The simple fact is that after 22 years of waiting, Arsenal won the Premier League – and the Premier League for me is always the trophy I want us to win. The biggest trophy, the most important trophy, THE trophy.
Of course, I want Arsenal to win the Champions League as well, and the FA Cup and the League Cup, and the under-18s cup and…. but the one we won is the one I always hold above the rest.
And I still hold the view that Arteta’s journey is far from over. Arsenal have to play in the toughest league in the world, and then, when that is all over, carry on playing. Which is why I value the Premier League above the Champions League since the latter contains a lot of teams that hardly have to stretch themselves each season.
And that is the point I try to make when we take a look at the final league table of different leagues – leagues where we all know way in advance who is going to win – leagues like the French League and the German League.
Because it is not just the point that the same club win the league season after season. It is the fact that they can take it easy in at least half of the games that they play through the season, because they, their opponents and everyone else know who will win the league before it even starts. They all really do know who is going to win the league before the league begins.
So I can tell you that the most likely outcome in a year’s time is that PSG will win the French league, and Bayern will win the German league. And I might also ask, once again, what’s the point? It’s like watching a cricket game in which two hefty 16-year-olds are bowling againsts two 11-year-olds. And one asks, what is the point?
The point of course is the routine – this is how we are told matches should be. But what it doesn’t take into account is the fact that Arsenal are newcomers to the journey. Arsenal haven’t won the Premier League half a dozen times in a row because they have only just joined this party. And if in a couple of years time Arsenal are winning the Champions League year on year I will then still be saying, “What’s the point?”
Now, from this position I might go on and say, give it another two years and Arsenal will be at the strnegth of clubs like PSG from leagues where the same club wins the title year after year.
But actually, I don’t want that to happen. I don’t want the Premier League to be reduced to the rubbish level of the French League or the German League or any other one of those diddly-doddy leagues where the same club wins the league year after year.
Yes of course I am delighted that Arsenal won the Premier Leagyue this season and of course I would have loved Arsenal to win the Champions League tonight. I don’t deny that. But more than Arsenal winning the League year after year, I’d like all the national leagues to have real competitions, so that you can’t actually say who is going to win the league before the season even starts.
Of course I want Arsenal back at the top of the Premier League next season, and of course I want us to have another tilt at the Champions League title – but I don’t want us to win because we bought all the best players. The only club I want sorted out is Manchester City, long overdue a proper punishment for their 110 or so crimes against football regulations. For the rest, I want them to be able to give us a good game, and for the result to be uncertain until the final whistle. Football is supposed to be competitive.
So I would like a return to competitive games, not see games dominated by teams because they have all the money and no one else has any. We probably won’t get it, but that desire of mine to have real competition stops me being particularly upset just because we lost a penalty shoot out. If I had to choose, then games between clubs that had the same level of income and same level of support is what I would most like to see.
