At which stage of grief does one start feeling a sense of pity for their adversary? It’s been almost two weeks and I feel terrible. No, not for Arsenal. I feel terrible for Emi Martinez. I feel so, because Arsenal robbed Martinez off a masterclass on his return to the Emirates. I was prepared for it. I played it out in my head several times before the kick off. I did because the stage was set for Martinez to morph into peak David De Gea, make 37 saves, while Jack Grealish nicks a winner at the other end. They scored three. But Emi must be crestfallen. His only meaningful contribution in the game was to fend away a semi-dangerous cross from Bukayo Saka.
Martinez was ‘one of us’ for 10 years, and has witnessed the best of ‘return of the great snakes’ several times — the Nasris, the Cescs and especially, Van Persie’s Guard of Honour must have flashed in front of his eyes while tightening the velcro of his gloves in the players’ tunnel. He must have planned a celebration as well. No, he wouldn’t run across the entire length of the turf to pull off a knee-slide, but a silent clench of the fist with a self-assuring “Yuss” after a flying save must have been in his locker. He must have planned it because Arsenal are good at this. They’ve never let any of their ex-players return empty handed so, it surely gave him hope. He even texted Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang about saving his penalty.
The Arsenal captain though wasn’t having any of it. He might have laughed about it in the pre-match interview, but hey, this is the new Arsenal — ruthless and cold, with zero creative forces at work. Now, we have a structure. We have a shape. We don’t serve personal glory to our ex-players. And that’s exactly what Martinez got – just two shots on target. Most importantly none from Auba! Way to spoil a homecoming, innit?
But we didn’t disappoint everyone. Arsenal were so focussed on spoiling Emi’s night that we forgot about another Gooner lining up in a Villa shirt — Ollie Watkins. Grealish’s love for the Emirates is well known, the dude twerks hard on social media every time he balls on the carpet, but Watkins was a surprise. It shouldn’t have been though. The guy knocked the lights out of Virgil Van Dijk so yeah, Rob Holding wasn’t exactly a stern challenge.
For the last week and a half, I have thought hard about who to pin this on. Normally, I let it go because Arsenal, traditionally, have always found a way to lift the spirits after a serious downer. A drubbing would normally be forgotten after Jack Wilshere does filthy things to Norwich, or a Bayern debacle will be wiped clean thanks to an Ozil-Alexis one-two. And of course, there was always a Tomas Rosicky special against Tottenham lurking around the corner. But now, the thought of Alexandre Lacazette air-kicking in front of an open goal, doesn’t really…yeah you know what I mean!
What irks me more is the constant social media chatter about systems. The entire fan base incessantly moans about 4-3-3s, 3-4-3s, and 5-4-1s. I also do my share of geeky formations on Football Manager but hey, when you’re 2-nil down, you instantaneously switch on the ‘Very Attacking’ mode. Agreed, it’s not the same in real life but currently, Arsenal are so caught up in creating formations that they’ve stopped playing football. We only talk about low blocks now — when did Arsenal have a problem breaking through low blocks? I have seen Thierry Henry put Jamie Carragher on his ass to rip apart the lowest of the blocks. Scratch that, we have blasted through the Allardyce teams with Theo Walcott on the wings, and Francis Coquelin playing as a six, eight or whatever the fuck his position was.
I love Mikel Arteta, and he’s done a smashing job so far. He’s won us trophies, he’s made us sturdy and boy, doesn’t he look good in black! But come Sunday, he will again start Willian on right, Auba far left and Laca in the centre. He will do it because he is a perfectionist, and I have no issues with that. Start Willian if he deserves to, bench Pepe if he’s not good enough, concentrate on the structure but sprinkle a bit of the magic dust that might make Arsenal play football half as sleek as his managerial wardrobe. We don’t win a lot of trophies anymore, we don’t sign the biggest names either, but even through those painful Gervinho years, Arsenal played the most delectable football.
It’s a non-negotiable Mikel. May be it’s time to take that handbrake off!
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