- Is this the worst quality Premier League in its history?
- “Arsenal have the most insufferable fans in football”
By Tony Attwood
So here’s an old question: do you want Arsenal to entertain, or do you want them to win?
Of course, the answer for most of us is both, and most certainly Arsenal are winning, what with being six points clear at the top of the league, being just three goals behind the top scorers in the league, having conceded six goals fewer than our nearest rivals, and as a result of all that, having the best goal difference.
I’d say that all looks rather good. And even the most logistically perverted football journalist is now having problems telling us it is not. Although the negatives are always there, as the Athletic recently suggested, although Arsenal are winning, they are not entertaining.
And this, of course, is where these journalists get it so wrong. The grounds are full of fans who, above everything, want their side to win. And of course I would sooner watch Arsenal win 1-0 than lose 5-6. Of course I would – it is obvious. I am a fan. But that is not obvious to these almighty scribblers who want to tell us how the football world should work, rather than how it does work.
So we have criticism of Arsenal not scoring until the 97th minute in the semi-final, as if we cared. As if in fact, we wanted the Premier League to be like the German league, with everyone knowing before the season starts who will win the league this season.
And of course, that is not just true of Germany, but of France as well. At least in Spain, in the last 20 years, only three teams have won that league, and one of them has only won it twice. Is that what we want? I want Arsenal to win through being the best of many, not the best of the only two teams that can win the league. I want competition.
For I remember we had Spanish football for a while, with ManU winning seven of the first nine Premier League titles, and ManC winning six out of seven in recent seasons. Does that make for an exciting league? In my view, no. Of course, I want Arsenal to win the league, but not simply cruising to victory year after year.
So it is that looking back, I don’t mind that I had to wait 97 minutes for Arsenal to score in the semi-final. The thought that the opposition could nick one and level the score added to the tension, but I had faith in Arsenal at both ends of the pitch, and that was rewarded, so an entertaining and enjoyable evening. And I am utterly delighted to see Havertz back, too.
The simple reality is that these journalists don’t have a clue about the feelings of the people in the ground, as they talk about there being “a nervousness about the Stadium”.
Of course, there is, you silly buggers (that’s directed at journalists, not you, my reader) because no matter how much we believe in Arsenal, we know it can go wrong and we want them to win. And so I value the fact that Arteta said after the game, “I think the crowd was brilliant today.” That’s all we need – a bit of recognition from the club, so we can stick two fingers up at the journalists, and sing “North London Forever” ever louder both at the start and the end. That is how it should be.
Anyway, thinking of style and competition, I’m pleased to note that the two ball-friendliest teams in the Premier League are Chelsea and Arsenal, at which point I stopped reading that article and started to think about Sunderland and our next game, which, rather curiously, is another 3pm Saturday game. What is football coming to? And that led me to something I think is a little more important.
There are many different ways of playing the game, but passing quickly to a forward-moving player on the same team is always a good idea.
Now, in terms of attack, not every side has players who can see and make such passes, nor players who can receive and make the best of such passes. So what the best managers and trainers do is bring in players who have an attribute the rest of the team is lacking, which makes it more likely the team will score. Such as having players who can make the best of such passes.
I am not sure I needed that analysis to help me sort that out, although it was interesting to read it after the League Cup semi. It’s always good to have what you already know confirmed as the truth.
