Dearest everyone, I met last night, I apologise for gassing you up into believing that, yes, a 6-0 win was the most likely outcome for the game. It did not go that way.
But, what have we learned this week? Only losers worry about goal difference. We cannot be hurt again this season if we just, you know, claim all the points and finish on 85 points.
There’s also a chance, though it feels slim, that Man City do NOT have a good game against Bournemouth away this evening. They’ll be feeling pain in their legs and that result last night, however ugly, can’t have been fun for them to watch.
Arsenal’s march feels inevitable at this point. You can’t look at the performance and say they’ve all felt incredible, but you can say that generally, we’ve been extremely controlling when we’ve rolled out in these moments. Burnley didn’t hit the target over 100 minutes of football. They were never in it. We dominated that in totality. But, a common thread is we’ve not been that delicious in attack, all season, if we’re honest.
This Arsenal team are built to defend, control, and squeeze out results. We’re a team that grinds, plays in the margins, and that sort of thing is perfectly fine when you’re about to win a Premier League and you’re in the final of the Champions League.
‘This isn’t sustainable’ crowd have had to eat a slab of humble pie. It has been this season… it doesn’t matter who we put out, how tired we are, or what quality levels we’ve been up against, this Arsenal team finds a way.
I think more broadly, the attacking thing might be a touch overblown because there’s only one team in the league that has scored more goals than Arsenal this season. Maybe football in England has just moved to a place where we’re unlikely to see teams scoring 90 goals a season like we used to? When the floor is leveled up, which it most certainly has over the past two seasons, you’re going to find it harder to score a lot of goals. The Premier League won’t have been won by a lower goal count since Leicester in 2015-16, when they chalked up 69 goals. Crazy, when you consider the players we added in the summer were brought in to level up our numbers! But look… Liverpool added 400m in talent and they have less goals than us. City added the top scorer outside the top 6 in January, and they won’t break 80 this season.
But, keep a clean sheet against Palace and we’ll be looking at a defence that has been bettered just once since 2010. 26 goals conceded is mind-blowing work. Liverpool won the league last year conceding 41. Arteta saw the opportunity in this new world of man-to-man football as having the best possible defense, and that approach might have tipped it for him. Sure, it’s more satisfying to be a 100-goal-a-season team, but if City can’t even break 80, then we’re probably looking at challenges that go beyond just the players on the pitch.
Back to the game… it was horrible. I didn’t really enjoy it. It wasn’t bad, but I think we’ve all just been waiting for Arsenal to look like they’re sweeping the Premier League, but it hasn’t come. Declan Rice alluded to the nerves after the game, and you could see the relief from the bench suggested there has been tension this week, and why wouldn’t that be a factor? Arsenal haven’t done this in 22 years. They have no muscle memory. Nor do the fans either, who get very tetchy during phases of the game… because everyone just wants to get this done.
In the end, the difference maker was Bukayo Saka. He whipped in a delicious corner and Kai just had to leap like a salmon and nod it home from close range. The cross was the action though, absolutely stunning, and in a moment we needed someone to deliver an action of true class.
There were some other big moments… Piero Hincapie had his shorts pulled down and we saw his bare arse. Don’t think I’ve ever seen someone have their shorts tackled off like that. What a scene.
Kai Havertz put a reducer on a Burnley player, the VAR intervened, and miraculously passed on the decision. Why are we getting good decisions go our way at the moment? Are we… liked? Teams from other clubs seem to think so and they can all f*ck off as far as I’m concerned. You’re going to tell a man who got 20 years in banter era prison for jay walking that he got lucky with a parking ticket? Get out of here…
I did actually think the quality of Paul Tierney’s refereeing was a little out of control last night. I’m not sure why Saka didn’t get a very clear and obvious penalty, and it also felt like he was allowing Burnley players to rough us up a little. Fleming in particular was annoying with the late challenges and heavy shoving.
Declan Rice really did shine again, what he does for the team, in whatever position he’s shoved into, is just so invaluable. I can’t believe how fit he still looks. One of the most iconic moments of the season will be him sitting on the floor after City, mouthing to Odegaard that the season isn’t over. That driving force, the sheer belief, and seeing the physical manifestation of that every game has just been incredible this season. Not many £105m players deliver, he certainly has, we are blessed to witness a midfielder like that.
So, in short. Ugly, but effective. Job done.
All the guff about performance, it’s for weak people… 3 points is all that mattered and we did what mattered.
I don’t care about the clunky attack.
I don’t care about the heavy challenges or some of the ill-discipline.
All that is important in my life right now is Arsenal are 1 game away from the promised land of a major trophy… and I was in the ground for the last home game.
The whistle went, players and fans went nuts, the mood was electric. Mikel Arteta spoke directly to the fans after the game and he had to wait 2 minutes while everyone sang his name… in a twist of fate, someone unfurled a sign that read MIKEL KNOWS. A true honour for the manager and a real IYKYK tidbit for people who have read this site for 20 years.
I went to the Tollington after the game and mainlined some beers with the AOP crew. There’s still a weird trepidation blended with unbelievable excitement about the history unfolding here. We are on the cusp of doing something I last experienced when I was in my early 20s. I’m now a grown man with 2 kids. I cannot take what is happening lightly… but I also can’t stop my lizard brain pinging me that it’s not done yet.
Two more rolls of the dice. We have to hope Bournemouth have something cooking for Iraola’s last home game. One point secures them Europe. If that doesn’t happen, we have to hope for the biggest mailed-in performance of the season from Glasner, who for some reason seems to be paying attention to the pressure he’s getting from the media over the team he’s planning to field 3 days before a Euro Conference final. Palace should do what is best for the club… win the Conference, get access to £50m of prize money next season. Nothing else matters.
In other news, word finally leaked that Pep is indeed out at Man City, and it would appear they’re installing Enzo Maresca, a City company man, as his replacement. Quite extraordinary to be saying goodbye to the greatest to have ever done it… but very strange to me that they’d hire someone who just feels distinctly B-list to me.
Josh Kroenke also gave the streets the news they wanted to hear… the club is going to continue to invest and they want to create a dynasty. That is very exciting, because there is work to be done this summer. Expect Álvarez or someone of his ilk to enter the conversation very soon, and I have a little feeling Martinelli might be key to some big moves this summer.
But for right now, the focus is on Bournemouth… let’s see what they’ve got.
I’m flying right now… so bear with us on the podcast. Johnny and Jacob are going to record the On The Whistle this morning. I won’t be able to put it on Substack, so I’ll likely just open it up so everyone can hear it when it drops on Patreon. When I land, I’ll get it all uploaded. Also, there might be a bonus drop later if something happens in the Man City game.
Finally, so many people came and chatted yesterday. It was great to speak and hang out. More of that next season. It was also amusing to see the owner of a bar named after a famous communist get very angry at fans who had purchased tins of beer and dared to drink on the taxpayer-funded streets outside the space he does not own.
Right, keep your eyes open for pods dropping throughout the morning! x
Loving that we are winning the title exactly like how arteta want it to be. Good defense, fine margins and duel winning. Arteta has found a solution where no other clubs has (the other being klopp with his heavy metal football) and it shows how much the other clubs have regressed
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