By them, I’m sure you’re aware that I mean Arsenal fans. By the
time that King of the Kippax goes to press and you’re reading this, they’ll
probably still be talking about it.
Oh the injustice. New Year’s Day 2022 – the day when Arsenal
turned up for 45 minutes against City and gave us a really good first half -
but didn’t win and have cried about it ever since.
I’ll take you back to December as a whole. City, with a jam-packed
schedule, still had players missing due to injuries and Covid. But, unlike
other clubs and managers, did no complaining and just cracked on with it. Head
down, professional and, not only did they play each and every game, but they
also won the lot.
Admittedly, Brentford felt more like a battle than the previous
fixtures. In a weird way, it almost felt like a cup tie, but an early Phil
Foden goal was enough to give us all three points. But it definitely felt like
a scrap.
And then came Arsenal away.
There had been a feeling like that match would be the hardest one
of the festive fixtures. Arsenal, doing well under Pep’s protégé Mikel Arteta,
were flying relatively high in fifth place. The game was coming just three days
after that tricky tie at Brentford. Between the fixtures, Joao Cancelo had been
attacked by intruders at his home whilst he was trying to defend his family –
yet still was included as part of the travelling squad to the Emirates. Arteta,
however, would be missing due to Covid, so his assistant Albert Stuivenberg
took charge in the dugout.
I don’t know what gives Arsenal fans the guile, or the audacity,
to be so inexplicably outraged at not winning the match. How can anybody be that
entitled? The reaction since the game, or should I say overreaction, has
been nothing short of outrageous. As far as I’ve known my entire life following
football – the team that scores the most goals, wins the game. We’re back to
football basics here.
I did say to my boyfriend at one point during the second half – if
we go on and win the game from there, it’ll be absolute mayhem. And it was. But
you cannot just turn up for 45 minutes against one of the best teams in the
world and think you’re entitled to win the game. Life and football doesn’t work
like that. They looked the brighter team during the first half – I make no
bones about that. But a culmination of different events led to Arsenal losing
their heads, their discipline and their way.
Once Gabriel had seen red for his second bookable offence, we
dominated and the winner looked inevitable. Wave upon wave of attacks came over
and over again and, at one point looking at the clock, I started to think it
wasn’t going to happen.
Then, the breakthrough.
Deep into injury time, it was Rodri who grabbed the winner – and
subsequently let the City players in a frantic, euphoric celebration in front
of the home fans, like something straight out of the Emmanuel Adebayor
archives. Debris rained down on the jubilant huddle – everything from bottles
to toilet rolls, Arsenal fans made their feelings very aware. But the win was
secured. City’s persistence had kept their winning run going – and extended the
lead at the top of the Premier League table to 10 points.
Let’s be abundantly clear here. Arsenal had the chances to win the
game – they just couldn’t find the back of the net more than once. Wasteful
with their efforts, the Gunners lost all discipline once they went down to 10
men. The source of most of the outrage, the VAR decisions, were both correct in
their outcome. Stuart Attwell chose to trust VAR when it came to a first half
collision between the onrushing Ederson and Martin Odegaard – and when the VAR
replays show the incident slowed down, you notice two things. Odegaard has his
foot on Ederson’s and Ederson got the ball. So, correct decision.
The second one was between Granit Xhaka and Bernardo Silva.
Bursting into the box – Xhaka attempted to stop Silva by sticking his leg out,
and then, by pulling his shirt. The Portuguese midfielder eventually goes down
– and this time, referee Attwell consults the pitch side monitor to decide the
outcome. Once again, they are two key elements here. The leg from Xhaka and the
clear and obvious shirt pulling on Bernardo.
There can therefore be no complaints whatsoever from Arsenal fans.
It’s rare that City actually come out on the right end of VAR decisions.
Since it’s inclusion, we can be rightfully aggrieved of many injustices at the
hands of VAR – but this time, the correct decisions were made. So why all the
outrage? Why the condemnation? Why the holier-than-thou response and attitude
that made Arsenal fans so adamant that they should’ve won the game.
Take your chances. Keep your heads. Play to the whistle. This
isn’t rocket science. If they would’ve done that, it may have been a different
story. But it was City who rightfully got the win. An old football cliché talks
about a team’s ‘character’, but in this instance, we really did see a gritty,
ground out victory from Pep’s men. Call me crazy, but sometimes there’s a
greater satisfaction with a smash and grab win – especially with a last-minute
winner that’s celebrated in front of the home fans. This is elite level shithousing
as we call it – City kept going, didn’t give up, refused to take no for an
answer. We’re so used to watching majestic, breath-taking football from the
Blues. While that’s nothing but a delight to the eyes, you’d be lying if you
didn’t love a late winner that we all do delirious for.
I guess it should come as no surprise that City have somehow been
painted as the bad guys yet again. I spoke in KK282 about the many peddled
myths about the club and spent almost 5000 words dispelling each and every one.
But the backlash this time really is tedious. I won’t mention the name of the
comedian that went on a podcast and slagged us off with an entirely hypocrital
and racist rant, he’s had far too much coverage ever since (I’m sure others
will have done throughout this issue). But it’s the tip of the iceberg.
Of course, it’s all down to sour grapes. A very petulant bout of
feet stomping, dummy spitting and toys out of the pram. So imagine my
jubilation when Nottingham Forest beat Arsenal 1-0 in the third round of the FA
Cup. Petty perhaps, but further proof that sometimes people really should let
the football do the talking. I respond online to all of this usually with heavy
doses of sarcasm – GIFs, photographs and memes. Mostly facts too - because
nobody can deny them and people don’t like to hear the truth when confronted
with it. Sometimes, as painful and as restrained as you have to be, it’s often
best to try and be the better person and not get bogged down in tit for tat
Twitter scraps with rival fans. It can take a lot to be the better person, but
it’s worth it to not look like a complete and utter t**t. See the comedian
above for example.
Let’s stick to the positives. City are still in three competitions
– but the main thing is leading the race for the Premier League table ahead of
Chelsea by 10 points and Liverpool 11. It’s a formidable position to be in
half-way through the season – having played most of our tough games away from home
too. I went on Five Live recently with fans of both Chelsea and Liverpool and
they both all but conceded that the title race is over. I was much too humble
and pragmatic to admit that the sky blue and white ribbons would be staying on
the trophy for a consecutive season, but there was something exciting about
hearing that both of our closest rivals thought the best option for them was to
concentrate on other competitions. In a way, I think going out of the Carabao
Cup early this season may have done us a favour – less games than them both,
with more of an emphasis on the Premier League. It’s the one I always love to
win. I would love to see us do it for the fourth time in five seasons.
It’s a long way between now and May, but the key element is always
consistency and momentum. If we keep that up – Jack will be having a party
against his old club on the final game of the season.
Now you can file that under ‘things I’ve love to see.’
Emily Brobyn
@kippaxgirlemily
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