UGLY TACTICAL MONSTERCLASS INCOMING

THIS IS GONNA BE A GRIM 90 BECAUSE IT HAS TO BE

You know what I’m feeling right now?

History.

That’s not a feeling, is it?

OK, I’m feeling the jeopardy of an early-season clash of the titans, and I am very, very excited to see what Mikel Arteta and the boys have cooking for the biggest away game of our season.

I could gripe about the way the fixtures have rolled, again. I could bemoan Martin Ødegaard being out for the next three months. But I’m not going there today.

Injuries are part of the package, and the footballing gods will never let you schedule them in an Outlook calendar of your choice.

Am I going to say it? AM I? F*ck your feelings. I said it. For this weekend, I’m going to channel my inner right-wing commentator and demand we step back from the ledge and curb our hysterical behaviour.

It’s going to be OK.

Matt Kandela made a great point on The Arsenal Opinion... he thought it might be a good thing not to have Ødegaard for the City game because it’ll allow us to focus on a more industrial job in a really tough match. I’m not totally on board with that thinking, as it alludes to the idea that Martin isn’t good defensively, which he is… but what we will lack without him is some of that cutting-edge attack and the trust from the forwards that the ball will find their runs. Maybe Martin is less temptation to go nuts?

I didn’t write a match report for the Atalanta game—it was dull football chess. They went man-to-man and executed it to near perfection. Their pressing was intelligent, intense, and effective at blocking our flow. These are the games where you need a key player like Ødegaard, and we couldn’t find that edge with the squad we had on the pitch. Those dirty mid-blocks, executed by top-class opposition, still feel like our kryptonite, but I don’t think we felt out of our depth like we did when Porto employed similar tactics in the Champions League.

My takeaways from that game are that we’re still a team trying to figure out how to play without our captain—and we’re still lacking a bit of composure in front of goal from players who need to score. Gabi Martinelli needs a goal. He’s getting into great positions, but he’s fluffing the final ball or strike. The dam will break at some point… and hopefully, he’ll explode.

From a strategy perspective, there are two things to focus on for the weekend: creating a defensive setup that nullifies Haaland—tough when nearly every City player can find the biggest man on the pitch—and having a game plan to capitalise on chances when they come… because if you’ve watched City this season, you’ll know there *will* be chances. Their defence gives up openings and has conceded goals.

We’ve moved beyond the ‘let’s sit deep and pray’ phase of our development. We’re not going to slog it out with them, but this will be a highly competitive game that might get quite ugly to watch. We’re two of the league’s positives, but when you put two positives together, you don’t always get the spark you’re hoping for. This won’t be two artists painting a masterpiece—it’s the phase of the biography where faces are flying across the room. No one will be satisfied with the aesthetic, but someone will likely be happy with the points haul.

This game firmly belongs in the ‘do not lose’ category. If we escape this brutal run of fixtures with 11 points or more, we’re absolutely cooking, considering the number of big away games we’ve had to endure.

I don’t usually comment on what the internet is saying, but I think it’s worth noting some trends that appear at the start of every season:

People believe the positions we didn’t recruit for—those they deem important—were mistakes.

Some have a low-budget movie plot in their heads that Arsenal are finished, and when that happens, others retweet them saying, ‘Wow, this guy was right.’

People overreact to minor blips and often underestimate the magnitude of the job it takes to get Arsenal to the pinnacle of the Premier League and European competition.

Let’s clarify what Manchester City have been doing since Mancini—they’ve been layering in the best players at youth level, the best first-team players, the best coaching staff, and they’ve built the best facilities, all with expert precision, led by the best manager the game has ever seen.

Their wage bill, on paper, is double ours… and in three months, we might find out it’s even higher. Their club revenue is £712.8 million compared to our £464.6 million. We may soon discover that gap is even wider.

So when comparing Arsenal to City, put things into perspective. If you worked in a corporate job in a competitive market and a rival had these advantages, would it be fair for people to compare you as equals? Of course not. We should be thankful that KSE hasn’t thrown up their hands and said it’s impossible to compete. Arteta has done a masterful job, slugging it out the same way Jurgen Klopp has for the last seven years.

All that to say: Arsenal are the underdogs. We’re younger, less experienced, and less well-financed… but we could win tomorrow. Over the course of a season, I have no doubt we’ll push as we did last year, and come the end, I fully expect we’ll be crowned Champions.

History might not be a feeling - but tomorrow, you might exit the day know the emotion it triggered when the boys have made some.

Check out the Arsenal Opinion Podcast right now… and sign up to our Patreon for $5 if you want to the On The Whistle LIVE after the game tomorrow. You can also subscribe to this very website and get the primo writing AND the podcasts for $7.