Almost 11 years ago, Jose Mourinho had a smirk on his face.
His dominant Chelsea side had moved inside five points of the Premier League title with a 0-0 draw on the Emirates, and sitting within the post-match press conference, the Special One crafted his killer response to the Arsenal fans’ chants of ‘Boring, boring Chelsea.’
‘You recognize, I feel boring is ten years with out a title. That’s very boring.’
A decade on, Mourinho is long gone from the Premier League, yet his words proceed to haunt Arsenal, whose league drought has stretched to 22 years since their 2004 Invincibles triumph.
‘Specialist in failure’ Arsene Wenger departed in 2018, allowing Mikel Arteta to supercharge the Gunners’ return to the elite, but three successive second places have come at an enormous cost to their identity.
Now it’s ‘boring, boring Arsenal.’ But Arteta disagrees.
He said: ‘I hear completely the other: throughout Europe that we’re essentially the most exciting team in Europe – essentially the most goals, essentially the most clean sheets.’
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Enroll here, it’s an open goal.
Indeed, Arsenal scored 23 Champions League goals of their flawless league phase campaign, greater than some other club across Uefa competitions this season, whilst conceding three fewer than some other UCL team.
That run included victories over Bayern Munich and Inter Milan, who’re six and five points clear of their domestic leagues.
Nevertheless, it’s within the Premier League where Arsenal have drawn dissatisfaction from pundits.
‘Nobody will remember this Arsenal team’, said ex-Chesterfield loanee Jamie O’Hara on TalkSport, whilst ex-Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes claimed on his own podcast, ‘If Arsenal win, this might be the worst team to win the league.’
But the info doesn’t agree.
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Arsenal are projected to complete the season with 84 points, similar to Arne Slot’s outstanding Liverpool team last season and five greater than Manchester United’s treble winners in 1999.
In actual fact, United boast six of the nine lowest Premier League winning points totals, including a lowly 75 points in 1997. Scholes played in all six.
After all, many observers highlight Arsenal’s efficiency from set-pieces and deride them as one-dimensional, especially regarding corners.
In accordance with Chris Anderson and David Sally of their book, ‘The Numbers Game’, a goal occurs every 45 corners. Within the Premier League this season, Arsenal have scored 17 goals from 148 corners, meaning they rating every 8.7 corners, vastly outperforming Anderson and Sally’s metric.
But becoming a greater threat from a greater diversity of possibilities denotes a team that’s more exciting, not less so. Arsenal fans’ cheering of earning corner kicks can have grow to be their latest charge in an inventory of footballing crimes including AFTV and Piers Morgan, but surely it will be more boring in the event that they sat in silence as their team delivered nothing from them.
Ahead of Newcastle’s clash with PSG last week, Anthony Gordon echoed the thoughts of many Premier League fans, saying, “Within the Champions League […] teams try and are available to play proper football.
‘Within the Premier League, you might have seen longer throw-ins, set pieces – it has grow to be slower and lots more set-piece based.’
He’s undoubtedly right, but these are the symptoms of a slower league, not the cause.
Set pieces have grow to be essentially the most effective approach to bypass the deep blocks and defensive systems of teams who expect to be played off the park in the event that they play expansive football. Stoke City’s Pulis-ball was intended to disrupt teams. Arteta and his fellow set-piece disciples try to beat today’s disruptors.
The games that may define Arsenal’s Premier League season
Spurs (A), Feb 22
Arsenal’s north London rivals would love nothing greater than to trample the Gunners’ hopes of a primary league title in 22 years. Revenge for November’s 4-1 defeat will represent a dangling carrot for Thomas Frank’s men, with memories of Eberechi Eze’s hattrick fresh within the minds. Spurs have faltered once more this season, sitting 14th, but with Micky van de Ven and Pedro Porro supposedly returning soon, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium may grow to be a more formidable prospect within the back end of the season.
Chelsea (H), March 1
Only every week after the Spurs match, Arsenal will host Chelsea. The Blues had won won five matches in a row under Liam Rosenior prior to Tuesday night’s Carabao Cup demise and could have a desire to set the record straight.
Manchester City (A), April 18
Regardless of what happens between now and Arsenal’s visit to the Etihad Stadium on 18 April, it’ll be the most important game of the season for either side, no matter whatever transpires within the League Cup final a month prior to this fixture. A Pemier League trophy would release six years of mounting pressure on Mikel Arteta since his sole managerial trophy within the 2020 FA Cup, in addition to allowing him to finally step out of his mentor Guardiola’s shadow. What higher time to do it than against the Catalan?
Newcastle (H), April 25
Perhaps Arsenal’s match against Newcastle will not be as laced with jeopardy as City every week earlier, however the Magpies are a dangerous prospect. The Gunners have been burned by them before, with particularly nightmarish memories from the Carabao Cup semi-final defeat last season, and Bruno Guimaraes prolonging their five-year wait for Champions League football within the penultimate fixture of the 2021-2022 season. Mid-table Newcastle are also prone to be knee-deep in a scramble for the European places.
Crystal Palace (A), May 24
Despite Eze’s departure to Arsenal last summer, Crystal Palace’s season began tremendously and so they were fifth after twelve games played. Within the ten games since, they’ve won just nine more points, lost Marc Guehi to City, and suffered the ignominy of Olver Glasner very publicly declaring his disappointment with the board and intent to go away the club in the summertime. However the Eagles could pose an actual threat if Arsenal arrive at Selhurst Park on the ultimate day of the season without the Premier League trophy guaranteed. Glasner’s departure means he can be fired as much as put himself within the shop window ahead of the summer break, and Eze’s former teammates won’t need to let him have it his own way.
And that’s more necessary than ever, because as money continues to flood into football, the rewards get greater, and the inducement to prioritise style over substance disappears. Transactional football is the secret for all 20 Premier League clubs.
But until they win the league, Arsenal’s yardstick can be Manchester City, micromanaged to 6 stunning Premier League titles by Pep Guardiola and currently six points behind the Gunners within the table.
But City are arguably more boring than Arsenal this season. Their goals have come from 12 different players, two fewer than the leaders, and so they have taken the fourth most shots, behind Manchester United, Liverpool, and Arsenal.
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If essentially the most decorated foreign Premier League manager of all time is struggling to interrupt sides down, it is necessary to set teams’ performances this season within the context of increased transactionality.
The Sky Blues also only scored 15 goals in a Champions League campaign that required Benfica’s goalkeeper Anatoly Trubin to seal a 4-2 win over Real Madrid, as City capitalised to sneak into the Round of 16 as a substitute.
Benfica’s manager? Mourinho.
Moments after being labelled boring in 2015, he said: ‘If the media tells the reality, people will fall in love with us. But you might have to inform the reality.’
Arsenal will hope the Special One was right.
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