Bettors know the phenomenon well. It’s popularly called a short circuit. And it should have happened to Arsenal. Defeat at Everton, a draw at home with Brentford, defeat at Manchester agains title rivals City. But no, Arsenal didn’t fall apart. The title chase is holding on.
Arsenal was a team that was still considered to be young, fragile, raw. How could Arsenal take the title against Manchester City, a financial giant (currently in the midst of a trial that will decide its future – did City violate the financial fair play?) ? Plus, Arteta was Guardiola’s assistant.
Whoever made that calculation was wrong: Arteta played for Arsenal and is absolutely in love with the club. Beware of managers who are fans of their own clubs!
Besides, he’s far from a second Guardiola. He is the first Arteta. He’s a manager with his own ideas and he’s very brave. What’s more, Arteta was a very good footballer and has a clearly outlined philosophy about the game of football. Since Arsène Wenger, Arteta is the only Arsenal manager who clearly imposes an idea.
However, City recently beat Arsenal and the world expected the Londoners to fall apart and crack. And in the weekend, in the 5th minute of the Aston Villa game, on Watkins’ goal at 0-1, the dice seemed cast. And later, at 1-2 in the 31st minute, when Coutinho scored, Arsenal seemed to have gone into the short-circuit theory.
The money bag that doesn’t score
They went in behind at half-time and looked a dead side, but the final thirty minutes, the final whistle, brought three goals – all for the Londoners. Dibu Martinez, the goalkeeper who became a legend at the World Cup in Qatar, made an error and Arsenal won with two goals scored after the 90th minute. And after all, they won outright, clearly. With a game less played and without having gone shortcircuited, thus showing maturity, Arsenal London remains the main favourite for the Premier League title. City couldn’t get past Nottingham, despite attacking hard. It missed a lot and there was also Navas, a goalkeeper who is living a second, if not a third youth at Forest.
And all this time Chelsea’s not able to find a goalscorer, even though hundreds of millions have been spent in the search for one. But, as Cruyff once aptly pointed out, there has yet to be a money bag to score a goal. Some things don’t change, it turns out, even in the third millennium. Moneybags still don’t score goals.
