Morning all.
What a great way to end the season. Five goals, including two for Granit Xhaka, a first for Jakub Kiwior and one each for Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka. Xhaka should have had a hat-trick and the match ball by half-time but somehow, he totally cocked up his golden opportunity to get both. Regardless, he was all smiles, Arsenal were all smiles and why not, it’s been a good season.
After the game, Mikel Arteta said:
I think together we have reconnected with the soul of our football club, which is our people, our supporters. We did that in a really special way. We know the destination is to bring success and trophies, and we are working every single day to deliver that. We must not forget that the journey is beautiful. The company and the people that are involved in this journey deserve really to enjoy it. It makes me really proud to be part of that, and now we have to reset, reflect, and go again.
On the emotional connection with the supporters….
It was one of my dreams, probably the biggest dream that I had, to connect again with the soul of this football club and our people. We have done that, there is no discussion about that. That makes me really proud and grateful to be part of that journey together. We want to deliver success, and the destination has to be trophy success and enjoyment for this club. But we have to enjoy the journey together. Especially you have to enjoy the company. I said that today because we have a special group of people in this club, an incredible group of players and amazing support. That has to be enjoyed. In the end winning can be about the margins but you cannot under estimate the rest because if we don’t do that, we are going to regret it.
It wasn’t that long ago when empty seats could be seen at The Emirates. Not just the odd few but in the thousands. Some who were there could often be spotted on their phones when the television cameras panned around, others were just sat, looking like they’d rather be somewhere else. Anywhere other that watching what was going on in front of their eyes. Fast forward a few years and so much has changed. ‘The Angel – North London Forever’ rings out before kickoff and the fans stay strong in support of the club, the team and manager. The away games are no different because the travelling fans are just as loud and proud. It’s fantastic.
That’s what Mikel Arteta has brought back to the club. A reason to believe, a reason to enjoy watching Arsenal play football again. Yes we’ve had off games, off days and even an odd few drab performances but now they’re the exception and not the rule.
I’m not one to ever wish life away but I’m looking forward to seeing who the club add to this already talented, young and exciting squad. Dare I say I’m even looking to next season even though this one has only just ended.
What next for Mikel Arteta?
For me personally, I really need to get away, relax, think, reflect and see what the best way is now to come back stronger and with a clear vision and feeling that we can go to a different level. Today especially in the way that I am, I am not capable do that, so I need to reset and have some time to think.
Pre match, Mikel expressed his thanks to all:
Throughout my time here, I saw our club returning. Returning to a feeling we have all missed, because there is something special behind us. This is togetherness. So I want to thank you – all of you. Thank you to our players, who faced the season with passion and determination. When I watch our men and women training every single day, I can feel how much they want to deliver for this football club. Thank you to everyone working alongside them. All together, doing what they believe is right. You cannot imagine how much it helps the players, how much belief it gives them.
And thank you to all our supporters, everywhere. Without you, it doesn’t make any sense what we do. You are our energy, you are living the game with us. You always have been in our attitude, in our self-belief. In the demands that push each other to seek excellence. So that’s what we all must do. Demand more from each other. Support each other. Be connected in every action, in every win, in every single ball.
Now we focus on what’s in front, and if we keep moving forwards, we can achieve anything. Because we know what’s behind this club, behind this feeling.
This is our Arsenal.
Well, perhaps it’s a good time to say thank you to Mikel Arteta too because it’s he who has overseen the huge changes within in the club. It’s his management, training and match day football which has awakened a fan base which was tired of being let down season after season. It’s he who has moved on the dead wood, asked for and got, better players. He, his coaching staff and of course, the board has made Arsenal FC a better club.
Thank you to them all, the players too, not only for a very good season just gone by but for giving many Arsenal fans a reason to believe that next season, as well as those to come, can be just as good.
If not better….
Catch up in the comments.
Thank you for posting your thoughts every single day.
Thanks bnsb, at least writing brings pleasure these days. Usually anyway. 😂
By Amy Lawrence for The Athletic.
Dear Granit Xhaka: It has been passionate, complicated and very, very memorable
Dear Granit,
The stage was yours and you savoured every second of song, every ray of spotlight. Bidding adieu with a pair of goals and 60,000 smiles, this morality tale — from heartache and hostility, moving on to forgiveness, catharsis and reinvention — ended up with a very special kind of Arsenal happiness. “Granit Xhaka,” serenaded the North Bank, “we want you to stay.” Only a madman would have imagined that scenario in your darkest days, when you felt so much negativity you felt compelled to isolate yourself and stay away from the club.
As you scored and soaked up the adulation, making your way across the pitch to hug your mate Mohamed Elneny with your song blasting around the crowd, it must make it hard to leave this after all.
Looking back over these seven years, it has been complicated. It has been passionate. It has been very, very memorable. What a rarity to come across a player who elicits emotions among their own fanbase that span the entire spectrum. It is not often a player lurches from one extreme to the other, taking the scenic route with plenty of unexpected stops along the way. But that was your path, Granit
Take a poll from 100 different Arsenal fans and they might come up with 100 different assessments of how they interpreted this particular relationship. Generalisation is impossible. You probably don’t have a one-dimensional view in return. How could you, when you have experienced jeering, abuse, support and admiration along the way. But one thing is clear: the overwhelming majority involved in this attachment have reviewed their judgment over the last year or so, and found new warmth and respect.
Mikel Arteta shed no light on Xhaka’s future, with negotiations under way with Bayer Leverkusen. He was, though, happy to enthuse about the reception he received. “Well deserved,” he said. “He’s had an incredible season. I think one year back I spoke to him and I told him: ‘There’s a question mark on you, you have to deliver more, you have to be better, I’m going to challenge you to play here.’ He went back and I think he started to train the next day. He came back in preseason four kilos less, fit, really willing to do it. He’s been exceptional. He’s been a key part of the team, the success of the team and I’m so happy everybody is appreciating what he’s done.”
What were you hoping for when you arrived at Arsenal in the summer of 2016, Granit? Optimism would not have been misplaced. Arsenal had just finished second in the league, you had played every minute for Switzerland at the Euros, were a young captain of your Bundesliga club and were coveted at the age of 23. A midfielder by the name of Mikel Arteta had just said his teary farewell to Arsenal and Arsene Wenger, who had been tracking you for a while, acted quickly to bring you in from Borussia Monchengladbach for £35million. Keen, combative and ready, you were excited, saying, “I’m an aggressive player and also a leader
The first season demonstrated how your strong character, supposedly well-suited to the Premier League, could also incite friction. The transition to the Premier League was erratic. Arsenal’s midfield was messy, especially without Santi Cazorla, and you did what you normally do: try to cover too many cracks, take on more responsibility which could sometimes leave you stretched or reckless. After one too many lunges, and two red cards, discipline was a hot story. Wenger even felt compelled to say, “I would encourage him not to tackle.”
That was unrealistic, though. There is only one way of playing for you and that is full steam.
When Wenger left his final message to Arsenal was “take care of the values of this club”. The irony, considering what was to come a season later, was that you were the player in Arsenal’s day-to-day life that did that the most seriously. You were always very clear and deeply committed to urging everyone in the squad to aim for the highest standards.
Then came Unai Emery, who did not help you when he dallied about whether or not to make you captain — the famous players’ vote was a strange one. A defining point in your Arsenal career is that incendiary incident when you were substituted against Crystal Palace at the Emirates. After some rocky form, the crowd were heckling as you sauntered off. Emotions flipped. Self-control went out the window. You tore off the armband and swore at your tormentors.
It was quite the maelstrom of emotion in there. Some fans felt fury at you, others despair that any Arsenal captain could be treated that way. Your team-mate on the touchline, Lucas Torreira, was in tears. Some of the senior players came to see you that night at home to offer their consolation.
Was it a transformative moment in your life? Such depth of feeling and life experience absorbed can take you to places you never expected to go. Against all probability you were reeled back in again. In the midst of the storm, the rope that attached you to Arsenal was down to its last, most fragile thread. Mikel Arteta arrived like a hand in the darkness to grab you, and slowly and carefully pull you aboard again.
Of course, that time of rehabilitation was difficult and sensitive. For all the support within the dressing room, outside was trickier to navigate. As you said: “I think I am a different person off the pitch. I like to joke, to laugh a lot, but on the pitch I am the guy with a lot of passion. I can’t change that. I wish people outside could understand me a little bit more. But what I can tell people is from the first day until the last day I am here I will do everything for the football club.”
Feeling misunderstood came with the territory. Sometimes with fans, occasionally with pundits and certainly by officials. Throughout your time in the Premier League, Arsenal watchers were exasperated to use what became known as the ITWGX index. To give it its full name it is “If It Was Granit Xhaka” and became a barometer of punishment for challenges by others, who usually got away with rough stuff. You knew it too. “When I came to the Premier League everybody said in this league you can go very hard and I love it, this is exactly my game and what I want to do,” you said. “But when you see some tackles and imagine if I was in this position? I would be sent off straight away.”
The redemption arc was almost perfect. A couple of years ago when the relationship with fans was mending, you didn’t ever expect to actually feel something approximating love, but for some, maybe even for you, Granit, it has gone much closer to that place than anyone expected possible.
It didn’t quite reach completion. But there were some cathartic and uplifting moments along the way. The whacked goal against Manchester United… The renaissance in an advanced position this season… The genuine happiness and shared celebrations with the fans… Even a song to call your own. This season your smiles have been heartfelt and joyful. The new dimension to your relationship with Arsenal’s supporters was unmissable.
As you have come to expect, critics were never too far away. There was blame apportioned for awaking Anfield because of a show of bravado up against Trent Alexander-Arnold. Honestly, though, there were so many factors that contributed to the dip that allowed the title to slip away it is stretching it to pinpoint that as the defining moment. It becomes yet another media-fuelled Xhaka controversy — one of many you have learned to live with.
Some might look back and regard the seasons of Champions League absence as the Granit Xhaka years. You arrived in 2016, just after Arsenal qualified for their 19th consecutive season in Europe’s prime competition. They had just finished runners-up in the Premier League. That summer you were a key signing, along with Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Perez. Maybe not the most fruitful window. Safe to say you made much more of an impression than the other newcomers.
But apart from that first season, when you featured in the Champions League in a run that culminated in a humiliating 5-1 home defeat to Bayern Munich in the knockouts, your time at the club coincided with seasons of stressful striving to get back there. And now that Arsenal are back there, the signs are that you are moving on. Is there a sadness in that?
So much of your Arsenal years were a period of widespread flux, of reorganisation off the field and major restructuring on it. There has been chaos, change, false dawns and new dawns. Kinder eyes might regard your contribution as valuable in endeavouring to keep pushing your team-mates and to constantly reiterate the meaning of Arsenal standards. You played the part of a non-armbanded captain for a good while.
That aspect of your style never wavered. Whether it was determined, provocative, reckless, protective or encouraging, everything was always done with passion in the name of Arsenal Football Club.
You won the FA Cup twice, and your performance at Wembley in 2020 was immense, and a great marker of this spiritual comeback. You have just had a wonderful season, culminating in this metaphorical bear hug of a game. The Ashburton Army captured the mood with a banner: “If this is the end, farewell Granit”.
So, thank you and good luck. As Vinnie Jones, the hard man staring straight down the lens, put it on the silver screen… It’s been emotional.
Love,
The Arsenal
Nice read, Rico 👍 Well done to you for another season of HH – keep up the good work.
Only 75 days to go until the new season… 😫
I really like the new shirt, although I’m not forking out an extra £30 for the Invincibles tribute! £80 is more than enough..
It has been a great season, more so than I expected. However, I’m afraid I’m still thinking of the what ifs, we were so close!! We had one hand on the trophy. Oh well, maybe next season we’ll go one better, after bringing in Declan Rice 🙂
I think it was the right time for Xhaka to leave.. and leave on a high note he did, would never have bet on him scoring a brace haha! Good luck to him in Germany and let’s hope we see a few incomings/outgoings in what hopefully will be a successful window.
Morning Rico and all.
A nice way to finish the season.
It’s amazing how things change a few years back fans called for Xhaka’s sacking then last night they were singing we want you to stay, if he does leave then thank you Xhaka and good luck to you and your family.
If there was any downside to last night game was that ESR or Nketiah did not start or Turner as it would have been nice to see if he can really push Ramsdale for the number 1 goalkeeper.
Good morning Rico and all.
That’s the 2022/3 season done and dusted and what a way to end it. 5 – 0 Granit Xhaka with two goals, MotM and not a red or yellow card in sight.
A truly brilliant piece by Amy Lawrence detailing the roller coaster ride of Xhaka’s career at Arsenal.
When Wenger signed him we had all been demanding a defensive midfielder, what we got was a number ten who was forced into playing a role which was entirely alien to him. The fact that he stayed for so long and played so many games is a testament to his strength of character. For so long our “Marmite” player, he survived to become a vital and intrinsic part of Arsenal Football Club. If yesterday turns out to be his swan song then I wish him the very best of luck and he goes with a big thank you from me.
Thanks Rico for keeping us all interested and entertained for yet another season.
https://twitter.com/footballdaily/status/1662886403229863937?s=19
Soccer Saturday won’t be the same without Jeff. It was bad enough when Le Tiss and co left and were replaced with Clinton Morrison and Michael Dawson.. I hate to think who will replace Jeff!!
Sue, I think we have seen the last of Soccer Saturday, nobody could possibly follow Geoff Stelling.
Hi Cicero
I have seen a few names mentioned to replace him, but think it will die a death – just like A Question of Sport did!
Nice write up Rico. All in all a great season and one that Mikel hopefully uses to move things forward with some serious incomings which mean more quality and options.
Rico I would like to join in with the others and thank you for all the stories this season. Now we all wait for the transfer season to get underway.
Thanks Sue. We’re bound to think what if but at least we were close, unlike the other 18 in the league. Lol
Hi Cicero, Geoff.
I too think it’s the right time for Granit and I’m so glad he’s ending his journey in a positive note.
Jeff Stelling was good but just another anti Arsenal bloke who I won’t miss.. I wish some of the idiots on Sky during the rest of the week we’re going with him..
Thanks Adam. Imo there’s no point in signing anyone unless they’re much better than who we have or at least equal if they’re filling a position. There’s little point having more squad players who don’t get to leave the bench.
I agree Rico but think we need to add 2 or 3 top players. If Mikel is going to rotate he needs quality in depth. This season he hasn’t really had that.
That’s what I’m saying too Adam, players we sign have to make a difference to the first team either from the start or the bench. Not just players like Vieira who without sounding cruel, has given the team nothing.
Apparently PSG want Odegaard.
Well I want a Tesla but you can’t always get what you want…
Odegaard reminds me a lot of Dennis Bergkamp in that he’s bought into the culture of Arsenal and the country, he’s had the Real Madrid thing as Dennis had the Inter thing, but at Arsenal they are/were appreciated and feted as central to the club and team, it’s not always just about the money.
I hope we don’t sell him, the longer he stays as captain the better he plays and he seems to have the respect of his teammates.
Good day to you all.
Here’s just one paragraph from an article out our North London neighbours from this morning’s Telegraph, I think it sums up just what is wrong there.
“The brutal truth is no one knows what Spurs stand for. It is almost an existential question – and is certainly a philosophical one – but what does Spurs mean? There have been so many apparently knee-jerk, confused decisions that their identity has been lost. There are no cultural signposts as to what Spurs are anymore so it can be, no surprise that it is hard to work out what their planned direction is”.
According to Ornstien Arsenal have no intention of selling Smith-Rowe . He says that they protected him following his injury and they want him to train with England under 21 and have a full pre season.
Hope he’s right .
I had a feeling that was the case with Smith Rowe.
Cicero, Tottenham had a decent 1960’s and that’s about it, they’ve been living off of the push & run 1950’s team and the 1960’s Double team for the last 60+ years, Joe Lewis is just an investor and Daniel Levy thinks he’s a genius in his own tiny mind, they’ve been flattering to deceive for years and that’s what they are an empty vessel, even their stadium is all about how much they can make outside of football, a sham of a club and long may it remain that way…
I hope the story on ESR is true as I like his style of play, but I am not convinced by Ornstein story, as Arteta has never really given ESR a good run before he got injured. I wouldn’t be surprised if the statement was said to just raise his market value.
The biggest problem I see with Tottenham, Chelsea etc. is they always blame the manager and not the players and they never give their managers a chance to rebuild.
Geoff, cast your mind back about 12 months and most Arsenal fans thought that Saliba was on his way out of the club, ESR has apparently lost a lot of weight ( given up the Nando’s perhaps?) and is injury/pain free for the first time in years, Arteta did the same with Martinelli when he held him back. I’m delighted because Smith Rowe is a goalscoring midfielder and you don’t give them away with your cornflakes.
The transfer window in England doesn’t open until June 14th and in europe it’s July 1st, so a couple of weeks yet.
Daily Mail has an interesting article by Tony Adams, where he feels that Arteta does not have full trust in his bench players.
Kev, the thing I don’t get is, if ESR was injured for so long then why not just come out and say ESR is out for the whole year due to injuries and then select another young player and give them experience at a top level.
According to reports Saliba’s manager has turned down a new contract worth 120.000 pounds per week and wants more due to other clubs being interested in him.
If true, I wonder if the real reason is due to Saka’s new contract.
Interesting quote from George Graham via Tony Adams :- ” I was talking with George Graham the other day and he said this Arsenal team has no resilience. They had a technical leader but no physical leaders to stand strong in the games that really mattered. . ”
Think he echoes what a number of us have felt certainly towards the end of the season.
It’s in the Sun and goes further into the situation at the club .
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/22526620/tony-adams-arsenal-squad-peaked-title-man-city/
With the Saliba comment , KSE have now got to walk the walk , there’s no point in keeping Saka if you don’t roll over for Saliba and others and their agents all know it.
Agree, the club can’t pick and choose who they pay big bucks to. Saliba is a massive player in this team I think. To let PSG get their hands on him would be a big setback imo.
If Saka has been given a huge pay rise, let’s hope Saliba is not start of player infighting regards to match payments / contracts, that’s all we need, just when the club is starting to look in good shape and so close to the start of the transfer market.
Nelson, Saliba , Martinelli , Saka , it’s a dance , the club make an offer , the agent refuses and the club re-negotiate up the ante and the player signs . Gone are the days when the player would accept the offer because they want to play for the club.
Greedy lot, must be really difficult to live off a measly £100k a week…
You can always rely on Tony Adam’s to pick the bones out of the team and come up with a bummer.
Pay Saliba what he wants and take control of the situation. See how he goes and if he doesn’t cut it, sell him in a year or two. Keep a lookout for the next Saliba at the same time.
He’s right though. 😆
Well Geoff, I don’t know why Mikel said nothing about ESR’s injuries but he does tend to keep a lid on things, as I wrote he never mentioned the work they were doing with Martinelli the season before last when all the ITK’s were predicting that Arteta didn’t like him and that he was going to be sold – wrong as usual…
Let’s see where the squad is in July when they’re going on tour to the USA, there’s a lot of nonsense doing the rounds at this time of the year and it’ll onl6 get worse as the summer moves into late August and the transfer deadline.
New post up now