The week in claret and blue

And it wasn’t a bad week at all.

Unai, who really should know better, reckons John McGinn will be ready again in a week or so. Or so.

The next arrival seems to be Yazin Ozcan, an eighteen year old Turkish defender who plays for Kasimpasa. If he does sign he’ll be staying with them for the rest of the season.

One player who definitely is coming is Donyell Malen, signing for something like £20 million. Also costing £20 million is Jaden Philogene, off to Ipswich after a three-part transfer saga bizarre even by the standards of PSR-driven football. It didn’t work out but we’ll always have Bayern.

The latest Louie Barry talk is of a new contract then being sent out on loan, with Swansea interested. Celtic want to buy him as well, although Unai says he’s staying.

To nobody’s amazement the Spurs cup tie has been shifted for TV, to Sunday at 5.35. That’s pm, although you never know. Somewhere in the world 5.35am is peak viewing time and the thought of them not being able to watch a couple of Premier League teams is too much for the league to bear.

Five straight away defeats and off we go to Everton; Ollie Watkins starts, as does Jacob Ramsey. Lining up for the losers is Ashley Young, which sums up the difference between the teams. Watkins and Morgan Rogers could have scored, Boubacar Kamara cleared off the line and despite Villa being the better team it was still nil-nil at half-time. Six minutes later Rogers picked up the ball from an Everton mistake, powered forward and laid the ball into the path of Watkins. One-nil, game over.

At least that’s what should have happened but Everton dragged us down to their level and might have got an equaliser if they weren’t so incompetent. Three points, which we needed more than they did, and probably the last time we go to Goodison. When the next time will be that we play Everton isn’t as certain.

Then the story breaks of Prince William meeting a few supporters before they went to the match. He got a round in as well, although it was only Wetherspoon’s. He also says he posts on forums, in which case hello your future majesty and can you sort us for cup final tickets?

We’re about to sign Andres Garcia, a Spanish right-back who will cost £6 million or whatever the equivalent will be in Euros. This transfer window thing is getting exciting.

But not as half as exciting as what happened at Arsenal. A more or less unchanged team and we weren’t in it all that much for the first hour. Two down, Amadou Onana injured again, the best keeper in the world looking fallible and the rest of the team not seeming to have much chance of doing anything about it. Then Lucas Digne slings a cross over and Youri Tielemans turns into peak Andy Gray to give us a bit of hope. He hits the post a few seconds later and not long after that it’s Matty Cash’s turn to be a goal-assisting full-back when his ball finds Ollie Watkins.

Two-two and the wails from Islington’s finest can be heard in space. Then to make matters even funner they had a late goal disallowed. Another point we might not have expected brings a decent week to an end.