Morning all.
So it’s gonna be an all Spanish, all Madrid Champions League final for the second time in three years. Real Madrid beat Man City 1-0 last night and I have to say City’s performance worried me. It’s like they were saving their energy for Sunday, or something.
What on earth is the story with Yaya Toure? A player of incredible talent, but who ambled through that game without breaking into a sweat. A little jog here, a little jog there. He was the same against us at the Emirates this season, then he spanked in a brilliant goal and went ‘Oh yeah, I’ll play some football here’, but last night he looked like he couldn’t be arsed.
Also, what does Jesus Navas actually do? Is he on the pitch so his really super blue eyes freak out the opposition? I realise by saying this I’m going to unleash the full force of Jesus on Sunday. He will turn water into wine, walk on water, and maybe actually score a goal, but man, he makes Gervinho – a player now playing somewhere in China and being paid in gold bullion and helicopters – look effective.
Real should have scored more but they weren’t very good, and City were even less good than that. This was a Champions League semi-final played with all the intensity of a testimonial for a bloke nobody likes. I bet Pep Guardiola sent a text message to Sheikh Mansour – “We’re gonna need a bigger chequebook.”
It was bad, but now it sets up a final that I hope will be something akin to Chelsea v Sp*rs from the other night. Obviously it’s a derby and those games are intense at the best of times, but the cynical, destructive side of Atletico against the less destructive but no less cynical Real could well be epic. Divers like Ronaldo, Bale and Marcelo; the walking red card that is Sergio Ramos; the lunacy of Pepe that takes little to come to the surface … against a Diego Simeone team. Ooooooh mama. UEFA should order some extra stretchers for this one.
Match abandoned because of too many red cards and/or unconscious players. Is it wrong that part of me really craves this? Should I be more hopeful of a brilliant game of football. Great attacking, stout defending, organisation, discipline, moments of sublime skill that transcend the ordinary and leave us mere mortals gasping at the virtuosity of it all. That’s what we should want, right?
And look, don’t get me wrong, I’d take that too. I’m open to that. But I’m also open to grown men disgracing themselves in the name of sport and ‘winning’, not caring that there are cameras recording their every move from every angle, their cheating and deception captured for generations to enjoy forever and ever in Vines and GIFs and YouTube clips altered very slightly and with terrible Europop music over the top so the copyright algorithms don’t pick them up.
Anything but a tedious 0-0 and a spawny goal in injury time that denies us the penalty shoot-out we all deserve. Anyway, that’s something to look forward to later this month – the final takes place at the San Siro on May 28th.
It’s pretty quiet from an Arsenal point of view. A bit of Santi Cazorla talking about his comeback against Blackburn and desire to play a part against Man City here, a touch of Alex Iwobi and his Arsenal DNA there. There’s also some stuff about 21 year old midfielder Jon Toral who has had an impressive loan spell at Birmingham this season. He says he’ll talk to the club about his future – has he done enough to become part of the first team squad?
A more interesting question might be if circumstances mean his chances of being given that chance are much slimmer than they might have been. With players like Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Flamini and Tomas Rosicky leaving, and doubts over Jack Wilshere’s ability to stay fit, there’s a real need to boost our midfield next season. We’ve all heard the links to Granit Xhaka, and the whispers from France over the last few days suggest we’ve got our beady eyes on Kanté from Leicester – Arsene won’t be able to N’Golo on low that one, he’ll have to pay the €25 release clause … I’m not sorry.
The pressure to achieve next season will be huge, and I wonder if there’d be any patience for a young midfielder to develop over the course of the season, if Toral is considered good enough to be given that chance at all. Anyway, time will tell on that.
The link to Kanté is an interesting one. He has been impressive this season, but I wonder how much that has got to do with the style of the team he’s playing in – one that is happy to sit and defend and have the lowest passing accuracy since time began. Would he be as effective in a team which aims to have the ball a lot more?
I also think our priorities this summer should lie elsewhere. Despite the perception of our defence being absolute rubbish, it’s not. We have the third best record in the Premier League, and Petr Cech is currently sharing the most clean sheets record with Kaspar Schmeichel, while two Arsenal defenders, Hector Bellerin and Nacho Monreal, have been involved in more games with cleans sheets than any other player.
That isn’t to say we can’t make it better, but I think we need to prioritise other positions, in particular upgrading on a striker with just 2 goals in his last 21 games, and his sort-of deputy, Theo Walcott, who has scored in just 4 of his last 31 appearances. But look, the two things aren’t mutually exclusive, so expect a summer with many rumours and many stories and one in which I hope Arsenal will spend well and with gay abandon.
Hey, a man can dream. Right, that’s that for this morning, Tim Stillman will be here with his weekly column later, more from me tomorrow, including an Arsecast. Speaking of which, we were number 1 on iTunes again this week, thanks again to everyone for listening, it’s hugely appreciated.
Until then.
