CORRECTING AN ABOMINATION

ARTETA NEEDS TO MAKE AMENDS AT A NEW STADIUM

Happy FriYAY. How was your Christmas Party? Glad to hear it. If you can’t remember, it never happened? Yes. Tell that to HR in January, I’m sure they’ll go with that. They might even have forgotten?

I’m in a very sleepy London today. The weather is beautiful. The trains have been quite empty. I’m about to go and meet the AOP Crew to make sure everything is in good shape for Sunday. Still having night terrors over the Brooklyn incident. Not this time, not on my watch (last time was also my watch).

Before we can ever begin to comprehend Sunday evening, we have to navigate our first trip to the Hill Dickinson Stadium. David Moyes got the big job back at Everton, and he’s the guy trying to navigate the difficulty of moving a storied team—that’s been in a mess—through a very tough transition to a new stadium that will absolutely not feel like home to their fans.

But, you know what makes a stadium feel like home? Iconic wins.

This game is going to be beastly for Arsenal in the same way the Wolves one was. We might as well have lost that game in the week. I haven’t spoken to a single Gooner with a positive word to say about the last-minute win. No joy. No ‘it was a bit like the Reiss winner’ because we got away with it in a big way.

Simply put, play like that tomorrow night, and we are done for… and a lot of belief in the fan base will begin to shake because we’re all the sort of emotionally damaged kittens you find in a bag under a small bridge. A loss tomorrow? It’s over. We’re finding the nearest petrol station with a jerry can and it’s self-immolation under the Tony Adams statue.

Ok, a bit dramatic, but we all feel the tension… Man City bearing down on us like that big dragon in House of The Dragon when the lightning struck. Scary times. Are we about to get sheared in half by Moyesy?

I wouldn’t dare predict a scoreline. What I will say is I truly believe there will be a reaction to the utter dross we saw against Wolves. The whole group went into that game believing in cricket scores and they were chastened by their own complacency. Arteta rarely makes the same mistake twice. He’ll know he had a role to play in that result, and I’d imagine the mood hasn’t been as relaxed this week.

I like that the media conversations have very clearly been directed towards load management; the manager was keen to share that Zubimendi has been getting special treatment to help him through a difficult first season of three games a week.

“There was a lot of management for a few players that played a lot of minutes later, so that’s probably the reason why.

“Well, in the small windows that we have, we make sure that we look after him and he understands that every possibility and every chance you have to look after yourself, you have to take it in this league, because the demands are going to be really, really high. But I think he’s coping really, really well with the league, with all the challenges that the league brings to you. A new club, a new country and I think he’s been exceptional.”

I always worry when he talks about players like this. Remember when he said Kai was made of different stuff before losing him to a training ground accident in Dubai? Just gave me a cold judder…

I’m bullish on player fitness. We have a lot of bodies returning. There were rumors flashing around the internet last night that he was broken again; that seems to have been very wrong. He’ll be returning with Big Gabi over the next couple of weeks. I suspect we’ll all be shocked when it happens—Arteta can use it as a surprise. But damn, imagine having all our forwards available and our best two defenders back in the side together?

Dream stuff. A load of our best players, well rested, ready to smash it up in the back half of the season.

I watched Palace last night blow a lead to a team that I’ve never heard of in the Conference League. They rotated massively so they could be fresh for the Leeds game. The good thing about playing smaller clubs in cup comps is that they are totally shattered because they don’t have ‘3 games a week’ quality. So, they end up baking their players and breaking them.

I don’t want to see Arsenal go all out for a QF of the League Cup. Earning two legs at the end of Jan/early Feb against a London rival just feels like a distraction for the right to win a trophy we’ll just get mocked for if it’s our only one. The focus is Champions League and Premier League until we’ve won one of them. I am very conscious that Klopp often gassed his Liverpool teams by fighting on four fronts, then missing out on the most important trophies at the very death.

Availability is ‘winnertivity’ in my opinion, and we’ll only get to that if we have fewer distractions.

Finaly point, it’s 6 years since Arteta joined the club. Are we all prepared to say that the one good call I’ve ever made on this blog was that? Thank you, thank you. Made up for the Chris Samba suggestion for sure.

He’s been a transformational manager for Arsenal. We’ve gone from a stagnant banter era club to a global force on the pitch and off it as a result. Having someone at the club with unreasonable demands of everyone has been the sweetest tonic we could have hoped for. He’s the perfect blend of pragmatist, exArsenal Captain, and innovator… you just weren’t getting this with Tuchel or Conte. Every other manager suggested has gone on to fail at 2 other clubs in the last 6 years. Arteta, still going.

Is the mission complete? No. Legend is crystallized with big trophies. They have yet to land. But they will. There’s no doubt about that. But even without them, don’t tell me you haven’t enjoyed the journey. Football is about hope. I had no hope we’d ever get back to where we are now. But we are one of the best teams in the world, we can beat anyone, on any day, in any place… and we are competing at the highest level. Cherry on top is coming, I’m sure of it.

Let’s see what happens! x