Tag: soccer

A hopeful fool and her money are soon parted

Amy O3 Comments

After a fairly barren soccer summer the Premier League is–at last–back in session. I had plenty of time on my hands, having retired from working at the end of May. I am a person of very few hobbies and one for whom most of my social contacts were established through my work. Therefore, it’s been somewhat of an uphill battle keeping busy, let alone Finding Purpose. I did a lot of gardening, helped some friends and family members with financial questions, and experimented with volunteering. Got plenty of exercise, more than I ever did while working. (I daresay that if I had exercised as much while I was still working maybe I could have tolerated Work BS a few years longer. That’s a theory I don’t feel compelled to test.) Still, I would say there has been a lot of floundering and too much doom scrolling. It’s such a terrible time for scrolling, so hard to keep it mindless and not take in all the nonsense/doom. In short, I have work to do to have a retirement I feel good about.

I couldn’t force myself to watch the Club World Cup–such an abomination–but I did invest in watching almost all of the Women’s Euros. Delightful and worthwhile in every way. I didn’t gravitate to any one team as I usually do while watching international competition, just enjoyed watching women play great soccer, have high highs and low lows. Kudos to Team England for winning the competition. They ground out result after result, never looking comfortable until it was all over.

A lot of my doom scrolling of the summer was focused on Premier League transfer rumors, especially for Arsenal. I see ESPN and other media outlets grading Arsenal’s transfer window as a B-. First, let’s acknowledge the ridiculousness of grading transfer business. Then let’s take exception to the grade Arsenal got. I can’t remember a better overall transfer window in my time as a fan. We’ve brought in six players that would make it possible to replace a future injured first-choice player with a solid second choice option, to successfully rotate to prevent those injuries, to be able to bring different energy from the bench when needed in a match, and to just make us better in key positions.

We successfully brought in a new dedicated striker, Viktor Gyokeres, where both previously available options had been repurposed under desperate circumstances from other positions. In my opinion, both of those options worked out pretty well. But having a guy who has a history of scoring a goal on average in every match is pretty exciting. We also brought in Martin Zubimendi to replace the position formerly filled by Thomas Partey, whose contract expired at the end of the season. Against its better judgment, Arsenal did try to re-sign him, more as a replacement of Jorginho, a solid second-choice defensive midfielder. Partey is an excellent defensive midfielder but has legal–and possibly moral–baggage that we’d have been smart to be freed of. Not by Arsenal intention but because Partey wanted higher pay than Arsenal could stomach, it seems we have been freed.

Zubimendi has been very exciting to watch in the pre-season and will make a great difference immediately. How long it will take Gyokeres to kick in as a valuable option is an open question. He came from a weaker and less physical league and has a style that isn’t exactly a fit for Arsenal. I back him and Arsenal to figure out how to get the best of him.

As I write, Arsenal appear to be in final stages of signing Eberechi Eze from Crystal Palace, out from under the noses of our fiercest rivals, Tottenham. He’s a magnificent creative midfielder but where he fits in Arsenal with its very solid existing midfield is a bit mysterious. I’m going to trust the process, here.

The primary wild card is that other teams were unfairly able to strengthen over the summer as well. The future is contingent on alchemy, ours vs. theirs.

We’ve already played one game in the season, an away fixture at Manchester United on Sunday. That is always a tough game. No matter how badly Manchester United are they always seem to have a good day when we play them at their home. Last Sunday Manchester United played pretty well and Arsenal played pretty shit, but Arsenal still won, 0 – 1. The goal came via a header from an unmarked Riccardo Calafiori on a corner kick routine that has produced more than its fair share of whining. In every corner kick situation in the Premier League there is grappling in the box by both teams, and this kick was no exception. I don’t know how VAR could rule a possible foul by an Arsenal player as more important than fouls on 3 Arsenal players in the same moment, and this time they did not. The goal stood and Manchester United couldn’t break us down for the 80+ minutes after the goal. We’ll take the win.

On that backdrop, my husband and I managed to score tickets to the Leeds match on Saturday. You know the drill, we have to enter the ballot and, once we inevitably lose, that allows us to use the exchange to try to find tickets being sold by others. This is the home opener (not sure they call it that in soccer!) so it was a very popular ticket and arguably hard to get. You know why–because we are going to win the league this year. Everyone wants to say they were at the first game.

For me it was quite easy to get. I was chatting with my mother on the phone and the conversation was nearing its end when she started to tell me a story I had heard before. I am an old person so I appreciate being able to repeat my stories again and again to any person not bold enough to stop me from re-telling them. Therefore, I allowed her to tell the story without interruption while concluding that it might be acceptable to multi-task a bit on the exchange. A ticket came up on my first click. It’s Club (you know I don’t love Club) but the price was decent, I bought it, and a trip could be planned.

Airfare prices are pretty great right now and we were able to book a hotel that’s never before been in our price point. That said, going to London for Arsenal matches is a pretty expensive hobby for someone with no income. Well worth it if you know for a fact you are going to win the league that year. I do know it. You know I know it.

Luckily, while a hopeful fool and her money are soon parted, it takes a whole season to part her from all her money. Let’s rejoice in the fun to be had along the way.

You get what you need

Amy OLeave a comment

Declan Rice was preparing to take a long free kick following a foul on Bukayo Saka in front of Real Madrid’s goal when a fan near me asked derisively, “How long has it been since he scored from a free kick?” It was an easy question. As good as Arsenal were scoring on corner kicks earlier this season, I can’t remember a free kick ending in anything except disappointment in recent years. And at 0-0 with only about 30 minutes remaining in the second half, I didn’t have my hopes up.

What happened next seemed like a miracle. Rice hit the ball, it swerved around the wall of Real Madrid players and into the net with one of the best goal keepers in the world, Thibaut Courtois, at full 6′ 7″ stretch, unable to reach it. We were thrilled, and relieved. Arsenal had looked good all match but it still had seemed conceivable up to that point that the match would end at 0-0 and we’d have to meet Real Madrid on their home turf next week with the wind in our faces.

We learned after the match Declan Rice had never scored such a goal.

As you know if you are a regular reader (I see you, fam), I only write while I’m in London. There are two home Arsenal matches this week and although we had tickets for neither when we scheduled our trip we felt that our best chance of scoring tickets for both was to be in London. We were VERY confident we’d be able to get tickets for the Brentford match over the weekend and significantly less confident about getting tickets for the Champions League match against Real Madrid on Tuesday. But still, a little confident.

As small our confidence was, it can now be classified as overconfidence. I must have clicked more than a thousand times for tickets the last week alone. Maybe a thousand in the several weeks before that. Nothing. On the day of the match we hedged our bets by reserving a space at a pub where we could watch the match on TV, hoping fervently we’d be able to cancel it in the end. That did not come to pass. We found ourselves watching from The Hope with other fans who also could not manage to get tickets.

About 10 minutes after Declan Rice scored that beautiful goal, Arsenal found itself again with a long free kick, again following a foul on Bukayo Saka. Declan Rice again teed it up and stroked it through the hole in the stretch of the wall created by Arsenal shirts parting like the red sea. Real Madrid keeper Courtois again stretched across his goal, missing the ball as it struck the top corner of the net.

Having never scored even one such goal, Declan Rice scored two in one night.

I’ve never experienced a celebration anywhere like what happened at The Hope. The goal was so unexpected, maybe even more unexpected than the first goal. There was no “Yeah!” or jumping around or cheering. Everyone just laughed.

We waited only a few minutes more before youngster Myles Lewis-Skelly put a cross in toward our makeshift striker Mikel Merino. There was nothing easy about the shot he had to make but he made it beautiful. In another time and place it would have been the best goal we’d seen in ages.

We ended up beating last year’s Champions League winners 3-0. To prove that there is no team good enough not to be trash-talked while also trashing our fiercest rivals, through the TV we could hear the Arsenal fans singing, “Are you Tottenham? Are you Tottenham? Are you Tottenham in disguise?”

It was hard not to be at The Emirates. The place seemed to be rocking all match and for good reason. We tried to console ourselves that it was just a short walk to our hotel and wasn’t it nice that we didn’t have to wait in a crowd to get on the Tube? But the reality was harder to take. Probably the most exciting match of the season. We were so close, but so far away.

And it makes the away match next week in Madrid even more important to give best efforts to. The match over the weekend against Brentford for which we do now have tickets is likely to be one for which Mikel Arteta keeps our best players on ice. We must take as few chances as possible for additional injuries.

In the end we accept all of it, from a glorious win we could not be present for, to a possibly tedious loss or tie in the Premier League at home over the weekend. If next week’s match against Real Madrid ends the way we want, I lean on brother Mick. You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime you might find you get what you need.

When you freely dish it out

Amy OLeave a comment

It’s been quite a long time since we attended the West Ham match, so let’s dive in.

It was a sunny, nice day to be at the Emirates. Given the previously-referenced Fuller pub crawl, neither my husband nor I were up for a beer upon arriving. We did not arrive especially early and went right to our seats. Our seats were in the Clock End again, pretty typical for a successful ballot.

This time we were as close as we’d ever been to the Away section, unsurprisingly, West Ham this week. And as we know, our job is to drown them out. In this case, they had a lot to chant about having lost Declan Rice to us a few years ago. They are still bitter about it. We acquired him for £100 million, a sum that should have set them up for buying some good players. That hasn’t really happened for them. And, as of today, they are 16th in a league of 20 teams.

Should have been an easy match.

Last season, Rice was so good, £100 million seemed like a complete steal. This season, he’s struggled more. The whole team has struggled more, in large part because it’s been impossible to field our best team, of which Rice is normally an important inclusion. There have been so many injuries in the team this season, I would have told you he is one of few that has not had any. Upon review of that contention, I am reminded that he broke a toe in November and was briefly out of the lineup.

Because of the injuries, our manager Mikel Arteta has had to try out a bunch of stuff, including, in the match prior to this one, against Leicester City, starting Raheem Sterling. Raheem Sterling was formerly one of the top players in the Premier League. He started at Liverpool and was sold to Manchester City. After a lot of early success he found himself on the bench. That’s not a sin at Manchester City. The guys on the bench are better than the starters at most other clubs. Then he was sold to Chelsea, right about the time Chelsea started buying everyone. Chelsea bought some good players but couldn’t field a team that was capable of succeeding for quite some time. When they finally sorted out their best 11, Raheem Sterling again did not make the cut. He was loaned to Arsenal at the beginning of the season.

At the beginning of the season, that seemed like good business from Arsenal. Bukayo Saka is never injured, so having Raheem Sterling available in the off-chance Saka was injured seemed good enough. Over the period Sterling’s been at Arsenal, he’s pretty much only come off the bench to rest others. It’s been clear that he is no longer capable of what he once was.

Well, guess what? Bukayo Saka was injured. He tore his hamstring in December, bad enough to require surgery. That was followed by injuries to Gabriel Jesus (ACL tear and surgery) in January, Gabriel Martinelli (hamstring strain) in February, and Kai Havertz (torn hamstring and surgery) in February. Pretty much our entire preferred starting line-up up top and parts of our next most-preferred lineup.

So in the match prior to West Ham, against Leicester City, Mikel Arteta apparently saw no choice. Raheem Sterling was in the starting lineup. He huffed and puffed around but was not capable of making a difference. Things looked dismal. The match was still scoreless almost 70 minutes in. Then Sterling was replaced with Mikel Merino, a midfielder. Merino is not even a first choice midfielder for Arsenal and had never, until that point, played as a striker. But within 10 minutes of entering the match, he scored a headed goal. Near the end of the match, he scored another. A one-time thwack from a beautiful pass by Leandro Trossard.

So the question going into the West Ham match was what does Arteta do now? Put Sterling in at the start again and let him wear down the opposition, then bring Merino in to make things happen at the end? Or start Merino?

Arteta chose to start Merino.

On game day, The Emirates was subdued. It’s been a long time since we’ve experienced an atmosphere that bad. The main thing we could all get behind was this: Declan Rice takes the corners on the left side. This happens to be the side the visitors are on in the first half. So while the West Ham supporters were lustily booing Rice, the Arsenal supporters were just as lustily standing and cheering for him. The West Ham fans had some choice songs for Rice (which also managed to insult Arsenal overall) and a few for Arteta as well.

West Ham were playing with 5 defenders, which is known to be a good strategy against Arsenal. Idea being to make it hard to have a sight of the goal and then counterattack on any mistake. We dominated but, as Arsene Wenger used to say, it was sterile domination. At near the end of the first half, West Ham’s strategy paid off big time. They got a breakaway and managed to cross into the box, where it was headed beyond our keeper, David Raya. 0 – 1.

The West Ham fans were jubilant and, if we Arsenal fans had been subdued before, we were downright morose during the second half. The rabble rousers in the crowd were unable to mount a response to West Ham’s joy.

With still 20 minutes to play in the match, teenage sensation and Arsenal defender Myles Lewis-Skelly got a yellow card that, after interminable video review, was upgraded to a red card. Still, Arsenal has shown themselves to be pretty resilient after going down to 10 men and I think we still felt some hope.

All hope was lost a short time later. Arteta removed Mikel Merino and replaced him with Raheem Sterling.

That was when Arsenal fans left the stadium in droves.

But my husband and I stayed until the bitter end. And it was bitter. There is nothing worse than being in a stadium with happy opposition, especially so close to us. Hearing them chant in joy for themselves, and in derision for us.

But, if you can freely dish it out (we can and we have) sometimes you have to be able to take it.

We took it.

Armoury represents

Amy O2 Comments

The holidays came up with great urgency and I never finished posted after attending the Everton match. I know you’re dying for my thoughts, both of you.

Rarity of rarities, after being lucky in the Arsenal ballot for the Manchester United match and organizing our travel for that trip, we happened to be watching Arsenal play Nottingham Forest on TV when, just after half time, I decided to click on the Arsenal site to see if I could get a ticket for the Everton match. One came up right away, I clicked it, and it was truly available and not snatched up by someone else.

While I stepped away from the match to find my credit card, Arsenal scored. This is the story of my life. I cannot turn my back on the TV during a match without regretting it. But goals can be watched on replay and tickets do not come so easily, so I was satisfied with the tradeoff made. After I’d completed my purchase, I compelled my husband to click on the Arsenal web site to try to get a ticket. He clicked twice and one came up. He clicked it and it was also truly available. Unprecedented.

So we happily planned to come to London for the weekend.

Both of our tickets were Club level tickets which seems to be secret of getting tickets at the Emirates. Don’t get me wrong–the goal is to be in the stadium and Club tickets are awesome. It’s just that it’s a lot more fun to sit somewhere else. People are more into it. The reason Club tickets are so often the first to come available is probably because they are held by people or entities who just don’t care that much to always be present and when present, maybe a tad jaded.

I had hoped to be able to buy a different ticket and then sell this one, but the first opportunity I had to buy a ticket on the Arsenal web site outside of the Club level was on match day. And it became clear that it was not possible to buy a new ticket and then sell the old ticket. The Arsenal web site requires you to sell first and then buy. Too risky.

We started our match day by visiting the Armoury, the large store on site at the Emirates. A person in my life with whom I exchange Christmas gifts had wanted some merch. And there is no place like the Armoury for Arsenal merch. It has just about everything a person could own or use or look at with an Arsenal logo on it.

I mentioned in my post Report this that Arsenal is constantly keeping its finger on the pulse of its fans by surveying them. They had reached out a few weeks ago with a survey about whether I’d ever heard abuse or bad language at an Arsenal match. After the Manchester United match, they reached out with a typical survey about my experience at the Emirates. Was everyone polite? Was everyone helpful? Was the food good? But that was cursory. Once they got that out of the way, what they really seemed interested in was: had I visited the Armoury on that trip?

I had not.

I have to paraphrase what they asked next because, again, it didn’t occur to me I might write about this and I did not take sufficient note. The question was quite odd, so giving it my best shot.

To the best of my recollection they asked me what do I think the Armoury should represent to fans?

WTF?

But I like to be helpful to the club. First I wrote cheerfully, “Weird question!” Then I believe I wrote, “It should be a palace of crass commercialism.” To which I hope the marketing person who reviewed my answer thought to themselves, “Job done. One happy customer!”

Based on the one change we noted in the Armoury, one of my fellow fans who responded to the survey must have said “It should represent a disco,” because now there is a DJ at the Armoury on match day. He was right at the entrance, obstructing the ever-present mannequins of Arsenal players I believe I complimented in my survey. The music was lively, upbeat, optimistic. Danceable.

After looking at everything, and I mean everything, my husband found just the right thing for my Christmas gift recipient and I was whisked through the line to pay for it. My important job done, we went up to the Club level and enjoyed a Camden Hells lager.

My husband and I were not sitting together during the match. My seat was in the Clock end and I was pleasantly surprised that the fans near me were quite enthusiastic. The first half was fine. There was no score by halftime but it looked like Arsenal could get the job done. Everton had very little interest in scoring but a lot of interest in making sure Arsenal did not, either, and they defended stoutly. Martin Odegaard had a hat trick of missed chances and you just knew Arsenal would break through in the second half.

But once the second half started it looked like the wheels had come off for Arsenal. It was the same dynamic, Everton defending and Arsenal possessing the ball, but not very energetically and not with real purpose. With metronomic and hypnotic passing from side to side in front of 11 defenders. I still felt that anything could happen, but 90 minutes ticked down and nothing did.

Perhaps there were actually so many Club tickets available because everyone predicted the Arsenal v. Everton match was going to end in a scoreless draw. As it did.

I didn’t hear this, but my husband said in his section there was some booing at the end.

There haven’t been many times I’ve had to leave an Arsenal match disappointed, which made me decide to put together my personal statistics. I’ve attended 24 matches live. The record for those matches is 17 wins, 5 draws, and 2 losses, an average of 2.33 points per match. Over the same time period, what has been Arsenal’s home record? An average of 2.16 points per match, or so says Microsoft Copilot. It’s AI so it’s got to be legit, right?

I hereby declare my presence at the Emirates to have statistically significant impact on the club. Pretty sure my record is better when I wear the red jersey to the match than when I wear the black jersey, as I did on Saturday. Lesson learned.

After being queried about what the Armoury should represent to fans, I now eagerly await the survey from Arsenal in which I have the opportunity to explain what I represent to Arsenal. They do take action on their surveys and I think I can get behind the action they might take when this information becomes available.

I might wait until I get my stats back up a bit.

Report this

Amy OLeave a comment

About a month ago I got a survey from Arsenal. Arsenal do a LOT of surveys. Usually they are about your experience at a match. How was the process of buying tickets? How was the process of loading your digital pass? Were the stewards pleasant and helpful? How was the food? You get the picture.

But this one was different. To paraphrase, because I wasn’t planning to write about this and can’t recall the exact details of the questions, it wanted to know have I ever heard racist chanting or speech at the Emirates? Have I ever heard misogynistic or homophobic speech? Mistreatment of the disabled? Tragedy chanting? This last one I think is unique to football. It is chanting and taunting about tragedy that happened to football supporters or players. For example, the Hillsborough disaster, where dozens of Liverpool supporters were killed in 1989, has been the subject of taunting by supporters of other clubs.

In this survey, I was able to honestly respond that I’ve never heard any of those things while attending a match. However, the survey had one more question. Have I ever heard bad language at the Emirates?

Well, yes, I have indeed.

And, the survey wanted to know, did I know how to report this bad language to the club?

Er, no, I did not.

Never let it be said that Arsenal is not sincere in its efforts to make sure you understand you’ve been heard. In a useful touch before the Manchester United match last Wednesday, the Arsenal announcer explained at the outset of the match how this could be reported. You can text a number and tell them the seat number of the person producing the bad behavior.

Good to be educated.

The match had quite a late start, probably to work through issues of getting people to the match with public transportation on a night when there would be evening rush hour and when there were several matches in London. We had to get creative anyway because the normal route was just a no-go due to all the fans trying to get the stadium.

We were rewarded with what I perceive as an unusual light show show before the match. From our seats high in the Clock End the fire cannons were producing flame so big that we could feel the heat.

We were closer to the opposition fans than ever before, which means we were part of several critical sections responsible for being alert to drowning them out. It was challenging because they appeared to be feeling energetic.

If I’m being honest it wasn’t the most exciting match. Manchester United seemed pretty committed to slowing down the match and breaking up any action and usually when someone tries that, they are able to succeed. But Arsenal have a not-so-secret weapon that works even in this case. We are able to score from corner kicks more often than any other team. And when working against a team that is trying to break down flow, we tend to get lots of chances to take corner kicks.

Anything I might say about why Arsenal is so good at scoring from corner kicks is a waste of typing. In this morning’s The Athletic there was as comprehensive an analysis as you might ever want. Even I, who am deeply interested in this topic, started skimming the article after about two yards of scrolling.

The fact is, even if you know Arsenal are good at corner kicks and you know exactly why Arsenal are good, it’s still very hard to stop us.

Not long after half time, Arsenal had a chance at a corner kick. My husband and I were probably seated about as far away from that action as you could possibly be in the stadium, but we couldn’t fail to see Decan Rice’s inch perfect kick and Jurrien Timber’s expert glancing header into the net.

That helped open the match up as Manchester United sought an equalizer, much to Arsenal’s advantage. Even so, the next goal was also from an Arsenal corner kick in the 73rd minute. In this case, I could see Bukayo Saka’s lovely kick but how it ended up in the goal was more mysterious. There was a weird delay from the point of impact before the Arsenal fans in the North Bank put up a giant cheer. After the match I could understand why. The original kick ended up on Thomas Partey’s head, which he hit so hard it bounced off William Saliba’s butt and into the goal.

Happenstance? Saliba celebrated so thoroughly that you would have sworn that means of scoring actually was the plan.

In any case, that left about 20 minutes of breathing room with Manchester United looking like they would not be able to score a goal even if there were six days available.

Although it is often the case that fans chant and we can’t tell what they are saying, what happened next was perfectly clear. At least 50,000 people in the stadium started singing, “You’re f*cking shit, you’re f*cking shit, you’re f*cking shit, you’re f*cking shit!”

Now, recall that we now know how to report such behavior to the club. In this case, we were all saved the effort. It would be impossible for the club not to be able to report it to itself.