This will probably be a shorter blog than usual, because I’m away with family for the weekend and so have only watched a few of the highlights, so some of the thoughts below are based purely on seeing the result after the game.
Broadly speaking, a draw away to the champions is a normally nothing to sniff at, but given that Leicester didn’t have a shot on target until the dying embers of the game it seems as though we really should have got more from it. Having said that, Bellerin was a lucky boy to not give away a penalty, so perhaps we should just take the draw and move on.
But that’s hardly what you expect a team challenging for the title to be doing, is it? But let’s face it, you don’t expect a team challenging for the title to be unprepared for the start of the season physically and squad depth-wise, do you?
I’ve read that Holding had a good game with Kos alongside him, which is encouraging, but spare a thought for Chambers who will surely be looking at a loan move between now and the end of the window. I still rate him, I still want him to make it, but he needs game time.
The other worry is that we seemed to be quite blunt going forward. We were only without Giroud, who you’d expect to be fit next weekend, but even with him in the side, unless we get another player in, we’re going to see a repeat of last season where we struggle to get goals. Alexis as a number nine looks like an experiment that doesn’t work, Theo doesn’t do enough to warrant a place and Oxlade-Chamberlain frustrates more than he dazzles. Arsène has a week to do something, otherwise the feeling of inertia amongst the fanbase will continue throughout the season. Well, inertia turning to rage the next time we are defeated, because this will keep happening if the club don’t make moves this week.
Which leads me to Arsène. Oh Arsène. His post match interview was another list to the bizarre interviews, as he talked about making sure the club can continue to pay the wages of the 600 employees at the club. It’s like he’s trying to find new ways of making people go a little bit more mental. I understand his sentiment – that all football clubs should live within their means – but these quotes just serve to wind people up.
It winds people up because we’re not really doing all we can, whilst living within our means, to be as competitive as possible. I’m bored of writing this every season. I’m sure you’re bored of reading it too. But what’s there else to do? I love my football club and I’ll continue to write about them, but from time-to-time it will feel like a struggle like it does at the moment, because the frustrations with the club seem to be bigger than at any time in my life supporting Arsenal.
Anyway, I’ve got a day at the beach today, so I’ll catch you all later.
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