Our weakened U21 side beat League One opposition away today. Our first team couldn't beat a League Two side 🤯
🇳🇴 kimmoFC retweeted
The day I stopped taking awards seriously. It's nothing but politics.
With respect to my colleagues in the football writing industry, I am stunned that Bruno Fernandes has been named FWA Footballer of the Year instead of Declan Rice. Rice has literally won more matches this season (35) than Fernandes has even played (34).
telegraph.co.uk/football/202…
The games against Forest and Bayern are two examples of our tactical versatility. We are capable of playing different styles of football, adapting our approach based on how we anticipate the oppositions gameplan.
But for me, adaptability is about more than individual matches. It is also about managing the demands of an entire season. Playing every three days while competing in Europe is far more physically and mentally demanding than many people realise. We simply can't afford to operate at maximum intensity for 90 minutes in every match, particularly when many of our PL opponents don't face the same fixture congestion. For many teams, facing Arsenal is effectively their cup final.
Not only is the PL the most competitive league in the world, we must have an eye on our next European game. Many of our biggest European rivals are walking their leagues, giving them the luxury of rotating key players and managing workloads ahead of CL games. We rarely have that privilege.
If we can win against a low block PL opponent through controlled possession, patience and intelligent game management, while conserving energy in the process, we will take it.
Defensively OOP. If an opponent beats our aggressive final third press, we are "happy" to reduce our ball pressure in the middle and defensive thirds. We don't continuously chase possession. We are comfortable allowing the opposition more of the ball, trusting our defensive structure to limit the opponent. I think I've noticed a trend of more teams starting to do this.
This is not passivity, nor is it a lack of ambition. It is calculated energy management, tactical discipline and understanding the bigger picture.
True adaptability is not simply about finding different ways to win individual matches. It is about finding the most sustainable way to win consistently across an entire season, while competing for the biggest trophies on multiple fronts.
And this is where Arsenal excells, imo.
This is adaptability.
This interview motivated me to write a piece on our ‘style of play.’
Under Mikel, we are the most adaptable side in world football. If you feel the need to use a term to describe what we do, ‘adaptable’ fits best
rohanjivanafc.substack.com/p…
Raising two children as Arsenal supporters through our banter era should've been much harder.
This trophy made it so much easier. Perfect ammo at school. Merci, Wenger 🫶
In 23 seasons since The Invincible, not a single team have even made it to March before the dream was over.
In 87% of seasons they haven't even made it past December.
That's how hard it is.
Is yours gold? 🏆
30% possession against Spurs at home. There is absolutely no need for that with a multi billion squad. That's dark, and a really bad look for Alonso.
