Arsenal on the brink – win and it is a last day shoot out, anything less and it’s over

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So it all comes down to today.

The equation is simple. Win and we are taking the title race down to the last day. Lose and Manchester City can win the league at Tottenham mid-week.

I had said throughout the season how proud I am of the boys. And whether we win the title or not will not make me any more or less proud. We have done brilliant.

I always tell people do not define your football supporting life by the trophies you win. Do that and you will be more disappointed than delrious.

Those that will base how they rate our season on how the next 2 games go miss the bigger picture of what football is about. Only one team can we each trophy and, Manchester City aside, no other club should see finishing a season trophyless as a failure.

It can not be underestimated how Manchester City, and their spending, has changed our game.

City have raised the bar. To (potentially) win 16 of our last 18 games and still finish 2nd is incredible. Part of me has respect for Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City winning team, the other part of me sees them for what they are – a state funded team bankrolled to success based on outspending every other team.

And we are not talking about net spend, we are talking about total spend which has been huge under the Shiekhs, their gigantic wage bill to attract the best players, coaches, doctors, etc, all whilst financed by questionable sponsorship deals. Although I will always have the stance that if a billionaire wants to blow his load on football, he should be entitled to do so.

Nothing highlights City’s wealth more than Matheus Nunes.

City spent £53million on the Wolves midfielder to basically start 7 Premier League games. Nunes replaced the £42m Kalvin Phillips who also saw very little game time. Imagine a world where a team spends so much on a player (and the wages to go with it), to then play just 656 minutes of football.

Yes, those with half a brain will be saying “but Arsenal spent double that on Declan Rice”. Rice starts for us and is well worth the money. Nunes is not even a squad player for City. He is a 1st team fringe player, and in 2-years he will probably be loaned out to West Ham and they will buy another £50m midfielder to not play.

If you want the definitive proof of the difference between City and the rest, just look at how much they have spent on central defenders.

They collect £40m centre backs for one. And basically every season they sell one of them who has ended 5th choice, and spend another £40m+ on a replacement. Rinse and report stockpiling some of the best central defenders in the world whilst we have to make do with Jakub Kiwor as cover (no disrespect to Kiwor).

Finishing 2nd to City is not failure. It is not Arsenal bottling it. And if you are one of those that will claim Arsenal have bottled it, give your head a wobble and stop feeding into the TalkSport/PaddyPower narrative.

If Arsenal bottled the Premier League this season due to not winning, then so did every other team in the Premier League. It is not logical that we end up in a world where anytime someone finishes 2nd, fans of teams in 5th or 8th laugh saying “bottled it”.

These fans are like the single virgin living in their mum’s basement mocking someone online they do not know because they have split up with their misses. Take a look at your own lives and issues before pointing the finger at others.

Today we need to put everything around us out of our heads and get the win.

Man U are in horrendous form. As poor as Tottenham. But we know how they like to raise their game against us and many fans my age will be scarred from those defeats against very poor Alex Ferguson teams.

Mentally, we need to be looking at them not as Man U, the big red machine, but as a team who have won just 2 of their last 9.

Mikel Arteta will know this, and he will have his players focused.

Do our job on the field and take it to the last day of the season. I still do not expect a “favour” from Tottenham or West Ham, but stranger things have happened!

UTA.

Keenos

Why is Arsenal organising a potential title parade so controversial?

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Morning all from Dubrovnik airport.

I used the lack of midweek Arsenal to disappear for a few days. Dubrovnik is an interesting “city”.

Dubrovnik has been known my list for a while, and plenty of people recommend it to me. But personally I get a little let down.

Staying in the Old Town, the place has felt like an excursion from a cruise ship rather than a city break.

The walled city has fabulous stories to tell, incredible architecture and lots to do. But locals do not really live in it and the place is 95% day trippers, coming in off a cruise ship or local resort, 5% service staff. It has not really felt like a proper city break.

Having been to Oslo, Copenhagen, Athens and Cairo in the last 12 months, Dubrovnik is probably my least favourite due to the lack of locals.

I loved Athens as, like London, there was history round every corner and people just getting on with their normal lives. The bars were lively of evening with a mixture of locals and tourists. The Medina in Marrakech similar.

Dubrovnik was like the Medina, but with no locals. Or like Rome if the Vatican, Colosseum, Ruins and Trevi Fountain were all part of the same complex, surrounded by a wall and no locals.

And as the Old Town of Dubrovnik is basically one big tourist trap, it is also very expensive.

I would recommend Dubrovnik to everyone. But I think the city is best visited as a day trip from elsewhere, or a stop off destination when island hopping, rather than flying to Croatia to specifically walk the walls.

Up next will be Riga and Ljubljana in June.

But this is not a travel blog. It an Arsenal blog. And tomorrow we face Manchester United.

By the time I land, we will know the result of Fulham v Manchester City.

Fulham have had a decent season, and we played them at their peak. But their players are clearly already on the beach, flying kites at the training ground. I can not see anything else other than a Man City win. And that will leave us needing to beat Man U to ensure we take the title race to the last weekend of the season.

We have come in for a bit of mockery of planning a parade despite not yet being guaranteed the title.

Those mocking clearly do not know the time and effort it takes to close many roads in London for a title parade. We can not just rock up Monday afternoon with a bus.

Closing roads takes coordination with local councils, utility companies who may be working in the road and the police. For an example, Remembrance Day parades usually have their applications in for road closures in September, 2 months ahead of 11/11.

Arsenal and Manchester City will both have submitted their application to the council, and the respective councils would have coordinated with the relevant parties and raised a Traffic Management Order to close the road. It is easier to cancel a TMO at late notice than raise one.

Madrid would have done the same, as would Dortmund and Man U. Any club in a major city competing for honours will be preparing to host a parade.

Clubs organising parades is not new. We would have done it ahead of time in 2004 and 2002 and 1998. The only difference now is social media and journalists with column inches to fill.

Of course, in this world where “banter” trumps the truth, we will get mocked by the usual suspect (Paddy Power, TalkSport) who are more interested in clicks than telling the actual story.

That is all from me. As always on these breaks I have burnt the candle at both end. I now look forward to getting home, having a shower, a shit in my own toilet, a curry and getting some sleep.

And who knows, Fulham might give me a nice surprise on landing.

UTA

Keenos

Tottenham’s demise should surprise no one!

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The way they are playing, I do not think it will Tottenham’s “choice” whether they “throw the game” against Manchester City next week.

No wins in 4 has seen the wheels come well and truly off Ange’s might Hotspurs! Who would have guessed that a fella that had only ever managed in fringe leagues would be found out as tactically inept when trying to compete with the big boys.

Ange Postecoglou beats Mikel Arteta to manager of the year at London Football Awards 2024

Ange winning “London Manager of the Year” in February now looks even more laughable.

A reminder that he was awarded Manager of the Year after only being in London for 5-months with his big achievement being that he was named Premier League Manager of the Month 3 times. That is 3 more times than Pep Guardiola has picked up the Manager of the Month award since December 2021!!!!

At the turn of the year, Tottenham were 5th (which made Ange’s award laughable). They were 1-point behind The Arsenal and 3-behind the league leaders Liverpool.

By the time the London Football Awards had taken place, Spurs found themselves 13 points behind Liverpool and 11 behind Arsenal.

Roll on to today and Tottenham are now 23 points behind Arsenal – who now lead the league.

Since being named London Manager of the Year, Ange’s record reads: P 10, W 4, D 1, L 5. The last 10 games form table has them in 10th!

It is funny that Tottenham fans will likely celebrate being thrashed at home to Manchester City, and the narrative will be that they stopped us winning the league. The reality is they are just an awful team and a loss to City will be (at best) 5 defeats in their last 6 games.

Spurs fans should just be grateful that they still have Burnley and Sheffield United to face, otherwise they would have risked falling behind Newcastle and Chelsea.

This week has felt a little bit of the calm before the storm. We do have to park what might happen with Spurs (and Fulham) and just concentrate on ourselves.

Whilst Manchester United are in even worse form than Tottenham, I am still damaged with the memory of Arsene Wenger teams losing to very poor Fergie sides. Old Trafford will never be an easy place to go for us.

Lose and City could win the league at Tottenham. Win and (if results go our way), we could be celebrating the league following a Tottenham win.

But then you remember it is Tottenham. And they will not win. Because they are a shit football team. Managed by a fat Aussie Bastard.

Enjoy your Friday!

Keenos