At the time we were 0 points and 0 goals from the first 3 games. Arsenal was a fairly depressing place.
My view was that Mikel Arteta had 10 games to save his job.
We had 6 home games and 4 away.
I would have expected us to win 6 out of 6 home games – 18 points. Although I did concede that we would likely draw one of them.
If football was easy to predict we would all be millionaires off acca’s. In my years of football betting I’ve barely won anything more than half a dozen four-folds.
Of the away games, I felt the minimum expectation would be a win, a draw and 2 defeats.
This took into account that the away games included a to Liverpool. We also faced Leicester City and Brighton – two places we had not exactly set alight.
In the blog, I said:
“That would leave Arsenal with 20 – 21 points from those 10 games.
Any less than 20 points, taking into account Arteta has the players he wants, we should be injury free and no European football distraction would be a failure.”
8 matches into the 10 game run we have the 20 points that I felt was the minimum requirement. So Arteta has passed my test.
I still do not expect much from a trip to Liverpool, but 3 points from Newcastle United should be in the bag. Even with Eddie Howe in charge.
That would see us take 23 points from the 10 game run. A total I am more than happy with.
It perhaps shows the swings and roundabouts of football that the disappointing home and away draw to Crystal Palace and away to Brighton are offset by great wins at home to Spurs and away to Leicester City.
Arteta’s critics will point to those draws as failures. But had the results been reversed – victories against Brighton & Palace, draws versus Leicester and Tottenham, would class it as failure?
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After Newcastle we have a couple of tricky away trips to Mancheaster United and Everton. Neither team in great form but enither should be taken lightly.
We then have a run of winnable games up until the New Years – although games against West Ham, and away to Leeds United will not be easy.
Anything above 13 points in those 7 games will be a decent return.
Victory against Newcastle and 14 points from those 7 games takes us to 36 points from 20 games and on course to reach around 70 points for the season which should be enough for top 4 this year.
I am happy with where we are. It is something to build on.
The last 8 games have shown were are a side that will be challenging for top 4 this season.
Maybe it actually was Mesut Ozil who was the problem?
His defenders attacked Unai Emery, attacked Mikel Arteta, attacked Arsenal Football Club.
They tried to make links between Ozil’s comments on the treatmen of Uyghurs Muslim’s in China. They attempted to paint Ozil as some sort of victim after his huge drop in form follwing the signing of his new £350k a week contract.
The German got a “dream” move To Fenerbache – the club he supported as a child in January this year. It was supposed to be a new start. A chance for him to show his detractors that they were wrong. That he was not the issue.
You only really know if the issue was actually a players own attitude if he leaves and history repeats itself. And that is what is happening with Ozil.
Since joining Fenerbache, Ozil has been a bit-part player. He has started just 4 of their 12 Turksih Super Lig games this season.
In recent weeks there have been a couple of on-field showings of petulance for Ozil, highlighting that all might not be rosey in the country of his ancestors.
When he failed to be gouth on as a substitute in a game against Kasimpasa in October, Ozil threw his training vest in the direction of Fenerbache manager Vítor Pereira.
Though it’s not known whether or not the pair have a fractious relationship, Ozil did little to endear himself to his manager at the beginning of October when he seemingly launched his training bib in his direction after failing to come on as a substitute against Kasimpasa.
A few weeks later he kicked over water bottles and threw his shirt on the floor in disgust after being substituted after 66 minutes in a 2-2 draw with Antwerp in the Europa League.
Yesterday, speaking to Fenerbahce TV, club president Ali Koc addressed the Ozil issue:
“Ozil wants to play more. From now on, he needs to focus on his game and keep his commercial interests out of it. He needs to think about contributing to Fenerbahce.”
Whilst at Arsenal, his extracurricular activites became a frustration for the club.
The feeling was Ozil was all about promoting Ozil. That he was not a team player. We saw this come across on social media many times. That he was more focused on harnessing and interacting with own his fan base even if it meant going against his employer.
And the same it seems is happening at Fenerbache.
Koc is suggesting that Ozil needs to focus on performing on the pitch rather than being worried about projects away from football.
Ozil is a huge brand in himself. But he is not bigger than the clubs he plays for.
He is 33-years-old and his career is coming to an end. No one will realyl care about him, or talk about him, when he retires. He has left no legacy in the game.
Ozil had issues in the German national set up. He had problems at Arsenal. He is now having issues at Fenerbache.
It is becoming clear and obvious that it is Ozil that is the issue. He is not the victim.
Keenos
Our 2nd set of Arsenal beer mats are now available
I am not usually one to go out of his way to defend he Premier League or it’s member clubs.
Too often over the years they have done very little to help the likes of me – a match going fan.
In fact, at times it feels like fans like me are not wanted by the Premier League. By Arsenal.
But on this occasion I will come to the defence of them.
It has been well publicised that the Premier League turned down a request from homeless charity Shelter for home clubs to raise the awareness of rough sleeping.
The league have been criticised by all corners of the media and across social media sites. But they are on the right to turn them down.
Football clubs and the Premier League will have countless requests from charities for support. They can not support them all.
What Shelter have done is wrong.
They have used the rejection to publicly blackmail the league into changing their stance.
Rather than accept the decision and move on; they went to the media.
This was done to shame the Premier League into a u-turn whilst also giving lots of free publicity to Shelter.
That does not sit well with me.
Charities should not be using the rejection of companies and organisations to boost their profile. It is uncharitable.
Take the MacMillan Nurses a few years ago.
They publicly wrote to every Premier League side asking their players to donate a days wages to their charity. Some accepted; others rejected.
MacMillan Nurses then published the list of clubs that rejected their request in the hope the media would pick up on their story. They did and the public flogging began.
Arsenal were one of those clubs to reject the request and became the headline name the papers went with.
What it ignored is that Arsenal had its own charity – the Arsenal Foundation – which distributed funds across many charities across Islington. One of the fundraising activities they already undertook was every player donating a days wages to the Arsenal Foundation.
From this blog we make a small amount of money. We donate that money to charities.
We often get requests from people asking for donations – whether it is or a kids football team or to support someone’s JustGiving charitable drive. We often have to reject them as we simply can not afford to donate to every request.
Whilst football clubs are much richer, they will get countless more requests than our little blog. And whereas we are getting asked to donate £50, they will be getting asked to donate £500,000.
Like us, at some point they have to say no. They can not donate to every charitable request.
It is why Arsenal – and many other clubs – have set up their own foundation. This allows them to point any request towards their own foundation.
If you want a donation, apply to the foundation not the club.
The Premier League are also no different.
They will get daily requests to donate money or publicly support a cause. They can not agree to donate or promote them all.
We already have the support of Black Lives Matter and Mind. As well as Kick It Out and Rainbow Laces. They already do a lot to raise awareness in multiple causes.
But the more causes they agree to raise awareness in, the more diluted that support comes.
It could get to a point where every weekend the Premier League are showing their support for a different cause. And then some will still get rejected.
So you will still have a charity or organisation going to the press saying “our request for support from the Premier League has been rejected”. And it will become a headline story.
A lot of football clubs already run a “Big Sleep Out” event for homelessness.
This is where they encourage people to spend a night sleeping in their stadium to raise funds for homelessness. In 2019 Chelsea raised £25,000 split between the two local homeless charities. Wolves raised £30k in 2019; Bristol Rovers £7k in 2020 and West Ham over £100k for Shelter just last year.
Clubs clearly already do so much to raise awareness and funds for homeless charities.
The sad fact is their rejection of Shelter’s proposal will get more publicity than the positive acts each club does in the area.
What Shelter have done with their public shaming leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
Instead of praising clubs for the work they do, they could end up alienating them and losing their future support.
Shelter might have just shot themselves in the foot for future funding from clubs.
Over the pandemic every club stepped up and donated a huge amount of food, resources and time to help those who needed it. They also would have rejected a lot of requests to help.
If every rejection was made public, it would have been a daily story.
At some point the Premier League, football clubs and businesses have to say no. They can not support every charity, every cause.
On a final thought, those media companies that have criticised the Premier League in recent days; do they support every charity that requests it?
We should be focusing on the charities, causes and work the Premier League and her members already do. Not criticising them for rejecting one charities public advances.
Move on. Focus on the football.
Keenos
Our 2nd set of Arsenal beer mats are now available
