001 - Chameleon

The mornings be goodly and the vibes are strong as we prepare for what must surely now be our 15th consecutive away fixture of the season this evening.

Whilst indulging in the digital ecstasy that is our current timelines, it became apparent that Arsenal’s own media team appear to have found it necessary to broadcast video footage of the return of William Saliba to full training with the rest of the squad, rather than conceal the evidence in the Stuart McFarlane archives to deliberately withhold until the conclusion of the interlull. This is beautiful news. 

I’ve been taking particular pleasure from the subsequent  meltdown following the fan-led quest to find a Liverpool shot on target (they still haven’t found one yet), which inadvertently led me to an X post from The Athletic detailing an extract from Liverpool correspondent, James Pearce’s recent piece: “Sunday merely served to reinforce the belief that Liverpool as a team are far too nice. There’s a difference between being streetwise and cheating. It wasn’t pretty, but Arsenal produced a masterclass in the former in the second half on Sunday” - What a prick. 

Such is the dishonesty. Yet another simple article referencing the “dark arts” of Arsenal, specifically our time wasting over restarts of play and ability to win cheap free kicks involving minimal contact. Conveniently there was no mention of Trey Nyoni’s reckless challenge on Martin Ødegaard within 50 seconds of first whistle, the complete and utter dominance we displayed in the opening 15-20 minutes, resulting in the only goal of the game (and that’s all it takes), nor the fact that Liverpool couldn’t muster a shot on goal for the first time since Opta records began in 2004. Our good friend, (the mystic) Tim Stillman kindly pointed out that Liverpool have committed more fouls this season than any other team in the Premier League whilst Arsenal are joint 17th for such things and described his rushed work as “fan fic nonsense”. A community note would follow. 

A continued discourse of inaccuracy follows this version of Mikel Arteta's Arsenal, driven by a weird obsession in trying to pigeonhole what we are, who we are, whilst holding us to impossible standards. Perhaps that can be put down to expectation of the champions? No, I was still reading this kind of stuff when Rob Holding had a cannon on his chest. We are "the best version of what the game requires" - A Chameleon. Shape shifting, adapting to suit the game state that unfolds before us, with plenty of evidence available. There's an increasingly narrow fixation on principles, style, identity, playing patterns, etc. Can you find yourself a "man who can do both"? All of the things? All of the stuff? It’s a paradox of choice for The Gunners. That's what we have with our manager. An exception against the rule. Everybody wants their own version of Mikel Arteta, but nobody wants to say it out loud.

Fingers crossed for some more good things this evening. COYG.