By Tony Attwood
I write that headline about descaling eyes, because according to the Guardian last night was “something that felt like the football equivalent of having your eyes descaled with a wire brush.” According to me, it was a moment of joy, something to savour, something brilliant, something that added to the feeling that this Arsenal team really are there. Not just “there” when Arteta’s selected first XI are playing, but there when the backup players and up-and-coming youth players are playing.
A team in short that can survive being chopped down by the opposition, a team that can be ceaselessly criticised by the media, a team that, no matter what, can pick itself up and ride forwards once again.
And yes, and yes, and yes, I know this is only the league cup, and yes, it was only Chelsea, but this was Arsenal who were written down by seemingly everyone after losing 2-3 at home to ManU and who have since won all three games, scoring eight goals. And yes again, I know one of the games was against the bottom of the European League FC Kairat Almaty, but they still had to be dealt with – and that was a game where they had nothing to lose, and we had nothing to prove.
As I have written so many times, Arsenal have the best attack in the Premier League and the second-best defence in the Premier League, and have a six-point lead in the Premier League. And surely all that normally means that the club gets some respect, rather than “Arsenal and Chelsea … produced something that felt like the football equivalent of having your eyes descaled with a wire brush.”
The fact is that all teams that are successful win beautifully, win by four goals, win by digging in, and win by one goal. That is how it goes. Except for Arsenal.
In response to last night, the Guardian newspaper set up an article about how hard it is going to be for Arsenal to win the quadruple, forgetting that until yesterday, they are the rest of the media were focused on how long it had been since Arsenal won anything.
And what they won’t ever, ever, ever admit is that Arsenal’s rise in recent years has been achieved while the Premier League dilly-dally over the issue of Manchester City and its money – an utter scandal if there ever was one.
Even the transfer window didn’t bring any relief, according to the media. with comments like, “Will Mikel Arteta regret allowing Ethan Nwaneri to join Marseille on loan with Merino poised to be out for at least two months?”
And just in case you think I am picking just on the Guardian, the headline in the Telegraph is I am an Arsenal supporter, and we have the most insufferable fans in football while the Guardian elsewhere suggests “Mikel Arteta will regret allowing Ethan Nwaneri to join Marseille on loan”
The big story of course, is the “trophy drought” as all the media call it. Now I am not denying that it is coming up to six years since Arsenal won the FA Cup, although I might throw in that it is five years since Chelsea won any of the major trophies despite all their money, but I would question whether this is a particularly good measurement of success.
So why is the number of years since winning a trophy suddenly a measure of success when it never was before? Does last year’s Europa make Tottenham Hots (currently 14th) the great flourishing football success of the era? No, of course not.
How many years since the club won a major trophy is simply picked this year as a way of knocking Arsenal. If Arsenal win at least one of the four trophies they are still in the hunt for then the way of counting failure will be changed because the media certainly won’t want Chelsea to be top of that league having won nothing since 2021..
And this really is the point. In the League, Arsenal can’t be knocked at the moment having more points, fewer goals against, and just three goals fewer scored than their nearest rivals. So there has to be something else – such as the centre forard doesn’t score enough. What they could do, of course, is look closely at Tottenham – a club that boasted of how its new superwhizzo stadium would solve all their problems. But they don’t.
Or they could note that Arsenal are top of the league, were the only club to win all eight games in the Champions League thus far (in fact, I think the only club ever to do this but I don’t have all the records to prove that), are in the League Cup final and are still in the FA Cup. And yes I know that after 24 games last year Liverpool had four more points, but then they had also let in six more goals.
So overall, we are not doing too badly. And next up it is Sunderland at home on Saturday. And if Arsenal win, the story will be that we have beaten a team in decline.
Neville, Scholes and the various Talk-shite voices spout their anti-Arsenal bitterness.
Set-pieces, own-goals, dark-arts, boring football, etc.
“Arsenal crowd will be getting nervous, tension will affect the players…”
All total and absolute b.ll.cks! – simply a sign of jealousy.