England’s Bukayo Saka has spoken to the media ahead of a BIG match against Serbia. He was pushed on our title chances.
“We just have to win every game. That’s the mentality with which we go into the game and see where it leaves us.”
“We can’t get carried away by what people say because one day they say one thing and the next day they say something else.
“People’s opinion of us changes just like the weather. The most important thing is our dressing room, and the foundation and the belief we have in ourselves.”
I like the gist of what he’s trying to achieve here. We get confused all the time in the media, and it depends on what’s happening on a game-by-game level.
Liverpool outspent us, they were nailed down.
Liverpool have beaten us and Arteta is probably coming to the end of his term.
Arsenal are on a huge run, clearly the favourites, and it would be a terrible bottle job if they failed.
Charging City at Arsenal, they have the experience, Arsenal are CHOKERS.
No one can really make a choice because so few of them look at the long-term discourse, except perhaps Gary Neville, who has been strong for Arsenal over the past two seasons.
However, it is our fault that this discourse exists and flutters around like a garbage bag on a construction site. We feed off it, shout at every opinion we don’t like, and carry it far beyond the boundaries it deserves, because that’s the beautiful game and we love it.
Arsenal’s players have generally taken a more mature view of the media this year. It’s all quite funny to them. They don’t pay attention to the accusations, they don’t respond and they absolutely refuse to add fuel to the fire, especially with the referees. They seem to have accepted that PGMOL is a living and breathing entity that is fragile and petty. If you poke them, they will retaliate in a number of soft and hard ways that can affect the title position. Over-referencing, selecting weak referees for strong games, downright terrible decisions. Whatever the boys are doing this season seems to be working as we now have to deal with the referees and our controversies have been just a small sample.
You know who isn’t taking a mature approach to Arsenal at the moment? That pesky wandering fullback, Ricky Calafiori. He hurt himself, but decided not to come home and rest in the cryo chamber.
You might be thinking, oh, maybe it’s a hard game. No, it’s not.
‘Riccardo Calafiori has followed an individual training program for Italy’s World Cup qualifier against Moldova on Thursday.
The Arsenal defender has been one of the Gunners’ standout performers this season, appearing in all 11 Premier League games.’
They are second in their rankings, three behind Norway, and he is putting everything on the line in a World Cup match that will not go into the flanks. Why are international teams like this? It drives me absolutely crazy. Keeping Ricky fit and fresh should be their main mission. They know what he can do, he is one of the best at the moment. Should they really waste his energy on a game like this? Beyond belief.
But good news for Myles and Hincapie, who will be waiting in the wings if the worst happens. This coming glut of Block 5 fixtures will be something Arteta will test in new ways.
When things get emotional, as a coach you fall back on what you know.
You choose the players you love and choose not to rotate.
You take players to the training field for a final extra session before a match. When you’re a man like Arteta and you’re being hunted by a madman like Heinze, your comfort comes from feeling over-prepared. That can end in silly situations, like going on a training trip to Dubai and rolling out Kai Havertz several days in a row.
Arteta has to be like Saka at those press conferences. Calm, trusting, with complete faith in everything built for him. Rotation and freshness are more important to our title than anything else. We run on fumes most years and never make it. We now have the deepest squad and if we use it well this season, there is a good chance we will be fighting for the biggest trophies until the end.
If Arteta falls back on his comfort blanket of overplaying players and monstering them, we will end up being Gyokeresless, playing Merino at the top, falling to the very best teams and losing on the margins again.
Let’s hope Arteta has his head screwed on in the right way, and let’s pray that Andrea Berta can show his value beyond signings, and ensure Mikel is on the right track with the way he manages that squad. We’ve had a pretty unfortunate run of injuries and it’s a warning sign heading into a crucial period. Trust, rotate, think about the medium and long term.
Okay, I’m done. We dropped a SPICY episode of SPICY member recordings last night. If that’s your thing, sign up for a subscription and enjoy the episode. This was based on comments from members of Le Grove. One last piece: please be kind to each other in the comments. If I see insults, trolls or words that are not in line with the ‘blog of love’ approach, I will scoff at people with a ban. We are in the best of our lives, there is no reason for negative reactions. X
#RICKY #TRAINING #WRONG