The tedium of the interlull is finally over and Premier League football is back with us.
For me, this interlull wasn’t actually too bad, but that’s mostly because I went on holiday and ignored it. It was only Edinburgh, and it rained a lot, but I’m from Belfast so ‘a lot’ is a huge improvement on ‘all the time.
Plus there was alcohol. Lots and lots of alcohol.
Luckily, being an Arsenal supporter for 30 years means my liver is well trained.
Anyway, football.
It’s Swansea at home and we all know that the Swans like nothing more than to p**s on any parade we might be thinking about having, so we can take nothing for granted.
Under a new manager, the ‘new manager bounce’ can be expected, but if Arsenal are serious about challenging this season, this is a game they simply must win.
Jet lagged players means that we are likely to see a more laboured performance, but today is about getting the job done as Arsenal go into this round of fixtures as the only side in the division to have won their last five Premier League games.
It might also be worth noting that only two teams have scored more (City, Liverpool) and only three have conceded fewer (Spurs, Everton, Southampton), and that’s just because we shipped four against Liverpool on the opening day with a defence made up of children.
Here’s who Arsene has picked to hopefully do whatever’s needed to get the points today:
Arsenal Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Cazorla, Xhaka, Walcott, Ozil, Iwobi, Alexis
Subs Ospina, Gibbs, Gabriel, Lucas, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Coquelin, Elneny
Swansea Fabianski, Naughton, Fernandez, Amat, Taylor, Cork, Britton, Fer, Barrow, Sigurdsson, Routledge
Subs Sung-yueng, Van der Hoorn, Baston, Nordfeldt, Rangel, Kingsley, Fulton
Referee
Jon Moss
Assistant 1
Henry Lennard
Assistant 2
Marc Perry
Fourth official
Neil Swarbrick
#Wenger20 pic.twitter.com/Y3AblfJ511
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) October 15, 2016
Cover of Arsenal prog today, name of every player who played for 1st team under Arsene Wenger #ARSSWA @5liveSport pic.twitter.com/6fuqSUnVNn
— Alistair Bruce-Ball (@alibruceball) October 15, 2016
Arsenal PL record vs. Swansea:
10 games
4 wins
1 draw
5 losses
14 goals scored
12 goals conceded
13/30 points pic.twitter.com/GHHcAKaXZ6— afcstuff (@afcstuff) October 15, 2016