- Arsenal’s injury record is awful; Merson’s TV explosion is utterly wonderful
- We said “Maybe this is the moment” a couple of days back and maybe this just is.
“The hope at Arsenal was they would see off PSV in the Champions League last 16 without Saka, which is what they did.”
It is just possible that you, like me, might pause in reading that sentence thinking perhaps something along the lines of “hang on a minute – that “seeing off” included the first match in Eindhoven which Arsenal won 1-7.- the biggest ever away win in Champions League history. And yet not mentioning that fact somehow seems ok to journalists because, well, it was Arsenal, and they probably fixed it somehow, or the opposition didn’t show up, because they all had the flu or food poisoning or their training ground flooded, or something else Arsenal connived to achieve.
It’s strange because the piece about Saka is obviously a good positive statement about how wonderful a player he is, and how much he is adored by the fans. Yet when it comes to a bit of positivity about Arsenal – that they could achieve the biggest away win in Champions League history without him – that doesn’t count as being worthy of a mention.
Yet it was that away win which gave the team and indeed a lot of supporters, the hope and faith that Real Madrid could be handled likewise. Not with seven, but with enough to give a strong hope that the club would reach the quarter finals.
My point in all this is that there is some sort of disconnect between Arsenal’s achievements and the way they are written up or debated by the media. Of course, Paul Merson was utterly outrageosly wonderful on Sky, but the rest of the media, well, these things don’t really count because you know, Arsenal probably cheated somewhere along the line. They don’t say that overtly of course, but there’s that undercurrent, always.
The article ends with the line, “With Saka back, the possibilities are tantalising,” and of course that is true. And yes the article gives praise to Rice obviously, but there is always that undercurrent of suggestion that, well, it won’t always be like this.
Arsenal’s next five fixtures are Brentford at home, Real Madrid away, Ipswich Town away, Crystal Palace at home, and Bournemouth at home. Now of course Arsenal could freeze in each of those games, but equally given the sheer beauty and quality of the victory over Real Madrid they might actually stroll through the lot of them.
In terms of the league matches that would be 12 points gained. Unfortunately for that to mean that Arsenal would then be top of the Premier League would also mean that Liverpool would have to lose all of their next four games: against West Ham, Leicester City, Tottenham Hots, and Chelsea.
Obvioulsy I can’t see that happening and I expect Arsenal to put all their efforts into the Champions League, and Liverpool having been knocked out of the Champions League by PSG (whom we might recall, Arsenal swept aside with imperious ease in that competition earlier in the season), they will focus on the Premier League.
This doesn’t leave me saying that Arsenal are somehow better than Liverpool in the League this season – clearly that is not the case. Arsenal are not going to match their 91 goals of last season in the League, nor their 88 League goals of the season before that.
But this is the point. This season Arsenal will almost certainly beat the 56 goals scored in 2019/20 – in which season we had the top-ranking goalscorer that now the media craves. That was Pierre Emerick Aubameyang who got 29 goals. Exactly what the pundits keep telling us Arlsenal need to complete the job and win the Premier League.
And two thoughts emerge from this. One is that if all of the club’s faith is put in a single top scorer things can go wrong when he is injured. And the other is that even if he is not injured but performs at the top of his game all season, that is still not a guarantee that the league will be won.
As beating Real Madrid shows, Arsenal can score goals without a top-scoring centre forward. But what is not said at the same time is that the top two scorers this season remain Havertz (15) and Saka (10) followed by Merino and Nwaneri each on eight. And just remember that the first two have had long injuries, the third didn’t really start getting into the team until mid-February, following an injury, and the last of that group is a … well I don’t have to say anything about Nwaneri do I?
The fact is that Arsenal have built a squad for the the future, which this season has been torn apart by injuries. Bringing in a new centre forward in the summer would mean that someone from the team that beat Real Madrid, and the returning injured players, would all have to miss out on the continuing growth of the club, which is not really the best way to motivate the team.
No matter how good your squad is you have to refresh it each season so players don’t go stale , if I remember right one season Wenger didn’t buy an out field player only Cech from Chelsea , we didn’t compete that season .