I’m an anxious particular person. I at all times have been. Individuals are pushed by totally different motivators in life and mine is anxiousness. It’s why I’m early for all the pieces, it’s why I’m effectively organised and it’s additionally why I don’t sleep effectively! Watching Arsenal makes me anxious. I’ve spent plenty of my life making an attempt to determine why I selected a pastime and a way of life that provokes my anxiousness a lot.
A solution I’ve fallen on is that my anxiousness is a little bit like a pet canine, following me round dutifully, trying up with a sunken expression to see whether or not there are any scraps on the dinner desk to feed it. Going to Arsenal is like taking the canine for a stroll, sporting it out on one thing that, within the grand scheme of issues, isn’t life or dying.
This fashion, I inform myself, I expend much less vitality getting anxious about my roof collapsing or whether or not the sore throat I’m creating is definitely the beginnings of throat most cancers. It’s not a convincing rationalization, certain, but it surely’s all I’ve managed to conjure up thus far. The underside line is, when Arsenal are enjoying, particularly in vital video games or derbies, I’m largely a nervous wreck.
Once I performed soccer, that anxiousness translated into the way in which I performed. At my coronary heart, I used to be a artistic participant however I used to be at all times too apprehensive concerning the gaps behind me to be a killer within the last third. So I used to be moved from wing to full-back and from withdrawn striker to deep mendacity playmaker. Mentally I clearly prioritised safety over threat.
I’ve by no means been remotely invested within the aesthetics of how Arsenal play. I used to deceive myself and others concerning the significance of ‘enticing soccer’ however one of many good issues about reaching center age is that you just are usually extra trustworthy with your self and others about who you’re and what you are feeling. I couldn’t care much less how ‘enticing’ the soccer is.
I simply need Arsenal to win. That’s all. That’s leisure sufficient for me. I might be blissful for Arsenal to ‘Allardyce’ their method to a league title if I assumed such a factor had been attainable. The one aspect of Arsenal’s enjoying type that I’m invested in in a important sense is sustainability.
The one actual cause I don’t need Arsenal to play with eleven lunken headed tremendous mutants smashing lengthy balls to Pointy McElbows is as a result of I believe that type has a ceiling and that ceiling is under the place I would love Arsenal to be. If we might get 90+ factors enjoying that manner, I might fortunately flip as much as video games in a shellsuit and baseball cap.
Don’t get me improper, I do need to have the ability to relate to my workforce. I wouldn’t need Jose Mourinho in command of Arsenal. Not as a result of I might object to the type of soccer however as a result of I might object to absolutely the poison he insists on injecting into each environment he inhabits. I would love Arsenal to remain throughout the guidelines of the sport (comparatively talking) and wouldn’t need them to go round intentionally hurting opponents.
However I don’t need Arsenal to fail superbly. The shortage of defensive resolve throughout the mid to late Wenger period actually bothered me, it meant the soccer simply wasn’t aesthetically pleasing to me. We’re all merchandise of our surroundings, in fact. I obtained my Arsenal season ticket in 1992, the second half of the George Graham period when he actually began to lean on that well-known again 5.
The Cup Winners Cup victory in 1994 is one among my favorite Arsenal triumphs, constructed on a bedrock of stable defence. Once more, Graham made the error within the second half of his reign of de-emphasising the assault, the sale of aptitude gamers like Rocastle and Limpar and the freezing out of the elegant Paul Davis noticed the Gunners grow to be a cup workforce they usually stopped competing for the league.
I’ve typically made the comparability between Mikel Arteta and George Graham 1.0. This season, I’m much more satisfied by that comparability as Arsenal, already attacking workforce, have bolted the again door. They’ve the perfect defensive file within the division and, in Declan Rice, most likely the perfect off-the ball participant within the Premier League.
The wedding of Gabriel, William Saliba and Declan Rice is the holy trinity so far as I’m involved, the sensation of security they provide me is so priceless. Not solely that, I actually get pleasure from having a supervisor who just isn’t imprisoned by a ‘philosophy’, who sees setpieces as a priceless a part of the sport to be maximised and exploited, not an affront to ‘lovely soccer.’
I like the way in which he’s not afraid to place Kai Havertz upfront and go lengthy if that’s what is required. There’s a objective that Dennis Bergkamp scores in opposition to Manchester United in February 2005 when he drills the ball as exhausting as he can by van der Sar’s legs. Andy Grey, on commentary that night time, merely exclaims, ‘Precisely what was required!’
That was at all times the genius of Bergkamp for me. He might do issues with a soccer that had been feats of approach and creativeness. However it was by no means about being showy or elaborate, he merely did what was required within the scenario. Generally the scenario required quaint laces by the ball end and when that was required, he didn’t take into account it beneath his creative sensibilities.
🗣️ Luton City supervisor Rob Edwards on Arsenal:
“They provide NO probabilities away” #afc pic.twitter.com/CraSJQTRiP
— DailyAFC (@DailyAFC) April 4, 2024
I like that in Rob Edwards’s post-match press convention on Wednesday night, his first commentary about Arsenal was ‘they don’t provide you with something.’ I like that I spent plenty of the second half on Wednesday night trying on the scoreboard, questioning whether or not I might sneak out a couple of minutes early as a result of I used to be a bit bored. I used to be bored as a result of I knew that Arsenal weren’t going to let a silly objective in and make the sport ‘entertaining.’
Admittedly I didn’t watch it stay, I watched the Metropolis away recreation subsequently, with the stress eliminated. However I enormously loved it. I loved that Arsenal can play like that when they should. It’s the shortcoming to do this that made the workforce and the membership weaker than it ought to have been during the last 15 years or so.
It was one other of Rob Edwards’s observations I actually loved, ‘of the three challengers they’re the one that may play any recreation. If it’s a bodily recreation, if it’s a working recreation, if it’s a footballing recreation, no matter it’s, they’ve obtained the reply.’ Sure, sure and sure. Signal me up for all of that, please and thanks.
Excessive minded footballing philosophies are like the weather, good servants however dangerous masters. The job is to win and I’ve completely no compunction in admitting that I don’t care how Arsenal do it and I believe defending, having good off-ball construction and never being simply disregarded the ball are elementary instruments for that.
You may have to have the ability to assault effectively, you might have to have the ability to rating plenty of objectives to compete for the league title, you might have to have the ability to dominate opponents. However I believe inhabiting two Arsenal eras previous to Mikel Arteta, one which most likely over emphasised the defensive facet of the sport and one which most likely undervalued it, has made me crave the much less celebrated facet of the sport.
In fact, Graham and Wenger’s greatest groups did each side of the sport brilliantly and Graham misplaced his manner when he deprioritised attacking verve and Wenger misplaced his when he deprioritised off-ball prowess. What Mikel Arteta has managed to do that season is deliver Arsenal nearer to that stability that they lacked final season. Nearer to the stability that the perfect groups have.
However actually? In my coronary heart, at my core? Boring Boring Arsenal is my favorite Arsenal. I simply might need to seek out new retailers for my anxiousness. Do I scent fuel? Did I depart the oven on….?
