‘It feels like Arsenal more than any team in the league is going to drive headlines, agendas and narratives more than ever this season,’ says one supporter.
Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.
And that’s the bottom lineAnd so it came to pass on the opening day that anyone with half a brain could have told you would happen.
A marginally better Manchester United – mainly down to their new forwards – still losing a football match.
The bottom line is this. It’s pointless buying lovely new furniture from IKEA if your foundations are still wobbly and the roof is still leaking.
Behind the three shiny new toys up front remain the same old problems. Really crap goalkeepers. Slow, cumbersome centre backs (they didn’t really get tested by Arsenal yesterday, but they will soon enough). A disjointed central midfield into which they have to shoehorn Bruno (not his best position) alongside the knackered Casemiro or the frankly really bad Ugarte.
Here’s how it’s going to go. Amorim will be gone by November. Then, United being United, despite spending 9 months buying players for his silly 3-4-3, will appoint a 4-2-3-1 coach. Who will then inform Jason Wilcox that he needs a keeper, his centre backs are only fit for a back 3, and he needs full backs not wing backs. More churn will ensure. And off we go again, rubbernecking at the latest car crash.
It’ll never not be funny.
Andy H, Swansea.
All about ArsenalI was listening to the radio for some build up before the Man U v Arsenal match and someone mentioned that once the opening day fixtures were set then it was inevitable that the biggest headline will be generated from this match – with a bit of an assumption that there was a winner and loser to the match rather than a draw.
It was a very agreeable point. What I didn’t expect is for Arsenal to win AND be the team that faced an absolute mountain of criticism. Man U meanwhile getting plenty of plaudits for showing signs of improvement.
Of course an element of this shows where the expectations stand for each side this season but come on, its been a bit over the top right? Man U with their reshaped attack will clearly not be as toothless as they were last season and so will give most sides a damn good game at home. Arsenal had by far the hardest opening day fixture of all the big teams and went and won ugly and got the 3 points.
If you offered Liverpool, City and Chelsea that same result delivered in the same fashion they’d snap your hand off right now. I can say with some certainty that fans of those 3 clubs (plus others) will have watched that game thinking it was a real chance for early dropped points from a potential title rival.
It feels like Arsenal more than any team in the league is going to drive headlines, agendas and narratives more than ever this season. Gyokeres is the most scrutinised and under pressure player in the league before a ball was kicked despite plenty of more expensive players and strikers being signed by other teams, and every Arsenal result will be followed by a ridiculous over reaction swaying to the negative as much as possible. I understand some sections of Arsenal fans are also prone to this boom or bust emotive responses to each result but you’d hope for more balance in the media.
I find the narrative around Arsenal and Arteta strange. There is a lot of talk about how Arsenal MUST win the title or champions league this season, despite not winning the former for 24 years and never winning the later. Why is it only Arsenal who MUST win it – surely the same must apply to Liverpool and City in the context of a failed or successful season? Some people say Arteta MUST be sacked if he doesn’t win it – its such a weird stance to take without applying any context (or any knowledge of how the Arsenal board traditionally treat their managers – stability overides dreaming and ambition). What if Arteta did a Klopp and got 97 points but finished 2nd – is that worthy of the sack?
Finally, those who talk about the two things above will often happily talk about the plethora of flaws in this Arsenal team. Too reliant on set pieces, don’t score enough goals, lack creativity, don’t have a killer goalscorer, poor on transitions, play sideways football, no superstars to win games on their own, etc etc. So a long list of reasons why Arsenal will fall short and are not as good as Liverpool or City but also they MUST win the title. Talk about having your cake and eating it.
The season is 1 game old and Arsenal have won a very tough game whilst not being anywhere near their best, not everything needs to provoke such extreme and often negative reactions that a lot of people seem to fall in to with Arsenal more than anyone else.
Rich, AFC
It all began with the set-piecesIt’s hard to believe it is the same manager that was in charge of Arsenal in 2022/23 season. Without the early season expectation of a title challenge, Arteta masterminded some of the best attacking display in the premier league, certainly the best of his own career.
But since then it seems he’s crumbled under the pressure of actually being considered a contender. He’s become more pragmatic and dull every subsequent season, stockpiling big burly defenders and relying heavily on set-pieces.
Ah. Set-pieces. The exploitation and subsequent reliance on it has become the beginning and apparently the end of Arsenal’s attacking creativity. Arsenal’s set-pieces, initially the clever aside, the unexpected dagger from the shadows, have become the entire arsenal (pun intended). What began as a complement, a glimmer of ingenuity, now stands exposed as the only idea, leaving the rest of the attack muted, meek and mechanical.
And you can feel it in the players. The thrill is unmistakable — the flicker of excitement, and perhaps more worryingly, the sigh of relief, when they’ve won a corner. Watch them: the way they jostle for positions in the various needlessly elaborate routines. The training ground has become a theatre for the mastery of set-pieces, endless hours spent perfecting patterns that mask the withering of invention elsewhere. Why strain to carve an opening against opponents who are not utterly hapless, when the shortcut is so simple — a well-struck delivery to the big lads waiting in the box?
And it’s not confined to the players. The set-piece coach now struts into the limelight, basking in the role of architect, eager to collect his applause for another blueprint executed to the letter.
And it works — wildly so. The numbers speak for themselves, and the goals have flowed from corners and free-kicks in recent years. Yet the truth gnaws at the edges: it isn’t enough. It was never going to be.
Because when the smoke clears, when the scraps are tallied, Arsenal’s reliance on dead-ball ingenuity exposes a deeper, more troubling stagnation. Their chief creator, Ødegaard, once the conductor, now looks dulled, his artistry blunted by the straightjacket of Arteta’s rigid design. What was once improvisation and daring has congealed into repetition and habit.
If Arsenal are to make the final leap — from contenders to champions, from hopefuls to holders — they cannot climb there on corners alone. Arteta, too, must evolve, must rediscover the courage to let his side breathe and create in open play.
If the football does not grow sharper, braver, more alive, the dream of a league title will remain just that — a dream, slipping further away with every set-piece celebrated like salvation. And the only thing truly set in stone will be the manager’s fate.
AYK
**When does style matter?**Chris from Croydon commented that a win means more at this stage than how you win. Sure, I buy it. Cliches aside, 3 points in an opening game to shake off the booze and babes of a few weeks off seems logical.
But at the end of last season, I kept reading the same thing. It doesn’t matter how you win during the run-in; it only matters that you win. 1-0 with a deflected goal in the 91st minute after playing like a group of strangers for the first 90: absolutely fine. But it did get me thinking. When does it actually matter how you play so we can all judge Arsenal fairly?
I would think we could all agree on matchweek 6 through 30. 5 games to get started and 8 games at the end where the tension builds and you win any way you can. Thoughts on a postcard?
Niall, Annapolis
MORE FROM THE F365 MAILBOX
👉 Arsenal ‘stank up the gaff’ but ‘ugly never felt so good’ for Gooners
👉 ‘Horrible’ Arsenal and their ‘Viking clogger’ savaged as Man Utd ‘back’
Tuck and rollDear Mailbox,
Just a thought on Bayindir getting a nudge from Saliba. If he falls over into his net when he feels the contact, the ref gives a free kick to United a hundred times out of a hundred. It wasn’t a foul, but – who cares? It’s an easy way to nullify that aspect of Arsenal’s Pulisball routines, and as we saw from the game, without their set-piece dickery, they don’t have a lot else in attack. Hopefully the keeper, if he’s staying near the first team, will learn this trick sooner rather than later.
Cheers,
Dan, Worthing
Red Herring, please watch the Arsenal goal over again. Watch Zubimendi move towards the edge of the six yard box and then watch Cunha grab him around the chest and stop him making his move towards goal. I assume that is okay as it is a Man Utd player clearly obstructing an opposing player and not an Arsenal one?
Boo hoo. Poor old Man Utd, never had a decision go their way in their entire history.
Steve Lynch
Stewie warningFirst time writing, long time reader. Love the website (almost as much as I used too).
Was anyone else able to guess Stewie had written in by the Viking clogger comment, even before having to scroll down and check for emojis?
I’m not going to waste any time explaining why I don’t like Stewie’s ‘contributions’.
Stewie let’s make a bet: If arsenal win the league, you have to admit you are a troll and give us your real name (first name will do). If they don’t I will read all of your emails for a season and respond and everything.
Let the mailbox know, either way.
Sean EFC (can’t wait to see which Grealish we have borrowed)
Dear F365,
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for adding the warning at the top of Spurs fan Stewie’s email. Please continue to do this with each of his daily trollings. Thank you again. All is good.
Steve, Devon
Speaking of…Dear 365,
I need to do the job that the FAILING FAKE NEWS MEDIA will not do, and push back against the Trumpian stream of lies and misinformation emanating from the Cult sheep that worship at that altar of Antonio El Pulizon aka “Arteta Fanboys”. Here is a sample of the demented Trumpian lies and bullshit that the unhinged “MAKE ARTETA GREAT AGAIN” loons are flooding you with.
Exhibit A: Outright lies and misinformation from Rob AFC:
“ Arteta is on 10m not 15m”
Factually incorrect. 365 literally have an article breaking down salaries, which is backed up by various sources. You’ll see clearly that Arteta is on £15.6m a year – Google AI also confirms the exact same figure of £15.6m. So the question is: why are Arsenal fans lying? 🤔
Exhibit B: Demented unhinged nonsense from John Matrix AFC
“ There is a reason why Chelsea, Liverpool, City, United and Spurs fans keep heaping pressure on Arteta to win, and that’s because none of those teams have beaten us in like 800 days”
Yes. Nothing to do with El Pulizon being paid insane wages for failure, nothing to do with the perpetual arrogance and egotism of a delusional fanbase that continues to insert themselves and Arteta into “elite” conversation (despite having less PL pedigree than Championship Leicester over the past 20 years!) Indeed, fans of Liverpool must be incandescent with that paltry PL title, Chelsea with their club World Cup, and Citeh with their 4 PL titles in the past 5 years, whilst Arsenal and Paella Pulis have been a punchline eh! 😂. Not being able to clap back at even Newcastle and Palace in fact is shameful and a humiliation.
In fact… I’m sure even the Spurs fans spend every waking hour wishing they’d beaten Arsenal in a meaningless PL fixture, instead of that European trophy they just lifted. This exposes the difference in mentalities: other clubs focus on actual trophies, Arsenal fans simply invent parallel reality trophies (“the unbeaten v Big Six” Trophy being the latest). Remember what El Fraudo said: “Arsenal have more points than any team over the last three years” their dear Leader told the sheeple. And the MAGA loons swallowed the lie. whole! Not one of them has yet been able to explain this outright lie. Weird eh?
Exhibit C: pure unhinged imbecility, Tom in Leyton
“ What evidence have you ever shown us your opinions on football have merit?”
The most amusing Trumpian display of rank stupidity I’ve read of late. It’s Alan Partridge-esque. All that’s missing is for lil Trash-talkin Tom to sign off with “THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER” 😂
Really simple one this: opinions are subjective debatable points, based on an individual’s personal worldview. Hence why eg newspapers have “opinion” sections. An individual is free to supplement that opinion with facts (eg it is my opinion that Arteta is an overpaid fraud, supplemented by evidence of a €1bn + spend, zero PLs, zero CLs, zero trophies in five years, spanked by first season Slot etc).
The onus to supplement a viewpoint with hard evidence is incumbent when that point of view is presented as Fact – not an opinion 🙄🙄
So, for instance, when your Dear Leader flagrantly lies in a press conference and says “Arsenal have more points than any team over the last three years”, this is a statement of Fact – and it should be backed up with hard evidence. Same as claiming “Luis Enrique told us we were the better team” – another lie, laid bare by Enrique contradicting it immediately. That factual clarification never happened because Arteta is a fraud who is telling lies to cover for his ineptitude. Utterly demented these AFC fans LOL
Exhibit D: rank shameless Trumpian hypocrisy – Damola in Bremen
“ We will never apologise to you for the way we play”
How interesting a take this is, given the years of sanctimonious bollocks we heard from Arsenal fans about Mourinho “anti-football” and “I would never want to win playing such a brand of dour football after all the money spent”. Reminds me of when MSNBC takes a months-old clip of a Trump sycophant making excoriating statements on Biden “It’s a disgrace Biden would ever have discussions with Putin”…and then show you that exact same boot-licker hypocritically making the opposite point, months later “President Trump is a hero for hosting Putin” 😂😂😂
It’s like claiming you “cannot compete with Citeh oil money” as your same fans put Liverpool as preseason title favourites. How does that square? Aaaah cognitive dissonance!
I repeat: what do you call spending over €1bn to bore the living shit out of the football populace and win sod all? Least Mourinho won!
On a final Trumpian note, beautiful to see the Make Arteta Great Again Mail boxers going for the Trumpian “ban whatever opinions don’t chime with my delusional worldview” approach – simply reinforcing what a hilarious, precious, hypocritical bunch of snowflakes they truly are.
Stewie Griffin (Maybe the MAGA should ban any books referencing Arne Slot turning up, spending nada and breezing their Dear Leader. SAD!)
Pet peeve goneHi,
It looks like one of my pet peeves has been removed – where keepers hang on to the ball for 20 seconds or more to slow down the game.
I noticed the Burnley keeper was penalised for it early on against Spurs.
This has had a much greater effect than I thought it would. The ball coming back into play before teams are fully “set” is responsible for speeding up the game enormously and contributing to the helter skelter nature of a few games this weekend. This might, of course, be temporary – but I hope not.
I don’t expect they will apply this to other forms of time wasting – goal kicks, throw-ins etc – it’s far too sensible, and anyway we all need our peeves.
Rory Johnston – LFC, GUFC.
Ad and subtractWhile watching the football on Sky on Sunday, I had the sound turned off during the ads as normal; but I was jolted at the sight of an advert for – well – a men’s sanitary pad underwear thing?
I’m no spring chicken, but I’m not quite at the stage of snapping one of those on yet. But what I did notice was: the nappy ad was followed by adverts for a cancer charity, life insurance, something to do with arthritis, and a cruise holiday. Obviously gambling ads all over the place too, because of course. I didn’t see any of Redknapp’s Skechers advertised on there, Werthers, or a Jane McDonald album, but I may have missed those.
Assuming Sky know their viewers well, is this not ringing alarm bells? That companies who want my money don’t see value in advertising during the football, never mind those after the cash of people 20 years younger?
Maybe it’s always like this and I just don’t notice. But that ad break did make me think of Danny and Presuming Ed in Withnail and I. What will the Greatest League in the World look like at 40?
Neil (they’re selling Marc Cucurella wigs in Woolworths man) Raines UTV
Crystal clearDear Football365,
There are worse starts to a season than 0-0 away to a team most F365 writers believe will finish in the top four.
*For all that Chelsea fans were understandably excited to see their expensive new signings, they were kept relatively quiet by a Crystal Palace team that finished last season so strongly. I think it’s good that Trevoh Chalobah is still getting regularly opportunities to start for Chelsea, plenty of us feared the worst for his progress when he was recalled from his Palace loan spell last season but he’s played well, and played a big part in keeping Jean-Philippe Mateta relatively quiet this weekend.
*Eberechi Eze’s free kick goal was correctly ruled out, but it was still an understandable source of frustration. Palace were correctly punished for Marc Guehi being too close to the defensive wall when the ball was struck, but all that did was highlight how often teams are not punished for the same infringement. Still, the easiest way to not be penalised for something is to not do it in the first place.
*Eze and Guehi’s futures at Palace have been the subject of a lot of speculation recently, as tends to happen with standout players outside of the biggest clubs. It’s to their credit that they didn’t seem to let any of it affect their performances. At least we’ve been largely spared the use of body language experts this time. Oliver Glasner casually mentioning after the match that Eze’s release clause had expired was a fun moment, and should Arsenal miss out on signing Eze, it’ll only serve them right.
*One thing Arsenal can take comfort from is something Glasner said about his signings last summer. Palace made a slow start in part because their signings took a while to get up to speed. He mainly meant this about Ismaila Sarr, but it also applies to Eddie Nketiah, appropriately enough for Arsenal. As soon as it became apparent there was interest from Palace in signing those players, they were ostracised from the first team so as not to taint the atmosphere and as a result missed a lot of preseason. It is entirely possible that Sporting took similar action with Viktor Gyokeres, which perhaps explains why he was so far below expectations against Manchester United.
*Ben Doak to Bournemouth looks set to go ahead for relatively big money. Unlike Jordon Ibe or Dominic Solanke, he won’t be their record signing (never break your transfer record to sign a Liverpool player), so he should do well for them.
*Having fallen foul of a very minor and scarcely enforced law last weekend, it’s appropriate that Palace’s next opponents should be the Premier League’s keenest sticklers, Nottingham Forest. At least it should be a quiet afternoon for the officials.
Ed Quoththeraven