A scene on North London’s Hornsey Road about a year ago said a lot about what Mikel Arteta has restored to Arsenal.
He had left the Emirates a little early after the 2-0 win over Leicester City and when the lights turned red his Audi was momentarily besieged by autograph hunters and supporters of all ages who wanted to say, essentially, ‘Thank you. You have brought us joy.’
The smile on his face reflected the mood of an afternoon when his young, largely English side had shown something often overlooked in football. Satisfaction.
“They’re having a good time together,” Arteta had said before she left the compound that day. “If that’s not the case, we as coaches should go elsewhere, because we’re doing something wrong.”
Those words sum up the joie de vivre we’ve seen in his young team and their great football this season, although that seems to have been forgotten in the days since Arsenal’s draw with West Ham, sparking gleeful talk about the team being it ‘bottles’. .
Arsenal dropped points in the title race on Sunday after throwing away a 2-0 lead at West Ham
Bukayo Saka (No. 7) missed a penalty for the Gunners in their 2-2 draw at the London Stadium
However, Mikel Arteta has worked wonders to get Arsenal to the top of the table
No one expects those of Tottenham Hotspur character to show anything short of joy at the sight of Arsenal sacrificing a 2-0 lead at Liverpool and West Ham.
But where, in the delight some are taking in this, is the acknowledgment of how Arsenal have brought a wonderful unpredictability to what would otherwise have been a season of one-dimensional Manchester City domination?
Sentiment is harder than ever to come by in football these days, with social media feeding on negativity and ridicule and there’s a sea of GIFs to mock and mock.
Sunday evening was a particularly vicious part of that. And the social media bashing continued on Tuesday with some manufactured anger over players ignoring Sunday’s mascot.
But Arsenal’s season has been one of the Premier League’s greatest successes in recent years, whatever the outcome.
They have sent out the second youngest average starting eleven in the division – behind bottom club Southampton – and given young British players the podium. They brought us Bukayo Saka, playing with so much joy. He has become one of the jewels of British football.
Erling Haaland will certainly win the Player of the Year award next month, but for me it’s Saka – a player whose development has been in plain sight over the past few years – a sight to behold. He has known more taunts than many.
The ‘you have failed your country’ heard in some stadiums is relentless. More proof of the times we live in. But he triumphed in spite of everything.
Despite his missed penalty, Saka’s development with the Gunners has been a sight to behold
Saka will become one of Arsenal’s biggest stars in the coming years and has played a key role this season
Just 18 months ago, Saka played in a £616 million Arsenal squad, averaging £104,000 a week, yet he scored just 35 goals in 27 games.
Arteta needed a daring management to rid the club of that madness. It was an extraordinary save, although observers would much rather discuss his sideline behavior than the creation of a hugely successful team. He actually toned down that behavior this season.
Mail Sport’s Ian Herbert says Arsenal’s season has been one of the great achievements of recent years
Arteta has failed to reach the most coveted players in the transfer market, as Pep Guardiola did when he brought Haaland, Jack Grealish, Riyad Mahrez and others to the Etihad. City have Julian Alvarez, one of the stars of the World Cup, on the bench if they need extra firepower. Arsenal have Eddie Nketiah who, with the utmost respect, is not in the same league.
City have a galaxy of world-class defenders, while Arsenal have one. City bought Kalvin Phillips, who was not even needed. Arsenal bought Jorginho, a player who has given his best. It’s a wonder this team is anywhere near the top of the table considering how thin their squad is.
Arsenal fans will not want anyone to declare that second place would be an extraordinary achievement for them as they are at the top of the league and intend to stay there.
But in the Sky Sports debate after West Ham’s game on Sunday, you thanked Gary Neville for the wisdom and common sense, pointing out what a huge achievement this season has been for the club, while Roy Keane’s dismal assessment didn’t care to win the title from here would be ‘a disaster’.
You won’t get sentiment from Keane, for whom football is black and white, but think about Arsenal’s point tally of 74. In the 27 years since the Premier League became a 20-team division, there have been only two sides – Manchester United in 2011 -12 and Liverpool in 2018/19 — didn’t win the title by that number or more after 31 matches. (City took the title both times). The past few weeks have sometimes lacked calm, but what an achievement.
Without Arsenal we would have seen Manchester City walk to yet another Premier League title
Arsenal can visit Manchester City later in April with the title destination still in hand
From here it is in their own hands. Win Friday night’s home game against Southampton and they’ll head to the Etihad next Wednesday knowing that a draw will keep them at the helm.
The game in Newcastle on May 7 could be more crucial. But there is also Chelsea. And Brighton. And a Nottingham Forest who will fight for their lives on May 20. Arsenal have a steeper mountain to climb than City between now and May 28 and they will climb it knowing that the Etihad machine is fully fired.
Strange to say for a team at the top, but Arsenal are still the underdog here; those who want to deconstruct the predictable one-dimensional story of power and money in football. What a special story it would be if they could take it home. And what an extraordinary achievement, even if they don’t.
The Ashes is second to none for influence
A local cricket club celebrated its centenary on Friday evening in a reception room on the Stockport County grounds.
The event matched this milestone, with Matthew Hoggard, the guest speaker, speaking with humility and humility about his life in the sport and how clubs like Stockport Trinity are the lifeblood of the game. Hoggard started with Pudsey Congs, in the Bradford League.
Matthew Hoggard (left) was one of England’s stars in a thrilling Ashes series in 2005
But it was something the club’s chairman Richard Higginbotham said struck a chord.
Amid the ebb and flow of Trinity, it was the Ashes summer of 2005 that brought in a generation of young players inspired by England’s heroics.
Many emailed last week about my observation, criticizing this summer’s Ashes being pinned down in 41 days to make way for the Hundred. Reduce the ash at your own risk.
Dutch duo made a big impression
Frans Thijssen will be a guest next month at the presentation of the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year, the first foreign field player to win the award.
Ipswich manager Bobby Robson bought Thijssen and Arnold Muhren with the proceeds from Brian Talbot’s sale to Arsenal and had £100,000 left to ‘bank’, as he once said.
Arnold Muhren (left) and Frans Thijssen are pictured in the Ipswich dressing room in 1981
The Dutch pair, Robson later reflected, were “great architects of the way we played.” They brought a different dimension, a different way of playing’.
Asked to select his all-time top XI of foreigners who have played in the Football League or Premier League, for the excellent book England, their England, written by my colleague Nick Harris 20 years ago, Robson chose Thijssen over Muhren.
But Muhren made the all-time team, selected by a panel of 20, and Thijssen did not.
There is more about their influence in the book Game Changers, by Tom van Hulsen. Wonderful players of a different age.