Arsenal are going along great at the minute, having won seven games in a row and sitting joint top of the Premier League and our Champions League group. The Gunners are also one home win over lower league opposition away from a place in the EFL cup quarter-finals, so things are looking good right now.
The football is fluent, the goals are coming thick and fast and so confidence is high right now, but we must not forget that momentum is a lot easier to lose than it is to build and one poor performance could knock Arsenal off track as we have seen happen to Man City in recent weeks.
I do not expect that to happen against a struggling Middlesborough at the Emirates stadium on Saturday, as we should be much too strong for them, but any extra help is welcome so the fact that their manager Aitor Karanka is having to change his back four to face Arsenal is a bonus.
The reason for this is that the Arsenal defender Calum Chambers is on loan at the Riverside and he has started their last three EPL games and they have looked defensively stronger since. On Saturday Chambers cannot play against his former club so Daniel Ayala will probably return and the way that Arsenal are creating chances and finishing, Middlesborough do not need any weakening of their back line.
The Chambers effect is probably not going to be crucial, but hopefully one of our other on loan players, Jack Wilshere, can do Arsenal a huge favour when his current club Bournemouth host our north London rivals Tottenham early on Saturday.
The spuds have just started to wobble, with two draws in a row against West Brom and Bayer Leverkusen, and they are still without Harry Kane, Alderweireld and perhaps Danny Rose, while Jack is starting to find form after regular starts for the Cherries.
You just know that the Arsenal supporting Wilshere would love to do some damage to our local rivals and if he can help Bournemouth to take some points from the game while the Gunners beat Boro, a nice gap will have opened up ahead of the first derby match coming up soon. It would also give the players a boost before we kick off our own game.
Do you think Jack Wilshere and Bournemouth will help Arsenal out this weekend?
Bob.