ARSENAL SEASON PREVIEW
Well, the Premier League has begun and it looks like Liverpool have won their home opener against a very depleted Bournemouth side. Ekitike scored, so did Gakpo. Conclusion? Liverpool are still good.
This season is going to be a very interesting one, you kind of feel like it’s a battle of the strikers for the first time in a while. Ekitike, Sesko, Gyokeres, Isak, Pedro… Solanke?
I’m looking forward to it. Arsenal had a good window, so did Liverpool, and City have slinked a few good players into their huge squad on the down low.
Who will win the league? Arsenal. Three second places in a row… it’s time to convert.
I said to a friend who works in sport the other day that the dumbest hope I have for the season is a total intangible: Arteta needs to be lucky.
Semenyo just scored… what an incredible ball from David Brooks. Wow.
Arteta wouldn’t make it in Napoleon’s Army. Everything that can go against him usually does. Injuries, new rule red cards, lucky goals against, crazy misses at the other end… we are functionally one of the best teams in the world. We have an incredible manager, an outrageous system, world-class players… but we’re missing the final piece. A bit of luck. Piecing it all together. Killing a league instead of playing with it like a cat teases a mouse.
So what do we have going for us this season that could change that?
Hopefully more maturity with refs this year. It’s unfair that we don’t get to play the dark arts, but it’s our reality. We are always a PGMOL target. You can moan about that or you can address it. No dark arts. Play it clean. Don’t let them ruin the season. They have new rules, don’t let them make an example of us.
We have a goal scorer this season. We have to make it work. The sacrifice we made with Gyokeres as our signing is that he is quite a one-dimensional player. He scores goals. He’s a bully. You don’t get Isak/Harry Kane magic with Gyokeres, you get a guy who will finish all day. He’s not going to create something from nothing on the regular. So what does that mean? It means we have to create chances for him and build our attack around him. He’s great in transition, good from set pieces, and if you give him a yard, he will devastate. We know his strengths, we need to see everyone adapting to them as fast as possible.
Berta has gifted a squad to Arteta. Yes, people, for once, we have enough players. Depth, actual depth. I’m blubbering at my laptop. There are 20 players who can make an impact this season. So Arteta has to work out how to use them. His big insight into last season should be tattooed on his thigh so he doesn’t forget: YOU WERE NOT OUTCOACHED BY SLOT, YOU WERE OUT-AVAILABILITIED.
So what does that mean? It means don’t play the same starting 11 fifteen times in a row at the start of the season. Don’t keep squad players out in the cold until you get injuries. Share the minutes around, even if there’s a risk. Don’t be afraid to take Saka off on 60 if he looks cooked. Give time to teenagers. ACTUALLY LISTEN TO THE NEEDS OF PLAYERS. If Arteta does that, he will be rewarded with fewer injuries. If he allows that bullshit machismo to lead his decisions, then we will have to win the league with Merino up front again. I don’t like those odds.
The team, the team, the team. Arsenal’s success isn’t geared around one or two freaks. It’s all about the team. We defend the best in the league because the team is committed to defending well. The two prior seasons to last, we scored record goals (for Arsenal) because everyone was committed to chipping in. We have a goal-scoring freak…
SEMENYO AGAIN! What a solo goal. I’m so gutted we didn’t move for him. Too expensive. What a talent.
… but we also need the team to do its job as well. I need 10 goals from Declan. Martin Odegaard is a 15-goal-a-season player. Martinelli, don’t come to me with a 6-goal haul, you’re better than that. Madueke can be good for 10 goals. Kai Havertz should get 20 across all comps. If individuals don’t drastically improve their output, then why are they at Arsenal? Finish the chances. Be brave. Don’t accept the failings of last season.
Finally, what do WE owe the club as fans? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Just jokes. Fans in the stadium, bring your best. Fans online, don’t freak out if things aren’t perfect. Last season wasn’t fun for a lot of the year. I can handle bad football, I can’t handle the misery we bring on ourselves by catastrophising over the smallest of things. We need to collectively understand that winning the Premier League, in this environment, as one of the few rule-abiding sides, is not easy. The league won’t be a cakewalk. We will drop points. Nothing is lost in the first five games. Everyone is good. No one will go invincible. ACLs will blow. PGMOL will ruin teams. This season will probably be quite tight because City, Liverpool, and Arsenal are going to be very good.
I can’t wait.
I also can’t wait to spend it with you guys, my online internet friends. I read that men are struggling to connect with each other these days. I don’t want to exclude the wonderful women who read this site. But men are quite useless at connection in comparison… and I do think the community we have here is a help. I read the comments (still crazy), the Discord is really good fun, and I love all the interactions I have with people over email, in Patreon DMs, and occasionally some nice things that happen on Twitter. Arsenal is the best form of therapy, so make sure we’re all being good to each other this year.
Liverpool score two… boooooooo!
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Ok, that’s me done. I had a small surgery today. So the United pod was hard to do. Might do it tomorrow. BUT, get on the season predictions.