It's hard to say for sure whether my understanding of the game is developing, or if I'm just getting really good at consuming the right things. Last weekend, when I discovered that the North London derby would be taking place the following weekend, I made a note to myself to read up on this storied rivalry. Up to this point, I've spent a lot of time dwelling on the kits of Arsenal and Tottenham but considerably less time on the other aspects of these clubs. Having watched both clubs play a few times each so far this season, I was pretty aware that Spurs were coming in on the heels of back to back 3-0 defeats after starting with three straight victories right out the game and that Arsenal had opened the season with a string of losses but seemed to be crawling forward. Simply put, these teams were meeting one another at a pretty interesting time.
On Friday of last week, the Athletic put up a video breaking down the derby. They had their Arsenal writer and their Spurs writer on to discuss how each club got to the point where they are. The Arsenal writer acknowledged the the mammoth amounts of money that went into their new stadium, the departure of Arsene Wenger and the search for an identity since but still finished by saying "there seems to be a plan." For his part, the Spurs writer highlighted Tottenham's own wildly expensive stadium and the fact that the pandemic prevented fans from attending matches which in turn really fucked with Tottenham's cash flow. He talked about the coaching carousel of the last few years and how now Nuno Espirito Santo's preferred style of play doesn't work with the personnel that he's been assigned. Harry Kane was mentioned once or twice. Perhaps, most crucially, the Spurs writer from the Athletic kinda sorta said that Tottenham does not seem to have much of a plan.
The match itself on Sunday was just a lot of fun. As it went on, one of the television announcers kept saying that this was the scene of the rebirth of Arsenal, the renaissance of Arsenal, and at one point I think he called them Arsenal 2.0; it was all a blur, really. After not scoring in play all season, Arsenal hammered home three goals in the first half. The young roster looked positively electric. They reminded me of some of my favorite imperfect NBA teams from years past like the Darius Miles-led Clippers; squads that were on high on potential but that couldn't always get it together. The last time that I wrote I said that I felt bad for Ryan from Stadio for being a Pacers fan since he's also an Arsenal fan. All that I meant by that was these last two seasons finishing eight must have been hard since Arsenal usually compete for top four finishes. Setting those two eighth place finishes aside, there's a lot to really admire about Arsenal. For starters, according to Wikipedia, they have the most diverse fanbase of any football club on the planet. They have also had some really great kits like the bruised banana shirt (which I recently saw listed on Depop for $550) and this year's alternate (which I still maintain will look fire when paired with navy blue socks.)
It must just be weird to think about a club like Arsenal rebuilding in the first place. Are roster rebuilds common in the Premier League? Do teams blow it up? My suspicion is that this not the case. It seems like the unfathomably wealthy clubs stock talent so that they are prepared for any and all tournaments and then everyone else is left hanging on to whatever they can find while hoping that the youth can develop. My NBA-addled mind looks at the work that Arsenal has put in so far and their recent transfer activity and says "there seems to be a plan."
While the derby got a bunch of graphs here, I also enjoyed the matches on Saturday! Manchester City versus Chelsea already sounded like an awesome matchup, and that was before I discovered that City's schedule for the week was Chelsea, PSG and Liverpool or that one time Pep Guardiola and Thomas Tuchel got together for some hanging out that was so intense it intimidated everyone else in the bar. The match itself did not disappoint. I feel that I finally saw the City that everyone is always talking about. They were a joy to watch at times.
Speaking of joyous occasions, Manchester United lost to Aston Villa. As with in recent weeks, I found myself actively rooting for a Man U defeat. At around the 80th minute or so with the score still even, I sighed a little bit because recent weeks were fresh in my mind. "Time for the dumb, fucking smash and grab," I thought to myself. It was such a pleasant surprise to see that not take place. It was almost as nice as the Villa kits (which, not sure if this is a hot take or not but I think these away kits are even sharper than the claret and blue. The subtle pinstriping on the shirt really puts it over the top for me.)
Stepping into this week, I'm most curious to find out whether or not I'll see the City team that I saw take on Chelsea again. I'm also curious to see what shakes out on Attack on Titan but this isn't the blog for that.
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