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Work-rate. Incisiveness. Nous. I don't ask for much. This is how it's gonna be. Build from the ground up. A chance to cement our place at the summit, and give Arsenal a mountain to climb if they are to get back into the title race. The gap is currently 5 points and while there is still over a third of the season left to play, extending that gap to 8 points makes any chase very tricky. I'm not sure how much can be read into the result of the cup tie last month, but more of that will be very welcome. Last season's fixture was a defensive horror show masked a bit by a refereeing disaster-class. Arsenal came flying out of the traps and could have led inside the first 20 seconds, and it wasn't long before they took the lead through Martinelli. Saka wide on the right was offside in the build-up but the VAR team didn't have a camera angle that showed where Saka was when the ball was played to him. We didn't shut down the space or the runners regardless. The ref and VAR decided that Gabriel could handle the ball in the area and declined to give us a penalty. Nevertheless, the equaliser came when Lucho ran onto a long clearance and squared for Darwin to slide in from 8 yards. We hadn't been great, and things got worse when Lucho had to come off after sustaining a knee injury following a hefty challenge, and that injury proved to be long-term ligament damage. He had probably been our brightest attacking player in the early weeks of the season, and would be a huge miss. Bobby came on for him and we maybe looked to get to half time on level terms and regroup. That didn't happen as Saka was left unmarked at the far post following a quick Arsenal break. Trent was hooked at half time, and we managed to grab another equaliser when Bobby fired home from an angle after a lovely through-ball. Arsenal grabbed the lead for a third time when Thiago clipped Jesus in the area. The Brazilian made a meal of it. Saka buried his kick for his second of the game. Another shit result in that shit oil spill kit. Not sure who Arsenal have missing but we have a reasonable idea of how they want to play. The are capable of decent football but love a bit of shithouse diving antics and cry-arsing to the ref at any given opportunity. Timber has been out for them for a while. Probably just as well, as Darwin would undoubtedly ended up hitting him when trying to shoot! For us, Baj, Thiago and Mo will be absent, though Thiago was apparently back in training this week. Endo is still at the Asian Cup. Other than that, I think we have a full compliment. The youngsters have really impressed in recent weeks, but I don't know if Jurgen will opt for experience for this one. I'd imagine there are low odds for Darwin hitting the woodwork again. He'd be boss at the crossbar challenge! At some point he will become extremely clinical, but he does need to find more composure when presented with an opportunity to shoot at goal. Maximum motivation, concentration, attitude and application from first minute to last. We have the ability to grab a great result, and need to show it. 3 points please. Get it done!