The little wooden boat creaks in opposite rhythm to the slapping of waves on its hull. You yard in some line, keeping your single square sail tight, sailing with the wind on your back feels almost effortless, as if you’re not really sailing at all. The only way to measure movement is to look back and see the bubbling white wake against the deep blue Ionian sea.
The sun is sharp, high in the sky, bleaching everything around you, washing out the colors: blues become darker, the caps of the waves are brighter, the brown of the hull of your boat seems so lightly colored it’s almost brittle. The skies are so clear, the sun so bright, that it feels like you could see forever; on one side, the curve of the earth, a terrifying infinity of blue and on the other, the distant hills, dark grey.
The sea quickens, you turn the sail slightly sideways, to catch the wind and push you along against its wishes. Suddenly everything feels more hurried. You feel the speed of the boat now. The wind causes the sail to flap slightly, you tighten the lines. Maintain speed.
The hull cuts the water, below it sounds like a river passing underneath you. You’ve done this a hundred times but it never fails to be exhilarating, even on a slow day like this. Because that sea is endless, ruthless, and the only thing between you and death are some planks of wood and your skill.
The boat cuts across a swell and suddenly you see it: a cream colored object with sharp lines rising upward, straight lines across the sky. It’s far off and in perspective seems about the size of a small coin but it’s unmistakably man made because nature abhors straight lines.
The temple of Hera. You know it well. Her columns rising out of the promenade, her roof a perfect triangle, incredibly square edges. Even from a distance, as a beacon to all sailors, it’s a feat of what seems improbable engineering. Like the gods themselves built this and put it here to tell the world that this is Kroton: home of the world’s greatest physician Pythagoras; birthplace of Milo, the greatest wrestler who ever lived. You once saw Milo slaughter a bull, drink its blood and carry it’s body on his shoulders as a celebration before he left for the Olympics.
Kroton. Home.
Considering your bread fetish, I read the title as “crouton”. Heh.
Yeah, I wondered if that was a typo, at first.
PS: great blog as always. I enjoy your segues into non-football stuff.
Is this a part of your original story about Odysseus? Homer covers only a few weeks of his literal odyssey so there’s a lot of material for invention.
Well enough written that it’s itching my curiosity to know more. If there are Arsenal metaphors there I can’t determine them. Except maybe slaughtering the bull and drinking it’s blood. I’d enjoy it if we did that to Man Up tomorrow 😊.
You’ve come a long way with your writing over the years. I encourage as always, to keep going and keep sharing.
Awesome. Loved reading that.
Curious about what prompted posting this, and whether this is part of a longer work of historical fiction?
Also, was there really a temple to Hera at Crotone? I only know of the famous one in Olympia (Greece, not the state capital of Washington, looooolllllllzzz).
Wonderful description of sailing; and what joy it gives sailors!
Thanks for that
Love this extract Tim, more please
YES! 3 points at Old Trafford.
What’s my name?
1NILToTHEARSeNAL!!!
Whatever happens next, enjoy this one.
First win at Old Trafford in 14 years is huge for Arteta.
I have highly critical of this side, but their performance today deserves great praise. Not only did they play well today, but they put in a performance that I think is repeatable against many types of opponents.
Its now up to the technical team to ensure that we go into games with this type approach and mentality. We were positive and brave in possesion, whilst being defensively switched on. It shows that to be solid, you do not need to put everyone behind the ball or play too cautiously in possesion because you are afraid of being punished.
This was the first time in a while that I stood up after the final whistle and did a fist pump.
Proud of that performance.
Keeping it simple no over analyzing.this has been winning us games tho not perfect then why the over analysis.good win.
Devlin – Your comments are always very astute, but I have to rib you a bit about Partey. He looked more than a higher level Elneny today. Although Elneny looked better than a higher-level Elneny too. One game does not a season make, but Partey’s contribution, per Tim’s Twitter was immense. https://twitter.com/7amkickoff/status/1322969878341447680?s=20 Partey will win you over yet! 😉
Hahaha…. I actually love Elneny. I love midfielders like that and I feel he is probably our most underrated player.
Its still a long season though, but I am still standing firm on Partey.
I’ve got a feeling you might have to eat your words regarding Partey. He looks the business to me. Having said that, so does Elneny, so maybe not.
Exactly this.
We have not seen the best of Elneny yet. There is still more to come. He still has to show his ability to move with the ball into the final third, break a press through body shape and one touch passing, quick combination play through the middle third and his underused shooting ability.
Still more to come.
Mike Dean gave US a penalty at Old Trafford? And we won?
I’m buying a lottery ticket today.
LOL the greatest surprise of the zear
ELNENY!
+1
GABRIEL!
I wasn’t able to watch much of the game, but apparently Elneny was superb? Am I hearing that right? I don’t imagine Xhaka enjoyed watching that performance!
Yes he was. Don’t know about the stats but he was showing for the ball and pressing well
Some really strong one touch passing. He rarely touched it more than once, it seemed. And an incredible engine. A lot being made of his 90th minute pressing -which was ridiculously good. A ton of fight in him. Seems like a pairing that works. But I can see other games where Xhaka and Dani will have roles, especially when teams sit back.
I was thinking about Mikel’s challenge in the window – could only afford/get one of either Aouar or Partey. Being the control-oriented (aka FREAK) that he is, there was only one choice. Aouar would have helped us score goals on teams. Partey can help us dominate them.
Yes, it’s only Manure, and only one game, but today Arsenal showed an ability to control a game that I haven’t seen in years. Could easily have been 2 or 3 goals in the first half. More trust in the process this week, lol.
The fact that under Arteta, Elneny is actually morphing into to a solid DM instead of a journeyman sub, is one of the strangest and best things in the bizarro year of 2020.
It really is. No one (except maybe our own Josh D!) could have predicted Elneny would be in the starting eleven this season, let alone perform well! Every year we get a nice little surprise like that, though.
And it’s not just the one good performance this season. Elneny has been consistently good for us, or, at the very least, seemingly better than some other options there. Like I said, I didn’t see much of the game today, but is it everyone’s opinion now that Partey and Elneny should be preferred to Partey and Xhaka?
In a word?
Yep.
Oh, and sorry for hogging the comments, but is there a better indication of how crazy this season is / going to be when you learn that a mere six points separates 1st place from 13th in the current table?
Scanning the table after the match I see that Arsenal FC has conceded the fewest number of goals by any club in the entire league. Had to rub my eyes and check again….
We looked like a team that actually knew what it was meant to be doing. For years it’s been, “here is a selection of players and they will make it up as they go along”. With luck, we should have a respectable season. Progress at last.
Elneny and Partey are a good double act, also with Willock coming through.
If we had a top drawer centre forward, I’d fancy our chances to win something. Unfortunately, I don’t think we have.
And now I’ve been reading up about Crotone and Milo and Pythagoras. You see? You see what you made me do? Now I want to go there. I’ve never been to the bottom end of Italy.
That performance was about 112% better. All over the pitch. More pace, more energy, more belief. We can still get sharper up front but Laca’s all-round game was much more like it, he was a one-man whirlwind until he got gassed.
People are saying United were poor, but Arsenal were so up for it and so well-organised that I don’t think United were ever going to get anything from that game.
What a difference it makes to have that mobility, security, drive and purpose in midfield. Thomas was a revelation, and Elneny! Loved the tribute to him from the manager.
I really hope that killing off the Big 6 Away Hoodoo and doing it with such confidence will help take this team up to the next level.
Oh yeah, and I wanted to make sure the manager and the squad get full credit for turning out that performance after 3 defeats, including the one against Leicester. You could really see that one hurt, and instead of losing faith (like I was doing) they decided to do something about it.
Let’s hope it can be sustained.
This result was hard earned but they are the best kind. It will give the whole squad belief that they can do it against anybody, anywhere. We have a platform to build attacks now and that part of the pitch will improve in cohesion as the season progresses.
I actually don’t think there was a huge difference between this game and the Leicester game except that Leicester were more switched on defensively and had better individual defenders. Then as now we created a few good chances and needed to take one of them. Today we did that and that allowed us not to have to leave massive gaps for them.
I was impressed with Lacazette and El-Neny but I actually agree with Gary Neville that Gabriel was our best player and really set the tone from the back. I’ve lost count of the times he’s shrugged off strikers’ best attempts to bully him already this season. Rashford was the latest to find that putting a body on him is like trying to move a brick wall. Winning those little duels just puts doubt into the opponent. Besides that, he just doesn’t seem to make mistakes. He’s such a great player that we are already taking his performances for granted.
So true, Doc! For years when an opposing attacker got the ball in our end, I would immediately fret, ‘Uh oh, who’s back there?’ Now I look and say, ‘We’re good. Gabriel is back there.’ Much easier on the psyche. With Partey and him in our spine, we are so much more solid.