Arsenal are the team everyone should support

by imothyt

These last few days without writing have been quiet, though not without controversy. Yesterday was national cookout day and I made some ribs. I fed my dog some the bones and she puked them up on the couch. On the couch. Cool, Pork Chop, cool.

But she’s a good dog.

Yes, there have been other controversies. Arsenal controversies. The Arsenal controversy click factory never rests. Pumping out units non-stop. I have not read a single news source and yet, I bet you I know almost all of them.

There was the “Petr Cech is going to work for Chelsea next season” bombshell. That one was a sidesplitter. I mean that in both the sense that it was laughable and that it revealed which side of the “Leno/Cech should start” debate people stood on. That was another, mini, controversy in itself. You want a real controversial opinion? Leno’s not that good. He’s an average keeper. But he’s better than Cech (which isn’t saying much) so I would start him in the final. But I really don’t care either way because I can see the sense in sticking with the keeper who got you this far and also I can see the sense in dropping him.

Tactically, which should be the only discussion, I can’t quite get my brain around which one to start. I feel like Chelsea are going to dominate possession and shots. That means that we need a shot stopper. If it were a home game, I would pick Leno. But it’s away and his away record is ludicrously bad. Until a few weeks ago, Leno hadn’t made a single big chance save in an away game. Then all the sudden, he made 9. Nine out of fifteen! Of course, just to throw a spanner in the works, he failed to save three out of four at home! LOL.

Of course Cech hasn’t been much better! He’s saved one of the last four big chances he faced and two of the six since the knockouts started. He did have a good game against Napoli. So there’s that. Like I said, I don’t think it matters which of these two start.

Oh yeah, and the “Mkhitaryan can’t have his safety guaranteed by UEFA and Azerbaijan” thing which was not really funny. Look, I’m not going to sit here as a USA American and sanctimoniously condemn Azerbaijan. I live in a country which was founded on the dual concepts of genocide and slavery. Or as George Carlin put it “it’s a country founded by slave owners who wanted to be free.”

And it’s not like this country is super cool now. I lost count of how many active theaters American troops are killing people in. And we are currently gearing up for a pre-election war with Iran. Iran is just a few blocks away from Baku. I know because I looked it up on Google maps. From Baku, take the E119 south all the way to the sleepy little Caspian sea village of Astara. Astara is known for it’s 800 ft tall Astara TV Tower, which just looks like a giant aerial.

So I got nothing to say about any country’s human rights record – not while my own country is currently killing little children who have the temerity to be born in Latin America and try to escape the horrors down there. I think it would behoove us poor people of the world (surprise, I’m not a millionaire/billionaire) to demand our countries treat other people with dignity, respect, and to stop murdering people but I’ve been around for 49 years and I’ve tried to stop this stuff countless times and most of my fellow countrymen seem content with “knocking back a few cold ones” and watching NASCAR. What I’m saying here is that we should be standing up to Azerbaijan for their human rights record and I would gladly do that, just as soon as I get my own country squared away.

The thing I absolutely can take on is UEFA – the left hand men of FIFA, the gangsters of football. For any of you young kids out there who are contemplating a life of crime, listen up: don’t run around stealing $5 or $10 worth of stuff from one or two other poor people in your neighborhood. Get yourself an MBA or a law degree and get into UEFA or FIFA. Once there you can steal $5 or $10 from ALL OF THE POOR PEOPLE! Do the maths.

I might not be able to stop my country from going to war a million times over but I might be able to stop FIFA and UEFA.. who am I kidding? Sigh. Blatter and Platini bilked people for millions and their sentence? “Hey, stay away from football for a few years.” Meanwhile, the kid who lives on my block, who has a backyard full of stolen bicycles and lawn equipment, will soon start his life in and out of the prison system.

That brings me back to the Arsenal. Wait, it’s going to get weirder.

Man City was accused of cooking the books to get around FFP, Chelsea have a transfer ban, some other oil baron has bought up Newcastle, and meanwhile Arsenal have this owner whose crime is.. not putting his own money into the team. It was funny the other day on the Guardian podcast when Bazza Glendazza suggested that Arsenal and Chelsea should boycott the Europa League final. “No man left behind” he said, quoting the US Army motto. Funny, risible, actually, because they would be taking a moral stand, which would cost them millions of Pounds. No team is going to do this. They could and probably will lodge a formal complaint and then get on with the game.

But then the talking heads asked which clubs were clean and which clubs should people support because they aren’t morally bankrupt (it could have been another pod – the Totally Football Show?) and they passed around the usual names like the fan owned version of Man U and other fan owned teams. But you know what I kept thinking? Arsenal.

What’s Kroenke’s biggest crime against humanity? Ok, he’s a billionaire and he owns a lot of stuff, including that TV station which glorifies killing big game. He also doesn’t go to games, he wears a toupee, he’s kind of an absentee owner, and he won’t put any of his own money into the club. But is he a pervert? A human rights violator? In the world of billionaires, Stan Kroenke is pretty tame. His main crime seems to be that he likes to buy sports teams and run them like real businesses.

Weirdly, I’m starting to think that maybe Arsenal is the morally OK team to support. I think I may have even come to that conclusion. Look around at the Premier League. If you’re looking for a club that’s not owned by an oligarch, an oil sheikh, or a pervert. A club that kind of tries to do the right things. Then maybe the Arsenal is the club.

It’s the club for me.

Anyway, I’m watching the final tomorrow. I can’t stop UEFA from being morally bankrupt. I can’t save the world from the impending climate apocalypse. I can’t stop the US Government from blowing up the world. I can’t fix Azerbaijan. I can’t fix Chelsea’s problems with diving, racist supporters, and an oligarch owner. But I can watch Arsenal. And hopefully, I can get a little joy from that.

That is, I can get joy if we find a way to win despite Eden Hazard diving 30 times in the penalty box and winning a handful of penalties. Maybe we can get that out of the way early in the game, first 10 minutes, and then the referee will be like “nope, I can’t give more than one penalty” and Arsenal can do one of those barnstorming comebacks!

Qq

59 comments

  1. I only fear giroud more than hazard. He’s strengths are hard to match against.

    Not raising my hopes.

  2. This post is tinged with ennui that I feel as well. For this time of year, it’s horrible here. It should be 21 C/72 F but instead it’s 12 C/54 F. March in May. And it’s raining. My miserable existence is down to complaining about the weather like a pensioner and counting the hours to get this f%&king game over with.

    If it goes the way we want, I’ll be wearing something Arsenal (a cap, a tee) everyday until next season. I have a relative who works for Adidas. I’ll score a new kit for free. It’ will be happy days.

    If it goes the other way, a Liverpool victory on Saturday or an upset of Toronto over Golden State in the NBA final series will be the only ways I’ll get through the summer with any sanity. In case it all goes south I’m lining up sessions with my favourite therapists, Senior Cuervo, Mr. Beam and Mr. Daniels. Actually, I’ve started now. Blame the weather.

    1. LOL..

      OK. Walmart is bad, Amazon is bad, Target is bad, Safeway is bad, all giant retail stores are essentially extracting capital from workers both overseas and domestically. I agree. One world union, mate. I’m ready for the anarchist/collectivist revolution. Also, please note that extracting profits from the workers happens at all levels. Even at the football level. Ozil makes £12m a year only because Kroenke makes that wage plus profits.

      Until then, a few things to note: Kroenke didn’t make his money from Walmart. His wife did. He makes his money in real estate and sports teams. He doesn’t really even make money from these things, he just builds wealth in holdings.

      Anyway, whenever you’re ready to march to end capitalism I’ll be there with you.

      1. It’s not “extracting capital from workers”, it’s “building shareholder value”. Every Wall Street Wolf knows this. Get with the program. Or be a Walmart Greeter. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

      2. Wasn’t Kroenke in charge of site scouting and actual construction for Wallmart locations ?
        I seem to remember an article about him saying something to this effect.
        If so, then he certainly made a $hit load of money from his connections to Wallmart.
        As a developer and a land owner you can’t imagine a better set up than that.
        You scout the area for the next Wallmart location, buy up surrounding land on a cheap before anyone gets a whiff of it , and than you build out the area for other retailers and mom and pop stores to move in.
        Not to mention the windfall from the local housing boom .
        All these newly employed people looking for places to live near by.
        Another self made American success story.

        Me? I dislike him for his mustache.

      3. Žižek and JBP discuss Capitalism, Marxism, Happiness and in general institutions of social organisation. Very instructive:

  7. I’ve been struggling with Arsenal this season. Well, among other things. My main gripe has been the loss of an identity I could believe in and get behind. Sure, we still say we value the same things as ever, but we don’t act like it. This has led to much dismay and disillusionment. Also distrust. I don’t trust Arsenal anymore. I see bad intentions when I see most of the people at the club.

    But….We’re the good guys! Chelsea are the club that brought this external spending which made football an even more exclusive rich man’s club. The old boys network survives alongside the nouveau riche. There is no ‘breaking the wheel’ as some had claimed. They are the club which counts John Terry as their legend, with Mourinho as their defining blueprint of a manager. And they have Marcos Alonso in their ranks now. F*** em.

    Arsenal are the good guys, for all the reasons Tim mentioned and more. We’re still Arsenal, and tonight we will win. The world sorely needs good to triumph over evil.

  8. Uefa are idiots. I am not against hosting big events in smaller, more far flung places. People acting like it’s a personal attack on them that the British island is not the centre of the Uefa-verse is kind of funny. I understand there’s corruption involved, but the same would be the case for anywhere. Seriously, if you think they are only corrupt when they go elsewhere you’re being naive. I could understand them hiding behind the official response that Miki is free to travel and will be safe.

    But then they’ve forbidden Arsenal from paying tribute to Miki. Why? If he’s just like any other player, free to go, but simply chose not to, why would Uefa deem it unacceptable for him to be honoured by his own club?

    The surprise to me is Uefa didn’t fix it so Arsenal and their Armenian player never even made the final.

    There seem to be some things happening with Uefa though, with the proposed change in the CL format. Arsenal are vulnerable to being left of that list if they protest too hard.

  10. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

    No matter what happens I will always love Arsenal Football Club.

    1970
    1994
    2019

    The 24-5ish year gap suggests we could see history repeating itself and we win something and become a force in Europe.

    If we lose then we try again, but if we win, we become greater. Because for the first time Emery gets to win the Europa without selling his most important players and so he gets to build a better team.

    Come on you gunners,tonight we play for guts and glory.

  11. Great post, great comments. Only thing I didn’t get was the pervert part (who???). Must have missed some news…been busy!

  12. For me is quite weird how a lot of Arsenal supporters all of sudden have taken a biased approach on the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict. And point out Azeri’s problems and judging them, forgetting that it takes two to tango. I mean, it is Armenia that has occupied part of Azerbaijan’s territory, so I personally cannot really blame them for hating Armenians. What I know is that 99% of the gooners would have had exactly the opposite opinion if the final was in Yerevan and Arsenal had an Azeri on our books.

    Of course, this doesn’t take any responsibility out of UEFA for their decision to host the final in Baku, although that personally I feel that it is the host country that should be fully responsible for the safety and the secure atmosphere around the final. I mean, UEFA has made a gesture towards them by giving them the final. But they as hosts have to take responsibility and earn it. And Azerbaijan has failed big time doing that.

    1. Indeed, it takes two tango. If not for having the Armenians to beat, rape and murder in that pogrom, Azerbaijan would have looked ‘quite weird’ beating, raping and murdering no one.

      1. You seem to be either an Armenian or fired-up for unknown reason bystander – in both cases I see no point in engaging in a discussion with you.
        But this conflict has no connection with football and the Arsenal fans have no need to take a side.

        1. It is literally affecting today’s match.

          I’ll keep my assumptions about you to myself. It’s a behavior you should consider in the future.

          2. BAI BLAGOI SAYS: May 29, 2019 at 9:41 am
            This after making your view about a whole nation public.

            I did no such thing.

            But everyone with a working knowledge of English can see that.

            And since I also understand the meaning of ‘no point in engaging’…

  14. Man, I am not confident about this game. I just keep thinking about Mustafi and Maitland-Niles up against Hazard. Ugh. And which Ozil will turn up today, I wonder? Nobody knows.

    Anyway, I’m in meetings the rest of the day, so I’ll miss the game. Catch you all later, hopefully in good spirits!

  15. Laca wide setting up Auba in the middle seems to work better. But we’ve landed on the former so far.

    1. I also think maybe we should experiment with the Chelsea model of revolving door of managers. Problem though is that the club seems not to have the money to do it properly or even to do it at all.
      And it doesn’t guarantee success by the way. See Man United.

  18. I’ve always been a fan of the “What If…” comics that Marvel sometimes puts out. The ability, as a creator, to go back and do it all again differently without consequence must be fantastic.

    In that vein, I’ve been wondering lately what might have been different if we’d plunked down for a young Vincent Kompany when Sol Cambell left.

    Whatching this match has seriously put a desire for alternate realities in my head.

  19. We did have the (slightly) better of the first half. But if the usual suspects can’t score, the usual results follow.

    I did enjoy the way in which Iwobi joined the collective shock at his goal.

    Otherwise, at least we don’t end the season with a false sense of confidence.

  21. thumbs up to giroud. kid got a goal, stretched arsenal’s back line for pedro’s goal, won a penalty, and got an assist. not bad for a single night’s work. it’s why he’s the france #9 who led them to a euro final 3 years ago and a world championship final last summer, which they won.

    being a center forward is so much more than simply goals. for crying out loud, giroud made two goals tonight simply with movement, without even touching the ball. it’s why, at 32, he’s still a much better center forward than lacazette. wenger just used him wrong. for france, grietzman stays close. for chelsea, hazard stays close. at arsenal, ozil drifts too much, leaving giroud isolated. i always said arsenal should have played alexis or even lacazette as a second striker behind giroud. seriously, how many center forwards could have done what giroud did tonight? maybe that polish kid that plays for fc bayern. i can’t think of any others.

    okay, getting off of giroud’s nuts, thumbs down goes to little lucas torreira, crying like a b*tch when he got subbed out. what’s that all about?

    lastly, the 3-4-1-2 is as dumb as the 4-4-2. you’ve still got only 2 center mid and only two strikers. a 4-3-3 gives you 3 center mids and 3 strikers. maybe i’m lying or doing bad math but i think 3 is more than 2. fullbacks can still provide you width with 4 at the back; you don’t need wing backs. even a 4-3-1-2 with mesut means he still has 3 center mids behind him and he can drift. i guess that’s a thumbs down for unai, too. especially in a game that arsenal needed to win.

    1. the folks at espn and fox sports (and tottenham) are going to clown torreira for crying like that (with an arsenal badge on his chest). i just see non-stop meme after meme on the horizon. disgraceful!

    2. Sarri prepared his team specifically for our back three. He said this in the days leading up to the match. If Emery wanted to catch them off guard he would have played a 4-4-2, but I have some sympathy for him there, because we did not have a right-back in the squad, and ideally you’d want at least two defensive-minded players on the right to handle Hazard if you didn’t have a right-back.

      We missed Ramsey badly. Perhaps if the club (knowing he was gone) had sanctioned more than £2.5m in January on a player who could jump into his position we would be talking about a different scoreline.

      Whatevs. To me, this means we don’t get humiliated in the CL next year. That’s it. Even if we got CL football next season, do you really think the club would invest heavily in players? Let’s not be delusional. Kroenke is not interested in taking this club to the next level.

    4. Lay off the Lacazette criticism, it was Koscielny’s slow speed that gifted Giroud, a lumbering slow player, the chance for a free header. The midfield fell apart and we could not stem the tide of Chelsea’s runs, nothing more nothing less. If Giroud were some duper-superstar why did they have to get Higuain for league games, we lost because we lacked a cutting edge, not because the 3-4-2-1 was pointless.

      Kolasinac could have laid better balls and we could have gone 2-0 up in the first half.

  22. Question. Who is the first to win the Prem, Arsenal or a newly cashed up Newcastle?

    Question 2. Would it be better to scrap Emery and give someone a chance to improve what we have, with a few changes or keep Emery and have a wholesale clear out? And which approach would better suit developing youth? Seems we have a handful of potential first teamers coming along.

    And lastly. Today sucked. I wasn’t overly confident that we’d come out on top but I sure didn’t think we’d get embarrassed like we did.

  24. I bought a ticket to the Roma game in July. I could afford the travel and hotel costs easily if I didn’t save nearly half of my post-tax earnings (I’m also a millennial, so eat that, stereotypes); I’ve just had to play the opportunity cost game to be comfortable with paying for those added costs. And then today happened and I instantly listed my ticket for resale. Head over heart, it’s the fiscally wise move at this point. Even if I don’t get it sold, not spending on the extra costs (over 6 times the face value of my ticket) feels like a win.

    Congrats, Arsenal. After 20 years, I think you’ve finally broken me.

    1. Chin up, soldier. Fans supported Charlton from the Premier League to League 1 and right now they are in the Championship. Life is filled with ups and downs.

      1. I’m old enough to grasp that (ups and downs), thanks. I’m just worn out, and somewhat disconnected. I don’t feel like I recognize the club anymore, and haven’t for a few years now.

  25. “I live in a country which was founded on the dual concepts of genocide and slavery. ”

    Wow. This is one of the most obnoxious, insulting, and ill-informed comments I’ve ever read. I’ll honestly be unsubscribing from this blog now. Bye.

    1. Bye, Felicia.

      You can take your MAGA hat and hang it somewhere else.

      Facts are curious things in that eventually they win out over mythology. Sometimes it just takes longer than it should.

    3. I forgot “and religious fanaticism.” Sorry if the simple truth that the USA built much of its wealth on the backs of slaves, then expanded westward committing genocide on the first peoples is too much of a truth for you.

  26. If Adam is a paying customer, Tim should avoid publishing truths that Adam does not like to read!

  27. Emery’s much vaunted record was basically about him winning the EL. At PSG, this led to him being given a chance to use their financial might and deliver the CL. He failed to do that, and even conspired to somehow lose the league.

    At Arsenal, which is a level below PSG, he failed to even deliver the EL trophy, his supposed specialty. He also somehow conspired to lose the top 4 race.

    The only reason we’re even this close to having achieved our targets is not Emery’s coaching, it’s that Wenger left a solid team (home record last season, EL semi final) which had many holes plugged in the summer.

    Emery has taken a sledgehammer to that, and now wants time and money to fix it. If he gets his way, get used to finishing 8th – 10th. Because Emery will drag us down to his level.

    1. Evidence posits that your conclusion is false. Emery and Poch were contemporaries in the Laliga at one time, and the ability to get close to the top was what made Emery seem good.

      Shard just admit that we have poor players at the ends of their careers, and that has played a huge part in Emery’s failure here. You don’t teach an old dog new tricks.

      Koscielny, Monreal, Ozil are old dogs.

      1. Emery may not teach his players how to pass the ball, but he certainly sets the tone for how to pass the buck.

    2. Shard, Emery is a Europa League specialist just like Zidane is the CL specialist.
      Wake me up when either one wins another of those trophies with a different club and different group of players and then we’ll talk.

      Also, your Wenger era Arsenal players assessment is a bit …. rosy , shall we say.
      Whatever Emery’s limitations are , and there are plenty, the fact is, he was put in a tough situation in charge of a highly imbalance squad and failed.

  28. lari03, i didn’t criticize lacazette. i simply stated giroud is a better center forward, a position i’ve always retained. while giroud may be slow and lumbering, he was fast enough to beat koscielny, niles, and sokratis to a spot for a goal, a penalty, and an assist. if it weren’t for cech, giroud would have embarrassed arsenal even more. there’s a reason giroud is the france #9 and lacazette doesn’t even make the french side. once again, it’s not a slight against lacazette, it’s props for giroud.

    who cares about speed anyway? speed’s not a skill, it’s something you’re born with. theo had speed. to be as dangerous as giroud was yesterday took skill. arsenal simply couldn’t cope with giroud’s quality on the ball or movement off the ball.

    you say that arsenal lost in midfield yesterday. of course. chelsea had three center mids while arsenal only had 2. that’s not to mention that chelsea’s midfielders are better than torreira and xhaka. in fact, can anyone who knows, please share with me the merits of a 3-4-1-2 in today’s football climate, particularly the way that arsenal employ it?

    1. Football formations aren’t like poker hands where one hand trumps another.

      There are factors a manager has to consider that dictate what formation he deploys. He wants his best available players on the field with a balance attack vs defence and to nullify the opposition’s strengths .

      The 2 main problems Emery has is that he is working with a flawed squad and has to compensate one area to bolster another and he is working with players that don’t win one-on-one battles. This is why Emery has used a variety of formations the whole season with little success.

      To say using formation ‘x’ over formation ‘y’ is dumb is too simplistic.

  30. well Tim, I am glad you are taking a break. ‘Cuz, there is nothing good to write about now. There was only 1 objective for the season, 2 different ways to achieve it, and 2 transfer windows to make it happen. Urgh. We have a critical mass of players who needs inspiration to bring their best on the field. No one was providing that inspiration. Urgh^2.

  31. You know what’s coming now, right? Spurs are winning the Champions League.

    After shutting us out of the CL by a point, because we couldn’t f****** beat Brighton at home.

    After Chelsea took the 3rd place we should have taken, and still had the hunger and intensity to give us a spanking in the Europa final. With a dominant all-round performance by Giroud.

    We’re all going to feel like we want to flush our heads down the toilet this weekend.

  32. And speaking of Giroud…

    He wanted to have his cake and eat it too, and Arsene let him.

    He wasn’t playing enough and his world cup place was in jeopardy. So he had to move to get regular game time, but didn’t want to leave London or England.

    Wenger signed off on the Chelsea move. By being soft, we let Chelsea solve their Morata problem. No other top 6 club would have sanctioned that. “Over our dead, cold bodies”, United and Chelsea themselves would have informed us.

    We also — I sense — rolled over too easily on Mkhitaryan. Do you think that UEFA would ever allow a situation where a higher stature player (say Luis Suarez) couldnt play for Barcelona in a final? Arsenal showed more steely resolve with Ramsey’s contract than with these.

    Jokers. From Kroenke down.

Comments are closed.

Related articles

Read more stories on our homepage