As World Cup finals go, that might have just about been the worst one I’ve ever watched. For all the wrong reasons, too, because it was never really a true competition. What I watched was not the two best teams in the tournament duke it out for the top prize, but one side looking to basically cheat and bore their way to another trophy that they didn’t deserve.

Argentina – you should be pretty disappointed with your national team players. They let you down. However, after some of the pictures and videos I’ve seen of Argentinian fans, perhaps some of them are not?

I’ll be honest, though, I was definitely thinking “bad guys do often win” when the game went to extra time. Spain had dominated possession; they’d had all the chances (Argentina didn’t even muster a shot until extra time – pathetic), they’d had a perfectly good goal ruled out for an invisible foul on Mikel Merino, and after Enzo Fernandez was sent off for doing Enzo Fernandez things, you just knew it would make Argentina retreat even further into their own box. England and Tuchel rightly got pilloried for the tactical disasterclass in the second half of the second half of the semi final, but Scaloni and team should also receive the same treatment, because it was clear even before Enzo was sent off in stoppage time, that they had no intention of having a go at Spain. It was all about trying to fein injury, fall to the floor, kick players, then if touched, fall to the floor and try to buy free kicks. To be fair to the referee, I think ultimately he managed to keep a bit of a handle on the game, although he probably could have dished out a few yellows a little earlier.

This was meant to be Messi’s last hurrah. The Argentinians all thought it was destiny; they were pre-ordained to win this competition. But you have to actually play football to win, and they did nothing of the sort, with the whole world watching. And as a result of their antics, I think everyone was a Spain supporter for last night. They certainly were after the game had finished and the shameful scenes that unfolded. I’ll come to that in a second. Because first, we should talk about how Argentina have basically sh*thoused their way to this final, they’ve ridden the coat-tails of some VERY favourable decisions, and as I’ve already said on this blog, have a team of very unlikeable players – bar Messi.

But even Messi was at it yesterday. I think Cucurella is a little rat bag, but asking for him to be sent off because he put his hand to his mouth to explain to Messi where the Spanish player was hurt…man, Leo, that’s low mate.

But don’t worry, others could stoop lower in that team. Simeone Junior was his usual twattish self, Enzo was ridiculous with his foul for his second (deserved) yellow to send him for an early bath, then Paredes…wow…what a Class A wrong’un you showed yourself to be. Grabbing people’s throats, throwing punches, plus you should have been sent off during the game anyway! The Argentinians will have made no friends based on their World Cup showing, and I couldn’t have been happier to see their team crying. You thoroughly got what you deserved.

As for Spain, you have to say congrats, as they’ve shown they are clearly the best team in the tournament, and we even got to see a bit of Zubimendi get on the pitch too. I watched a little bit of the trophy celebrations afterwards, but didn’t get to the end of the lift, because giving Unai Simon the ‘best goalkeeper’ award, when he’s not even the best one in the Spanish team, was laughable. Still, there’s a nice picture of Raya, Zubi and Merino all together, which I had to steal for today’s blog image. Nice stuff.

Now it is time for rest, and time for transfer pre season stress to kick in, in earnest. Because once the dust settles after today, I think globally there will be plenty of consternation on the faces and in the minds of Arsenal fans. We find ourselves just under two weeks from the first pre-season game away to Girona, and there still isn’t a new signing in (Hincapie doesn’t count, neither does Meslier – not really). Tzolis will probably provide a little transfer window injection when he arrives this week, but having listened to a number of the regular Arsenal pods that are out there yesterday on my run, there’s a lot of concern about the Morgan Rogers stuff. I still stand by the fact that I’m pretty calm about it, but we do need to start hearing noises about names that we’ve looked to pivot towards. I saw Fabrizio Romano talk about Diomande at Leipzig, which sounds cool, but all the noises so far are that PSG wants him. And that is apparently true in return, which all makes it seem a little Julian Alvarez to Barca-like; if we’re playing second-fiddle to these teams by players, it hardly sends that great message about how we only pick players who are 100% hot on Arsenal and Arteta’s project. Players who view us as a second choice? That’s something we haven’t had since the Wenger ‘Top Four is a trophy’ days, and I think we all thought we were beyond that?

Let’s see what starts to shake out now. Players will all be on holiday, but I suspect they’ve all kept their phones on in case they get calls from agents, so I expect we’ll start to see a concentrated period of noise as the ITKs go into overdrive with the season about a month away.

Back tomorrow. Enjoy your Monday, whatever you’re doing.