I'm writing this on the morning af Arsenal's biggest game of the season so far (hopefully there'll be one bigger one to come). If we get out this season with a trophy and a Champions League spot, it'll be an effing miracle!
We've all been reminded, I'm sure, of all the wonderful anniversaries that occurred around this time in previous years. There was May 3rd 1971, the first time we won the league at WHL (my much-missed father was actually there!) - the other time we did that was actually 25th April 2004, when... oh, I feel a song coming on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRev7pQLHdg
Then there's 4th May 1994 - wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen. And 6th May 1991, when we could all celebrate the title before kick off at home to Manchester United. Then there's the bittersweet 7th May 2006 - the unforgettable final match at Highbury. May 8th 1971, when Charlie George's screamer secured the double. 12th May 1979, when Alan Sunderland got that late, dramatic Cup Final winner against Manchester United. I could go on...
But these all seem so long ago when you look at where Arsenal are now. On its day, this team is capable of beautiful things and wonderful performances, but they are too few and far between. We need just two more this season, starting this evening.
We can look back fondly at the wonderful Arsenal sides that Arsene Wenger put together in the first 8 years of his time at the club, but that seems so far away now. What fills me with extra pride about that was that Wenger wasn't dining at the top table when it came to transfers - he bought low and sold high, but these days it's increasingly about money more than anything else.
I suppose it ever was - Arsenal were known as the Bank of England Club back in the 1920-30s - but it's so exaggerated now as to make it impossible to get to the top without, literally, billions. Just look at the Champions League - losing semi-finalists Real Madrid and Paris St Germain, and this year's finalists Chelsea - who were mid-table until Roman Abramovich's billions started to transform them in 2003 - and Manchester City, who were bought by Sheikh Mansour, a Crown Prince of the UAE, in 2008; they're essentially owned by a country!
Not that Arsenal, in theory, need to have missed out. But they're owned by the wrong sort of billionaire. Jealous? Moi? I'm afraid that I'm of the opinion that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. But unlike the ludicrous plans for a European Super League and the 'money grab' that it would have been, I'd hope to see any billionaire who owns my club spend his money on not just the club itself, but also the local community and the lower reaches of the football pyramid. To give Manchester City credit, they have done just that.
But on to the football. And I'm not going to spend much time on the win over Newcastle United on Sunday, save to celebrate Aubameyang's 68 minutes on the field and well-taken goal, and to 'mourn' the loss of David Luiz for the rest of the season. And that's because Newcastle are truly terrible. I mean, woeful. So Arsenal - despite 8 changes - didn't have to play all that well to beat them effortlessly.
But let's go back to last Thursday, when it would appear that Arteta was out-thought by Unai Emery. But I'm not buying that - I think that he out-thought himself! Keep it simple, Stupid! Talk about over-thinking things... but to go into a semi-final without the focal point of a centre-forward really defied belief. And the continued folly of continuing to play Xhaka at left back was brought home to roost by firstly the early roasting he got from Chuckwueze that led to the first goal (as early as the fourth minute) - he got more to grips with the Nigerian as the game went on - but more especially with his absence from central midfield and the selection of Ceballos in his place.
Now, Ceballos has been on a one-man mission to eliminate Arsenal from the Europa League - remember those mistakes against Benfica and Olimpiacos - but he went even further this time, by dint of poor positioning and lack of pace and eventually getting himself sent off; although the manager must take a deal of the blame because it looked inevitable that it was going to happen, and he should have changed it at half-time and if not then, when Ceballos committed another bad foul after 50 minutes. As if it wasn't bad enough that he had managed to make Juan Foyth - last seen in England as an out-of-his-depth reserve centre half at Tottenham - look like a Latin Trent Alexander-Arnold at times.
Arsenal were two down after just half an hour. I'm not sure what's been going on with our much-vaunted set-piece specialist coach, but this goal - from a corner - saw two of what NFL commentators call a 'busted coverage'. Inexcusable, and a mountain to climb. And Bernd Leno, so culpable in the Everton game - prevented the tie from becoming out of reach with two excellent saves before Bukayo Saka 'engineered' a penalty with 20 minutes to go. Pepe scored, thankfully, but rather unconvincingly I thought.
Either way, a combination of the 2-1 scoreline, Emery's bizarre decision to sit on his 2-0 lead with a defensive substitution at half-time when I'd have been going for the jugular, injury to Foyth and the sending-off of Capoue, and the likely return of Aubameyang probably mean that Arsenal should go through from this point. Because, as we know, Arsenal's home record this season has been exceptional...
What I'd suggest is this: there's enough fire power available at the top end of the pitch now to move Saka back to left back and restore Xhaka to central midfield. Square pegs going into square holes, a choice between Pepe, Martinelli, Odegaard and Smith Rowe to accompany Auba, and a bit more nous in central midfield. Well, that's the way I'd go.
And without sounding over-confident, I think we can do this and give England four European Finalists out of four for the second season in the last three. What happened in 2019, however, and the different directions that Arsenal and Chelsea (who sold their best player, but spent a fortune last summer, changed their Manager, and now find themselves in the the Top Four and the Champions League Final) have taken since then have been painful to behold. There's so much nuance to what's going on at the club, but it's nothing that lifting the Europa League wouldn't help solve.
Fingers crossed. COYG.
