Match made in heaven: Declan Rice and Arsenal both ‘experts in failure’ | OneFootball

Declan Rice has a lot of medals for coming second; never was a man so suited to Arsenal.

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Declan Rice is an expert in failure

Now that Arsenal have handed the league to Man City on a plate (after Declan Rice said nothing gets handed to you in the PL), its essential Arsenal defeat Atletico in the CL so that Declan Rice can get a hat trick of runners up medals this year to make an incredible total of 7 career runners ups and just 1 solitary winners medal from his time at West Ham.

3 x PL runners up, 2 x Euros runners up, 1 x CL runners up and 1 x Carabao Cup runners up. This guy is the Arsene Wenger of the 2020s – an ‘expert in failure’. Ben Teacher

Has Jose jinxed Arsenal?

As someone who has seen Arsenal get the rub of the green on multiple occasions (e.g. Granit Xhaka’s attempted unpunished ankle break on Raphinha; Gabriel being blown over by Patrick Bamford’s breath, thus denying us an equaliser), watching them capitulate this season is wonderful. Nothing encapsulates everything to dislike about this team more than Gabriel and Arteta. Same Old Arsenal, Always Cheating.

But I digress. Did Mourinho jinx Arsenal with his “Specialist In Failure” comment? Does the weight of failure hang heavy over the club? All that money spent for a couple of FA Cups. At this stage, they’re giving Don Revie’s boys a lesson in falling short. Mat, Leeds

Arsenal are bottling, not losing

Dear John Nicholson…

Losing is absolutely not bottling. If it was then 90% (or so) of all clubs would bottle every season.

But only winning when the stakes are not the highest and losing when the pressure is really on – that *is* bottling. No if, ands or buts about it. What emphasises it is when the club does it not once, not twice but 3 seasons out of 4. Yeah they came second to us too (Liverpool) but they were never in that title race. So they just lost that one, no bottling involved. The rest they were leading then started losing when it really mattered. Textbook definition of bottling.

Important caveat – Arsenal bottled *nothing* on Sunday. They played well in a really good game and were definitely unlucky not to draw at the least. They brought their best game to a vital match and only lost because Havertz couldn’t keep his header down at the death. Which, again, he didn’t bottle – he just missed. It happens.

Why are people enjoying it so much? A lot of it is because Arteta is a complete f*****g tool. He’s spectacularly easy to dislike and more than a little weird. The difference between him and Pep? People *respect* Pep. He is also more than a little odd but he is the preeminent manager of this and perhaps any other generation. Be as strange as you like fella.

I’m not exactly in love with City. The Middle Eastern money stinks and the 115 charges against them are none too clever. Watch that situation come to nothing by the way , City have a *lot* better lawyers than Everton and the FA haven’t got the balls to go head to head with them. Which also does not appeal to the neutral supporters.

But not one of those 115 charges mean that City get the job done when the heat is at its hottest. They’re just mentally tough, end of.

And if you give a total melt over £1 billion pounds to not only get the side, but the complete squad he wants and he *still* wins nothing? That is funny. Especially if it’s the kind of clown who keeps doing all kinds of pseudo witchcraft to help them win, when all he has to do is play with the damn handbrake off. Funny!

Mockery is scarcely limited to just Arsenal. We’ve just spent nearly half a billion to turn a title winning side into one that can barely qualify for the Champions League. We’ve had to eat s**t and like the taste of it this year. Many, many people have found this very funny indeed. What hasn’t helped is our much vaunted executives making a bunch of damn fool decisions. Much boasting has been done – by them mainly – about how good they are. You win titles and you get to boast. You fail utterly after that and you get to be mocked.

That’s just the game fella. I’m surviving this season of anti-Scouse mockery just fine, as will the Arsenal fans as well. When they win something important they can give it back in spades – that’s how it works.

Loosen up a little sport. The day I let stuff like this bother me is the day I’ve got nothing more important to worry about in my life. James, Liverpool

…JN misses the point for me. I’m neutral, and I want Man City to win every title from here on in. Although I would not care if it was another team, just so long as the EPL is exposed as being no different from the others – unique or best; my eye. Finlay x

Time for a positive re-think on Arsenal?

A few years back a man was interviewed following a plane crash at an airshow. He was an aviation enthusiast and admitted he had often wondered what a crash would look like. But now that he had just witnessed one he regretted his earlier interest. I’m having the same feeling about Arsenal after yesterday, finding it difficult to know why I wanted them to fail. I’m also beginning to remind myself again that the 117 charges do matter, that losing to City is very real. They’re not a phantom competitor that fans of other clubs should accept as a non-serious fallback to their one winning (yes, LFC). If they win, it’s worse for everyone. Yours in penitence, Bock

The financial doping shades of grey

I see the whining Arsenal brigade are out in force again about the City charges (as they couldn’t complain about the game itself – Gabriel should have got a red, obviously).

You want to talk about unfairness vs City & their undoubtedly (‘allegedly’) doping/115 charges, but no mention of PSR. The rule where even ambitious clubs have to keep selling to clubs like Arsenal every year in a doom loop of success-sell-decline due to revenue built up 20-30 years ago even when they have less debt than their ‘big 6’ (5?) rivals.

You don’t hate unfair financial practices, you just hate it when it impacts you negatively. It’s why so many, albeit it not all Everton, Villa, Newcastle & other fans would actually much rather (alleged) FFP breaking City soullessly walk their way to victory Terminator style, than give anything to the Red Cartel who are most dedicated to PSR. Still, rather Arsenal than Liverpool. Tarqs, NUFC, Walthamstow

P.S I’m sure Arsenal fans will be outraged when Rogers, Tonali, Livramento, Branthwaite et al are all sold this summer as clubs are not allowed to offer them contracts that they can clearly afford, to ensure said clubs are PSR compliant. Right….?

Two big Arsenal questions

Two themes to chat about on The Arsenal front.

I first started thinking about how it is for Atletico Madrid, Arsenal’s semi final opponents with the second leg in London, they clearly play third fiddle to the two behemoth clubs , they also spend a lot on transfers and wages and while Arsenal have played a similar third fiddle over the decades since Terry Neil’s era with Liverpool and United the behemoths then City taking over that role.

Although Diego Simeone lost the Spanish cup final over the weekend he has won a good amount of trophies and in that mould I cannot see any reason why Arteta can’t do that for Arsenal over the next five seasons. Having said that I´d reckon most fans would expect this season’s European Champions to come from the other semi final clash.

I was then considering the old chestnut of how many Arsenal players would Guardiola currently want in his City starting eleven ? Well I´d start by saying Cherki, Semenyo and Haaland, Baldy Bernard, Rodri and Nico O´Reilly would all get in.

I’d say it is closer between keepers yet I’d go with Gianluigi Donnarumma by a nose then Guehi over Saliba.

Just then, Timber who like Saka over Doku was unavailable, Magalhaes and Rice, so at the end of the season, whatever the outcome, City have way more better players. Peter (it´ll take a brave man to bet against Emery in that UEFA cup competition) Andalucia

On Cole Palmer and his hair

I can’t answer the rest of your questions, but regarding Cole Palmer’s hairstyle, I am convinced that Stevie Wonder wouldn’t approve of that catastrophic mess, as he had an operation a few years ago which means he is able to see outlines. Zebediah Patterson

Lighten up, Spurs fans

As someone with no loyalties in the North London banter-max I am a bit disappointed with Spurs fans.

Most of us have known about St Totteringham’s day for ages;- it’s the date that it becomes mathematically impossible for Spurs to finish above Arsenal, and perhaps inevitably it had it’s earliest ever date this year. Until next season, maybe, when it is looking likely it will be St Tott’s on the first day.

Anyway, Spurs fans – the idea of St Tott’s is quite clever, and it’s funny (to everyone else). So why haven’t you distracted yourself from your own pain by starting to get ready to celebrate St Bottlingham’s Day – the day that it no longer becomes mathematically possible for Arsenal to win the title?

If you get to it you could get the bunting shipped from China in time.

Just a thought.

(For the record I don’t think this is anything like over – City and Arsenal can both easily drop more points – anything can happen)

Enjoy the second tier if you end up there – as a City fan I remember watching us lose to Port Vale in the freezing cold on Boxing Day and thinking that was surely as bad as it could get. We got relegated to the third tier the following season.