That’s all for now. Thanks for your shin splints chat and musical offerings. Barry’s done the Fiver business again (though I’m now a little concerned for his safety). I’ll leave you with a nugget from him - and one from me. Stay warm, folks.
Mikel Arteta has insisted it wasn’t a shock to see his Arsenal players flop at Brentford on the opening night of the Premier League season.
“We knew the difficulties that we were going to have on the opening game in the league, which is always difficult,” he said. “But with the amount of players out that we had, with the team that we played on the day and with a newly-promoted team who had done exceptionally well, I wasn’t shocked because I knew it was going to be very difficult.”
The Gunners are unbeaten in their last 32 Premier League home games against promoted sides (W27 D5) but they’ll want to tighten up at set-pieces this time...
