Well, not much went for us today with regard to the Premier League results. Chelsea won easily. Auba bench for Kai, Broja preferred as the sub. City battered Southampton. Some outrageous goals were scored. Newcastle, Premier League dark horses, smashed Brentford. Spurs held on to beat Brighton during 90 minutes of sufferball. Leicester lost to... Read more »
Well, not much went for us today with regard to the Premier League results.
Chelsea won easily. Auba bench for Kai, Broja preferred as the sub.
City battered Southampton. Some outrageous goals were scored.
Newcastle, Premier League dark horses, smashed Brentford.
Spurs held on to beat Brighton during 90 minutes of sufferball.
Leicester lost to Bournemouth, I suspect that will spell the end of Brendan who is NOT getting a turn out of a very decent squad.
So what does that mean for Arsenal? It means we need to be looking at a point or more tomorrow to avoid getting drawn into new conversations.
When your bogey team is Liverpool, it makes for sad reading. We’ve conceded 39 goals over 13 consecutive league games. We’ve won a single game in FOURTEEN. Liverpool will become only the second team to have scored 300 goals against us if they score two goals.
Tomorrow, regardless of the state of Liverpool, is going to be really, really hard.
We lack belief against them because they either batter us or they get all the luck like they did last season.
We need a BIG performance tomorrow. A smash and grab would do, but if we want to be considered in the SEXY conversations, you have to look at a wounded animal, no matter the size, and clamp your jaws around its throat.
Arsenal are good enough this season to play football against Liverpool. We don’t need to deep-block them. We can play our game and ask questions of them. The players need to do that.
If we have a big game tomorrow, the rest of October becomes a lot easier, if we don’t, it’s going to be tough to claw back the confidence.
The most important asset we have is momentum at the moment.
Our football is crisp, fast, and precise. We are one of the most unpredictable sides in the Premier League this season. The players look like they believe what is happening is here to stay. The biggest bonus of the game tomorrow is Gabriel Jesus and Zinchenko will have no fear of Liverpool. They are used to beating them in the big moments. Hopefully, that can be a scale tipper.
There’s also momentum with our fanbase. The reality of where you are as a football club generally takes about 9 months to catch up to the mainstream. I was hammered for banging out half-season tables, but the half-season table ended up being a very good precursor of what was the come. Our chance creation ramped up last season but the goals weren’t there. It was obvious that if we added quality, the system would produce, and it has… but remember, there were people calling for Arteta out after the Spurs game, citing his inability to get goals out of the team.
The reality of who Arsenal are and where they have been going connected to the fans in the ground, but most have been sleeping on it. Just look at the predictions preSpurs last week. Even Athletic writers haven’t been paying attention.
Same with our fandom. If you’ve been at the games, you know that the atmosphere is the best we’ve ever experienced. That’s been clear for a long time. But now, the media has caught up on it.
For years, the quietness of the Emirates was halfway between a cautionary tale and a punchline. This year, that’s changed. It’s noisy. There are ultras. It’s a massive change, and it’s not just because Arsenal are good again. https://t.co/hULnCyOFas
— Rory Smith (@RorySmith) October 7, 2022
Imagine that? One of the best sports writers on the planet dropping a story about Arsenal Ultras. It’s incredible and a testament to all the people who go to the ground with one thing on their mind: support the boys, make some noise.
All of this progress hinged on the club finally adopting a strategy that people could get behind.
It’s a beautiful thing. The story arc deserves a Premier League title and a Netflix movie about it. But we’ll wait on that.
Let’s kill Liverpool tomorrow then start inking trilogy deals.
Before that, get David Dein in your ear. He spoke to The AOP for over an hour and it was a JOY.
ENJOY THE WORK. Buy his book here. It really is a great read.
