burnley’s game plan today is to let us have the ball, stay in shape, narrow the pitch and ask our lads to do something special to beat them.

We have to be ready for that as much as the players do, because I don’t think this will be a classic for the ages, not unless we score first and early and that forces them out...