Why football is beautiful
An Arsenal blog from a coach’s perspective
Alan Sunderland at the back post.
Michael Thomas at Anfield.
Alan Smith in Copenhagen.
Sylvain Wiltord at Old Trafford
Dennis Bergkamp at St.James Park
Tony Adams bursting forward to finish off Everton
Andrey Arshavin against Barcelona
Jack Wilshere vs Norwich
Danny Welbeck vs Leicester
Reiss Nelson vs Bournemouth
Declan Twice vs Real Madrid
I’m sure there are others but those are 10 very special moments that I remember as an Arsenal fan.
I’d say that you lost your mind on these 10 occasions, also. Probably not Alan Sunderland if you are in your 20’s, 30’s or 40’s.
Some of the other very special Arsenal moments have brought us silverware. The first one that comes to mind is Aaron Ramsey vs Chelsea. What is interesting is that half of the list did not lead to a trophy.
Sometimes we forget to enjoy the beautiful moments. I almost feel bad for the players who can’t really fully enjoy tonight because it is essentially halftime. As for the fans, we need to lose our minds and not give a toss if it’s halftime quite honestly. Most football fans dream of playing Real Madrid let alone get the opportunity. When they do, they hope to squeak a 2–1 win and call it one of the most memorable nights of their life. They don’t expect a player who has never scored a free kick in his life for a club who hasn’t scored one in almost four years to put two worldie’s in the back of the net in 12 minutes.
That was most definitely a ‘where were you’ moment. Twice. Unreal.
I think what I’m trying to say is don’t live for trophies. It is particularly dangerous in this day and time. The world has gone extreme, and we all seem to fall for it. We know if we click on a social media video that says.,” the best video you’ll see all year,” it will end up being 45 seconds of our life that we will never get back. It’s probably someone’s Dad walking into a glass door and shouting, ” Oh pancakes!” Not really very funny and most certainly not the ‘best video of the year.’ Unless you label something as the ‘worst ever’ or the ‘best ever’ then people won’t listen or watch. This of course leads to football fans losing their minds when their teams don’t win a trophy. It leads to football owners losing their minds and firing coaches. And on. And on. Trophies are the pinnacle and should not be undervalued. Glorious moments like tonight are beautiful though and in some regards, should be enough.
I think at the end of my life when my mind spins back to Arsenal Football Club, I won’t think about the trophies, but I will think about the moments.
POSITIVES:
Arteta:
He is the main person responsible for taking us from Arsenal 1 Bayern Munich 5 to Arsenal 3 Real Madrid 0. From easy to play against to very difficult to play against. From completely unreliable and inconsistent in our organization to the most organized and consistently reliable. From laughing stock to respected and feared.
It’s Arteta. It doesn’t happen without Arteta. It’s the cranky’s for sure. It’s the players for sure. It’s the entire coaching staff for sure but ultimately none of these people would either be there or be pushed to achieve this level without Mikel Arteta. His personal stock just rose a couple more notches.
Rice:
I almost feel sorry for Rice because the next time Arsenal get a free kick we will expect him to score.
Technically speaking, what was so impressive about those free kicks was the power. To get that much curve and such perfection in accuracy you would ordinarily tell a player not to hit it that hard. Rice is now becoming rather well known for his ball striking ability. Every single game he puts 3 to 10 corners in exactly the area that the team needs and because we are so used to it, we don’t spot how difficult that is to do and with the power that he is doing it as well as the accuracy.
If Arsenal do go on to to win the Champions League as I cheekily predicted at the beginning of the season, then every penny of the 105M will be worth it just for those two goals that allow us to win a trophy that the club has never won. I am not exaggerating. Other clubs spend a lot more than 105M to win that trophy.
Oh, and he has 4 legs. i had never realized.
MLS:
He really shouldn’t be this good. He really shouldn’t be this confident. He really shouldn’t have world class players bouncing off his triceps. He really shouldn’t be able to dominate defensively, control the midfield and penetrate through the lines all in one game. He really shouldn’t be England’s left back, but he currently is and will likely be there for another 10 years at least. He really shouldn’t be on the cusp of dribbling through an entire back four and scoring, but you know it’s coming. In a sea of brilliant players on that pitch, he really shouldn’t be one of the best.
Merino:
If Arsenal had signed a striker in January and given us this goal return we would be thrilled.
Have you noticed that when he misses it is normally because it is blocked or saved? I noted just before he started playing striker that it might just work out because he is so incredibly composed as a footballer. Composure is the quality that most strikers pine for as they can never slow their heart rate down enough to score more than eight goals this season. Merino is so lucid in front of goal that he almost always hits the target.
What is so cool is that next season if we get one of our strikers injured then you have Merino to step in if needed.
Partey:
Much like Merino, Partey is another player who drips composure. Arsenal rarely exit through the middle of the field and very few teams exit in front of their own box through central areas apart from Arsenal. Part of the reason that we do is his first touch is as close to perfection as you get and he is so unflustered.
I so wish that we would extend his contract. If we are getting Zubimendi, then it will likely take him a while to adapt and I think Thomas is a better player right now, anyway.
Saka:
One of the signs of a great player is that even when things don’t work, they are the focal point of attention. They demand that you don’t take your eye off them as they refuse to be average. You saw that with Mbappé tonight. His finishing was off but this type of player consistently puts themselves in situations where they could make the difference, regardless.
NEEDS:
Aldi:
I have nothing to say this evening to be even slightly critical of any Arsenal player. So, let’s throw the negativity at Aldi. What supermarket has the audacity to make a pair of trainers? Would Tesco put ‘Tesco’ on a pair of trainers and expect to sell them to anybody apart from somebody buying them as a joke gift.
I was in Aldi last week and found these….
Ref:
I was actually looking forward to a Champions League referee tonight. This guy however, only elevated his right hand into his mouth when a Madrid player fell over. Oh well, didn’t really matter anyway. I won’t be expecting any different next week. We are getting quite good at playing 2 opponents simultaneously this season.
HOPES:
Mbappe:
After the elation dies down, I hope that Arsenal‘s coaches take time to see how Kylian Mbappé creates chances for himself. On numerous occasions, he stood 4 yards off our back line and timed his run to perfection, accelerating past our entire back four to give himself a more simple chance to score. It is and always has been my number one criticism of Arsenal. It is just too rare for us to create simple chances to score. In the first half I can’t pretend that I wasn’t shouting at the TV and at Saka in particular. When somebody’s bringing the ball towards him, he seems to refuse to run behind and through the defense and give Arsenal an easier chance. I don’t think Mbappé would ever miss the opportunity on transition to run behind, which is why Real Madrid are so dangerous on the counter attack. They are just so vertical and therefore create simpler chances. Thankfully, the finishing wasn’t there tonight. Arsenal could do far worse than pay attention to this.
Agyemang:
This young lady is an Arsenal player on loan at Brighton. She scored for England tonight. One of the best goals I’ve ever seen in the women’s game. Just wanted to give out some flowers. Dennis Bergkamp-esque. A glorious first touch and finish.
Ancelotti:
I really hope that Arteta makes the second leg as tactical as the first. What many don’t know about Carlo is that he ignores tactics almost completely. I suspected this when he was at Bayern and it was confirmed in an interview, I believe with Arjen Robben. Whether he believes in tactics or not or simply doesn’t understand them, I couldn’t tell you. My suspicion is that much like Wenger, I don’t think he can coach modern tactics and so to avoid being found out by his players, he develops the ‘freedom method.’ People don’t discover this or find you out if you have elite players like Ancelotti has had most of his career because they will win you 80% of games regardless. Players also pine for the freedom that Ancelotti offers as very few offer this and so players feel like there is a cap on their ability.
Until….
Until you play a team like Arsenal who are a highly tactical team with a coach who knows how to confuse a non-tactical coach by having his players wanting/needing instruction about how to deal with overloads and not getting a response. I think you will find that this is why Camivinga got so frustrated. You may have noticed him trying to get Ancelotti to give him instruction and looking very frustrated in the non-response.
Just look at these two pictures to see the difference in defensive organization. Stark.
The unfortunate thing about tonight is that Arteta just exposed his superiority to the Real fans and I’m sure the club will be contacting Arteta in the next few months/years.
TWEETS and THOUGHTS:
Best defensive team in Europe. The next many photos and tweets are just a celebration. I searched high and low for the best. Enjoy!
FINAL THOUGHT:
As much as we will never forget tonight, there are statements that have been made.
I always think about the clubs perception in regards to the transfer market on nights like this. Players like Mbappé will be impressed.
All of the big players in world football will have watched the game or will at least have seen the score and will have questions as to how it happened.
Thomas Partey might just have given himself a chance to get to the new short term contract at Arsenal. Lewis Skelly in seven months has gone from making his professional debut to being one of the best left backs in Europe.
I would imagine that the Kroenke family will look at tonight and be thoroughly encouraged to throw the cash at Arsenal this summer especially as their 105M investment just broke the internet..
After tonight, most footballers would walk to London to sign for Arsenal.
Former Highbury regular. Moved to TN, USA in ’99. Married with 3 kids. Coached in UK and US for 27 years.
Mike McDonald Soccer Academy in Morristown TN, Olympic Development coach, Regional Premier League Champion.
Excellent, Mike. Partey HAS to stay for another year. Miles Lewis-Skelly is effectively playing as a creative midfielder right now and could easily start games there when a more orthodox (non-inverting) left back role is required against an outstanding, line hugging right winger. I think he has the potential to have as big an impact on global football in the next decade as Saka does.
Lovely piece.Arsenal have their Mojo back. ‘ Respect’ throughout the footballing world.Even if you hate us.
Just made it a lot easier to sign any world class targets who may be having second thoughts.Why on earth would you go anywhere else.?
Oh I nearly forgot.Im a little older.But 3 other goals spring to mind over the years…..
Charlie George at Wembley for the 71 double,the late Ray Kennedy ‘ championship win at Tottenham,1971 & Liam ‘ chippy’ Brady’s curler at Tottenham ,again,in a 5- O hammering.
TH14.At least four…..
Some great goals there Pete, an Ian Wright rocket vs Auxerre sticks in my mind.
Mike, thank you for your article.
I can’t be more agree with you. The game is a testament of Mikel’s (and coaching team) work behind. We played without big Gabi, Havertz, Ben, but we still more than capable to dominate with and without the ball. I hope Mikel would stay for a long term, continue the development (sky is the limit), turn off every other offer he received as Wenger did. I can appreciate every element work forward in Arsenal; the owner, directors, academy, scouts, physio’s, players, and photographers (hi Mr. Stuart!). I hope Mikel finds it is much more worthy than any other offer he has or will find in future (hello, Edu).
I appreciate the two wonderful freekicks, but I appreciate our solid defense and capability to bring the ball forward more, despite the injury lists. I hope we find PSG, and Barcelona ahead. Currently, solid defense and strong counter attack team is our kryptonite; (glad that Newcastle are not participating in this stage), we can face any other open play team, even with our current squad.
I agree, that winning UCL is possible this year. But how? The only possible way is by keeping our current squad availability and fitness; no injuries, no full match within 3 days before. I hope Mikel repeated the tricks against West Ham; our midfield and forward looks fresh against Madrid. I have a good feeling when I see Partey rested; he played like someone in early 20s against Madrid. Resting is the key; so I am okay with any draw or lose one game before UCL match, as long as we win the cup. By continuing to semi final, England team will find 5 spots for next UCL, while currently we are still sitting second. We have enough buffer to rest our team. I prefer to fall down to 5th (if we have to) but winning the UCL, rather than another year of trophyless. We need to prioritize and suffer for greater good. Seeing how Mikel managed the west Ham game, I believe he will put the eggs on the UCL now.
Your lists of next transfer are amazing Mike. I wish we extend Partey for two years (Salah and VVD are showing sign of extension, why can’t Partey?), then we can have Adam Wharton as deputy. Otherwise, I hope for Bruno Guimares to come, and whoever 6 as deputy.
I believe Gyokeres will come, his mouth must be watering after watching Madrid game; a sensible 9, not even the elite would eat those crosses and final pass. But deep inside, I favour Sesko to fill out the lineup. He is not far behind Gyokeres (although currently, Gyokeres ticks all the boxes). With Sesko, we will dominate Europe for the next ten years (together with Saka, MLS, Nwaneri, Saliba, and Dowman).
I hope Hugo Ekitike will come (his goal against Tott definitely justifies his transfer). He is really good when receiving ball with his back facing opponent goalpost, excellent close ball control, versatility to play as LW and CF, good link up play (we need his armament). Then, we need a creative 10 to compete and complement Odegaard; please bring Valverde (or Florian wirtz, or Xavi Simmons) to Arsenal, Berta. It is sad to see one of the best Cam plays as RB. Next, we need a goalkeeper THAT CAN ACTUALLY SAVE PENALTIES. I love Raya, but regardless his excellent save from open play, his penalty anticipation is awful. He still stay with classical teaching to move before the kick; nowadays penalty takers wait to decide the target spot until the last moment. We can offer Hermansen, Dubravka, or Muric to compete with Raya; they are proven EPL goalies. I will even take the old Szceszny. I like Joan Garcia, but I just realized the GK transfer would not as expensive as other position; we are not urgently need to invest on young GK, we can get them later as they flourish just like what we did to Raya.
Nico Williams getting more expensive, from wages perspective and report says Bilbao even try to increase his release clause currently. With that money, we can get Ekitike and Ismaila Sarr; we need larger squad with quality for many games next year, not an over expensive player with small margin of difference (I am not buying Nico is far better than Martinelli or Trossard; slightly better, maybe, but not far ahead).
We are happy to read your stuff Mike.
COYG
Fantastic stuff Mike and agree completely with your final thoughts. This game would have been watched all over the world and the impact on the club in regards to the social media imprint alone is surely gargantuan.
Rice’s agent must have fended off so many offers for interviews and sponsorship deals for his man this week!
But yes, I imagine the likes of Gyokeres, Nico Williams and top players all over will be wanting a piece of the action on the carpet for 25/26 after watching that.
All the best mate! COYG
Being a bit of a fashion aficionado I have to say Mike that I quite like those Aldi trainers…