We’ve had some really good battles with Arsenal here in recent years, including in the league and cup last season, and we’re anticipating another one today against one of the best sides in the Premier League.
There’s no doubting the quality both teams possess and this has all the hallmarks of a high-level game. But while the Gunners started the weekend in second place, we fancy ourselves against anyone, particularly at St. James’ Park – and we’ve come out on top against them more often than not of late in front of our own fans.
We know the crowd’s going to be right behind us and, honestly, they can give us an extra ten per cent. When the atmosphere here is at its best, like the PSG game in the Champions League, we almost play off adrenaline. You feel like you can run through a brick wall, you don’t seem to tire.
The supporters give us that extra energy and our players are built for that, and for tests against the top teams. That’s the level we want to be at, too, and to get there we need to consistently compete against the likes of Arsenal.
So far this season there have been good performances and we’ve had a lot of clean sheets, but I think the midweek cup win over Bradford was ideal for us in terms of us scoring four goals.
Yes, it was against League One opposition, but I believe the players who scored will definitely benefit from getting the ball in the back of the net and hopefully we can carry that into this afternoon.
Credit to Will Osula for his two goals. He’s a great guy and a great athlete. He’s still young but he’s rapid, can play on the right and left as well as centrally, and he showed on Wednesday exactly what he’s capable of.
And while we’ve not seen Yoane Wissa in black and white yet, there have been really encouraging signs from Nick Woltemade in his outings so far. He’s come in full of confidence and as well as netting on his debut against Wolves, his link-up play has been there for all to see.
Our last Premier League game, at Bournemouth seven days ago, was my first Premier League appearance since I suffered my ACL injury against West Ham in March 2024. I’d played in a few pre-season games but returning to competitive action was a big milestone.
It was a great feeling to come on and try to help the team, and I was grateful that I was able to do that. The team, defensively, have been great and we stayed solid. That point was something to build on and we’ll be aiming to do exactly that today and going into the next sequence of games.
