Category: EPL

After Twenty Two Years

Arsenal win the EPL finally…. From ‘Bottlers’ to opening the bottle- celebrating the success as a Gunners fan!

Cheering on the Gunners at Emirates last season!

I started supporting Arsenal from the mid 90’s- my grandmom gifted me a radio after my 10th exams. I used to tune into BBC Sports Roundup on Saturdays and listen to the live EPL football commentary. Arsene Wenger started creating magic around that time- leading to the title wins and the famous ‘Invincibles’ season. From Bergkamp to Henry to Van Persie to Fabregas to Sanchez to Aubameyang to Saka- it has been quite a journey. Years of ‘almost there’ but not quite! Arteta taking over a broken team and rebuilding it brick by brick- three consecutive second place finishes- being a Gunners fan is not for the faint hearted! So, finally when our team won the EPL this week- it was a dream come true. The long wait is over. This is the start of a new phase- of many wins and cups, hopefully.

This blog is a celebration of the league win and my take on the key factors that played a big role in the success.

The first factor was playing it our way- creating discipline and structure which gave us great defensive solidity. The Arsenal under Wenger were more adventurous and aggressive, the team currently under Arteta is more solid and assured. They say- a good attack wins you matches, but a good defense wins you a season! Arsenal did not concede a single penalty and there was zero red card all season.

The next factor- a very strong overall squad. Arteta invested rightly over the last two seasons to create a great bench- with at least two good players in every position. Arsenal had many injuries during the season, but there was always a good player to replace the one who got injured. There was no drop in quality which has been a case in past seasons. When Gabriel or Calafiori got injured, Hincapie or Mosquera would step in. Saka missed a couple of months- but Madueke was a great replacement. Gyokeres and Havertz fought for the same no.9 position- the fight for places kept everyone on their toes. Arsenal went deep in all four competitions but still had fresh players as they could rotate more.

Certain key players really stepped up. David Raya was phenomenal- the save vs Westham when the match was still goalless was a critical moment in the season. Gabriel was a beast- with great moments at both ends of the pitch. Declan Rice was everywhere- the bridge between defense and attack- he was the glue who held the team together. Saka was great towards the end of the season after coming back from injury- the team seemed more fluid and creative once he returned. Gyokeres gave us 20+ goals in the season- more than the quantum of goals, his hold up play created more space and opportunities for the other players in the team.

We were great with set pieces- I know there are lot of allegations of us being ‘Stoke FC’ or ‘Set Piece FC’- I couldn’t care less. We scored a lot of goals from corners and free kicks- giving us a competitive advantage that irked opponents.

Most importantly, the team was resilient. There were moments in the season when it did seem that we will squander a big lead again. The ‘Bottlers again’ jokes started trending. It wouldn’t have been easy especially with the baggage of the second-place finish in the last three seasons. That ‘It’s not over yet’ dialogue of Declan Rice after the loss vs Man City has become iconic. No one gave Arsenal a chance as Man City had the momentum after the League Cup final win and temporarily led the league via goal difference. But Arsenal stayed mentally strong, ignored the noise and went on a run of solid displays that gave us the league, against the odds.

There were many great moments over the season- I will pick a few.

The first was the Max Dowman goal in stoppage time vs Everton– the teenager opened up the game when it was destined to be a draw. Fom the Everton corner, taking the ball all the way from the Arsenal half to scoring at the other end- with the Emirates crowd egging him on- what a moment!

The second was the overturned VAR decision vs Westham– we scored late in the game but Westham looked to have equalized in the 94th minute. After a 5 minute delay, it was adjudged to be a foul on Raya and rightly so. It was the longest five minutes in the life of all Gunners fans. I do think that VAR can be more consistent with decisions but also will argue that fortune favours the brave.

The third was our attacking display vs Aston Villa in the home match- we scored four times in a period of thirty minutes- probably one of the most eye pleasing phases for us creatively all season. We had lost to Aston Villa away and Unai Emery has a history with Arsenal! To win 4-1 was a massive statement win!

Then, the Martinelli equaliser at home vs Man City deep into injury time. An inch perfect pass from Eze and a perfect chip from Martinelli that helped us split the points.

And lastly, the Eze hattrick vs Spurs– the North London derbies are always special but thanks to Eze, it became a stroll.

The team has started winning- but I hope they keep dreaming big and create a legacy from here. The Champions League final next week can be a great start- and to take it from there into the next few seasons. There are a few things that can move us from good to great to iconic.

The first one is to have more fluidity and creativity in offence without necessarily sacrificing the defensive solidity- one or two transfers in the summer can make the difference.

The second one is more emotional stability in tight moments- there was a phase where the team was so nervous that you expected the opponent to score towards the end of the game. They need to be calmer- years of not winning can do this to you. I am hoping that with this triumph, we will turn the tide.

The last is the killer instinct- Arsenal should have run away with the league but they kept faltering to allow Man City back in. Great teams are ruthless. They don’t give chances to opponents.

The future is bright. But let’s first celebrate the present. Arteta has done a good job of shutting down the noise, taking the blame when the results were not going our way, being pragmatic about our performance. He would often say, ‘We have not won anything yet’ to keep raising the bar!

London is red and may it stay so for many more years to come!

PS: The name is inspired by one of my favourite short stories- O.Henry’s ‘After Twenty Years’. Like that one, this also had a twist in the tale- but for once it ended happily!

Guns N’ Roses

Navigating the hopes and frustrations as an Arsenal fan

One from the archives- outside the Emirates

I have been a Gunner for almost thirty years now. My maternal grandmother gifted me a radio in the mid 90’s after I did well in an examination. Those were the days of no computer or mobiles- it became a ritual to tune into BBC Sports Roundup on Saturday evenings and listen to the live EPL commentary. Wenger was just starting to create his charm then and the ‘Invincibles’ season soon followed- it was easy to fall in love with the Arsenal team.

I have been a Gunner right through and experienced the downs after those heady days- with Henry making way for Van Persie, Fabregas, Sanchez, Ozil, Aubameyang over the years to now Saka and Odegaard. Arteta came and gave us hope but there’s still more frustration than hope as a club fan.

I do think that it’s not all gloom and doom- coming second in the current EPL table and third in the Champions League revamped first round format is not a bad starting point.

Arsenal has a young squad- they surely have the DNA around which they can rule England and Europe for the next ten years. The team age average is amongst the lowest in EPL. Also, the way that the team was fully resurrected by Arteta when he came in was praiseworthy- all the deadwoods were driven out with agility- Aubameyang, Lacazette, Ozil and the shambolic defence. We brought in youth to revitalize the team. We also possibly have the best defence in Europe- the Gabriel and Saliba partnership is easily the most solid going around. You win a match with a good attack, but good defence wins you titles! The defence very often does not just get us clean sheets but they have also made Arsenal ‘set piece monsters’- with Arsenal scoring the most goals from set pieces so far this season. Watching Gabriel score from corners has become a common sight in Arsenal matches– so much so that the set piece coach Nicolas Jover has a mural in Emirates already to recognize this new found prowess. The ‘Next Gen’ are also coming through so well- not just the Sakas but this season has seen the emergence of Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly- truly showing the possibilities for the future. Our performance with the other biggies in the EPL- the so called Top 6- has also been super! We have won or drawn against the Top 6 for 15+ matches now- gone are the days when we folded under pressure in big matches!

But it has also been 5+ seasons of lot of hope under Arteta but a lack of final results- Arsenal fans are becoming impatient and not ready to wait anymore. Arteta became the Gunners head coach in December 2019 and we won the FA Cup that year but it has been all expectations and no end result after that. The second place in 2022-23 was surprising but after leading the league for 90% of the time, we should have sealed it. The 2023-24 performance was gritty- we kept chasing Manchester City till the end but dropping points against lower teams hurt us. With City dropping their level this year, this could and should have been the year of the Gunners- but it has been a repeat of all too familiar story again. So, what ails us?

The biggest one to me is the ‘cost avoidance’ mindset vs. an ‘investment’ mindset- we have strengthened the team but still don’t have a squad that can win big titles. The EPL is unforgiving- even the 20th team can surprise the table toppers- you need a deep squad to seal the deal. The biggest gap in the team is obvious- we do not have a no.9. Arsenal has been rumoured to be in talks for a transfer with many a name- Gyokeres, Sesko, Isak, even a Cunha! Till the time we have a good no.9 who can score 20+ goals in a season, we can forget becoming champions. Last week was so illustrative- when Liverpool was chasing the game vs Brentford, they brought in Nunez from the bench. When Arsenal were chasing the game vs Villa- they brought in Sterling as a sub! I rest my case. Man City have already got Haaland to sign a new ten year deal and have brought in Omar Marmoush to replace Alvarez- but Arsenal are still contemplating. Arteta needs support from the board to spend on a good finisher. Having said that, our transfer strategy in general, has not been up to the mark. We kept buying defenders and midfielders without strengthening our forward line. Arsenal also does not have decent back-ups in key positions- with a good team of around fourteen players but with gaping holes in the second team- Saka played week in and week out and it was almost a case of ‘when the next injury will happen, not whether’- and now we are without our most influential player for three months. This also explains how we do so well against the big teams (when the adrenaline gets you over the line) but consistently drop points against weaker oppositions (when the tired legs give way)- we have become the ‘Robinhood’ of EPL.

Under Arteta, Arsenal seems to have also developed a ‘complaining’ mindset vs a ‘winning’ mindset- always bickering about the VAR decisions and the ‘could be’s’ as opposed to focusing on their circle of influence and closing down games. The style of play has also evolved- from the free-flowing style we so loved (check out this special goal by Wilshere– one of my most favourite ones in the Wenger era) to a boring style overly dependent on set plays. Getting a good no.9 now will help us move back to the attacking style we Gunners fans so adore!

So, quite a few good things are happening for the Arsenal team, but equally a lot of quick and big fixes needed to move from a good team to a great team that wins big titles again.

Arsenal is the rose that we Gunners fans love- but it comes with the thorns which prick us. But all said and done- Love it, or hate it- we are Gunners for life!

Million Dollar Baby

What makes the fantasy sports format such madness!

Recent reports indicate that a growing number of sports fans are hooked on to their laptops or mobiles just before 8 pm IST. Surveys indicate that it will stay this way for the next month and a half. Source: Anonymous.

Well, it’s the season of fantasy sports and none is bigger than IPL, India’s great cricketing extravaganza. For the uninitiated, fantasy sport is a game where you are a virtual manager with a budget (say a million dollars) with your baby that is a team of players who get points for actual performance in the game. It is a format that is currently in India $ 20 Mm in size with a 10X growth in last two years, as per reports. Dream XI and Fandromeda are some of the most popular ones though the official websites (IPL, EPL, etc.) have their own versions and are just as popular.

The early days of Fantasy sports in India were in the early 2000’s when ESPN Super Selector was big. I remember the craze during my MBA days. In the 2003 cricket World Cup, there was as much cheer when Vaas took a first over hat-trick vs Bangladesh (for someone who had Vaas as his fantasy team captain!) as when Sachin hit a six off Shoaib Akhtar at Centurion. It was pure joy when the Mirror newspaper would carry your name when they published the daily leaderboard for the 2006 Football World Cup. A Nokia phone as a gift for winning a fantasy tournament was a prized possession. Thierry Henry would be my permanent captain in my fantasy EPL team during the glory Gunners era and he would always deliver!

So what makes the fantasy sports format so special?

To begin with, the Indian sports fan always has a unique point of view. ‘Why promote Vijay Shankar when you have DK?’. ‘Who gives the last over to Vinay Kumar?!’, and so on and so forth. Well, fantasy sports gives a great chance to the passionate fan to be the couch Harsha Bhogle and create a team of players who they think will do well.

In psychology during my MBA days, I had read about the n-ach motivation- there is this latent need for achievement and managing success with a finite budgets versus a competitive peer set gives you a pure high.

Fantasy sport also provides a great platform to a hardcore sports fan for an evolved engagement level. So it’s not just the KKR matches for the Kolkata fan, but you have to follow the other games too- as there is a need to see where the next fantasy points are going to come from.

In a way, this format is also an extension of your personality. There are people who ‘play safe’ and go for middling picks whereas the entrepreneurial types would go for more ‘lateral picks’ and risk it all.

Lastly, whether it’s an office or an alumni group, it’s a super way to stay connected through a passion point which is sports. So who gets the bragging rights as the winner? Whose leg can you pull as he is the bottomer? Such banter is all that matters, sometimes much more than the prize money. Some fun to spice up your day.

And now to the million dollar question, how to succeed in fantasy sports?

Well, there are no set rules, but there is always some method in the madness. So, sharing some tips.

The fantasy sports format is like a stock market. You need to plan well when you want to buy and sell a player. You do not want to follow the market all the time. So being proactive and buying before a big performance is the key. Like Guptill gave average returns in the World Cup 2015 format till he hit 237 in the Quarters vs Windies. Someone had Guptill throughout the cup and dropped him for just that match while someone else bought him for the first time in the Quarters. Guess who had the last laugh?

It pays to think like an economist as the resources are scarce. Everyone would want to pick all the big players but with a finite budget, one has to pick and choose. The trick is to maximize the return/ price ratio. So a Kohli purple patch will be important, but a good performance from a rookie who is cheap (like Unadkat in last IPL) is almost gold dust!

It always pays when you do your research. So a Nadal always does well on clay court, Rohit Sharma performs well in Eden Gardens and Kohli is mind-blowing in chases. Past trends can be a good indication of what may happen in the future. An eye on the fixtures and how scheduling patterns are also help you to move ahead in the fantasy table.

You can do all your preparations, but there can be no substitute to gut feeling. So kudos to those who picked Pennetta in the 2015 US Open (when she entered the tournament as the 26th seed), or the one backing Fakhar Zaman as power player in the Champions Trophy final. Good hunches are critical to fantasy success.

Lastly, it’s just a game- so important to enjoy the bragging rights and leg pulls along the journey because that’s why we play the game in the first place.

So, the alarm clocks and calendar invites have been set. Here’s to the next 8 pm deadline!

To end, as one great man once said, ‘Fantasy game is 90% luck and 10% skill. But don’t try it without that 10%’!

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Comfortably Dumb

The debate is on- “In Arsene We Trust” vs “Arsene Out”. A passionate Gunner’s prophecy on the ‘Professor’

An ode to Arsene- from a winner to a whiner!

I was an avid football follower as a kid- but interest would generally peak in the World Cup year. There weren’t a plethora of TV channels those days. So my love for club football was fueled by a small radio I got as a birthday gift. Saturday evenings changed forever- holding that archaic device close to the ear- following Sports Roundup on BBC and soaking in the EPL spirit.

Brazil is the team I support (no, worship!). So it was no surprise that I began rooting for the club whose playing style most resembled the Sambas- Arsenal. One big reason was also the manager- a misfit ‘Professor’ who had plied his trade in Japan before making the big move to Highbury. Good matches are made in heaven, but imagine the coincidence when the name of the manager also matches with the club he leads- so no surprise that Arsenal flourished under Arsene.

When Arsene ‘numb’ed us….

Here was Wenger- a visionary who looked much beyond the game itself, into other aspects of sports fitness- on eating habits and training methods- ages before his times. There was also a sense of magic the way the team played- slick passes, one touch play- so easy on the eye and different from the long ball game of the Brits. And the fierce determination and passion he drove among the players. Here was a team who could ‘wow’ you with their skills but also rough out 1-0 away wins on ice cold December evenings.

Wenger created a legacy by leading ‘The Invincibles’ in 2003/04 to an unbeaten EPL run- a feat which may go unmatched in history given the fierce rivalry in the league these days. Wiltord’s away goal at Old Trafford to clinch the EPL title, that glorious run into the Champions League final in 2006- those were the days!

He stayed the course and led the ship well even during troubled times when Arsenal moved from Highbury to the Emirates. With an eager eye for spotting talent early and using a shrewd ‘Money-ball’ approach, Wenger would buy early, buy smart and manage the club remarkably well during tough financial times.

There were many heart-warming moments during the ‘Comfortably Numb Days’- but I am sharing a link of a goal which best embodies Wenger’s philosophy- A Wilshere goal vs Norwich city.

When Arsene ‘dumb’ed us….

As an Arsenal fan, I am in minority these days- there are a few of us left and we are worried we will be extinct soon!

And I start reflecting on why this happened? When Wenger moved- from numbing us to ‘dumbing’ us.

A good friend once said, ‘You are only as good as your ambitions. Set high ambitions, actions follow’. Well, I guess no one told this to Arsene. In the last five years, he is like the lazy employee in the office who is happy with an ‘Achieved Expectations’ rating every year. A fourth place in EPL and a ‘Last 16’ spot in the Champions League seems to make him happy, with an occasional FA Cup win thrown in- while the fans hope for more, much, much more.

The Emirates move meant we had to manage our financial books very tightly for some time- but Arsenal under Arsene got engulfed in this ‘Money-ball fallacy’- when the bottom line became more important that the ‘trophy line’. From a buying club, we became a selling club- why else will you sell your best players- the likes of Van Persie to your closest rival in the league? When you pay peanuts, you get monkeys! Or, you may get a Walcott, Ramsey, or Ospina- nothing better.

They say, ‘It’s foolish to do the same things again and again- and expect different results’. Arsene has been doing just that for the last few years, so no wonder Arsenal have stagnated.

There are a few who have mastered the ‘Art of Leaving’- some went ahead of time like Borg, some timed it perfectly- like Dada and MSD. But some are just too unwilling to let go- Arsene has created this club brick by brick in the last 20 years- his managerial stay more than the combined experienced of the other 19 EPL managers put together! So the swansong is indeed difficult. But when you stop inspiring, it’s the clearest sign that you have to go.

Another EPL season draws to a close. A season which promised so much for Arsene and Arsenal, but we flattered to deceive again.

The debate is on- “In Arsene We Trust” vs “Arsene Out”. He has given us wonderful memories, shaped a generation, so bidding adieu is tough. But the time has indeed come now.

So Au Revoir Arsene- thanks for numbing us!

From,

A Passionate Gunner