Lovely win on Wednesday. That is how you qualify for the knock out stages of the Champions League in style!
The 6-nil victory over Lens not only secured our progression, but also means we finish top of the league.
Again, i would like to point out that Arsenal are top of both the Premier League and our Champions League group despite “Arteta being found out”. It is crazy that some still dismiss him as a poor manager. It is clear that they have their own agenda at play…
Finishing top means that we avoid other group winners in the next stage – so no Bayern Munich, Real Madrid or Manchester City. We are also likely to avoid Barcelona, Dortmund and Atletico Madrid.
Currently in second are Copenhagen, Napoli, Inter Milan, Lazio, PSG, RB Leipzig and Porto.
The victory was our best attacking performance of the season. Not a surprise when it was the first time Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz had played together this season.
That quintet is up there as one of the best attacking units in European football!
A few have commented about how we are less exciting in attack this season, and I have often blogged that the lack of Jesus is the reason behind this.
Jesus is instinctive and causes chaos for opponents. The way he plays excites and gets bums off seats. It is no surprise that we are a little less exciting when he is upfront. It will be interesting to see if we stick with the 5 man front line against Wolves!
It is interesting how quickly fan opinions can change in football.
Following a bucket load of debatable decisions, Arsenal fans were told by Newcastle fans, former players, and pundits, to basically “shut up and accept it” and to “respect the referees decision”.
An international break later and Newcastle themselves were on the wrong end of a debatable decision that saw a victory in Paris snatched away from them at the last minute. And the response was ever so predictable.
The same fans who told Arsenal fans to “get over it” were up in arms. Alan Shearer was tweeting his hatred of VAR. And pundits were coming out saying that the decision making was not good enough.
Newcastle fans have shown themselves as a microcosm of all football fans – tribal hypocrites.
When I blogged about the Newcastle debacle, I made the point that fans, managers and the media need to come together as one to make it clear that the VAR decision making was not good enough. That rivalries needed to be put aside.
There is no point saying “love VAR” and mocking opponents when a decision goes your way, then saying “f**K VAR” and demanding changes when it does not. Fans need to stay consistent and call out all poor VAR decisions – even if they go your way.
We have seen poor VAR decisions go against Liverpool, Wolves, Arsenal and Newcastle this season. There is probably more to mention as well. But the PGMOL will feel under no pressure to improve whilst fans continually fight amongst themselves and go out of their way to defend bad decisions that go for them (or against a rival).
I will not follow Newcastle fans lead by mocking them for the PSG decision. I will say that they as a fan base need to do better. That celebrating poor decisions does not lead to improvements.
UTA!
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
I don’t know about younger fans. I’m, as an older fans knows this is not just about VAR. I’ve seen and sat through countless humiliations, propaganda and outright hatred towards Arsenal FC, its managers and players. For more than 2 decades of this absolute abomination. From the media, the officials, the FA and rival fans. No sympathies from me. Teams should just move on like how Arsenal moved on throughout the years.
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