As we reach the end of another year, I would like to thank everyone who has read, shared and enjoyed my badly written Arsenal blogs this year.
As always, I do not write for money. This is not my job and I have no interest in it ever becoming that. Blogging for me is an outlet, it is therapeutic.
When I am tapping away on my keyboard, my mind is focused on what I am writing, blocking out the horrors of the world. So thank you to everyone that reads, you are supporting my mental health.
This year passed through 7 million blog views. Back in 2013, I never dreamed my rambling would reach so many people.
Our April fools joke went viral and was picked up by a few in the main stream media, who failed to do their own fake news checks. The full top 10 of most read blogs are:
As always, I went out last night. Have done for years.
New Years Eve Eve is much more chilled. There is still Christmas spirit in the air, but the pubs are not filled with those “once a year wankers” who do not know how to behave.
As we get older, it also means I can get together with mates, and then everyone goes off on New Years Eve to do things with family and loved ones.
It has been mentionmed by a few team mates about how hard he trains, and you can see that with his ever improving hold up play and work rate. He is no longer just a goal scorer.
We now move into a very tricky period – one which I think is a lot harder than people realise.
Brighton – away
Brighton have become a bit of a bogey team for us in recent years.
Since they returned to the top division of English football in 2017, we have beaten them just 3 times in 10 games. Add in the recent League Cup defeat and that is 3 in 11. We have lost 5.
Despite losing their manager and coaching staff to Chelsea, as well as the best two players, they are performing very well this season – currently 7th in the table.
Trips like this are what we need to win to be remain title contenders.
Newcastle – home
Over the Christmas period, Newcastle moved to 2nd in the league.
I have already begun speaking about a “Big 7” rather than a “Big 6”, and I think the Geordies will finish in the top 4 this season.
Eddie Howe is a top manager – and hopefully the next England manager.
There players were never as poor as how they were performing under Steve Bruce and having spent £260million in the last 12 months, it should be no surprise they are where they are.
Last season, a trip to St James Park killed our top 4 hopes, and Newcastle are a better team now against then.
Whilst we have home advantage, we need to begin treating them how we treat Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester United.
Tottenham – Away
The North London Derby should probably be renamed “The Home Advantage Derby”.
In the last 25 league meetings of the two teams, the away team has won just twice – once each for Tottenham and Arsenal.
The last time Arsenal beat Tottenham at White Hart Lane was 2014. 2010 was the last time Spurs won in Islington (league games).
Of the 25 games, 16 have produced home winners, 7 draws, and 2 defeats. It is an incredibly one-side game where both sides dominate at home.
No matter how bad they are, they will always be up for it against us.
Manchester United – home
Arsenal’s only defeat (at the time of writing) of the season. We lost 3-1 at Old Trafford, but in reality could have won.
Our opener was controversially disallowed, and then Manchester United took advantage of our high line with Marcus Rashford getting in behind a couple of times.
It felt for a long time that no matter how poor Man U were, we still lost. We were playign the name rather than the team.
That form has changed and we have only lost twice in the last 8 meetings. Although both of those defeats have come in the last 3 games.
Manchester United have beaten us just once in the league at the Emirates since 2014. But they are a Jekyll and Hyde team and still a danger.
This season, in games against Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Newcastle, Tottenham and Chelsea, they have lost just once. 6-3 to Man City. They have however failed to win either of the away fixtures on that run – drawing to Chelsea and losing that Manchester Derby.
My worry is they look well set up to beat us.
They defend deep, with a low block and 2 defensive midfielders. The forward line is then filled with electric pace as they look to beat teams on the break.
To come away with 3 points, we will need to be aggressive in attack but ensure we do not leave the back door open.
Everton – away
I do not care how poor Everton are, Goddison Park is never an easy place to go.
We have not won in the blue side of Stanley Park since the 5-2 victory back in 2017. We have won just one in the last 4.
That one win is enough to hold hope though – it was a 5-1 win at home on the last day of the season.
Under Frank Lampard, Everton are going backwards quickly. they are not the team of Lukaku, Cahill and Fellaini. I honestly think they will be relegated this season.
Brentford – home
Our only “easy” fixture in this run of games. A home game against Brentford.
By the time we face the West-London side, Ivan Toney will probably be suspended and he is a huge loss for his team.
Brentford are a home / away team this season – just 1 defeat at Griffin Park (or whatever their new souless ground is called), which was against Arsenal. And just 1 win away from home. Against Manchester City.
That win at the City Ground should serve as a warning for Arsenal. Do not take any game lightly.
We need to come away from this game with 3 points to stand a chance of winning the league.
Manchester City – home
The re-arranged fixture from October, and probably the most important game in the title race.
At this point, I expect Manchester City to have closed the 5 point gap; we will do well in the previous 6 games to win 4 from 6. Man City also have an extra game to play an extra game before they face Arsenal.
The winner of this game will probably finish top of the table after the 90 minutes.
Momentum is so important in football. We are a bit like Leicester City in 2015/16 and can not stop winning right now. But it is what happens once we stop winning and potentially full behind City.
They have shown themselves in recent seasons to be great front runners. Whilst losing a couple and being second may well knock our confidence.
Last season, we were some dodgy refereeing decisions and mistakes by Arsenal players from being City.
Granit Xhaka gave away a penalty that never was and City equalised. Gabriel Magalhaes booked for “scuffing up the penalty spot”. Gabriel Martinelli missed that open goal when it was easier to score before the other Gabriel got a second yellow card.
A mad 3 minutes where nothing went our way.
In the end, City snatached a win with the last touch of the game. It was a defeat that had many Arsenal fans still feeling bouyant. The team were applauded off the pitch and the process was beginning to be trusted by more.
If we come away from City still top of the league, that hope might begin to grow. But what I actually expect is for City to be topping the league after our 23rd game of the season.
We are in for a tough time over the next 7 games. The press are trying to build us up as favourites, but the bookies still have City as 2/5 odds on favoruites and we are 5/2.
The only people hyping us up right now are doing it so they can write about “bottlers” in the future. They have no interest in Arsenal winning the league. They want us to finish as low as possible. Arsenal as champions does not suit their agenda.
Next 7 games is going to be tough. But it is those sort of games you need to win if you want to be crowned champions.
My prediction? I think we win 4 of them. Not sure which 4 though.
Morning all, and shout out to the “back at work gang”.
I have never been one to take a lot of time off at Christmas (unless I am abroad). I would prefer to sit in my office and do nothing for 3 days, and use that annual leave at more “stressful” teams of the year than book the festive period off.
So shout out to all those back at work today. And also those that never really had time yes. I am talking about you guys in retail, hospitality and transport.
Anyway, I read a little article before Christmas that got me thinking (and inspired this blog).
One of Chelsea’s new owners (bear with me, this is not a blog about them!) spoke prior to Christmas about how he sees the “multi-club” model is the future of football. It has been someting mooted a few times by their various different owners.
Manchester City are perhaps the most “famous” club that run a huge multi-club network.
The City Football Group (CFG) owns and operates 12 clubs across 5 continents. Including Man City, New York City, Melbourne City, Mumbai City, Palermo and Girona.
Africa is the only place where they do not have a team – interestingly Chelsea owners have spoken of Africa as the “big untapped market”. The question is can it actually be tapped into (major brands beyond football have had it down as an utapped market for decades, and it still is!).
I have always felt CFG was basically a big scam.
Man City are the central nucleus of the group, and their owners use the other clubs to help to be “Financial Fair Pay compliant”.
Most of these clubs operate in regions that do not have the FFP restrictions the Premier League and UEFA impose.
Their owners pump millions into these clubs, who then “buy” products off Man City – the products being access to their scouting database, coaching and consultancy services.
They pay a premium for these services and allow for “legitimate” money to flow into City’s bank accounts.
Using companies based abroad, with more favourable rules and regulations is not something no.
Major businessess (think Starbucks, Amazon), use operations in more favourable tax locations to reduce their UK tax bill. There UK operation “buys” something from these overseas companies, at an inflated rate, with the overall aim of reducing tax.
It is perfectly legally, although morally questionable. More tax avoidance than tax evasion.
And CFG have operated similar. although instead of trying to get money out of a UK business, they have used the multi-club model to bring revenue in.
But there is an extension of this multi-club model that goes beyond using these clubs to funnel money in from owners.
Chelsea are a huge name in football. As are Arsenal. As are Manchester United, Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid and so on. All of these have global fan bases of millions, who can not get to games in the UK.
The logical next step of the multi-club model provides a solution to this.
Instead of Chelsea (as an example), owning “independent” clubs in Melbourne, in New York, in Lagos, with their own name and history, what if they “transported” the Chelsea brand name to these cities?
Chelsea Melbourne FC, Chelsea New York FC, Chelsea Lagos FC, and so on (note: You can change Chelsea to Arsenal, Barcelona, etc for the same result).
City has 12 clubs in their group. That could become 12 full stadiums a weekend. Fans flocking to their local Man City side. Supporting them in the same manner they support the Manchester based side.
Arsenal make around £100million in gate receipts across a season. Is it plausible that this can be replicated if KSE franchise the name out across the globe? Have 12 clubs in the group. Potentially £1.2bn a year in revenue? With it all going into KSE’s coffers (rather than Arsenal’s?)
Would fans in Australia, American and Nigeria begin supporting the “Chelsea” in their country? Pay to get through the gate of the local version of the English (or Spanish, German, French, etc) club they support?
Or is this just the Americans (at Chelsea) deluded dream? They seem to think that you can “franchise” out the name of the club like it is a McDonalds. And that fans across the globe will automatically begin following their “local” side alongside the UK version. and thus increasing revenue of the group (in gate receipts).
As someone from London, who has only ever lived in London (bar university in Colchester), I am unable to answer that question.
We have lots of readers from Nigeria (2022 Nigeria was 2nd to the UK in countries that read our blog). So those reading, would you support an Arsenal Lagos? Would you pay to go to Arsenal Lagos games? Would you seem them as “real” Arsenal?
As I sad at the start of the blog. This is more just me letting my mind wonder. But I can certainly see why Chelsea’s owners – and other clubs – will continue to explore multi-club models to make further profits of the name of their main asset.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 