By Tony Attwood
All of the media’s negativity and tension were unleashed on Arsenal prior to last night’s match, and Arsenal responded by telling the media where they could stick it, and come to that where they could stick themselves. We were endlessly told that Arsenal could not score a goal, because we had no forwards left, and it was Arteta’s fault for not buying one, endlessly missing the point that football is better measured by goal difference than goals scored. Effectively not realising that there is no point in scoring three if the opposition is going to score four.
Indeed, this is why we quote the goal difference from time to time and why we noticed that in the opening round of eight matches, Arsenal had the third best goal difference in the whole table of 36 clubs. That solid defence conceding only three goals in the entire eight-match campaign was part of the Arsenal policy.
With that defence securely in place, we can now see where everything is going. And what were we told by the media? Oh yes, I remember, Arsenal can’t score goals because the entire attack is injured and Arteta is so pathetically stupid that he didn’t buy the centre forward the club so “obviously” needs in the last two windows.
And I wouldn’t be surprised if we are told that again tomorrow, with yesterday’s match being dismissed as a “one-off” and somehow not relevant. I also expect we’ll be told to see the “bigger picture”. Or maybe the will remember that PSV were beaten them 4-0 some 18 months ago and say somehow this game didn’t count.
But with no centre forward and a totally inept and disrupted goal-scoring record which is only the fifth best in the league (although actually only two goals worse than Manchester City who do have a goal scoring machine in the shape of Erling Haaland and are second in the goal scoring league) Arsenal would be lucky to get one.
So we got seven instead. It might be nice if just one or two of the journalists apologised, but if they have done so, the print must be too small for my early morning eyes.
At least the Telegraph, although not accepting any blame for the libels of recent days, have the audacity this morning to state that “Arsenal arrived in the Netherlands as the team who could not score, then left as a team who could not miss.” To complete the apology, all they would have to do is admit their part in the libel of Arsenal in recent days.
But as ever, the fans know. “Who put the ball in the PSV net?” was the question in the song, and the answer was of course, “Half the Arsenal team did.” Although I am not sure everyone was singing “Arsenal” at that point.
Anyway it wasn’t really Arsenal what won the game, according to the Telegraph, it was the “sheer incompetence” of the opposition’s defending which took Arsenal into the record books as the first team ever in the entire history of the Champions League (starting 70 years ago as the European Cup) to score seven goals away from home in a knockout match.
Meanwhile, Cesc kept his record as the youngest ever Champs League scorer for Arsenal, but Ethan Nwaneri is now second.
And let us not forget that the team the cannot score because they don’t have a centre forward [(c) the entire media and their camp followers], last night had six different scorers. Oh yes and there is that Martin Odegaard fellow (who was responsible on his own for the entire collapse of Arsenal this season, according to the Athletic) who was greedy and got two.
And then apart from every highlight of every goal throughout the game there was the highlight after the match of Arteta saying there was “still a job to do in London”. He really does like to take the piss out of the media!
Interestingly, Nwaneri has scored eight goals this season and he isn’t yet 18. That is not bad going. Although of course, as the media tells us daily, it doesn’t mean anything because Arsenal desperately need a centre forward.
Obviously as we know, the media, never an entity to allow anyone beyond the media to have an opinion, let alone take the time to get a new system working, tried to pretend they had never criticised Arsenal. But our memories are longer than those of journalists and indeed commentators who kept on telling us in the first half that Arsenal were vulnerable. Well, if that is vulnerability, I’ll take it each week.
For the return match I suspect Arteta will include several more youngsters. Apparently, there is a nine-year-old in the youth academy who can play quite well…..
It’s noteworthy that in all the reports I have read, absolutely nobody has mentioned that PSV beat Liverpool in this very competition just six weeks ago!! Funny that, if it had been the other way round I’m pretty certain we’d have never heard the last of it.
Can you imagine what the score would have been if we had a proper striker. Double figures for sure!!!