A couple of weeks ago I think it was highly unlikely that we could or would lose both these games. But with the team available to us, it wouldn’t matter what coach we have. Spurs is a game that could go either way and Villa is a highly probable defeat.

I don’t believe Now that Arteta is being stubborn about signing attacking player(s), his reputation is on the line at this moment in time and even I don’t think he’s insane enough to burn everything down in service to prove he’s right…about what ?

The noises he’s making is suggesting that the wage bill restrictions make it hard to sign someone. The Jesus injury is a disaster, not because he’s any use to us as a player because he isn’t…but it removes any chance of us getting him off the wage bill in January.

As for changing the style of play, I’m not sure that’s tenable now either. I’ve made as much noise as anyone to scrap the number 8 nonsense and play with two creative midfielders in front of the holding midfielder, problem is we don’t have two creative midfielders available. We don’t have one arguably, we have Odegaard who any other club would have rested for both cup matches….a player who looks dead on his feet.

I think ultimately the only thing we can do is play for a draw in both games, and have some luck with players coming back in the next couple of weeks. The title if it wasn’t over before last week is definitely over now, we simply can’t put out a team that can win games at the moment.