Champions League Final!!!
All the questions answered. One more to go!
It was a time machine with the dial set for “The Good Times”. The entire fan base was transported to our shared happy place. Starboy was back. Our (now) 21 goal Swedish striker was sparkling with stardust. A dreamlike image of MLS in shimmering in midfield. Ricardo roaming across the entire pitch like a left back gone rogue.
The entire game seemed like a joyous fever dream where the Arsenal of earlier in the season cast off its zombie costume and revealed itself as having been the hero the whole time. This was the tonic everyone needed delivered on a silver platter.
HOLD ON…this was the first two paragraphs I wrote for the game against Fulham. We truly are in a time machine, this time with the dial set for Champions League Final!
Unbelievable
Gazing through the looking glass we saw a few important answers to some long unanswered questions.
Can Gyökeres actually play if the team is set up in a way to suit him?
Turns out yes he can. He can even head the ball? Well, well, well. I remember saying a few months back that Gyökeres was like a personality test, a glass of water running about the pitch that reveal how you think about football, is he half full or half empty? I was saying that football fandom is a purely emotional experience, it’s subjective and irrational and essentially about hopes and dreams
Gyökeres proved it last night. He’s riding a wave of confidence in his ever filling glass as he delivers on those hopes and dreams. He’s rewarding all the support and all the encouragement with a string of outstanding displays. The small margins are being wrestled to his advantage in a one man stampede.
And his determination is made even more amazing when you consider his shy social demeanour, clear and obvious in his pre-match interview, his uncertainty in English, his confusion at the stupidity of most of the questions, all this makes his ability to shrug off defenders on the pitch and detractors off the pitch is even more amazing considering. Determined and single-minded and playing his part to reach a CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL!!!!
Can MLS play in midfield in a positive and attacking team?
Turns out yes he can. Not only in a crucial Premier League match we had to win but in a Champions League Semi-Final!! He played with those geometric angled body twists that bounce players across the pitch, and a confidence of a guy who’d been start gin all season. Incredible.
Can Arsenal shake off the “nerves” and have fun in the pressure cooker?
Turns out yes they can. HA! The narrative Zombies have spent a season cooking up a putrid broth of nonsense and baloney but in the most pressured games so far Arsenal have cruised, bruised and swaggered to victory in either free flowing domination or powerfully determined exactitude.
The stuttering commentators were tongue tied by the reality before them in the Fulham match, and still confused in the Athletico game. Loaded with doomsaying pessimism they found themselves creating an alternative universe where Arsenal were losing if they weren’t actually winning. They constantly asked what has changed and why this was happening. Their staggering lack of technical or tactical knowledge meant they could offer no answers except to begrudgingly accept what they were seeing in the real world.
There’s so much catastrophising these days. So much fantasizing about the past and demanding another future. So much fear and anger in general. But remember, no matter what bullshit stories we have thrown at us, no matter what the doomsayers tell us about how today is terrible and tomorrow will be worse, we can always do a Gyökeres and stay determined, stay strong, and ignore the noise. Arsenal have made it to a Champions League final by ignoring the tide of anger and by standing together they’ve delivered love on the pitch.
Just one more thing, not so football related but maybe a little bit. If you live in England and you’re voting in the local elections on Thursday remember that you can vote for love over hate, for togetherness over division, for people over corporations. We don’t have to succumb to the doomsayers and the hate mongers. We can demand a future with all humans in the centre. I know that Arsenal are red and white but in the elections maybe it’s time to consider Green.
Thanks for reading Wonderlanders. What a night! Roll on Sunday and the match against West Ham. An incredible achievement for Arteta and his team.
COYG!
I really enjoyed read this. More than watching the match, because football is a wonderful shit, ha. During the last 15 minutes of the match I would prefered be a books fan. And since then, I feel so happy, I think life is a miracle, and I will be so till next match starts.