So Arsenal’s biggest game of the season so far is coming up tomorrow at Old Trafford, and despite the fact that United lost their first two games, they have bounced back and now won three in a row, including beating Liverpool at Anfield.

But the Gunners are also in a rich vein of form, but Arteta is well aware of the challenge our weakened team faces tomorrow. The boss said in his pre-game press conference: “When you look at the squad that they have, the players that they have signed the amount of money they have spent in the market, it is no surprise – they are going to win a lot of football matches. The history of Manchester United tells you this is going to happen. They are a big rival, we know that and we are going to compete with them.”

When asked if this was our biggest test of the season, he declared: “The test in the Premier League is every single week, every opponent that you play. You see it in every game that will be played this weekend and I don’t expect anything different.”

We have historically got an awful record at Old Trafford, but Arteta is not worried about previous records but the focus is on tomorrow. Does he think it could be a problem? “I don’t think so. We have gone through things like that when we hadn’t won at Stamford Bridge for 20 or something years, but you need to believe that you will do that. If you can play the way you want to play, you will win football matches. We’ve done it, and that’s the belief that we have.

“It’s not something new. We’ve done it, we have to do it again and we have to believe from today, yesterday and straight after the game that we are capable of going there and playing how we want in the match.”

A taste of some of our favourite moments across the Ramble this month!

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There’s grumpy fans all over the gaff in the Premier League this weekend! Leicester City head to Chelsea under pressure, while David Moyes tries to inspire optimism among the fanbase.

Marcus, Andy, Pete and Jim also discuss the Champions League draw and sweat over the future of Callum Wilson. Well, Marcus does.

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It’s a huge weekend in Serie A! Dotun, Andy and Nicky Bandini chew over Roma's trip to Juventus and wonder just why Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martínez fit so perfectly together ahead of Inter's inevitably feisty clash with Lazio.

Elsewhere, there’s an extraordinary capitulation in Dortmund thanks to last-minute goals from unlikely British sources. And are Atlético Madrid *really* keeping Antoine Griezmann on the bench to save money?!

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Earlier this summer, Andy travelled to Sweden to explore the increasingly strained relationship between Zlatan Ibrahimović and his hometown of Malmö - especially after his statue was unceremoniously torn down two months after its grand unveiling.

On today's special episode, Andy speaks to journalists and fans across Sweden about Ibrahimović's journey from hometown hero to football's ultimate pantomime villain. We also hear from Lars Sivertsen about the legacy that remains, after investing in rivals Hammarby and seemingly turning his back on the club where it all started.

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At last, welcome to the most important episode in the Ramble’s history. Jim, Pete and Luke provide a definitive lowdown of that most glorious of football phenomena: animal pitch invasions!

From Anfield’s plague of cats, to a dog being interviewed pitchside in Argentina and the time a pigeon had a poo in Ashley Young’s mouth, we relive all of football’s weird and wonderful meetings with the animal kingdom!

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Welcome to our very first Ramble Reacts! We kept Marcus, Andy and Luke up late to relive an astonishing Manchester United win.

Lisandro Martinez defied his critics and his height, while Marcus Rashford got back on the scoresheet ahead of his World Cup-winning goal in December. But what on earth has happened to Liverpool? Elsewhere, Graeme Souness fights Casemiro at a wedding and we uncover shocking revelations that Andy’s godfather is in fact Louis van Gaal.

Join us for Ramble Reacts episodes throughout the season, where we’ll bring you our takes on the biggest games! Get involved @FootballRamble on Twitter, or email us This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Jules, Vish and Luke fan the flames of a whole load of barn-burners across the Premier League this weekend!

Miguel Almirón silenced his doubters at Man City with a vintage crotch-first finish yesterday, while Jesse Marsch’s men took advantage of Chelsea’s London-Leeds jet lag.

Elsewhere, the Ferryman takes to the waters once more and when he’s not smashing teammate’s windshields, Aleksandar Mitrović is *still* smashing in the goals! Also, why everyone’s going to be top at Christmas.

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Marcus, Jim, Luke and Andy gear up for another wonderful weekend of Premier League football!

There’s a literary theme as Cristiano Ronaldo opens up his secret notebook and Neil Warnock pens a poem about his career. Elsewhere, Nottingham Forest and Everton each take their slice of the transfer madness pie and Eddie Howe has some bright ideas…

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Lars Sivertsen is back on the pod! And he brings good tidings from Norway…

Dotun, Andy and Lars discuss Kylian Mbappé’s jaw-dropping display at the weekend (for all the wrong reasons) and whether efforts to push Neymar out will really come to fruition. 

Plus, Barcelona got (almost) all of their new signings registered, but why didn’t it click on the opening weekend? And which youngsters are going to rip it up in Europe this season? Look no further than another Englishman at Dortmund!

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Slip on your sheepskin coat, grab your team sheet and step up to the mic - it’s time for another Guide To! 

Marcus, Luke and Pete are here to sort the magicians from the McManamans, as we break down the traits behind the best commentators around. We also hear some of the all-time classics, including a rendition of Gol de Kevin Phillips and an Andy Gray masterclass. Whatever happened to him?

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Gabriel Martinelli is claimed to have opened talks with Arsenal over a new deal after a bright start to the new season.

The forward arrived in north London from the fourth tier in Brazilian football, and surprisingly made an instant impact. He scored a memorable goal against Chelsea amidst an eye-opening debut campaign, and earned plaudits from a number of pundits as well as coming in for huge acclaim by Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp also.

Martinelli was setback by an injury however, but in the last nine months he has once again showed just how much of a threat he can be to even the best of defences.

He started the new season in top form also with two goals from two games, and the club have now decided to open talks with the 21 year-old as we look to tie him down to a new long–term deal, despite having a fair amount of time left on his current terms.

Understand that contract talks with Gabriel Martinelli have recently opened.

I know most Arsenal fans won’t believe this video clip but it really happened tonight on TalkSport after Jamie O’Hara watched the the Gunners totally dominate in tonight’s Bournemouth v Arsenal EPL game.

The totally anti-Arsenal pundit even likened Arsenal to playing like Man City, where Mikel Arteta used to be the assistant manager to Pep, and of course who Arsenal bought Zinchenko and Jesus from this summer.

Watch and believe!

“Arsenal are looking a bit special.”

“They look like Man City…”

Considering Arsenal’s form after an excellent preseason, it was no surprise that Arsenal were bristling with confidence ahead of the trip to Bournemouth, and they were yet again looking totally in control right from the kick off.

The gunners were just too quick for Bournemouth and their fast football in small spaces meant the small pitch didn’t affect them at all.

It didn’t take any time at all for Arsenal to take the lead through Odegaard, but it was the dazzling ball control from Gabriel Jesus that mesmerized the Cherries defence, and when he gave Martinelli the shot it was saved but dropped nicely to Odegaard who nimbly poked it into the net.

IT was Jesus again who did all the legwork for the second, but his touch was not quite right and Odegaard pounced again. The captain gets into the right places.

The Cherries tried to put up a fight after the break, but Arsenal were just too good when they went on the attack. The third goal was brilliantly taken by Saliba, who got his very first Arsenal goal and he fully deserved it.

Gabriel Jesus looked to have made it 4-0 to Arsenal in Bournemouth today, but VAR had other ideas.

The Brazilian was narrowly offside according the lines on the screen, but it was a sweetly struck effort from our new signing, who was involved in all four goals last weekend.

Calm as you like from Gabriel Jesus with the finish but after a VAR review his goal is chalked off!

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) August 20, 2022

It has been a top performance from Jesus, whether he manages to cap that off with a goal or not, and I don’t think anyone will claim that he doesn’t deserve a goal for his efforts.

William Saliba has continued his fine start to the season by grabbing his first Arsenal goal against Bournemouth.

It has been a rather one-sided affair, with Martin Odegaard grabbing two First half goals, and we’ve started the second half just as strongly.

Gabriel Martinelli was the creator this time, laying off to the Young Frenchman on the edge of the box to curl his effort over the goalkeeper if into the far side of the goal with his left boot.

SALIBA THAT IS 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆

That Zinchenko reaction is every Arsenal fan pic.twitter.com/y4sJLv9OWy

Considering our new captain Odegaard got his first goal of the season after just 4 minutes against Bournemouth, it was a bit of a surprise that he has doubled our lead.

Ben White and Saka have been causing havoc down the left side of the pitch, and they did it again and when the ball broke to Jesus, his touch was just a little heavy, which allowed Odegaard to steal it off his boot and smash it into the net.

This is looking like it could be a cricket score!

COYG!

IT'S ØDEGAARD AGAIN! 2-0!

Arsenal have taken the early lead against Bournemouth after some neat work down the left from Gabriel Jesus, with Martin Odegaard finishing off the move.

It has been a bright start by the Gunners who have taken an early grip on the game, and it was some truly skilful ball control by Jesus which has opened up the opportunity to score, leaving Martinelli I space to shoot before the rebound into the path of our captain.

ØDEGAARD! ARSENAL LEAD!

How about THAT Gabriel Jesus run though… #BOUARS pic.twitter.com/hRQDW8VjQv

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) August 20, 2022

It would appear that Mikel Arteta’s philosophy is based on “Why change a winning team unless necessary’ as seen towards the end of last season and in our first two matches in this campaign. With our Europa League games not starting for another few weeks, the boss will find it hard to keep our newly expanded squad happy.

As Arteta admitted on Arsenal.com: “I think the first three or four weeks of the competition are tricky because we are only playing once a week as there is no Europe or no cups, and we’ll have the manage the frustration of players who aren’t in the squad. But it is a long season and everyone will have their opportunities.”

But I don’t think he will be making many chancges this week, except for bringing back Tomiyasu in place of Ben White, which I discussed earlier.…

Here is the team I chose earlier…

Ramsdale
Tomiyasu….Gabriel…Saliba….Zinchenko
Partey…Xhaka
Martinelli…Odegaard…Saka
Jesus

Gabriel Jesus has hit the ground running for Arsenal since joining from Manchester City, and the latest stat shows just how much has improved our side.

The striker is believed to have been earmarked as our priority summer signing quite early on in 2022, and we are believed to have fended off interest from other big sides in order to win the race for his signature, and all our hard work appears to be paying off.

The new signing was involved in all four of our goals last weekend, scoring the first two against Leicester before teeing up Granit Xhaka and Gabriel Martinelli for the two in the second half, and the latest statistic comparing him to our main striker Alexandre Lacazette last term is surprisingly shocking.

Gabriel Jesus has had 26 touches inside the penalty area in his first two Arsenal starts, Alexandre Lacazette had 31 in all 20 of his PL starts last season.

A look at the transformational impact Arsenal’s £45m man has had on Mikel Arteta’s attack https://t.co/eb3VxDk5za