Happy New Year everyone!
2026… It feels like a special kind of year already, right?
Arsenal have never looked this strong. We have the best defence in Europe, our attacking output is up there with the best, and the whole club finally looks like it’s ready to take on the mental load required to win it all.
Though it might not feel like it now, the journey is far more exciting than the destination. So take time out to enjoy the back half of the season and really savour it. We’ve been in the wilderness for a very long time—so long, it makes every game kind of excruciating. I’ve had to reprogram myself lately to absorb what is happening… part of that process was really digging into the data to prove that my eyes are, in fact, not lying.
I spent a lot of time yesterday correcting people who were making salty comments about what Arsenal are doing this season. We are not boring to watch. I just can’t fathom people whittering on about style when we’re top and playing fun football. We have had the second-most shots in the league this season. We have scored the second-most goals. We’ve created the most xG in the league. We are six goals behind City, who have the deadliest striker in the world, and they’ve played easier games so far this season. Arsenal are boring in one place… defence. We’ve conceded half the big chances City have (City are the 2nd most stingy). We’ve conceded five fewer goals than them with the best defence in the league. We’re top of the Premier League. Top of the Champions League. In the Champions League, we have conceded one goal through six games.
Now layer that over making eight signings in the summer, then going on to have a monster injury crisis in attack, then in defence… and we continued to maintain form?
Our crisis that had people losing faith this season was… 11 wins in block 5 of the season, with one draw, and one loss (against top 4 teams).
When you absorb all of that… do you think crying about Arsenal in the WhatsApp is appropriate? Ok, maybe it’s fine. Victim shaming ain’t on, even in this era. We’ve been scarred by Arsenal over the years, we carry baggage, we’re wrecks.
But 2026 is the group therapy culmination… we’ll be at an Arsenal victory parade in May, and we can shake away those demons and start behaving like fans that know what prestige is.
I can’t wait.
As I say goodbye to 2025, I do want to take a moment to thank you all for supporting what I do over here. I’m on Substack, which is a writer’s platform, and I see all these very talented writers posting their numbers and complaining about their readership and how hard it is. Meanwhile, I’m out here, posting about eating humble soufflé, and I have you lot showing up daily for it. I am blessed; not many people can muster a regular readership, and I have such an incredible bunch of intelligent, empathetic lunatics who read the site, comment, send DMs, emails, and come to events.
One of my stated objectives last January was that I was going to get back into writing properly and get back to the numbers of yesteryear. Bad year to try, given the newborn on December 28th last year, but once you commit, you gotta get at it… and the delivery this year has been 300 blogs. Not bad considering this is not my actual job. If you’re a podcast listener, you got 283 podcasts this year. What the fuck? So, if you’re wondering if you get value for money here, that’s a lot of hours of work for the price of a very cheap London pint.
With all that said, effort doesn’t mean people will care… and I know you could be anywhere other than this. There’s a lot of great Arsenal spaces and I’m incredibly grateful you spend time here.
The highlight of the journey was the live show this year. Getting to put on a show for a sell-out theatre was something I never thought we’d get to do. Tickets went in 48 hours and nearly everyone showed up. It was a special evening. Especially afterwards when I got to chat to so many people that read the blog on the toilet or listen to The AOP on a jog, while feeding babies, or falling asleep.
The privilege of this space is that it doesn’t matter where I am in the world; I’m never alone, there’s always someone to engage with IRL or online. It was so nice to meet people who spend time with the work here and hear that it means something… even if it is about something that is trivial if you compared it to death. But honestly, who’d blog about death? Not me.
Also, massive thanks to Matt, Johnny, and Jacob. Three guys I have so much time for because they are awesome to be around on and off screen. We’ll be back next year for ANOTHER big AOP Christmas Party. So make sure you get into that.
Anyway, enough of the emotions. It was a beautiful year. Thanks for sticking with us. We’re gonna have a very f*cking great year in 2026.
Big love, happy new year, see you in the comments with the sickos xxx
P.S. If you want to sign up for a membership, now would be a GOOD time.
Happy New Year, everyone!