Arsenal should stop ‘cryw*nking’ – even if they are to blame for ‘boring’ Premier League ‘garbage’

Arsenal fans bite back over the blame they are receiving for the levels of Premier League ‘garbage’ which have been ‘exposed’ this week.

But yeah, they should also stop ‘cryw*nking’ – not to kink shame or anything.

Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.

Asking the important questions

In footballing parlance “doing a Leeds” has long been the go to phrase for football clubs imploding and facing relegation/being relegated, and generally falling apart at the seams. See also: “Leeds, Leeds are falling apart, again”

If Spurs go down, will “Doing a Leeds” be replaced by “Doing a Spurs”?
Mat, Leeds

Arsenal lost 16-6 this week

I can’t believe Arsenal lost 5-2 to PSG and 3-0 to Real Madrid. They are disgracing the Premier League. After losing in Istanbul on Tuesday too. And, according to F365’s match report, Arteta’s idea to sub goalkeepers massively backfired when they lost 5-2 to Atletico too.

Seriously, this is draining. We have had four John Nicholson (“old football was great because it wasn’t namby-pampy tika taka! No, not like that Arsenal!”) columns in a row on how horrible Arsenal and Arteta are. Every single match report seems to reference Arsenal.

I get that people don’t like the team, and that is fine (even if I think a lot of the criticism is over the top, with that little child manager fuelling the narrative to deflect from ruining Brighton despite spending a fortune). Criticise the team for the performances – Wednesday was pretty poor after all. And, being at the top, we are there to be shot at.

But when we are getting blamed for all the PL teams doing poorly – despite Arsenal having the best record of any team in Europe this season – it gets kind of crazy.  Is it too much to ask for some good old-fashioned schadenfreude when our rivals get pummelled, without Arsenal somehow being blamed for that?
Jaimie Kaffash, AFC, North London

I was quite shocked, or rather not, to see the relative lack of damning articles singling out teams or managers after a stinker of a week for English clubs in the Champions League. Imagine the sheer quantity of vitriolic, sensationalist schadenfreude articles that we’d have to suffer if Arsenal had been absolutely spanked by Real, shipped 5 goals, or been beaten by a Turkish club.
Diaby

What Champions League game would you pick?

Next Tuesday in the UK, one of the TV broadcasters has to choose which single game to show from the following: Arsenal vs Leverkusen (1–1), Chelsea vs PSG (2–5), or City vs Real (0–3).

Given the state of play, the Arsenal game is by far the most finely balanced, but the Chelsea or City matches could turn into games of the century if either team manages an unlikely comeback, they are also playing much more high profile teams.

As fans (with the right access) we can flick between all three, but if you were the broadcaster who had to choose which match to schedule several days in advance, which one would you pick?
Paul K, London 

The illusion of Premier League superiority has been shattered

For months I’ve been hearing (mostly from Arsenal fans) how there are no bad teams in the EPL, it’s so competitive, that anyone can beat anyone, and when you point out that in fact it’s not that the all the teams in the league as a whole have gotten better, it’s that the top teams have all regressed in quality, you kept getting hit over the head with how well English teams had done in the early rounds of the CL this season as supposed evidence you were mistaken.

Well I think the outcome of the CL ties this week completely put to bed the notion that the EPL stands alone as a benchmark for footballing quality in 2026. Rather it has thrown into sharp relief the undeniable mediocrity of even the supposed “big teams” in the premier league this season:

City and Spurs were both completely pissed on by the Madrid teams. Whatever about Spurs, no way does this happen to the City team of 2-3 years ago.

Galatasaray ease to a comfortable victory over a toothless Liverpool, so no change from what they have been all season.

Arsenal were bossed by 6th in the Bundesliga Leverkusen and have to resort to diving for a penalty to rescue a draw late on- (sad to see Madueke buy in so wholeheartedly to Arteta’s “cheat to win” philosophy)

Chelsea got thoroughly pumped by PSG

Only Newcastle looked anyway decent, but they could still only manage a draw and you know they ain’t knocking out Barca next week.

Quality wise the 2026 English premier league has been fully exposed as complete garbage, and unfortunately a boring, workmanlike Arsenal side are reaping the benefit.
Robert Vard

Physicality over technique? Maybe we’ve got it wrong…

After the elongated group stage of the Champions League, it would not have been surprising if expensive glasses of carefully aged vintages were raised all across Premier League exec offices. The Super League is real – and it’s the Premier League. And with our financial dominance and our “new” style of football, the type of football that would make Charles Hughes and other POMO enthusiasts purr, the rest of Europe would be cowering in our wake as a new era of English domination was being readied. Even Spurs, with their two seasons of domestic troubles, have flourished on the continent.

Fast forward a few weeks, to the first legs of the round of 16, and suddenly there’s reasons to pause for thought. No English team won their first leg. But before we jump to huge conclusions, it would not be a huge surprise if both Liverpool and Arsenal still progressed. Newcastle have a difficult, but not insurmountable, task at the Camp Nou. For Chelsea, Spurs and Man City – legendary nights are required.

How did we get here?

Our superior physicality, our set piece expertise, our blistering pace…this was not meant to happen. Arsenal with their ‘easy’ route to the semi final were meant to blow a weakened Leverkusen team away.

“How would they cope with the corners?”

Well for a start, they did not let them have one for the entirety of the first half – and in the end Arsenal had two corners in total (and the one from the right was after Saka had gone off). The sight of Aleix Garcia and Ezequiel Palacios keeping the ball between them in the centre of midfield whilst Arsenal toiled to get the ball back, must have had Arteta scratching his perfectly coiffured hair. In the end, a proactive and early sub in Madueke, was able to turn the game on its head and leave Arsenal the favourites to go through.

No such luck for City – who looked to blow Real Madrid away with three wingers supporting Haaland in a quasi 442, ready to exploit Madrid’s transitional weaknesses. The sight of Pep Guardiola – *the* Pep Guardiola – intentionally setting his midfield up to be outnumbered by another team is a sign of how far we’ve come. This wasn’t a team set up to control the game, or to win by “death by a thousand passes,” this was a team that turned up expecting to flaunt their superior pace and physicality. In the end, they were outpassed and outfought.

Does it matter though?

The tedious debates that seem to have re-reared their ugly heads about the “right” way to play football – ignore one thing. The only right way to play football is the way that secures the result. Is this where the English teams went wrong? So blinded by a prism of Prem importance – where the most physical teams seem to be having the most success – there was a hubristic expectation this would easily translate onto a European knockout stage. The majority of the English teams, perhaps Liverpool and Spurs excluded, resembled a Sven England team setting up with their 442 of superstars wondering why they weren’t able to get the ball back from a technically superior international team. Although technically superior probably isn’t right – there won’t many technicians better than Lampard, Gerrard, Scholes, Carrick et al. So teams that prioritised keeping the ball then. And that’s what seems to have caught the English teams out this week.

Is this terminal for the English game? A lesson in the “right” ways to play the game? Probably not.

Michael Cox points out, in his fabulous book “The Mixer,” the 92/93 ‘title decider’ (excluding Villa for a moment) between Norwich and Manchester United at Carrow Road – a match up between the possession football of Norwich and the swift transitional football that United played. United played with speedy attackers and were 3-0 up within 21 minutes and an era of counter attacking was born. The football ‘purists’ will be hoping this week might signify the start of the cycle shifting back towards technical football.

The skeptics will point out the physical approach still has levels to be untapped. The marginal gains can still find marginal gains. The attrition continues.

But for those of us who miss the more quaint days when financial and physical dominance weren’t the only signifiers of success in Europe – we’ll be raising our own glasses of corner shop brought wine!
Jenade Sharma, London

Strong, weak or more competitive – should it matter to the winners?

Theres been an argument (mainly from all non Arsenal fans as they are top this year but last year it was the same for Liverpool tbf) about how the league is lower quality but more competitive..

I think its clearly both.

The Scottish Prem this year is being won (currently) by Hearts. Motherwell still have everyone to play and can also still win the league. No one has won the Scottish Prem league since Aberdeen in 1985 apart from Celtic or Rangers. This year it looks like someone else might win it.. but they might not..

However we cannot argue that the league this year has not become more competitive, it clearly has but thats only because the usual ‘big’ teams that win it are comparatively shit.. I dont think any Green or Blue fan would disagree overall.. So the quality is much lower but the competitiveness has increased.

I am pretty sure that this is identical in the English Prem.

But any team can beat anyone else.. so its over all a higher quality.. Nope, sorry…. Wolves beat Liverpool coz Liverpool are much worse this year than previous.

Manutd were so bad all the season they sacked another manager and got a middlesboro failure in (who won 4 games in a row) and now they are 3rd..

No on is saying its a strong manu team this year are they? but they are 3rd.. with 9 games to go.. but have been shit most of the season..

After this weeks Champions league results it seems that the English (fan) arrogance has risen to full epic proportions, where we havent wont 1 single game. Thats a madness really. Especially when we know Real and Barca have been basket cases and way off it all season, PSG have been poor apparently in the CL.

Its as low a quality prem league this year (at the top end) as I can remember for a good few seasons but that in turn makes it more competitive of course.

Still you have to be the tallest dwarf to win it so fair play to arsenal when they eventually do, they will be the best of course.

And they shouldnt care about fans of any other club (we all pull down the people at the top, its a very English trope but also a hugely fanatic thing to do) saying they are the worst winners in history etc etc hyberbole etc.. so what, winners are winners.

Djimi Traore has a CL WINNERS medal.. ya think he gives a toss whether he was the best centre back or not?

So stop ya crywanking arsenal fans. Internet people are frighteningly reactive arent they..! and bathe in the glory of winning, ‘we’ want you to lose to city just coz it would be the funniest of the outcomes, same reason most non spurs want to see spurs go down, it would be hilarious, thats all.

Much funnier than Forest or WHam going.

I hope Motherwell or Hearts win, I hope Arsenal collapse, I hope Spurs go down and I hope we somehow scrape into the top 5 at the expense of manutd, obviously.. It would be the funniest outcome for me.

No one else should give 2 tosses though!
Al – LFC – Realist? Let the mailbox decide.. (as they are the source of sane response and measured views) 

It’s everyone’s fault

Well that was rubbish wasn’t it?

I’ve seen the question of whether the standard of football at the top of the PL was (a)genuinely getting worse this season or whether (b) it was an improvement in the teams just below that (your Bournemouth’s) that was making this season more competitive on a points basis than usual. Based on evidence this week I think it’s pretty clearly option (a) and we are currently living through one of those weird interregnum periods like 2015-2018 when Leicester won it and Victor Moses played wing-back for Chelsea when they were champions.

Last time it happened it was because of the end of a few empires (Ferguson, Wenger, Chelsea to a degree) and it took 3 seasons for new big guns to emerge in the form of Pep’s Man City and Klopp at Liverpool so it’ll be interesting to see what comes next. However its more interesting to look at what’s going wrong in the league at the moment and to me there’s a few obvious things:

1.  The Algothirm

The ‘financial edge’ of resale value. Lots of teams have cottoned on to the fact that resale value is a thing and now the most expensive signings are players who aren’t ready yet (see the signings of Wirtz, Yoro, Woltemade, all of Chelsea etc) and conversely are probably undervaluing established players who are ready made (Donnaruma, Luis Diaz, Osimhen etc) I get the maths and I’m sure there’s an algorithm in there that says it makes sense financially, but what the algorithm doesn’t do is put players on the pitch who can perform at the top level this season. Big clubs aren’t finishing schools for talent, if they are then they aren’t going to be big clubs for long.

2. Nobody can head the ball anymore

In a lot of ways you could see the set-piece thing as a natural reaction to the possession style that everyone copied off Pep which reached its insane peak with Southampton getting mugged every game last season (and I genuinely think they were so over-the-top bad that its changed the game in England at the top level).

One of the key things in that revolution was the change in the type of defensive players that teams have brought in – namely replacing the classic massive strong centre half with quicker ball playing defenders who live on the half way line and the loss of the holding midfielder (who was often just a centre half who could trap the ball). This much focus on set pieces just wouldn’t have worked vs Steve Bould or Nemanja Vidic, but since their equivalents would now be playing in League One it does.

Added to that defenders now hold a generally higher line than before so physicality has been traded off for speed. Faster defenders make open play goals and goals on the break harder, which just makes the set-pieces all the more important.

Ironically when everyone goes to a possession game it leads to more set pieces. Life eh?

3. Officiating isn’t helping

On the surface it looks like there might be an effect of poor refereeing on playing styles. Referees (or VAR if you like) not being strong enough on set pieces has led to them being the easiest way to score goals. The officiating is so weak in the PL in these situations that teams can’t afford not to take advantage of it. Even Liverpool who have a coach who actively looks down on set pieces (right or wrong) have had to go to this just to not be beaten by it every week.

Added to this is the lack of protection for attacking players and the attacking play – not enough yellow cards being shown for obstructive fouls or pull-backs means that scoring from open play is SO much harder now than in previous years and you can’t afford not to join the set-piece bandwagon. Weirdly though, I’m not convinced this is entirely the ref’s fault – I suspect that if we move towards rigidly and completely applying the rules of the game (which VAR encourages) then we’ll see a more stunted and stop-start game. I wonder if in the past we relied more on the referees discretion to let the game flow than we realised.

So what’s the conclusion? Don’t know. I’m just on my lunch break so I don’t have time to fix everything but I’d be interested to hear opinions.
Matt

Matt Stead fan mail

Hello, the above ‘writer’ wrote an article and used the phrase: “what the shuddering Christ”.This brave little man, if living in a Muslim country, wouldn’t have the balls to use a similar phrase using the prophet Mohammed.

There are devout Christians in this country who would be appalled at this, equally as devout Muslims would be with a similar phrase yet this little matt person doesn’t give a toss about the feelings of Christians but probably subscribes to ‘stand up against Islamaphobia’ – major hypocrite.

Would appreciate hearing his excuse,

Thank you,
Jon Baxter

MC – There is no excuse. Although brave little Matt was writing about Spurs and that does something to a person.