Good good good. If that wasn’t a turnip for the books yesterday.
Man City could have closed the gap to 2 points with a win over Spurs, but instead they lost when Harry Kane missed another goal. My normal routine of never, never seeing them, unless it’s a derby, kind of fell by the wayside and I was fired up for the last 30 minutes.
‘How are the Spurs going to do this?’ I thought, as I drank my beer. ‘Which of the many inevitable ways they could let this game slip will happen?’
Just a couple of weeks ago they beat Man City 2-0 and ended up losing 4-2, so this was based on practical reality. Instead, they clung on to victory, even though they seemed to spend more time kicking Jack Grealish than they did playing football. I know we have a lot of Danish readers, so please don’t offend them, but it’s amazing to see Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg play. It’s like, when they were building the new stadium, they dug up some DNA stored on a mosquito in amber, and through the wonders of technology and in a low-tech lab of some sort with some half-hearted scientists, they recreated Steffen. Freund.
City’s record there is ridiculous. As in ridiculously bad. Five games, five losses, not a single goal scored. Which is actually quite extraordinary. It’s almost inexplicable that a team as successful as they are would have this problem against them, of all teams. Sometimes you just have bogey ground, and I guess it’s interesting that both City and Arsenal have lost this weekend in stadiums where they have poor records. Arsenal’s last win at Goodison Park was in 2017, City’s last win at White Hart Lane was in October 2018.
Obviously, the reasons for those losses are based much more on tactics and performance than location, but it’s funny how often it happens. Staff turnover at Arsenal in particular means our Goodison hoodoo shouldn’t be something to unduly upset anyone, but we’ll have to wait until next season at the earliest to correct it.
I guess the most interesting thing about yesterday is City’s performance. Once again they didn’t look quite right. Pep Guardiola has made some scathing comments of late about his players, and anyone who has watched the Premier League in recent years can see that there is a difference between this City team and those who have won the title.
Which is not to take anything for granted, or assume that’s how it will be for the rest of this season. Anyone who assumes they can’t just click and go on a run where they win 10 or 12 or 14 games in a row hasn’t been paying attention. They still have that ability, however it doesn’t feel as inevitable as it did in the past. That aura isn’t there right now, and perhaps there’s a need for an upgrade in terms of game personnel. Maybe further.
It’s looking more and more like the two games between us and them will be pivotal in terms of the title’s fate. From the points on offer to the psychological impact of the results, the stakes are high in these games. We can talk about that in more depth later, because we have to prepare Brentford for the first one, but imagine the final whistle next Wednesday night and the winner of Bukayo Saka gives us three points. Whoops.
Anyway, after saying that I am not going to get ahead of myself, I am already doing it. Daydreaming a bit. But hey, that’s allowed. Today is also a bank holiday here, so I’ll leave it at that for this morning.
James and I are recording the Arsecast Extra for you later this morning. Keep an eye out for calls for questions on Twitter @gunnerblog and @arseblog on Twitter with the hashtag #arsecastextra, or if you’re a member of Arseblog on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord. server.
We should have the podcast for you by lunchtime. Until then.
