Morning all.
Football is scrambling my brain. I dreamed last night that I was captain of Arsenal going into the play the FA Cup final, and I heard a pundit say something about how ‘Andrew Mangan’s men’ would have to step up and perform. Then I realised if I played in this game, I was going be on TV and I didn’t care for that. Not only did I not have any football shorts with me, my boots were a pair of patent leather brogues. Then Jimmy Kimmel came in and served up what he said were chicken wings but clearly they were frogs legs in buffalo sauce and the rest of the team were very unhappy with me, even though it was all Kimmel’s fault.
I really need Arsenal to provide me with some calm and assurance, and the only way to do that is score lots of goals in every game. Then you could put toad giblets in sauce and I wouldn’t care less. I obviously wouldn’t eat them, even if they were cooked by a late night TV host, but I wouldn’t give a shit. So, for the sake of some restful sleep, I hope Arsenal can do that this weekend.
A bit later on Mikel Arteta will meet the press ahead of tomorrow’s visit to Leeds. Man City and Aston Villa don’t play until Sunday, so it’s an opportunity to extend the lead and just apply a little pressure the other way, when it’s been applied to us in the last couple of games. The midweek game, as I said, was a kind of palate cleanser after the defeat against United, and the real response will be required at Elland Road.
There’s been so much discussion of our title challenge this season which, by any objective measure, is actually going very well. Not perfectly, but then is there ever a team which doesn’t experience a bit of turbulence along the way? I took a screenshot of this graphic the other day (via SofaScore), displaying our league position week by week, and what it tells me is that there’s a consistency to Arsenal this season that you would associate with potential champions.
It only matters where you are at the end, but even with a few blips along the way, we’ve stayed top. Of course, it’s not just us. We’ve been aided by those below us experiencing some turbulence themselves, almost as if the difficulties of a competitive Premier League are not the sole preserve of Arsenal FC. It just feels like it, and I understand that.
I’ve talked, probably too much, about why I feel anxious. 21 years, 3 second place finishes in a row, blah blah blah. But I think there’s a more recent/current factor that plays a part too – conceding late goals. Scoring them makes you believe that the fates are on your side, because a dagger to the heart of the opposition when they have no time to respond feels ruthless. The mark of champions etc.
Letting them in though? That’s another thing. That undermines confidence, and when games are often as tight as ours are, you feel like the worst could happen and that certainly plays into whatever sense of anxiety and nervousness you experience in that context anyway. This season, we’ve let in late goals away against Liverpool, Aston Villa, Sunderland; the home game against Wolves (which we responded to thanks to an own goal), and Villa at home (although it didn’t matter); then at home against United last weekend, and while it didn’t really make any difference in midweek, Kairat scored with basically the last kick of the game.
I suppose the thing to say is that there’s no fixed formula for this. Scoring late goals is not a guarantee you’ll win the title. We all felt something special after Reiss Nelson scored against Bournemouth, or even when Danny Welbeck did what he did against Leicester in 2016. It didn’t work out the way we’d like. So letting them in late doesn’t mean we can’t win the title, but it contributes to a sense that we’re capable of letting things slip.
It’s not a major, major problem, but it happened with sufficient frequency this season for it to be an area of concern. Personally, I think goalscoring is the major issue, and if we solve that we go a long way to making any late goals from the opposition little more than consolations. Which is why I’m curious to hear what the manager has to say today, but more curious about what he might do with his team tomorrow. If there’s something a little different about team selection, player positions etc, it’ll be a reassurance that he knows he has to tweak something about how we’re playing right now. Then it’s about putting that into effect, but we’ll find out more about all that at from 3pm tomorrow afternoon.
Right, I’ll leave it there this morning. You can join us later on Patreon for a Leeds preview podcast, for now, have a good Friday folks.
