- Southampton v Arsenal: recent past games suggest there might be a problem
- Southampton v Arsenal: Saints are not the worst ever Premier League Team
By Tony Attwood
I know, I know, we don’t cover Arsenal women’s matches, their progress and above all yesterday’s achievement on this site. We did have a correspondent for the women’s game all lined up for the season, but then personal events took over, and that correspondent could not correspond, so we were lost.
But even we noticied that as the BBC put it, “Stina Blackstenius scored the winner as Arsenal stunned European giants Barcelona to win their first Women’s Champions League title in 18 years.” I can only say, we celebrated too, even though we didn’t have anyone who was there who could write a report for us. So all I can do is point you elsewhere and hope you’ll then return to Untold. (Although if you would like to be our correspondent on the women’s game for next season, do drop me a line: Tony@schools.co.uk)
However, if you just want a summary of where this takes the club, then the Guardian put it like this, “For those fans today who were not fans 18 years ago, Arsenal have slowly become the sort of club that dares but does not do, that fails elegantly and succeeds rarely, that wants to win but ultimately does not need to: a trendy leisurewear brand with a football team attached.”
Well, not quite how I put it, but today, we’ll let that one go. For so far we have covered today’s Southampton match with some jolly details (see links at the top of the page) and done a feature on today’s referee, which I am not sure anyone else does (and if they do, they are just copying us).
So while we have to leave the celebrations to others who were there, we will still focus on the final game of the men’s season. And indeed focus on the injuries which just will not ease up.
Arsenal currently have six men out (although one – Mikel Merino -is through suspension not an injury), and to be fair Arsenal are not the worst affected. Bournemouth, Brighton and Wolverhampton each have seven men out. Chelsea and Ipswich are eight men down. Tottenham are top of the league (of injuries) with nine. At the other end of the scale Liverpool are on one injury – which is the sort of luck a club needs if it is going to win the league.
Our men down are Gabriel Jesus, who is pencilled in to return in late November, Takehiro Tomiyasu who might be back in October, plus Jurrien Timber, William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes who each should be back for the start of next season. Although, according to lots of scribblers, Saliba will have left the club by then, as he is demanding a transfer. We shall see.
Meanwhile, in terms of today’s match, the media have little interest, although some have done well covering Arsenal’s Champions League triumph. But the BBC do offer us one statistics we missed: “The Gunners have won their final Premier League game of the season 23 times, more than any other side, including 13 in a row.”
And maybe we should spare a moment to think of the Southampton manager, who at the end of an awful season, with nothing left to play for, and all the hopes for the campaign totally lost, still had to say something to the media before the match. He said, “Every game presents an opportunity. It’s an opportunity for us to finish the season as well as we can. I spoke about playing with pride and passion – that’ll be important on the day but also being diligent with our work.”
He also admitted he had no idea if he was going to be in a job after today’s match – and what he didn’t say (but probably knows) is that if he is kicked out by Southampton, he would have quite a tough time trying to turn his work this campaign, into something positive when he prepares his CV and starts applying for a new job.
But he did make one good statement, saying, “The one thing I know this football club will always have is great support. There’s going to be years it’s not so good and years it’s really good and the people are there all the way through, generationally, are the supporters, the rest of us all come and go.”
If one has to make a farewell speech at a club with the second lowest points total ever, without knowing if one is leaving or not, that seems a fair way to do it. But meanwhile, if you have still not had enough of reading about the Champions League victory then I guess I ought to offer you another link. It will teach us to cover such matters in the future.
Meanwhile I will be back here soon with a possible line-up for today’s game.
Tony,
Your post prodded me to read more about the Women’s match v Barca. Incredible. All the usual nonsense (they don’t win, etc) directed at the Men’s team turned on the Women. The history of the sides is vastly different but the negative coverage is the same. I’m used to it. I expect it. and the journos never disappoint.