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

Someone added me to a tweet about Unai Emery getting a good response from the Arsenal fans this afternoon. I have to be clear that any beef in this land is between me and Emery and it’s all one way. He should get a good response. I didn’t rate his tenure, but it’s not his fault he wasn’t fit for the job. His performance at Villa has been nothing short of miraculous because Villa is his level. Ambitious club searching for Europe Players that are looking for the next step Lots of control over who he signs Arsenal needed more. He wasn’t that. It’s fine. Any manager following Wenger was going t ..read more

The Premier League weekend got off to a bang with Spurs losing 4-0 to Newcastle in horrendous fashion. Angeball is coming unstuck of late and this was another example of what happens when you start to get sussed in the Premier League. Not too many Arsenal fans complaining we should have signed Maddison over Havertz now, are there? This does alter the maths a touch for the game tomorrow but I doubt Unai Emery has the squad to do much differently. Villa is now outright 4th place having played the same amount of games as Spurs. A win against Arsenal, combined with Spurs death run of matches, cou ..read more

EUROPA DA DAH DA DAHHHHH! (Or something like that) What a night in Europe’s third-best competition (Champions League > Europa League > Eurovision). So many bad things happened to teams we are in direct rivalry with. Let’s go through them. ASTON VILLA BOTCHED THE MISSION I was double-screening so don’t have a serious tactical analysis of the game (like I ever do), but the game was going the way of Unai Emery. Martinez had to make 3-4 one-on-one saves in the first half. Villa took a 2-0 lead, and Lille had a marginal call flagged offside by VAR. It was looking like the game was done… then ..read more

They were dark days indeed, my friends. Unai Emery took the Arsenal job, and I was not happy about it from day one. I tried to hide my disdain for the hire (for 3 hours), but I knew that he’d not be the right fit over the long term. In the end, I was right. Arteta was the promised land. The Emery-istas have been firmly mudded. But the karmic forces have not forgiven me and they regularly slap me in the form of Arsenal punishments (Villareal and Villa in December). This weekend, Emery has the chance to destroy our title dreams. If he does, it’ll be my fault. But… are there clues as to why this ..read more

Well that was a very weird evening. Arsenal heads into the second leg of the Bayern game with a 2-2 draw and a sharp reminder that top teams, with top players, do not roll over to the new kids on the block. Things started well, Bukayo Saka created a wild piece of individual brilliance when he received a Ben White pass with his back to goal and with one smooth turn, managed to front up to goal and bang an unstoppable missile past Neuer. Everything was going well, Bayern had no answers, until they had two. Bayern did well to capitalise on two very dopey mistakes by Arsenal. For the first, David ..read more

The quarterfinals are finally upon us, Arsenal are back in the big time, and we’re playing one of the giants of European football. Bayern Munich, the club Ivan Gazidis held up as the model he wanted to adopt at Arsenal 10 years ago, are coming to town. They elicit Bavarian pride, they are competitive, and they dominate the cultural landscape in Germany. Arsenal kinda move like Bayern these days. We’re hoovering up the best talent in the league, we play expansive football, and we’re getting close to dominance on the pitch. This evening is a chance to show that we can be dominant on the biggest ..read more