It Ain't Over Till It's Over And It Ain't Over Yet
Eze reminds us of the joy in this struggle to get over the line
We’ve seen it before, the utterly exhausted marathon runner dropping to their knees, hardly able to walk let alone run, seemingly having lost all coordination, flopping about like a broken mannequin. Against Newcastle Arsenal looked like a team barely able to make it over the line, buoyed only by the emotionally frazzled crowd. When the whistle finally blew for full time there was universal gratitude, not so much for three points but just because the whole thing was over.
Players do look like they’ve run a marathon. There is so much football, even too much for elite athletes to cope, and certainly this excess of match time is contributing to injuries and alternating form. The enormity of the squad has been essential with injuries being such an unwanted feature of this season. Squads feel more important that first elevens these days, but the stability of our squad team still seems to reside in a fit and functioning first eleven.
Losing Havertz and Eze undermined cohesion blunting our attacking threat. Kai and Ebs help to give the attack an anchor, both are excellent at keeping the ball, both can slide passes through the lines and both bring a goal threat. But they also hold the whole thing together bringing that vital control in the final third. Without them anchoring the team it’s more like foals playing pinball with the team reduced to 11 separate players.
After the Man City game, a don’t-look-away extravaganza of ecstasies and agonies, this Newcastle pendulumed to a much flatter and more desperate affair. These day’s we seem to have swung from domination and swagger or mindless blunders and confusion. From destroying teams in the Champions League to those games that torment fans like night-sweat ghosts. That loss to Manchester United. That loss to Bournemouth. That ridiculous draw with Wolves or Brentford. A few months ago I was writing that “Arsenal play calm controlling football, it’s like watching tranquility at boiling point,” but that now feels almost unimaginable after the tension of a fumbling Newcastle still able to push the Emirates to a nail biting 97 minutes of a don’t-look-away extravaganza of agonies.
It was only in November I was writing that, “…for Arsenal to finish the season without any silverware will not only take an enormous effort from opposition players, but more importantly an inspirational eureka moment from opposition managers as to how to beat this unbelievably well-oiled, functional, problem-solving beast of a team.”
Now in April, things look far less certain. If we win silverware, games like the Newcastle match will become part of a legendary foreplay that’ll guarantee more joy to the final outcome. But iit feels like there’s every chance the night-sweat ghosts will pile onto us and do their worst. Who in their right mind chooses football fandom?
Maybe the question should be “Who in their right mind chooses football management? Arteta had an unusually tortured look about him in the pre-match interview. Partially the pressure is showing, especially after leading for so long and now finding ourselves in such a tight race. And partially the inane stupidity of the questions, assumptions and accusations in every interview.
So much of a manager’s job is about creating belief, nurturing confidence. It’s a game of psychological smoke and mirrors. Considering Arsenal’s wage bill we’re doing far better than should be expected and obviously Arteta’s brand of psychological manipulation and encouragement is working. But none of that is taken into account in the vicious streets of social media or the pre-match interview where Mikel was looking a little frayed. He’s worked so incredibly hard to reach this extraordinary position and yet we’re still clinging on with our fingertips, at the mercy of the smallest margins. I don’t envy him at all.
And then, feeling all this conflicted feelings I watched Eberechi Eze’s post match interview and all the pressure and all the pain evaporated. Eze reminded me of the joy of football. Jamie Redknapp loaded up some nonsense about pundits and dealing with pressure which Eze batted away beautifully by saying he didn’t pay the slightest attention to the pundits, they talk far too much. He went on to remind us that this is a “beautiful, beautiful” position to be in, finally able to achieve something amazing, “This ain’t negative for me, not for me, football is not do or die, I play football because I love playing football, I do what I can and I don’t take in the noise from everyone else.”
Then he made the point we all want to make by reminding Merson and Redknapp that they’ve had their time, they’ve done incredible things but now it’s the current players who have this opportunity I have in front of them. Ebs bounced the media bullshit right back at them and it was great to see and a reminder to love the whole journey.
So I for one am going to try and block out the worst of the noise and enjoy Champions League Semi in Madrid. We’ve beaten them so comprehensively this season that in his post match interview Diego Simeone said, “In my nineteen years of being a manager, I’ve never seen a team with this much quality. Unreal work from Arteta and his staff.”
So let’s hold on fellow Wonderlanders, it’s not over till its over and as Eze reminded us, it ain’t over yet :)
Thank you Jonathan, football certainly makes for a poor mistress! However, the angst, the ire and elation, the crushing disappointment, it’s all part of being invested in something we have no control over. When all these current players are gone, when Arteta is gone (hopefully not for a long while) I like many others, will still be following The Arsenal. PROUD TO SAY THAT NAME.
I felt some fear the last two weeks, some doubts asking myself: if it is not this Premier, when?
I want to continue enjoying this team, and I think the players are doing their best, so, why not? Being a football fan it's too exhausting, but makes life better and different.