We’ll start off the blog today with the only negative I care to think about this week… player of the season. I’m not really one for awards muck. If you’ve ever worked in advertising and pitched the slide where you say, ‘not that we care about awards, but…’, you’ll understand where I’m coming from. It wasn’t even advertising that sullied my view of them; it was Thierry losing out to Nedvěd back in the day. A bigger criminal act than Sinners for an Oscar.
But, if we do want to talk about awards, in football, let’s just lay out my basic view.
You need to have shown incredible consistency.
That consistency needs to have mattered to the team.
Your individual excellence should really have counted towards a trophy or at least a meaningful challenge (on something, anything).
I have nothing against Bruno Fernandes, he had a nice season, he bagged some goals and assists, and broke a record.
Good for you…
But player of the season?
Did the assists have a top scorer attached to them? No. United’s top scorer was Sesko in the league with 11.
Did United end the season with the most goals? No. They finished third despite spending £200m on elite attacking talent last summer.
Did United have a role in the title race? Again, no. They finished third, 14 points behind Arsenal.
They lost a manager at Christmas because fans were protesting at how bad the football was. Man United, as a team, did nothing of consequence in the league. They didn’t have any European competitions. They went out of the League Cup to Grimsby. They went out of the 3rd round of the FA Cup to Brighton. So literally 1 game a week all season and they still finished 3rd.
In all competitions, Man United had 19 wins.
Arsenal won 44 games in all comps.
Arsenal have 31 clean sheets.
If we’re being totally honest, Bruno Fernandes, at any stage of his career, would not have landed a starting position for the current Man City and Arsenal sides. He’s a player of yesteryear. Incredibly talented when everything is geared around him, but there’s a reason he only had Al Hilal as an option last summer.
"From the club's side, I felt a bit like, 'if you leave, it's not so bad for us.' It hurts me a bit. More than hurting, it makes me sad because I'm a player who has nothing to criticize. I'm always available, I always play, good or bad. I give my all. Then, you see things around you, players who don't value the club as much and don't defend the club as much… that makes you sad."
So how did we get here? A Premier League season that has been absolutely brutal on Arsenal. We have the best defensive record by a margin. This is the greatest Arsenal side of all time when it comes to win percentage. We have players at the peak of their powers doing things of absolute consequence. Arsenal have been top of the league for most of the season. Across 61 matches in all competitions, Arsenal have been behind for just 403 minutes.
… yet somehow, the FWA & Premier League pro panel couldn’t find a player that shone more than Bruno, who took United to 3rd in a season with no Europe or cup runs? The Premier League player of the year doesn’t belong to the team that won their first title in a generation? I mean, even if you’re desperate not to give it to an Arsenal player, how is Igor Thiago, playing for Brentford (17th in the league for wage spend), not the player of the season? 22 goals for Brentford, a team that could make Europe for the first time in their history.
It’s quite something.
Arsenal had Declan Rice, Big Gabi, David Raya, and William Saliba, all of whom were better individually than Fernandes. Not even a debate. ‘Whom’ in a Le Grove piece means shit is getting very serious.
All of this is just another sharp reminder that people hate Arsenal because we’re massive. They hate us because we have the most insane fan base, even without success. They hate us because we did it the hard way.
F*ck ‘em.
The only thing that matters is what you can control. I mean, I don’t control Arsenal winning the Premier League, but I do support a team that has controlled the things that really matter. The biggest prize in football… the Premier League.
That’s what we’re going to lift today.
Can you believe it?
It’s extraordinary. Arsenal. Premier League Champions. Banter Era to the very top.
No one can take that from the manager, the players, or us… the fans.
I hope you have a little bucket and ice, some fancy champagne, and a few glasses… not for other people, but so you can chain multiples without needing to repour.
This is YOUR day to relax. You don’t need to worry about Aston Villa celebrating like relapsed booze hounds and not giving a fuuuck about Man City. There’s no need to concern yourself with Glasner’s guilt. All that should fuss you today is player fitness. We just don’t need any damage to key players.
We’ve waited 22 years for this. Savour the feeling. It won’t last long. The journey is more fun than the destination. We have a whole summer enjoying what we’ve done, then it’s a new world, defending Champions, something we’ve never done in Premier League history. Those worries are for another time.
I’m hoping this is going to be a walk in the park. I’d love to see a heavily rotated side — but suspect we’ll see a strong side, with the focus on subs. I want to see Marli Salmon and Max Dowman get minutes. We need to see Merino get time, let’s start with Madueke… I want a win, but not at the expense of risk to key names we’ll need in 6 days’ time.
This post wasn’t supposed to be a long one… but before we go, I do want to say thank you again for subbing up, typing Le Grove into your address bar, dropping comments, and contributing to the spaces this idea occupies. I was on a precipice a couple of years ago… the posts had dropped to the lowest number ever, I was at a low ebb personally, and the podcast was getting too hard. Quit and call it a day. Or go all in and see what happens. I went all in, upped the focus on writing, professionalised the podcast, and a whole bunch of you stuck with it, and even more joined the party. So, thank you. It means the world to me that you can put your Arsenal attention on any number of world-class spaces, but you bring it here, and it makes me very happy. There is no greater creative privilege than having an audience that comes back. I don’t take it for granted. Thank you.
Enjoy today, you deserve it. x
P.S. Get a membership for a very good price on the link below. We’ll be going all summer long with HOT content about players we’re gonna sign.
I’ve always enjoyed reading Le Grove Pete. Can’t quite remember when I started but it was long before 2015. i know that as I randomly saw you in Wasabi’s and the lift at Regents Park, I didn’t say anything to you as it wasn’t the done thing then. But thank you for continuing and continually improving the site, it’s one of my daily go too’s for Arsenal content. Enjoy today!!
Cant wait for that trophy lift. 🥲