Tag Archives: soccer

Mikel Arteta needs to start converting good seasons into more silverware

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I did not end up watching the FA Cup final yesterday.

Harlow Garden Centre was too sunny, too peaceful. By the time I had done a bit of shopping, grabbed meself some fresh lemonade and a slice of cake and got home it was already half time. At that point all I wanted to do was sit in my garden and relax.

Manchester United won which robs us of an August trip to Wembley.

Whilst I do not consider the Community Shield as a relevant trophy, it is still nice to have a semi-serious pre-season game at Wembley where we can all meet up, shake off the cobwebs and get ready for the next 9 months in the sunshine.

With Man U winning it, it raises the question of whether they (and Liverpool) have a better season than us.

I remember back in 2020 when we finished 8th and failed to win a trophy, those outside of the club continued with the narrative that we had a bad season. Meanwhile us fans did not care. We had a day out and lifted a trophy.

And imagine it is the same for Man u fans today.

They will not care one bit that they finished 8th, 31 points off their local rivals. All that matters is they won the FA Cup. And the record books only ever remember the winners.

So whilst we might sit there and mock Man U’s poor season, ultimately they won a trophy and we did not.

Whilst I am delighted about the progress on and off the pitch we have made from Mikel Arteta – I do not think some of our critics realise how bad the situation the club was in prior to his and Edu’s arrival – we have finished trophyless for the 4th successive season.

I am not going to jump on Arteta’s back, just like I did not jump on Arsene Wenger’s. But there is a slight concern that we might follow the route of Tottenham in those mid-late 2010s.

Tottenham finished 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, made 3 semi-finals and got to the Champions LEague final from 2016 to 2021, but they ultimately won nothing. All the progress we shown in the last 24 months will mean nothing if we do not start picking up trophies.

Now I am not saying I would rather finish 8th and win an FA Cup. What we need to do is start picking up cups whilst maintaining a title challenge. That way even if we finish 2nd, we still finish the season with some sort of glory.

I am sure the silverware will come. And as we continue to raise the ceiling and floor of the squad, we should be in a better position to compete on 4 fronts.

The consequence of Man U winning the FA Cup means that Chelsea only qualify for the Europa Conference (they will probably win it), and Newcastle have no European football. That could leave couple of their stars to looking elsewhere for European football. Could it open a door for Arsenal to sign a Bruno or Isak? Who knows.

We did brilliantly this season. But now we need to compete in the league whilst winning trophies.

The She Wore Shop is 10 years old today! Dunno where the time has gone….

 For those who don’t know, the shop was started 3 weeks after I had lost my job in 2014 with the last £50 we had left in the overdraft by buying 50 badgepins and putting some yellow ribbon behind it for the 2014 FA Cup final.

They sold in minutes, so we ordered more and more…

A lot has changed in 10 years. Items that were impossible to be made in the UK can now be made same day. Our clothing is still made to order and can take longer.

We are still nowhere near Amazon levels of speed – and also rely on Royal Mail rather than have a fleet of our own drivers!

I still use the same clothing supplier who made our very 1st polo shirts and he has become a close mate. In the last few years we have both been through some very dark times, but we built a great friendship and supported each other.

The shop has never made us fortunes. The car is 9 years old, we still count the pennies at the end of each month and the kids have never had an overseas holiday. The mortgage is paid on time and the kids do their sports clubs, play way to much Playstation and are happy. And that is what is important.

None of this would have been possible without the support and backing of you. We have all seen the meme about shopping local, and how you are paying for someones children’s ballet class, karate and school uniform. That is exactly what you are all doing when you buy something from our shop.

I am grateful to every single one of you. Whether you have bought once or are a regular buyer. Even just a RT, Like or Share means the world to me.

As a thank you, everything on the shop is 10% off for today and tomorrow. No code needed, the discount is automatically applied at check out: She Wore Shop

Have a great Bank Holiday weekend! And thanks again.

Gav

Arsenal look to “raise the ceiling and floor” this summer

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Morning!

FA Cup final weekend and I do not think I have ever been so disinterested in one.

Usually, I would be buzzing for the biggest day in the English footballing calendar. Today I will not even watch it. Instead I will be in a garden centre in Harlow.

A bit of Arsenal chatter today about ceilings and floors.

Players that raise the ceiling are those that make the top end of the team better, and therefore raise the ceiling of the team. Think Declan Rice.

Meanwhile, players that raise the floor are those that come in at the bottom end of the squad, improving on those firing players. You can also raise the floor by signing “raise the ceiling” players, demoting a current starter to a back-up dancer and letting go the current squad player.

An example of this was seen last season when we signed Declan Rice. That one player raised both the ceiling and floor.

Rice was better than anything we had in midfield. But his recruitment also meant that Thomas Partey became 2nd choice, Jorginho 3rd choice and Mohamed Elneny a fringe player.

Jorginho as 3rd choice is a huge upgrade on Elneny who was previously 3rd choice. We also saw Albert Sambi Lokonga depart on loan.

If you raise the floor and ceiling at the same time, you are both improving the starting XI and improving the squad depth.

Talk is that Arsenal are looking to recruit one “ceiling” player. My bet is it will be that striker. The club will then look for 2-3 players that will raise the floor. I would imagine that will be a central midfielder and maybe another centre back.

This really shows how clear Arsenal, Edu and Mikel Arteta are thinking right now.

No longer does it feel like we are working without a plan, waiting to see who becomes available or is offered to us. We are determining our targets and going out and getting them.

Of course, it could be all for nothing as once against Manchester City will be outspending everyone.

There is already talk that they are looking to dump Matheus Nunes this summer. The former-Wolves midfielder was signed for £53m when they failed to secure Declan Rice. The fact the can discard £50m+ players like they are Uno cards highlights their financial doping.

We do not beat Manchester City by outspending them. We beat them through smarter recruitment.

Raising the ceiling and floor is good recruitment.

In other news, I see Lucas Paqueta could be in deep trouble having been charged with getting booked deliberately for “the improper purpose of affecting the betting market”. Could not happen to a nicer player at a nicer club.

West Ham got a little too big for their boots after a couple of seasons of finishing top 7, and then winning the Intertwobob Conference League thing. They then celebrated last year as they “did Arsenal out of £100m” whilst ceiling the only player that made them relevant.

Having pushed David Moyes out, they have recruited a Wolves reject. Their star midfielder is looking at a long, long ban and, with no Europe, the likes of Jarod Bowen and Mohamed Kudos might not be around much longer. I would take both at Arsenal as cover for Bukayo Saka. Their ceiling players are our raise the floor ones.

I would not be surprised if in 12-months time we are sitting here and West Ham and their god awful stadium have been relegated to the Championship.

But hey, you will always have that day you sold your star to Mikel Arteta.

Enjoy your Bank Holiday weekend.

Keenos

Ange learns Tottenham have “a loser mentality fanbase.”

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“What will be will be”.

When I read that before the game it bought everything into clarity to me.

We were not reliant on a favour from Spurs, nor were Spurs going to help us win the league. This was just another game in a marathon of games to determine who the best team in the Premier League were. And in the end the result was what most of us were expecting.

Uninspiring Spurs

Spurs did not really turn up for the game, but this has nothing to do with them downing tools due to the title race situation

Since Ange won London Manager of the Year, Tottenham have played 12, and won just 5. They went into 2024 in the title race, with many online experts claiming they would run Manchester City all the way. They have collapsed in 2024 and the league table since 1 January has them 8th.

It was not their choice to put in an uninspiring performance against City. They are just an uninspiring team who embarrassingly celebrated beating Sheffield United at home back in September like they had won the league.

Whilst their fans celebrated like the winners they are not, yesterday’s defeat was their 5th in their last 6 games. They have dropped out of the title race, failed to finish top 4, and might drop out of the European places all together.

Ange is quickly learning why Tottenham are such a failure of a team. Their fans have a loser mentality.

Over the last 30-odd years, the biggest success for Tottenham fans is Arsenal not winning a trophy.

Whether that was 95, 99, 00, 06, 2011, 2019 or 2023. Tottenham have had so little success in the last 3 decades that they resort to celebrating our failure like it is their victory. And it was no different last night.

Whilst their fans celebrated losing a game at the final whistle, Ange Postecoglou was seething. There is a clear separation here between their manager who wants to win things, and their fans who are more interested in Arsenal not winning.

Tottenham fans may well have been celebrating into the night. But once again they were celebrating their another teams failure rather than their own success.

Tottenham are an uninspiring team with a loser mentality fanbase.

Magnificent City

Last season the narrative was that Arsenal had bottled it. That we had fallen off. What City had done in the 2nd half of the season went unnoticed – To clinch the title they went on a 12 game winning run, and won 14 from 15. It is form that would win the title in any year. Except this.

With Arsenal chasing them all the way, City have had to up their game to yet another level. They are on an unbeaten 22 game run, winning 18 and drawing 4. Zero losses. You need to praise that sort of form (regardless of the charges).

City are not top of the double because Arsenal bottled it, nor are they top because Spurs rolled over and let their bellies get tickled. City are top because they deserve it.

Brilliant Arsenal

The 18 games City played before they lifted the title in 2022/23, City’s form read: P 18 W 16 D 1 L 1. It is that form that won them the title.

12 months on and our form is eerily similar – P 17 W 15 D 1 L 1. Beat Everton on Saturday and we would have showed the exact same title winning from that City showed last season.

Arsenal’s form in the second half of the season has been exceptional. The only difference being our run started with 18 games to go, City’s with 23 games.

In the last 17 games, we have shown the form that would get us the equivalent of 102 points. Over the last 22 games our average drops to an equivalent of 86 points, whilst City’s maintained at 100.

What we now need to do is put together a full season – the first half of last season and the second half of this. But ev en that will not guarantee a title as Liverpool showed when they got 97 points and still finished second.

I am still very very proud of what they boys, and Mikel Arteta, have done this season. We have pushed City closer than last year, stayed in the title race longer, and all whilst playing Champions League football.

But proud does not win you trophies, and that is the next step for this Arsenal side. We do not want to become Spurs under Mauricio Pochetinno who celebrated just competing and never won anything. We are The Arsenal and we need to win trophies.

And it is not over…

A lot of people will be writing our obituaries today. But the title race is not yet over. It still goes down to that last game of the season.

I do not expect West Ham to get anything from Sunday’s game. They are nearly as bad as Tottenham with just 2 wins from their last 6. They have collapsed in the last dozen games and their European hopes have diminished and manager set to leave in the summer.

But where there is hope there is the potential of glory, and I will still be going Sunday with a little bit of belief. Not much, but a little.

The odds are against us. Not since 1989 has a team starting the last day top failed to win the league. But then we all know what happened that year.

UTA

Keenos