Arsenal Brothers and Sisters, as I sit in Miami airport, sipping from my $15 Stella at the Chalice bar, I have been thinking about this Wolves game. Not just today, it’s been on my mind like the low hum of hangxiety after a Christmas party, and I think I am coming to the conclusion that the biggest problem that evening was arrogance
Yeah, I bolded that word for importance knowing that messages get list in the Christmas season.
We won. Arsenal were lucky. But the takeaway for the whole sporting department should be that there can never be a moment like that again this season.
I wrote something really arrogant the night before the game, but here’s the thing, I’m just a dumb fan and I am allowed to be dumb. But it didn’t stop with me. The pundit class were saying things like, “If Wolves get whopped 9-0, it’ll be a good day and they can grow from that.” But listen, they’re allowed to be idiots as well.
But Mikel Arteta? A man more intense than Conor McGregor at an after party, allowing the whole club to head into that game dreaming of a 20-0 win. He has to do better there.
Hincapié at left back, Timber in the middle with Saliba, and Ben White at right back. What the fuck is happening with that selection? He’s playing Saliba out of position, Timber out of position, rolling with Ben White for a third game in a week, and putting Hincapié at left back after he’s been working on his centre back game. When a manager gets that cute with selections, he’s telegraphing overconfidence in the outcome.
He should have put MLS at left back, Hincapié and Saliba at centre back, and Timber at right back. That offers more balance and familiarity, takes Ben White out of the red zone, and lets him live to fight another day.
Hand of Arsenal told us in the comments that Declan was ill, but he played. Why? Eze and Gyökeres have the chemistry of a pierced tea bag and hot water in a morning cuppa. The whole thing was just very off and lacked seriousness.
The good news is most teams have a moment like that in a season, and hopefully ours was the realization that we’re not as good as we think we are. Or, we’re not good enough to roll into games against weak oppo in 2nd gear. If we want to win the league, every game has to be taken with absolute seriousness.
The 1998 Premier League winners had their moment after the Blackburn game they lost 3-1 after going up a goal via Overmars (Blackburn were good back then). No manager. Just between themselves. Tony Adams had this to say:
“There was a feeling that if we were going to do this, everyone had to buy into it completely. No half measures.”
“We had words between ourselves. Not shouting, not screaming, just honesty. We knew we were better than what we were showing.”
“From then on, the standards were set by the players.”
Patrick Vieira, then a very young man, explained how he saw it:
“The senior players showed us what was required to win titles here.”
“That season, we learned what responsibility meant.”
Arsenal went from fifth and total outsiders to clawing back a monstrous deficit on Manchester United to win our first ever Premier League title.
Let’s be clear, we’re not in a position that dire, but we are living in a Premier League where dropping two points against Wolves in December can be the moment you f*cked the title race.
So when I hear that senior players were angry after the game, that makes me happy. It means they know. Hopefully Arteta and his coaching staff look at their role in the complacency and never let it happen again. Man City are closing in on us and have found title-winning form, and they have actually won the competition, so they have more muscle memory than Arsenal.
We’ll see how serious the conversations were on Saturday. David Moyes will probably have a similar game plan to Wolves, but with much better players and a little more ambition. That is a hard game geographically and historically, and it has not been kind to us over the years. If the players are serious about winning the Premier League, they’ll bounce back from Wolves with a serious effort.
And my word, they need to do it. It’s The AOP live show the day after. We can’t have people turning up expecting a very angry show. We want joy. It’s Christmas. Come on, Mikel, give me a good performance. I pray.
Ok, I’m at Miami airport right now. I paid for all the CLEAR and TSA PreCheck stuff, then got to the airport nine hours early, flew through bag check, and literally no one was at security. Now I’m sitting at the FIFA Club World Cup bar they kept going, having a great time writing for you lot.
Good times. Next time I write for you, I’ll be in London. Can’t wait. X
It wasn't just arrogance and complacency. It was tired legs and brains moving at 90% where the fine margins lie. It was hoping somebody else would exert themselves fully and be the hero. It was not working with desperation thinking they had 90 minutes for someone to get a goal.We pummelled the Spurs' deep block by finding Eze just at the edge of the box in the space in front of the back 5. Partey never was shy to take a shot from the edge of the box. Odegaard and Rice will take the odd pop but they take too much time to load their shot up. Eze can get a shot away quickly. He should have been trying that.
The fact that Ben started over Myles really befuddles the mind in hindsight.