Ipswich away: Less glamour but still a job to do

Morning all.

For fairly obvious reasons, today’s Premier League visit to Ipswich isn’t as glamorous or exciting as a midweek jaunt to Madrid, but even if the Premier League is done and dusted now, it’s still an important game as we look to close out the season well and with some momentum.

Asked on Friday about what the win over Real Madrid said about his team, Mikel Arteta replied:

That We can compete in any context against any team in any competition. Now the next step is consistency, do it in the Champions League at that level. Now we come, go to Ipswich against a really tough team and do it again.

At this point next season, all going well, we want to be where we are in Europe, and in a position in the Premier League which means this game is vital for our chances of winning the title. That’s the level we need to get to, and I don’t think it’s something you can just say ‘Well, we’ll try that next year’. Anyone who has ever listened to Arteta knows his focus will be 100% on winning today’s game, and implementing those standards straight away.

I think we’ll probably see some rotation, although the core of the side will likely remain the same. Players like Leandro Trossard, Ben White, Kieran Tierney, and Ethan Nwaneri could start this one to rest some of the heavy legs, but there will be players who gave a lot against Madrid who will be asked to go again. This is a two game week, with Crystal Palace coming up on Wednesday, so that might play a part also.

Ipswich still have a mathematical rather than realistic chance of avoiding relegation, but expect them to give it a go today nonetheless. They have some injuries to contend with, but at home they’ll want to give their fans something to remember this Premier League season by, and a win over a ‘big’ side like Arsenal would be something to enjoy.

So, we need to be careful, and professional, but you would hope we have enough to take all three points. We’ve drawn the last two so a win today would be welcome to consolidate our league position, and ease any potential stress as we start to think about going further in the Champions League. Fingers crossed.

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I watched yesterday’s Champions League semi-final against Lyon and I thought Arsenal were a bit unlucky to lose on the day. Having gone behind in the first half, the response was excellent, we made a clutch of chances we ought to have done better with, before Mariona’s penalty drew the sides level. Unfortunately, a slight lapse at the back coupled with some real quality from the French side saw them score the winner.

Afterwards, Renee Slegers said:

We are not happy with the result because, like I said, we did really well finally getting the the equaliser and that was the least we wanted and after that goal we felt like we could potentially score another one. I think as the game turned out, especially in the second half, a draw or a win was what we what we went for. I think Arsenal has done it before against Lyon away and has won with big numbers, so it’s gonna be a pitch, 11 be 11, good grass and we have all the opportunities to to win that game next week.

I guess there will be encouragement from the chances we made, so let’s hope we can go there in the second leg and overturn that narrow deficit. It’s far from impossible. Tim and Jamie will have an Arsenal Women Arsecast tomorrow to go into the game in more detail, and you can see how the day went from Tim’s perspective in our matchday Vlog on our YouTube channel.

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Right, let’s leave it there for now. Join us later for live blog coverage, plus you’ll get the match report, goal clips, reaction, player ratings and much more over on Arseblog News.

Come on you reds!