Of course when watching Arsenal win comfortably away against one of the top half of the table teams, there are more than “two things”.
But there are two big things that I find myself considering in the light of the conclusion to the Brighton match. One is how good this team is, and the other is that although of course I want Arsenal to win the league, then even if we don’t, the chances for next season look remarkably fine.
So my first thought is that yesterday’s game shows that this team really is a quality affair. They just exhibit style, control and purpose across the whole collection of players through the entire game.
Second, this is the second season of wonderful football – only this time the awful blips in Arsenal’s performances that we got in January and April/May last season haven’t been repeated (at least not yet!)
Third, this is a young team – average age 25 – so they still have quite a way to go.
And fourth, the great experiment of not having a centre forward to knock in 20+ goals each season, which the media seem to think is so important – indeed one might say utterly essential – when it comes to winning the league, is not quite as de rigueur as the media in their all-knowing wisdom seem the believe.
Having a variety of players who will score half a dozen goals or more each is not a bad approach especially when your 40 games and 15 goals man (Martinelli) loses form and spends time injured. For under the Arsenal system, he can easily be replaced, as we have seen, and then returned to the fold when he is ready.
But what is perhaps most interesting about this season, is that no matter what the evidence presented, those who believe in Arsenal desperately needing a new striker, carry on believing that Arsenal desperately need a striker, even when they are the top scoring club in the country and palpably don’t need a new striker.
This team has scored 32 goals more so far than Manchester United this season, as well as outscoring everyone else. And this team is also the best defensive team in the league. And to add an emotional rather than statistical component to Arsenal this season, this team is the most entertaining team in the league.
So do we need more players in the summer as the media suggests day by day? Not on the form we have been showing of late. Should we have jettisoned Havertz, or better still never signed him? No, of course not; he’s becoming a central part of the squad. Nine league goals and rising, in a squad where half the players are goalscorers. Should we have dropped Aaron Ramsdale and brought in Brentford’s keeper? Who knows, but it certainly hasn’t gone badly.
Should Arsenal buy a new centre forward who can knock in 20 goals a season? Absolutely not. And I say that because doing so would totally wreck the multiple scorers approach that so bemuses defences at present.
And finally is there a secret behind all this success? Well, yes quite a few I expect, but the one I’ve noticed is that Arteta has moved the club from being the most yellow carded in the league, which it was when he arrived, to being the least yellow carded in the league. And that’s important because it keeps players on the pitch and reduces the involvement of the referee.
All in all I think it is all going rather well. And the results mean we can all have a jolly good laugh at the journalists.
Tony Attwood April 7 2024
Picture: John Williamson