The Battle Of Confidence And Stress
This, too, shall pass!
Confidence is an odd trickster. It’ll whisper words of encouragement and faith at the most unlikely of times, and completely desert you at the best of times. Confidence’s cousin, Stress is the same. At the seemingly most harmonious moments it’ll pour over you like a tsunami and at the most turbulent of times it’s nowhere to be seen.
Perhaps they keep a shared schedule, Confidence and Stress, standing in for each other when needed. During the Arsenal v Leicester match they obviously messed up the schedule and both turned up to deliver a strangely chaotic experience.
Although to be fair to Confidence, at least he paraded about long before the match started and held his nerve right up to half time. Then Stress made an appearance, apologised for being late and immediately started making up for lost time. But Confidence wasn’t having it and refused to leave. And that’s how so many of us experienced the second half, in a state of Chaotic Stressful Confidence.
There was a Bournemouth Moment written all over this game, and weirdly enough that’s exactly what happened with a sensational winner from a corner in the dying moments. Yes, Havertz happened upon a fortuitous ricochet, but Trossard’s goal was the winner and the moment when Confidence threw a fist into the air shouting “See, what’s all the fuss about?!”
I’m always amazed how much of the football experience is like this, or should I say life experience, because football, as we fans know, is life in miniature, a 90 minute (115 minute!!!) roller-coaster of pretending control whilst actually knowing that the whole thing can come crashing down around you at any moment because life is impermanence and only suffering comes from pretending otherwise.
There is an old Persian story that applies perfectly to football. A king called his philosophers, wise-men, counsellors, and fools to him (sound’s like a perfect description of football fans) and asked them to “Create a ring such that when I am happy, and I look at the ring, I will become sad and when I am sad, I will look upon the ring and be happy.” They thought long and hard and eventually returned with a ring inscribed as follows, “This, too, shall pass,” four words that could never be untrue.
Watching Arsenal dominating Leicester in the first half I cruelly allowed the idea of permanence to gain a foothold. I was expecting at least a 4-nil on cruise control and hopefully a dinner-lady and car-park attendant to be brought on just to explode the record books. Not that the record books needed exploding, they were already on fire. And so were the players. To a man this was a first half display of the highest order.
Then came half-time and the Leicester goal keeper ran out to find himself a crossroads and do a deal with the Devil because his second-half performance was not of this worldly plane. He reappeared with more arms than the Hindu God Shiva, and he used every one of them. Of course it’s easier to credit him after we took the three points, but his second-half display was a thing of legend.
And, naturally, the Persian King’s ring spoke only truth because This too shall pass became the motto of the match. The second-half was a chaos of impermanence for both teams in a riot of uncertainty. And yet, and yet. For some reason I felt confident. Stressed, yes, but confident, because Arteta’s Arsenal have utterly forgotten how to drop their heads. Instead they drop their shoulders, twist and turn, push and push and keep going until the last. Confidence and Stress may seem like independent entities roaming around in your emotional interior, but it turns out they are both subject to a higher power: Attitude.
Maybe the most pristine example of this was Nwaneri. Yes, he is a footballing wizard. Yes, his feet have been anointed by the footballing gods. Yes, he can baffle and confound his opponent with physical trickery. But his most abundant super-power is his attitude. When was the last time you can remember a 17 year old taking the game by the scruff of the next and shaking the impermanence out of it? Ok, those who reply Saka are right, but what godly company to be keeping eh?
I’ve been affected by Arteta’s conservatism in big games. I understand his desire to bag the points over risking a hopeful young protégé to deliver some unlikely display, but with Nwaneri that feeling has, well, become impermanent. I can see him starting in the Ødegaard role against both PSG and Southampton. And I can see him performing, regardless of the opponent
Of course that might just be because Confidence has managed to persuade Stress to vacate the premises and I’ve fallen for it once again! But Nwaneri’s Attitude might just be the game changer.
Arteta’s new problem might just be how to get both Ødegaard and Nwaneri on the pitch at the same time without driving us fans into the impermanent world of Certainty!
The next team to enter the Emirates is PSG. Feeling Confident? Feeling Stressed? I say let’s let go of these illusions and go in with the right Attitude. After all, what else do we have?
Hope you enjoyed this week’s AW. Until next week I hope you enjoy what you can and let go of the rest. With the least amount of confidence and just a sprinkle of Stress I can say “At least we’ll always have Paris” ;)