How to make Arsenal invincible: the media finally do Arsenal a good turn

It started of course with the first leg; that 3-0 win over Real Madrid.   The opposition tried to suggest that “things would be different in Spain” as if there had been some sort of cheating (or maybe black magic) going on: Arsenal grow potatoes on their pitch (untrue); the wine they sell in the stadium is almost undrinkable (true) the serving teams in the bars within the stadium are untrained (true)….

And all that Arsenal celebration after the 3-0 win at home over the Really Mad team; that result was just a fluke.  After all, since then all Arsenal have managed was a 1-1 draw with Brentford.  While Real Mad beat Deportivo Alavés 0-1.  (Except that Alavés are 17th in La Liga while Brentford are 11th in the Premier League).

“We are going to need something special to turn it around,” said Jude Bellingham, “But special things can happen in football. If there is one place where it can, it’s at our house.”   And yes the special did happen, only it turned out to be an Arsenal victory; 5-1 in total.   For the fact is that no one can beat Arsenal when the club puts out its full-strength team (minus Zinchenko, White, Trossard, Havertz, Jesus, Gabriel,  Calafiori…)

Before the game, Ancelotti said, “Stranger things have happened at the Bernabéu,” but surely not much more unexpected by the media than Arsenal completing a 5-1 defeat over Real Mad in two matches.

And that’s another thing.  We have been told for almost a year that Arsenal need to rip up this approach they have and buy a very expensive centre forward because well, that’s what everyone else does.

Anyway, according to the media Arsenal not only have to beat Real Mad but also “defeat a mystique and an aura that has defined Madrid’s unmatched success in Europe’s premier competition” (according to the Telegraph before the game).

So Arsenal defeated the “power of the Bernabéu.”   And what was absolutely true is the notion that the Real Mad ground was indeed (as recently described by President Pérez) the stadium in which “impossible dreams come true”. And how utterly right he was.  Because Arsenal not only slaughtered Real Mad, and made them, well, really mad, but also defeated what is known in Spain as the Bernabéu’s “dark magic”.

Now of course when the media wake up to this they will be talking about Arsenal using the dark arts and so forth, but that’s simply because a) they never have an original idea about anything, and b) they are desperate to try and excuse the way they have been writing about Arsenal all season. 

And they must also be aware by now that this is what can happen when Arsenal are not having to play in a match overseen by a PGMO man.

Before the game, the Telegraph said that Madrid players and supporters do seriously “believe in the psychological effect of their stadium.”  A similar bit of tripe to that woven by Liverpool about Anfield.  Maybe if we work hard enough at it we might eventually get people to believe that about Arsenal Stadium (although I think we’d need to change its formal name first).

But to be fair this match was nailbiting to the end, not because Arsenal looked like they might throw it away but because last year Real Mad scored two in the last two minutes to beat Bayern Munich in the semi-final. And a couple of years prior to that they knocked in two in time added on to the added time to beat ManC.   And a year before that they scored three including two in a quarter of a minute to beat PSG in the ground.

So they have the saying, “Anything can happen at the Bernabéu,” and yep Arsenal proved that to be absolutely true.   And indeed that other saying of theirs, “Ninety minutes at the Bernabéu is a very long time,” was also shown to be true – at least for Really Mad players and their fans.

The game at the Bernabéu is intimidation.  It happens in the tunnel, it happens in the crowd, Real Mad do it against the ref.   And yes it works over and over and over… until they meet Arsenal who are used to this sort of crap and are made of somewhat sterner stuff.

And this of course is because Arsenal face impossible odds week after week in playing against PGMO and the English media – and this new Arsenal under Arteta keep winning.  In fact I’ve not fully realised it before, but living with all the anti-Arsenal nonsense week after week can have a very positive effect on the Arsenal players.

Indeed we really ought to be thanking the media and bloggers for their ceaseless tirades against Arsenal, how Arteta must be sacked, how we must buy a centre forward etc etc etc.  It is that endless anti-Arsenal nonsense which has helped make this Arsenal team strong enough to take on anyone.