The lesson in Arsenal’s wonderful victory over RM that not everyone sees
By Tony Attwood
I can’t blame Arteta or the players for yesterday’s draw against whoever it was we were playing, but it was actually really dull, and now a day later I can’t remember much about it, and in fact nor do I feel I want to remember much about it.
The accolades from the European match were so great, and of course so well deserved, nothing could live up to them and a radically changed team looked like they knew it. But if the stars had been there from the start and one had got injured, you can imagine the headlines.
Meanhwhile Real Madrid who returned home to headlines of “humiliated” play Alavés today – a club just outside of the relegation zone in La Liga.
But the league table for Arsenal still looks ok and could of course look an awful lost worse. Nottingham Forest lost to lowly Everton at home, although Newcastle and Manchester City won, so we are going to have to get some wins from somewhere in the remaining six games. But of course, all the real focus will remain on the Champions League, and our opponents there are playing today. I’ll try and bring some news of that later – or maybe tomorrow. Meanwhile here’s the table.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 31 | 22 | 7 | 2 | 72 | 30 | 42 | 73 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 32 | 17 | 12 | 3 | 57 | 27 | 30 | 63 |
| 3 | Nottingham Forest | 32 | 17 | 6 | 9 | 51 | 38 | 13 | 57 |
| 4 | Manchester City | 32 | 16 | 7 | 9 | 62 | 42 | 20 | 55 |
| 5 | Aston Villa | 32 | 15 | 9 | 8 | 49 | 46 | 3 | 54 |
| 6 | Chelsea | 31 | 15 | 8 | 8 | 54 | 37 | 17 | 53 |
| 7 | Newcastle United | 30 | 16 | 5 | 9 | 52 | 39 | 13 | 53 |
| 15 | Tottenham Hotspur | 31 | 11 | 4 | 16 | 58 | 45 | 13 | 37 |
Still, it is good to know that the Spanish press is able to turn on Real Madrid as much as the English media regularly turn on Arsenal. Mundo Deportivo showed a photo of Rice’s second free kick and ran the “Humiliated” headline while other publications had pictures of the players using words that could roughly be translated as “Dejected” (which is rather how I felt on leaving the ground last night).
The overall expectation in Spain is that for Real Madrid the match was a debacle and the club need a miracale to overcome Arsenal. Indeed as they suggest in AS ” Para El Madrid No Hay Imposibles” – for Madrid nothing is impossible.
One positive for Arsenal however is that Real Madrid are at the moment being treated in the way that Arsenal are generally treated by the media, and Vinicius, Mbappe, and Rodrygo were condemned for showing “no signs of life,” And as Marca put it Ancelotti “didn’t jump ship, he just let it sink.” Mbappe, meanwhile, was described as “failing and ineffective” and “as grey as the jersey he wore”.
So perhaps it was inevitable with all that is to come this week that Arsenal would swap the line up around for last night’s match, and the game would be limp. But the problem is that those of us attending the game we still had to pay the same amount to watch, and any excuses that might be made about saving the club for mid-week should keep that in mind. Perhaps a refund of 50% by Arsenal for yesterday’s showing would go some way to make things feel a little better.
It’s all a bit of a shame because last year, having gone out of the Champions League to Bayern Munich 1-0 the club went on a wonderful six-match winning run taking them to the end of the season with a goal difference across those games of 16 goals for, and four against. The results included a 5-0 thumping of Chelsea, a 3-2 away win at Totteringham, and a putting of Manu in their place with an away win at very old trafford. Doing well in Europe is good, but let’s not forget the league games too.
The follow-up to the next Real Mad game in mid-week includes matches against Ipswich and Palace and Arsenal really do need to be picking up wins in such games so the mind-set is important. But at least Ipswich have one of the worst defences in the League so that should help Arsenal along a bit.
And Saka did get a bit of a run out at the end of yesterday’s game and was unharmed so he shuold be buzzing for the match in mid-week – at least I hope so..
