Can I just say that I’m tired of the “Ooooh, the team that’s the best at Christmas never wins the league” thing? Give it a rest. Football Scrooge. Nobody cares. It’s not even scientific. We can all see it for the rage bait that it is.
If you’re not on top of your game at Christmas, good for you. If you are top at Christmas, good for you too. It’s almost as if there is still a lot of football to be played and an arbitrary marker based on the birth of a child to a virgin in a manger in Bethlehem with donkeys and all that is not that relevant to the question of whether or not Arsenal will become champions.
I just looked it up. Opta has no statistics for this xJC. fBref does not have a category for the Wisest Man. Players don’t get paid with frankincense and myrrh, which is probably a performance-enhancing drug these days. I bet the Man City boys are all on industrial doses of the good myrrh. They are myrrh-d to the eyeballs. Probably do it recreationally too, by meeting at one of Manchester’s famous myrrh emporiums to suck it out of balloons. Young people these days, huh?
Either way, what could otherwise have been a quiet week will be interrupted by an EFL Cup quarter-final against Crystal Palace tomorrow night. Like someone who rings the bell on Christmas Day as if he were a boorish Pogue of some ilk, I expect Mikel Arteta to ring the bells of change when it comes to his team selection. Wait a minute, what bells actually ring on Christmas Day? I’ve been alive a long time now, much of it living within earshot of a number of cathedrals, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard bells on December 25th. I suppose it’s entirely possible that Shane MacGowan heard bells that no one else did. Then you’re going to tell me that these so-called bells somehow rang on a sleigh. I suspect Big Clapper is behind this.
Anyway, back to tomorrow, and I hope players like Kepa, Ethan Nwaneri, Noni Madueke, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Christian Norgaard get the gift of playing football at Christmas. Palace looked tired against Leeds on Saturday night, their schedule was quite hectic and whilst I recognize our manager wants to win this game and ultimately win the tournament, he has to trust these guys at some point. If it’s not tomorrow night, when will it be?
Besides giving them time on the field to kick a ball with their rarely used boots, there is also the benefit that if – and I want you to try hard and imagine this scenario because it is absolutely crazy – someone who plays more often suffers an injury, he will not come into action as ‘cold’ as he does now. I don’t think there will be a pre-match press conference, so we’ll just have to wait and see what information we get beforehand.
You’ll notice that I’ve thoroughly resisted the easy joke about Jesus and the Christmas season, but I do think there’s an opportunity to give the Brazilian a chance from the start and see how he responds. He was out for so long and as he made clear last week, he wants to make up for lost time, so this feels like the perfect opportunity to see what he can do in a relatively low-stakes game. At least compared to what Premier League matches feel like these days.
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Before we went, we had the Goodly Morning mugs on sale again, and as always, we promised to donate all proceeds to charity. And because a lot of people bought them when they came out last year, we ‘only’ raised about €400. However, this is the time of year when I think you should try to help and give back if you are able to.
So Arseblog took that €400 and added a little more, making the following donations:
🟢€5000 to UNICEF to help with their vital work helping save and improve the lives of children in war zones around the world.
🟢 €2500 to the Islington Food Bank – poverty is everywhere, even in the largest cities. Their work is so important and strongly linked to Arsenal Football Club.
🟢 €2500 to Children’s Health Ireland, which raises vital funds to support sick children and their families.
Thanks to everyone who bought a mug, and thanks to everyone who read and listened to Arseblog over the past year. With your support we can do things like this and even if it’s just a drop in the bucket of what it really takes to make the world a better place, every little bit helps. Perhaps also, if you can, you can find a few extra cents to support a charity that is near you, or important to you.
❤️
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OK. I’ll leave it as is for now, but hold off for an Arsecast Extra. We have already put out the call for questions Blue Sky @gunnerblog.bsky.social and @arseblog.com with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you have a Arseblog member on Patreonleave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server. The capsule should be out around noon.
For now, have a good time.
#load #clocks