If everyone hates The Arsenal, we must be doing something right
I have to tell you, I am LOVING the hypocrisy of some of the online Chelsea fandom right now, LOVING it I tells ya.
10 months ago we went to Stamford Bridge, and we saw Cucurella go in on Saka time and time again. We saw Fofana leave one or two in on Arsenal players. We saw Enzo and Cucrella going in hard on Madueke and then screaming in his face. We saw Caicedo behaving like a man possessed and eventually getting himself sent off for a reckless challenge on Merino. And yet here we are, less than a year later, and I’ve read:
The fact that they’re celebrating this dirty play that led to their goal should tell you everything about them. They’ve gotten so used to cheating & referees favouring them that they all laugh thinking this is normal.
and
Last time I checked closing mouth in an argument with opponent is a red card offence.
and
I thought this decision was crazy
and
Not only that Pedro got hugged while chasing the ball, Rogers got body slammed, Martinez got kicked in the eye… that game was so dirty.
If you ever wanted an example of the myopia of football fans, you have it there in a very small sample size. And I don’t think I want to single out Chelsea fans, because fans of every team will do it. What’s happening with us right now, a little bit like what was happening last season at times, is that because we are so good, we are the target. The dominant United team of the 90s was the same; Chelsea under Mourinho in the 2000s was the same; City under Pep was the same. Everyone thought they got all the decisions, or they didn’t like the style of football, or there was just something wrong with the club for some reason. It is just the way football fans are programmed.
So I take it as a compliment. What it means when you get ickle Chelsea fans bleating on with comments like “everyone in the league hates them for a reason” is that you have a team that looks to be the dominant force this season. And nobody – Arsenal fans aside – wants that to happen. Heck, I said the same about City when they were in the middle of their dominance under Pep, winning the title five times in a row. I think it was probably the 2020/21 season when I bet I could go back through the SuburbanGooner archives and find a few blogs I’d written where I say comments like “this league is boring and I’m not even paying attention to the top of the table”. City won the league by 12 points that season, and there was never really any competition. I don’t think we will do the same this season, but if we do, I will expect very similar comments from fans, maybe the odd pundit who has a leaning (in support) away from The Arsenal. Yesterday afternoon I spent a bit of time playing catch-up with what the media are saying and they are all saying things like “unbeatable” and “could they go unbeaten?” and “Is this the most complete side?” etc, etc., blah, blah. Before the Chelsea game, we had Gary Neville telling us that Arteta would gladly swap the Arsenal front three for the Chelsea front three, which of course, is complete nonsense.
Of course last season Liverpool had the same stuff from the media at the beginning of the season. They were five wins in a row at the start of the season and all we heard was whether they were ‘inevitable’. We had some Liverpool fans chirping, although the reall hard-core ones knew that everything was not rosy in the garden. And I guess we all know that everything isn’t perfect, either. Just look at the Villa game. We weren’tĀ sparklingĀ on the day, but we did manage to do what was needed and keep Villa at bay. I guess my hope for our situation being more sustainable than Liverpool’s last season, is that old footballing cliche:
Goals win you games. Defences win you titles.
You can’t argue that we don’t have the defence to mount a good…erm…defence of our title. But as always, people are questioning the attack. They can do that if they like, but having seen Saka start the season in sparkling form, Havertz playing well and looking fit, as well as Odegaard flying and Tzolis impressing, I think we’re in a good place from a creative point of view. That’s without mentioning Merino, Eze, Gyokeres and Madueke, either. Oh, and we’ve got Dowman, too…
So we’re in good shape, but the key to succees will be avoiding injury as much as possible. And with Napoli on the horizon tomorrow night, rotation is something I think Mikel needs to think about even now in the early stage of the season. Personally, and I said this on the post-match review show on the Same Old Arsenal last night – I would be thinking about two or three coming in to protect those who had long spells on the sideline. Maybe we could give Eze and Gyokeres a start, for example? Or bring Bruno in for Rice, or Zubi for MLS? These are all options I think Mikel might consider. You don’t want to mass-rotate your team, but one or two changes tomorrow, then perhaps one or two again on Saturday evening? We have a great squad, we need to start getting minutes into legs, and with the midweek games now popping into the diary, it feels like finding the right rotational balance would be important as we set ourselves up for a long season.
Right, that’s for today – there’ll be a press conference later no doubt as the Champions League kicks off, so let’s see what Mikel thinks about our opponents tomorrow evening. Catch you all in the morrow.
