Arsenal – what exactly WAS that? A footballing tour de force, that’s what. An otherworldly display of energy. All the hallmarks of a legendary performance, one that cements the status of this squad as mentality monsters. There’s no downplaying the sheer brilliance of what unfolded. The team that should have beaten Manchester City at the weekend utterly crushed Chelsea under the relentless pressure of Arsenal’s attack. It was so one-sided, I almost called a charity for advice on how to stop a bully! From the first whistle, it was a pummeling. Mikel Arteta spoke pre-game about looking up to his ..read more

Another game? Already? Sheesh, this Premier League season… The Premier League has had about 16 two-week breaks, then they lump all the games into one month. It’s really quite irritating – the more successful a club is in the cups, the worse it is for them. I do wish the Premier League would work out a way to distribute the games more evenly over the season. No way should there be just one English club left in European competition. Anyway, before we get into the latest post, I just wanted to say thanks to all the people who checked out and signed up for Substack. An even bigger thanks to the s ..read more

Well, hello dearest friends of the internet. Here we go again – another week of competitive football in the Premier League of England & Wales. Let’s get into some of the mad stuff that happened yesterday. Nottingham Forest skewered the VAR in their match against Everton for being a Luton fan. Using a club’s social media channels to make a really emotional point about referees is, of course, very Barclays Premier League, but I’m not sure it helps their cause. It was amateur. The club channels should be above that sort of thing. The game decisions were poor, but I’m not sure it’s because th ..read more

Sometimes, to tee up a match report, you focus on what the best manager in the world is saying about his game. “It’s unacceptable,” “Because I’ve won I have the courage to tell you. For the health of the players, it’s not normal. I don’t understand how we survived today. Why play today and not tomorrow, when Coventry, Chelsea, and United didn’t play midweek? Why not have one more day for the health of the players? Tell me how you prepare for this final against Chelsea in the best moment of the season? How? It’s impossible. There’s no chance.” City put on a disasterclass. They didn’t hit the t ..read more

Mikel Arteta needs to show his teeth this afternoon. His players are emotionally drained, they are tired, and I’ve been telling them they only have 5 games left when it’s 6. Sorry boys. This is where the manager earns his corn. Beat Wolves this evening, we go back to the top of the table briefly, and City are back to chasing. That is a very nice prize. Here’s the Wolves update via Football.London. Neto – linked with a summer move to the Gunners – has been spotted back in training on the grass, marking his first session since picking up a hamstring injury against Newcastle United back in Marc ..read more

Mikel Arteta came out firing in the media. I won’t quote, but the gist was very clear. The journey these players have been on has been immense We’ve gone from a midtable joke, to competitors Only one team can win the Premier League and we’re competing against the greatest-ever Premier League side, and Jurgen Klopp on his farewell tour When you’re in a fight, sometimes you lose, but you shouldn’t take your eye off the progress That’s what I want to hear from my manager. We had the youngest team in the league last year, we’re probably 3rd this year, the majority of our superstar talents are 2 ..read more

We’ll start out with a bit of perspective. That was Arsenal’s first Champions League in 7 years. It was our first quarter-final in 14 years. Only two of our starting 11 players had played in the Champions League before this season. We just lost a game to a Bayern Munich that won the CL 3 years ago – hasn’t been out of the comp in living memory – and had 8 CL winners in the game-day squad. Below is the record of Manchester City. The most monied club in the world. Best CEO, best manager, best coaches, best data team, best players, best facilities, best scouts, highest wage bill, top 2 transfer ..read more

Champions League knockout games haven’t been good to us over the past 25 years, not have games against Bayern Munich. This one feels extra huge given the context of potentially blowing the league against a messy Aston Villa side. The maths is simple: Win and our season is well and truly back on. Lose, and the ramifications could be devastating to our remaining 5 Premier League games. Mikel Arteta isn’t just battling physical fatigue this Wednesday, he’s fighting emotional drainage. Every game in 2024 has felt critical in some way, but since the City game on March 31st, every outing has been a ..read more

Fans giving Zinchenko abuse in the Aston Villa game are a disgrace. I can sort of understand folk leaving early when we’re 2-0 down, but abusing one of our own players after the season we’ve had? Outrageous behavior – brings back memories of those dark times when players hated playing at the Emirates. Let’s not forget where we came from: hyping up Mustafi, watching Coquelin get turned inside out by Eden Hazard, Gallas sulking on the touchline, getting dominated by Watford, eight seasons without winning a top-tier game. Remember those days of trying to understand why Wenger only signed Petr C ..read more

You can look at coefficients, analyse the colour of a gilet, get hyped about starting line-ups… but none of it matters when Arsenal face up against Don Unai Emery. His exit from the club cast a forever curse on the big occasions when we have to deal with him. Sadly, there was no exception to that rule yesterday when his team walked away with a deserved three points after Arsenal put on the worst second-half performance of the Mikel Arteta era. Our opening 45 was pretty much spot on, we cut through Villa with ease, releasing Trossard, Jesus and Kai. It felt like it was only a matter of time be ..read more