It was quite an interesting day of action in the Premier League yesterday. I chose not to watch Man City play Chelsea, just as I would choose not to nail my nonsense to a wooden plank and put something else on the TV instead. At one point my phone started buzzing, and knowing it was 1-0 to City at half-time, I expected a lot of ‘Typical City’ messages as they won the game.
Imagine my surprise when I looked and saw a lot of “Come on!” liked, a few ‘Get ins!’, and one ‘I’ve always liked Chelsea!’. As ironic as it may have been, that person was blocked, their number was deleted and they’re lucky I didn’t call the police. Imagine how horrible their night would have been when the doorbell rang and Sting was standing there about to scream “Rooooooxaaaaaaaannne” at them! No less than they deserve, in my humble opinion.
Clearly there is still a long, long way to go in the title race. There are still some twists and turns to come, but that is two matchdays in a row in which we have played first and City have not been able to handle the pressure. Two wins for Arsenal, two draws for them. However, I’m not hubristic enough, or downright foolish enough, to think everything is done and dusted yet, and it will be interesting to see what happens over the next few games.
City play for us this week, against Brighton on Wednesday, before our match against Liverpool on Thursday, and after the FA Cup weekend they have a Manchester derby at Old Trafford early in the day, when we visit Nottingham Forest in the evening. So the shoe could be on the other foot and it is up to us to respond to two games. There is absolutely no chance of them losing. Not a chance, I tell you.
Speaking of United, things are not going well there (as if that wasn’t already clear), with suggestions Ruben Amorim is on the verge. The Guardian Report a major conflict between him and sports director Jason Wilcox, which could mean a change of head coach. As I’ve long said, I don’t think anything good can come from letting a guy named Sir Jimmy run your football club.
With changes also happening at Chelsea, there’s a lot going on, and if you look at the Premier League table, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the teams in the title race are mainly those with the longest serving managers. I know what Liverpool did under Arne Slot last season was a bit of an outlier, but stability in football is a key ingredient for success, and their victory last season was largely based on a side with huge influence from Jurgen Klopp’s long reign. However, stability is also quite boring, which is why some people are getting worried about Mikel Arteta, who – let me be clear – I absolutely want to support his work with silverware.
But any objective analysis of what he has done at Arsenal, and the way he has built us from hapless mid-table rabble to consistent title challengers, must recognize how effective he has been. There is clearly still work to be done, things we need to achieve as a football club, but United for example have had numerous managers/head coaches since Alex Ferguson’s departure, and even with all their resources and status they are a mess. Something we should all take some time to do on this cold January morning.
Whatever your opinion of our manager, is there any doubt that Arsenal are behaving like a serious football club these days? Isn’t that what we all wanted, when not so long ago the opposite seemed true? Owners who were distant; a director who seemed to have been made up as he went along; players who were simply not at the right level to achieve what we all desire; a football structure that felt old-fashioned and lagged far behind the best practices of the modern game. Look now. A lot has changed and the result is a team that looks like real title contenders. Like I said, there’s still a long way to go, but you can’t look at where we are now and not be excited about the opportunity we have in our hands.
Anyway, for more on that, and for more on the Premier League in general, there are two podcast days today. First the Arsecast Extra, and later The 30 Patreon. We have already placed a call for questions for the first one Blue Sky @gunnerblog.bsky.social and @arseblog.com. So fire off 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 today.
For now, have a good time.
#interesting #Premier #League #weekend