This is football’s FAFO moment; negativity and ‘borebags’ are killing game. Arsenal beating Real Madrid is brilliant. Full stop.
Send your views on this subject – because it’s interesting – to theeditor@football365.com
Why football is now rubbish
Football’s not rubbish. At least it’s not any more rubbish than it’s ever been, we look back at decades gone past and only remember Collymore vs Newcastle and not Stoke vs everyone. The problem isn’t, has never been and will never be the football. It’s the unwavering negativity that has monopolised any discussion about the game that’s driving people away.
There can be nothing good about a game. We talked about Tony Yeboah’s thunderbastards for years despite not being Leeds supporters. Today we’d be treated to a week of “analysis” on the keeper’s positioning, which hand he led with and how Joe Kinnear’s wasted so much money on ashtrays(???).
Everything is something to be ridiculed, no pleasure can be taken from anything and any happy people need to be put back in their boxes. We’ve forgotten that there’s joy in the doing and not just in the ultimate result. We’ve forgotten that beating Real Madrid is something special in its own right. You can’t even complain about borebags without the same borebags boring you with their “why does it matter to you?”. It matters because you’re relentlessly trying to kill people’s happiness and succeeding.
It’s not even like we get insight, we just get miserable reactions to things that we’ve all just watched happen. Leicester just got relegated, they’re all pretty down about it and tell their fans they’re sorry but no, the valuable contribution from the ex-Utd brigade is “you should have done more to not get relegated”. You think? You could replace any of the Sky cadre of pundits with Stewie and that’s absolutely not an endorsement of Stewie.
There’s no consistency of thought. no creed about what’s right or wrong. An opinion one week is flipped on its head the next so the only conclusion is to ask yourself why you’re listening to these potatoes. There’s no nuance or relativity.
Your article on Oliver Glasner’s Palace is just wasted space because “they’re in 12th” is the easy retort for the hard of thinking. Sorry Ed, you can’t be happy because you’ve not won everything see. Even likable teams like Bournemouth and Brentford doing well is pushed to the side because we can still pretend they’re rubbish and have a pop at Chelsea for not stuffing them. Unrelenting, ubiquitous negativity where the only escape is to walk away from the entire thing.
This is football’s FAFO moment where they’ve chased the mouth-breathers for engagement only to find that while they’ve been jangling their keys everyone else has left. The truth of the matter is that the bottom of the barrel don’t actually watch football so while Stick To Football’s going great guns the actual football is dying. The parasites are killing the host.
SC, Belfast (Why yes, it has been a bad week at work, how did you know?)
One Liverpool fan, three subjects that are all actually Liverpool
1. Firstly Arsenal fans continuously saying the only reason Liverpool are winning the league is because despite the fact our VAR score has been negative every year since Klopp started bad mouthing refs (likely resulting in one literally saying he hates Scousers on video) and also us being on the receiving end of some genuinely shocking ref decisions – well Arsenal fans, you’re wrong.
You aren’t winning the league because you don’t deserve to. It’s genuinely that simple. Those teams you keep dropping points to who are supposedly weaker this year are the same teams we’ve only dropped points to twice. That’s why we’re winning the league. And even if City were decent this year based on previous seasons points tallies at this stage we would still be top. The only difference would be Arsenal would be third instead of second. The only beneficiary of City’s drop off is actually Arsenal.
And there’s really no shade because Palace are a good side. And that’s the point. The reason the bigger teams are dropping points to the other teams is because the other teams are far stronger this year than previous years.
2. Who should manager of the year be? For once there’s a few genuine contenders for genuine reasons.
Should it be the brand new manager whose first season in the Premier League after following a club legend, having only one decent striker, his first choice keeper out 35% of the games, one centre back out all year while the other is in and out…oh and his three best players all running down their contracts yet somehow manages to win the league at first attempt.
Or should it be the first decent English manager to win a trophy since the early 00s (Redknapp at Portsmouth in case you’re curious) while also playing pretty good football and potentially qualifying for Champs League footy at the same time?
What about the manager of a fallen European giant who is very likely taking them back there again and has beaten most of the big boys throughout the season?
Genuinely quite a few good choices. Personally I’d give it to Eddie Howe if he scrapes Champs League, if not then Slot.
3. Finally I want to point out that Trent isn’t actually a terrible defender. He’s not world class either but he’s not terrible. He just gets highlighted way more than anyone else. For example Bradley was turned inside out 4 times by his man who repeatedly skipped past him all game at the weekend. Was there any people mocking that? Nope. Not a single mention. Yet when it’s Trent there’s millions of people pointing it out. I dunno why people love to focus on Trent when so many other defenders get beat by their man just as often but for some reason they do.
Final final note. I wouldn’t actually mind if Arsenal won the Champions League. I don’t think I’m a lone Liverpool fan in saying I was ecstatic to see you knock out Madrid and if you manage to beat PSG and Barca/Inter then you’ll fully deserve it, that’s a very tough run.
Good luck, you’ll need it but at least the European scumbags are out thanks to you.
Lee
Why Arsenal horseshoe…
TyA asks what he is missing so I thought I’d share my 2 cents.
It’s basically down to opposition and tactics. Ipswich aren’t a good team, Arsenal are, and as you said the result was inevitable. So let’s ignore that one.
Palace are a better team, but more importantly a much better coach. They are not bad by any stretch, beating Fulham, Brighton and Villa recently. But this coach knows Arsenal struggle against a deep block and set up with a 5-4-1. Whenever Arsenal had the ball 11 men got behind the ball and defended deep. Glasner knows Arsenal retain and recycle instead of playing in transition so they worked hard to defend deep, with only 1 or 2 players pressing high as you stated. No Merino and Sterling meant we were relying on Martinelli and Odegard to create, neither of which are effective vs a low block. So we tried to suffocate Palace but they were well drilled and defended really well. We still scored 2 goals but conceded one wonder strike and a dumb moment from Saliba (although Palace definitely deserved their draw for what it’s worth).
Arsenal’s horseshoe is the result of Arteta’s obsession with not losing first and teams knowing that a deep block gives you a pretty good chance of getting a result vs Arsenal. Very low risk, low reward. The teams that do this well tend to have better players and managers and with the Premier League being so competitive, we get our huge number of draws. The other way to beat Arsenal is to out run and out muscle them, although only Newcastle and Villa manage to make this work consistently.
So why have we smashed Real Madrid and earlier PSG, as well as other teams? Well they try and play football vs Arsenal, simple as that. They don’t have the defensive structure, they have a will and drive to play attacking or exciting football and Arsenal’s superior defense means when we play against these teams we suddenly find the opportunity to play transitional football. And wow do we play it. Saka can 1v1 any full back in Europe, Martinelli has plenty of pace to get in behind and Merino/Havertz has done a fantastic job creating space for these attackers to do their work. These teams play full backs higher up, tend not to double up on our wingers. Therefore we get space to do what we do very well. And because our defence is so well drilled, even arguably the best front 3 in Europe are given very little change. So we tend to win comfortably.
This isn’t a new phenomenon this season, it’s been consistent for 2/3 years that if you try and outplay Arsenal, chances are you will lose. The only exception really has been Liverpool this season who are extremely well coached and have world class players throughout the team. So if you want to beat Arsenal, sit deep and hope you can keep your concentration up. I will put my neck out and say we will beat PSG because of the above, but we will draw Bournemouth, lose to Liverpool and Newcastle.
So do I think Arsenal will win the Champions League? Well, no. If Inter beat Barcelona then we will see the infamous Arsenal horseshoe. If Barcelona win, I think they have enough individual brilliance to get through our back lines. But anything can happen and we have to believe.
As to why a striker could fix this, the theory is that having a striker with more pace, movement and striker instincts will stretch the opposition’s back lines, both in transition and when we have possession. This should create more space for Rice and Odegaard to push up through midfield and rebalance the team to attack from all directions and not just through the flanks. We then have Saka/Martinelli who can offer width of cut inside, giving Arsenal a vast array of attacking threat on top of their defensive solidity.
Players like Isak are top of our rumour mill because he covers all these situations perfectly. It’s why Arsenal haven’t just bought any striker as these skill sets are hard to come by. We saw this a bit with Haaland and City where the midfield suddenly had more space and time to play. What City didn’t have is a younger, more dynamic team behind him (currently being rectified by Pep) which reduced the effectiveness of the theory, so this all makes sense for Arsenal to go and buy a striker. But we need to find this striker, somewhere…
It probably isn’t this simple but I know in the wider Arsenal fanbase, media and people I know, this is the running theory. Who knows if it will be the final piece of the puzzle.
On a side note, I wonder if we win the Champions League, what will people moan about with Arsenal? If Arsenal finally win a trophy, then you can’t say “they spent all that money and for what?!”. You can’t say Arteta is a bad manager or he is only good if he wins a proper trophy. You can’t call us bottlejobs because a Champions League final is about as big of a match as you can be involved in as a player. I want us to win for a whole host of reasons obviously (inc Stewie’s live stream), but it will be fascinating to see the wider reaction
Rob A (if we don’t get a striker, then serious questions need to be asked of the club and Arteta) AFC
Why does Stewie even watch Arsenal?
Stewie seems to be really, really miserable. He doesn’t seem to enjoy supporting Arsenal, and is always writing in long, sad, and really angry emails about all sort of things. Even when Arsenal reform very well, he’ll write in to affirm that beating Real Madrid is not the same thing as winning the cup. Could you please enjoy the game for once?
I’ve been trying to figure out why he still watches Arsenal games if they fill him with so much regular misery and anguish, and I currently have three theories:
1. It’s a form of penance, like self-flagellation, for something he did in the past. He believes that watches their matches and not enjoying them helps him pay for some really evil deeds.
2. It’s a sexual thing. Some sort of BDSM, but instead of a lady in a leather corset holding a whip while she stands on his chest with her high-heeled stilettoes, watching Arsenal does it for him.
3. Maybe it’s karma. He may have been a not very nice person in a previous life and thus has to suffer in this one by being a miserable Arsenal fan.
Dude, if you are not enjoying it, just quit. Quit watching Arsenal. Quit watching football. Find another pastime. This is not healthy for both your mental and physical health. Join a Zen Buddhist group, or take on taichi, or something.
Bolo (He could also decide to only watch Arsenal Women, they seem to be at least playing better) Abuja
Here’s Stewie himself
Matt’s email was a beautiful encapsulation of what a MAGA-esque Crackpot movement Arsenal has now become! Wee Matthew wants a contributor banned for… *checks notes*…offering fact-based critiques using available evidence, and devoid of any personal or libellous abuse. Right. Matthew sounds so angry he might actually need to “go for a drive to settle down”! 😂😂
Stewie Griffin (There’s a job in the Trump White House waiting for you MAGA Matty. Woke DEI Deep State Book-banning is Here at the Emirates! SAD!)
It’s a contract, right?
Letters to the F365 mailbox have the status of a legal contract, right?
Ciborium616 (I would also accept him drinking a pint of someone else’s piss)
