End Spurs title hopes in September, lift the trophy at Anfield

4 Replies

Morning! Apologies for the lack of blog yesterday. Life got a bit on top.

To cut a long story short, I got home from Slovenia at 2am Monday morning, then had a funeral that afternoon. By the time I was awake on Tuesday, it was already time to work and my inbox had over 100 unread emails after a week off work.

This morning has been a little more relaxing. I have already watered my plants, had a coffee in the garden, and now have a spare hour to write some random sentences on a keyboard and hope they make some sort of sense.

Yesterday the fixtures were announced. They are, of course, just a provisional list subject to change. We now await for the TV companies and police to interfere. We will know the final fixtures list in May!

The way I see it, Tottenham will be champions of August again, before we end their real title hopes in September. Around 30 games later we will be lifting the league title at Anfield!

I am of course jesting, although I bet this blog gets picked up throughout the season by those who regurgitate these things without reading.

It will be a tough title race once more. Manchester City have raised that bar to needing 90+ points. Finishing 2nd is not a failure.

Some people are already making noises that if Mikel Arteta does not win a trophy this season he should be gone. I do not think some fans realise how hard it is to compete in England.

Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea. 5 into 3 does not go (excluding European success), meaning that at least two clubs a year will miss out on a domestic trophy. And that does not take into account the fact Man City can win it all.

And you also have the smaller teams; the likes of Newcastle, West Ham, Crystal Palace and Tottenham. They will all be having outside hopes of a trophy.

This is not France, Germany or Spain where their are only one (Munich & PSG) or two (Barcelona and Madrid) real big teams. Winning a trophy in England is harder than any other league in the world.

It has been 4 years since we won the FA Cup during those Covid times. The 12 domestic trophies since then have been split between just 4 teams: Manchester City (6 trophies), Liverpool (3), Manchester United (2) and Leicester City (1).

Chelsea have now won a domestic trophy since 2018 (6 years ago), Tottenham are 16 years without a trophy, Aston Villa and Everton are 28 and 29 years respectively and Newcastle have not seen success for nearly 70 years!

In this Manchester City era, failing to win a trophy should not be seen as a success. Likewise, finishing 8th and winning the League Cup should not really be something to celebrate.

We have a tough start, with away trips to Aston Villa, Tottenham and Manchester City in the opening 5 games. Arteta will need to ensure the team come out of the traps a bit quicker than they did last season. He will already be preparing and planning.

In Super Mik we have a brilliant football mind. He reminds me of Arsene Wenger in the early 00s when every time a job at Munich, Barca, Madrid, etc came up he would be linked.

Those that demand high standards will be left scratching their heads with confusion the day Arteta leaves and is then linked with every top job, including Manchester City, in Europe.

Enjoy your Wednesday.

Keenos

BOOK REVIEW: Wilderness to Thrillderness: The return of the magic hat

Leave a reply

In the third and final book of his Wenger Trilogy, author and lifelong Arsenal fan Dave Seager takes us on a journey through Arsenal’s wilderness years and back to glory, culminating in the clubs 2014 FA Cup final win.

Wilderness to Thrillderness: The return of the magic hat is the follow up Dave’s 2018 “Arsene’s Double Double – a Cool Cat in a Magic Hat” and 2023 “From Double Double to Invincibubble – The further adventures of a Cool Cat in his Magic Hat”.

Like the previous two books in the trilogy, Wilderness to Thrillerness documents Arsenal’s history in Dave’s unique style, making it a perfect book for adults and children.

Starting after the FA Cup win of 2005, the wilderness years covers “selling too many players to City”, the “glorious run to a Champions League final” and “Highbury’s final day salute”.

At a good pace, we then traverse the near misses of the 2007/08 season, when we “fell away to third in a title race they had led most of the way” and the 2011 League Cup final “lost to a soon to be relegated team”.

A new dawn rises as the book takes a turn, focusing in depth on the 2013/14 FA Cup run. From Tottenham to Coventry, Liverpool, Everton and Wigan, Dave rhymes his way to a final showdown against Hull City.

With twists and turns that Hollywood could not script, I won’t spoil the conclusion but I am sure you have not forgotten!

Once more Dave joins up with Poorly Drawn Arsenal, whose illustrations bring the words to life.

The trilogy is a brilliant look at the Wenger years combining fun and history. A great book to introduce a young Arsenal to our past whilst also being a must have in any collection!

You can pre-order Wilderness to Thrillderness: The return of the magic hat today through Legends Publishing.

Memories of Super Kevin Campbell

1 Reply

I was absolutely gutted when I heard the sad news that Super Kevin Campbell had passed away.

Back in 1988, aged 16, I worked on a building site in Harlow. The site manager (Mr Hillier) quickly knew I was Arsenal and would always pull me over to tell me how his son David was going in our youth teams.

Every match I would buy a programme and soon read of the tons of goals Super Kev was scoring at that level.

David was captain of the side that won the FA Youth cup in 1988, with Super Kev scoring a hatrick in the 1st of the 2 legged final.

David and Super Kev ended up playing together for the first team and I was proud to on the Clock End and at away games watching them both.

Kev was a good old-fashioned bruising Centre forward with legs like tree trunks and not a bit of fat on him.

He had that South London attitude, merged with a love for The Arsenal. He never once let us down, and left it all on the pitch.

Through my social media stuff, I have ended up mates with David Hillier and been lucky enough to have had a good few chats with Super Kev, both privately and on Podcasts.

He was always positive, happy, gracious and humble. He was a double nice bloke!

Kev even used my shop now and then, never once mentioning it first, never hinting or wanting a discount or a freebie. 

Super Kev was loved everywhere he went. We have lost a good one here…

Prayers to his family and friends.

Gav