Oh, Arsenal.
Where would I be without Arsenal? Where would the Premier League be? Where would anyone be? We just don’t know. Because, ultimately, they are here. They are here wreaking havoc on the world every week, on and off the field, and without them football would be a simpler yet drastically more boring place. What use is a club that always wins and makes everything look easy like the Manchester City and Liverpool teams of the past few years or the Manchester United teams of old? No good. What use is a club that is consistently well-run with a harmonious relationship between the players, staff, owners and fans? No use at all. Enter Arsenal:
I felt it necessary to include the above tweet as I felt it was a perfect analysis of the club at this point in time. Just three weeks ago I wrote a blog about how Arsenal were in a bit of a confusing time but the future was reasonably bright. In the three weeks since, Arsenal have played five games. In those games they scored 11 but conceded 10. They have won 1, drawn 2, lost 2. They let a two goal lead slip on 3(!) separate occasions and let a one goal lead slip on two more. They scored as many goals at Anfield in one game as everyone in the Premier League combined so far this season and still lost the game. They almost lost at home against Vitoria Guimaraes before Nicolas Pepe scored two free kicks in the last 12 minutes to win it. Granit Xhaka, the recently appointed captain of Arsenal, was booed off the field whilst being substituted against Crystal Palace and told the Arsenal fans to “f**k off”. Lys Mousset scored the winning goal against them. Someone held up a “Wenger In” banner at the Wolves game, a 1–1 home draw which Unai Emery said was tactically brilliant for Arsenal. This is just the tip of the iceberg. This is Arsenal.
To top all of this off, Arsenal were finally back playing European football on a Wednesday this week but, I think it’s fair to say, in less-than-ideal circumstances. No, we’ve not been miraculously reinstated into the Champions League. We have to play at 15:50 on a Wednesday afternoon because of traffic as Vitoria Guimaraes and their neighbouring city rivals Sporting Braga were due to play home games on the same day. That’s very Europa league isn’t it. It’s also very Arsenal.
Of course, as per Unai Emery’s manifesto, Arsenal took the lead and subsequently threw it away as we dominated possession but barely created any chances and allowed the opposition many of their own as we drew 1–1. It means that we are still top of our group and will almost certainly win the group, very possibly unbeaten, but the performances just aren’t there. Even when Mustafi headed us in front and I thought we were going to win the game, I did not feel particularly pleased about the game. Wins are wins and there’s a lot to be said about a team who can win games when not at their best but this turned out to be, err, not a win. And we’re never at our best at the moment. Unless this is our best? Oh god.
