Having had time to reflect onArsenal’s semi-final defeatat the hands of Paris Saint-Germain in Bigger Cup, Football Daily has arrived at the conclusion that there are a couple of ways to frame the exit of Mikel Arteta’s side. The first is to say that, despite being plagued by long-term knack to key personnel and endlessly persecuted by referees at home and abroad, they played extremely well for long periods across both legs and were perhaps unlucky to come up againsta mighty state-owned behemoth. A mighty state-owned behemoth that is backed by limitless financial resources and is able to field a goalkeeper who is in the form of his life, and who had his task made a little easier by the fact that Arsenal were forced to field a side with no recognised centre-forward in both matches. Yes, that sounds fair.
Of course you could also point out that despite being funded bya Trump-donorbillionaire, playing in a stadium named after a Gulf state with adubious human rights record’s national airline and wearing badges on their sleeves exhorting all who see them tovisit an African country run by a dictator, these comparatively plucky underdogs have somehow spent the thick end of £700m in the past four years to become a Tony Pulis-era Stoke City tribute act. A Tony Pulis-era Stoke City tribute act that has lost all four legs of two cup semi-finals they contested this season and come up so short in their tilt for the Premier League that there’s a very real chance they’ll end up coming third or fourth in what was widely predicted to be a two-horse race. Yes, that also sounds fair.
And while the reasons for Arsenal’s shortcomings this season might sit somewhere in between, the option to ignore all evidence and swerve in the face of all logic is also available, and is what Arteta seems to have done. In the buildup to the second leg in Paris, he could be heard highlighting the paltry number of points Liverpool required to win the Premier League this season, apparently without realising that Arne Slot’s side were only able to wrap up the title so early because their closest rivals kept throwing away leads and drawing games they should have won. After Wednesday night’s game, Arteta was at it again, sounding a mite delusional as he claimed PSG only wonbecause their goalkeeper played well. “I don’t think there’s been a better team in the competition from what I’ve seen,” he chirped in an interview with TNT Sports, talking about Arsenal. “But we are out. We deserved much more but this competition is about the boxes, the strikers most of the time and the goalkeeper and theirs was the best player in both games.”
While you wouldn’t need to waste money on an expensive barrister to make the case that Arsenal got exactly what they deserved over two legs against PSG, it is worth noting that they got a lot further in Bigger Cup than most people expected and might well have got even further if they’d managed to put away at least one of the three glorious chances they created in the opening seven minutes of the second leg. As things stand, however, they’re out and the only big Win of note they have for succour remains their inappropriately namedtraining-ground labrador. At the time of writing, rumours that she could soon be joined by a summer-signing canine companion named Next Season remain unconfirmed.
Join Scott Murray from 8pm BST for hot Bigger Vase minute-by-minute coverage of Bodø/Glimt 2-1 Tottenham (agg: 3-4), while Daniel Harris will be at the wheel for Manchester United 1-1 Athletic Club (agg: 4-1).
“I ended up in the Anfield boardroom after the match, then partied with the team. The DJ clocked that I was there, played Andy Williams’ House of Bamboo and it all went right off. Harvey Elliott and a few other players dragged me [over] and made me do it with them” – actor James Nelson-Joyce online-dancing with the Liverpool squadafter their title triumph.
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Football Weekly Extrapicks over the remnantsof Arsenal’s European dreams.
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