We’ll start out with a bit of perspective.

That was Arsenal’s first Champions League in 7 years. It was our first quarter-final in 14 years. Only two of our starting 11 players had played in the Champions League before this season. We just lost a game to a Bayern Munich that won the CL 3 years ago – hasn’t been out of the comp in living memory – and had 8 CL winners in the game-day squad.

Below is the record of Manchester City. The most monied club in the world. Best CEO, best manager, best coaches, best data team, best players, best facilities, best scouts, highest wage bill, top 2 transfer budget… and they have won it once since 2011.

They also went out against a Madrid side that I would say would finish 4th in the Premier League at best.

There is no shame in what happened last night. We conceded 3 stupid goals in transition to a side that is way more experienced than us. We didn’t have the game management or the stardust to make it count in a tough game.

Barcelona, Atleti, and City is fine company to be keeping on the exit ramp.

At the highest level, which is where we are, it’s a game of fine margins and sometimes you come up short.

We came up short.

The plan was a good one. We kept the ball for spells but didn’t press high. Then we worked off a trigger and went hard at Bayern. Arsenal created great chances but couldn’t finish.

The second half went the way of the Villa game. We lost sight of the plan we were supposed to be executing, then we switched off and didn’t have the magic needed to bring the game back to life.

It’s hard to really put your finger on what the exact cause of that second half was. For me, it was a blend of being emotionally and physically drained, combined with a lack of experience. As the game wore on, we shrank, and Bayern grew. I didn’t feel the sense of control we’ve had all season because I don’t think it was there. The players seemed like they’d given up, even if they did have a few late chances.

Two areas really need addressing this summer if we’re going to move up a level.

I think we lack true magic at times. We have to work hard for our goals. If we’re honest, the system is the star at all times. It works because we have workhorse players who are mentally tough and can follow instructions down to a T. We have a stunning crop of players, I am not denying that, but we don’t have A-listers that change a game in a flash. Liverpool have Salah, Trent and Jota. City has Silva, KDB, and Haaland. Spurs have Park. We overperform xPTS by the lowest margin in the top 5. The only team in the top 8 close to us is Newcastle who are underperforming. What does that tell you? The system we have gives you what you deserve. We lack the wúnderbar magic our rivals have.

In close games like the one from last night, you need a bit of special sauce (not Nando’s, I’m afraid), and Bayern had Sane over two legs. We don’t have a player that turns a shit performance into a win, like a Harry Kane. If we’re shit, we lose. Even the games we’ve lost this season, there are very few we’ve lost on xG.

Bukayo Saka is that guy. He’s 22 years old. The man has been incredible. But last night was too much for him. He looked like a kid playing in an age group higher than him. He didn’t win any duels, all his dribbles failed, he had no shots, no accurate crosses, and he didn’t create any chances. It was a dreadful performance from him. In the 94th minute we were gifted a late freekick, Bukayo rushed it to put Ben White through on goal. The following corner was our last hope, we are the best at corners in the world, so what did our starboy do? Hit the man at the front post like it was 2009.

Not good enough if we want to dine at the chefs’ table.

That kind of leads me to the point I’ve been making since the start of the season. If you don’t rotate, you don’t win things. We are now suffering that in April again. When it’s the third year in a row, you have to start asking questions of our brilliant manager.

I could maybe handle ‘the manager doesn’t trust Holding, Cedric and Smith Rowe’ but I can’t handle ‘the manager doesn’t trust Partey, Vieira, Zinchenko, Tomi, ESR, Reiss, and Eddie.’

Our season is collapsing with a fully fit squad to choose from. Who is that on?

Thomas Partey has been fit for a while, he gets next to no minutes. We know he’s top-class. Why didn’t Arteta take more chances on his earlier in his rehab? Now he’s useless.

Tomi has been fit since March 31st. He’s played 81 minutes (barring last night). Why?

We signed Reiss Nelson to a £100k a week deal. He’s contributed 429 minutes in CL and EPL. What was the point of making him the Saka backup?

Fabio Vieira was Arteta’s boy. Now, he’s not. Why?

Eddie and Smith Rowe are persona non grata.

The difference between this season and last season is this season, we didn’t break anyone… we just cooked them so they can’t give their all.

Until Arteta gets to grip with his squad management, we’re always going to be stuck in April, crying about losing to teams we’re better than.

It’s painful.

I’m not sure I have much of an upside today. My gut was we’d lose to Bayern and probably end our Premier League chase on Saturday away at Wolves. I think that’s the path it’s going to go. This season was always going to be difficult to navigate. We changed our system to give us more control, we upgraded our 6, 8, and 1, and we played our first CL season.

By any standard, this season has been a roaring success.

The job Arteta has done is a miracle. Those saying otherwise have lost their damn minds. Suggest something better or faster. I’m not sure you could. Arsenal opted to do things the hard way because we don’t have nation-state cash. That meant we hired a rookie manager, signed players who weren’t ready, and took the slow route back to the top.

Check out this chart from Opta. It’s the average age of starting 11s this season in the EPL dated March 26th.

We have the third youngest starting 11 in the Premier League and we are second right now. City and Liverpool sit 10th/11th spots. There is so much growth to be had at Arsenal. We are a long way off our peak.

Players bumping the avg age at Arsenal: Jorginho 32, Trossard 29, Partey 30, Raya 28

Players bumping avg age at Liverpool: Salah 31, Alisson 31, Thiago 33, Endo 31, Robertson 30,

Players bumping avg age at City: Walker 33, KDB 32, Ederson 30, Kovacic 29, Ake 29, Stone 29, Silva 29, Grealish 28, Akanji 28

What do you notice? Our mega stars are not phasing out any time soon. Those at City and Liverpool are.

Could it be better now? Maybe. But always remember… we are chasing perfection, and perfection just lost to Madrid in a penalty shootout and it took them a long time to make it in Europe.

The path we are on is the right one. Think there’s a better one? Ask United fans. Ask Chelsea fans. Ask Newcastle fans. Ask Spurs fans. Ask Liverpool fans when the correction comes post-Klopp and everyone realises that he left because he knew it was about the tank.

Arsenal is built well, our best players are 2-3 seasons from peak, and if we continue to make great decisions, we will reach the promised land.

The journey there is the fun part, you’ll realise that when we’re defending trophies, not chasing dreams.

Sign up to the Substack Newsletter. If you go for the paid model early because you like the site, you’ll get all the podcasts advert-free, the writing will be ad-free, and you’ll get a lovely email in your inbox. I will be migrating the website over the next couple of months. The comments section is super easy, the app is a huge bonus, and I don’t get lumped with loads of out-of-control fees. So, thank you to those who have signed up.

See you in the comments. Check out our podcast.

Champions League knockout games haven’t been good to us over the past 25 years, not have games against Bayern Munich. This one feels extra huge given the context of potentially blowing the league against a messy Aston Villa side.

The maths is simple:

Win and our season is well and truly back on.

Lose, and the ramifications could be devastating to our remaining 5 Premier League games.

Mikel Arteta isn’t just battling physical fatigue this Wednesday, he’s fighting emotional drainage. Every game in 2024 has felt critical in some way, but since the City game on March 31st, every outing has been a cup final. My view is the Bayern game, under the bright lights, on the big boy stage, absolutely wrecked us this past weekend. The consequence was an embarrassing loss at the business end of the season.

Now the boys have a new challenge – it’s the Iain Dowie bouncebackability test.

I bet you didn’t think Iain Dowie was going to be to the answer to the blog headline, did you?

Can young men pick themselves up from the mud and do something historic on the biggest stage in world football?

It’ll be tough.

My suspicion is Arteta will change the system to reduce the load on heavy legs. Bayern Munich absorbed our pressure in the home leg. I think Arsenal will reverse roles away from home and play their game. If it’s of any consequence, I was told the conversation amongst players was they felt they should have won against Bayern. Which is a positive.

Subscribe now

So what do we know?

Bayern’s two centre-backs are very slow, Alphonso Davies is suspended, and we have a defence equipped to limit Harry Kane. In fact, we have a defensive system that is highly adept at controlling any team in the world. Tired legs can bed in and catch slow defenders in transition.

We don’t need to win the game in normal time. We can take it into extra time and penalties like we did against Porto. The most blessed virtue in Champions League football is patience. Let Bayern do all the heavy lifting and wait for a chance to kill them.

The great part about this game is we know there will be chances. If Ben White scored that one vs one in the first leg, we’re talking a different game. This QF calls for the most extreme levels of composure we can find. We can’t be wasteful. The boys have to be savages.

This match could also go off the rails like the PSG and Atleti games. You just don’t know what can happen in games like these. No one, not even Dortmund fans, thought they’d progress by scoring 4 goals against a Simeone side, but here we are. Also worth diverting the conversation to state that their progression puts Spurs 5th place CL spot in jeopardy. If they want Champions League, they can’t afford to throw any games during the run-in.

One thing is for sure – the most dangerous teams are on our side of the bracket. The reward of a semi against Madrid or City feels cruel. But as a City fan informed me today… they do NOT like knock-out games against English teams.

We’ll worry about those sort of luxury problems if it matters. I’m so 50/50 on this Bayern game I can barely move past the feeling of numbness. Game feels like a free hit for me.

All we can do is sit back, drink a casual 7 beers to numb the nerves, and hope for the best.

Enjoy the evening wherever you are and make sure you tune in for the On The Whistle after, LIVE on Patreon.

P.S. Thanks to all the folk who signed up to my new newsletter, especially my legendary first boss, Steve T. He let me write Le Grove on the job because he’s a Gooner. Can’t ask for better than that. Big love xxx

Share LE GROVE

Fans giving Zinchenko abuse in the Aston Villa game are a disgrace. I can sort of understand folk leaving early when we’re 2-0 down, but abusing one of our own players after the season we’ve had? Outrageous behavior – brings back memories of those dark times when players hated playing at the Emirates.

Let’s not forget where we came from: hyping up Mustafi, watching Coquelin get turned inside out by Eden Hazard, Gallas sulking on the touchline, getting dominated by Watford, eight seasons without winning a top-tier game. Remember those days of trying to understand why Wenger only signed Petr Cech, or giving Ozil insane wages only for him to disappear in big away games? We had zero standards, zero hope, praying for miracles and eating out of dumpters.

Fast forward to 2024. We’re 2 points off the top of the Premier League, unbeaten all year until Villa. We’re in the Champions League quarters… and after one bad half, some fans target Zinchenko with boos? How is that us?

Even those who left early after seeing so many incredible late comebacks – what were they thinking?

We’ve been scraping by for a decade. Now that we’re dining with the best, we turn our noses up at players like Zinchenko? That’s wrong, and don’t think for a second the rest of the squad missed that.

Those claiming he shouldn’t have started forget that in the first half he did his job. He slipped into midfield, played great balls over the top. With sharper finishing or better offside trap management, he’d be a hero.

The game changed in the second half, and when we lose control as a team, it doesn’t suit him. But booing? Honestly, takes me back to the Theo Walcott years. How does that carry-on help anyone? These fans demanding absolute perfection are the worst.

Now that the dust has settled, it’s time for a dose of ‘Vintage Perspective’.

We’re chasing footballing perfection: a team with a decades worth of Champions League prestige, the world’s best manager, the biggest budgets, an outrageously talented squad. Arsenal’s attempting that with half the budget and a squad three years younger than theirs.

We’re two points behind, with 5 games left, and could even face them in the Champions League semi-finals!

Two points is nothing. It’s one of the many shitty VAR calls. It’s keeping the ball an inch under the bar. It’s a miscommunication at the back. It’s Arteta in the dugout. We are this close to the promised land because everyone in our squad has pushed us to this incredible level.

Will Arteta make changes to strengthen us? Of course. But don’t think we could have moved faster or this isn’t some sort of footballing miracle.

Arteta said leaders show up when things go badly – same for fans. Those calling players losers or whining about mentality are the first to panic online, reverting to opinions they’ve been wrong about before. “Arteta Out” was trending yesterday – imagine a worse idea! It just shows you the level of some people.

This week will be tough. Arteta’s system demands peak fitness and mental sharpness. That loss will have stung, on top of the emotional rollercoaster of the Bayern Munich tie. This is new for these players – elite football is brutal. Look at what happened to Newcastle after their early Champions League qualification, or what Conte’s ‘elite mentality’ did for Spurs after they beat us to the spot a few years back.

Arsenal was supposed to struggle this season. Young team, first taste of Champions League, three games a week from September, new keeper, left back, midfielder, striker…

What we’re doing is incredible. Anything we don’t achieve this season is a lesson learned, building that winning formula, making us stronger.

Now is not the time to cry on the internet. It’s time to get on the hopium, put on your big boy boots, and tell everyone Arsenal is back this Wednesday, and we’re going to a Champions League semi-final.

Ok, we feeling good now? Excellent. See you in the comments. Also, check out the future home of Le Grove and sign up to the Newsletter if you haven’t already. xxx

You can look at coefficients, analyse the colour of a gilet, get hyped about starting line-ups… but none of it matters when Arsenal face up against Don Unai Emery. His exit from the club cast a forever curse on the big occasions when we have to deal with him.

Sadly, there was no exception to that rule yesterday when his team walked away with a deserved three points after Arsenal put on the worst second-half performance of the Mikel Arteta era.

Our opening 45 was pretty much spot on, we cut through Villa with ease, releasing Trossard, Jesus and Kai. It felt like it was only a matter of time before we opened the scoring. The delicious hope was that if we scored first, Unai would give up and start thinking about Europa Conference.

We didn’t score, so instead, he focused on that sexy feeling you get when you go three points clear in the fight for top 4 against Spurs.

It’s hard to fathom an excuse.

Villa played on Thursday, we played on Tuesday.

Our players might have been shook by Liverpool, but Villa could have been shook by Spurs.

The big occasion was the same for both teams, fighting for positions in the league they don’t normally fight for.

The explanation was pretty simple: Villa fancied themselves and delivered.

My view is the team looked gassed in the second half. Rotation isn’t Mikel Arteta’s strong suit, but we’ve gotten away with it this season. The Villa game combined with the return of the Champions League might just have put the team over the edge. The emotion of that Bayern game rolled over into the Villa game and we were fried in the second half. Even Emery admitted he didn’t change much; it was more about Arsenal not showing up.

You can point to this being a mental toughness type of evening, but that’d be pretty harsh considering the season we’ve had and what we’ve delivered. This was a pivotal moment in the season and we didn’t have what was needed in the tank of Champions. But going down that path would point to our title challenge being over with 5 games to go.

It is not. If you are saying it is over, you have the mental toughness issues. So stop the crying and carry on reading.

It doesn’t matter how much your heart believes it’s over… mathematically, we’re in great shape with 5 games to go. Though the inevitability of City does tend to make it seem less likely, you cannot rule out anything. No one thought Palace would do that to Liverpool today. Sport carries no guarantees. We have to go one game at at a time and hope someone can lay a glove on them.

I don’t want to scapegoat anyone, but there were three things that stood out to me about that game, and I have to talk about them.

Rotation

I predicted we’d go strong in the Villa game – we did. But was it the right decision? Well, hindsight would say no. But one of the views this blog had 3 months ago was that our fully fit squad would be decisive in the home stretch. The problem? Instead of putting returning players back into the fold, we’ve benched them. Could Thomas Partey have given us something from the start today? Could Tomiyasu have taken some minutes for Ben White or Zinchenko? Would Eddie have been a better option than Gabriel Jesus?

We still put too many minutes on too few players – and the consequences look the same as last season.

Cooked players don’t win you league titles.

Gabriel Jesus

A fabulous player in an identity crisis and a confidence hell hole.

He’s playing with pain, we have to empathise with that. But for me, he’s not playing with freedom or purpose. His instinct in front of goal is just not there. He’s a giver, not a taker. He will slow down a transition moment to find the perfect pass versus go-it-alone for a chance of goalscoring glory. He is indecisive about who he wants to be on the pitch and it’s given us a glorious talent lost at sea.

4 Premier League goals in 1361 minutes is not good enough.

Zinchenko

I’m in a crisis with this man. I love his talent, his bravery, and his unique ability to invert. However, that performance yesterday epitomised all of the things we don’t like about him. He held onto the ball too long, he dithered defensively, some of his decisions were outright reckless… and he played the ball out for some injury fakery in a game where Aston Villa ignored one of their own players when he was writhing around in real agony.

Old Arsenal would do overly sporting things like that. Not the new team.

His culpability in both goals conceded today felt like the mistakes Aaron Ramsdale made against Southampton last season. I don’t know if Arteta will forgive them like he might have done in the past. This is a player who had made too many errors this season – and lacks availability to correct for them. We need a better idea there. It’ll probably be Jurrien Timber next season – but that doesn’t help us for the Bayern game on Wednesday.

Conclusion

It’s going to be very, very hard for the team to dust themselves down and win the next two games. But that’s what Champions do. They get over poor games and react right away.

Losing games is part of the process, particularly with young squads, and with young coaching staff. This week we find out where we are compared to one of the best teams in Europe. This weekend we find out whether we grew as a team this season when we go to a Wolves that could easily beat us if we play like we did in the second half.

Football is hard. Disappointment happens to every big team. The best of them find a way to stay in the fight.

Ok, that’s me done.

P.S. If you’re big into this website and want to feedback on the Substack I’m thinking of moving to, Check it out here and let me know what you think. Sign up to the email there as well.

Also, check out the latest podcast. x

Someone added me to a tweet about Unai Emery getting a good response from the Arsenal fans this afternoon. I have to be clear that any beef in this land is between me and Emery and it’s all one way. He should get a good response. I didn’t rate his tenure, but it’s not his fault he wasn’t fit for the job. His performance at Villa has been nothing short of miraculous because Villa is his level.

1. Ambitious club searching for Europe
2. Players that are looking for the next step
3. Lots of control over who he signs

Arsenal needed more. He wasn’t that. It’s fine. Any manager following Wenger was going to have a tough time.

So how is Arteta going to approach today? My gut says he’s going to go all in and put out the strongest team. If there are any missing players, my suspicion is they’ll be knocks, versus any sort of rotation.

We need to beat Villa, they are very dangerous if they get ahead, we have already been smacked by them once this season.

If there’s any rotation coming, I reckon it’ll be next weekend at Wolves away.

I’m currently watching Liverpool and the hangover from Europa is very clear. No one ever talks about the disadvantage Europa football has on teams in the run-in. If this is how they play against Palace after a home game, imagine what they’re going to be like away at Fulham next week? People think Klopp is going to throw the Atalanta game, but I can’t see him limping out of a trophy in his last season. He can already see the Netflix episode in his head. He’s dreaming re-runs of overturning a 3 goal deficit against Barcelona.

It’s a longshot… but that’s what the golden goodbye is all about!

The dream for Arsenal is to get an early lead and exit the game with players leaving the pitch on 60 minutes. Premier League Gods won’t let that happen, but there’s no reason for us to be too fearful. Villa has a weak squad, they’ve been opened up all season with through balls, they played a tough game on Thursday night, and Arsenal is in great form.

We also have Arteta in the dugout which is a big advantage.

City dealt with Luton with ease yesterday, we have to get into the gear they are now powering up against. Pep Guardiola and his boys were always the target, not Liverpool. They time their seasons to perfection and they are close to looking like perfection now.

So are Arsenal. Today is a good chance to have a no-drama day and take the Premier League title down to the last six games.

Also worth noting that Spurs were dreadful against Newcastle. Lucky for them they have a 15 day break to get things right, but let’s be honest, no one likes heading into holiday after a walloping like that.

I wrote all of this an hour ago: This section is my quick reaction to the teamsheet.

• Raya
• White
• Saliba
• Gabriel
• Zinchenko
• Rice
• Odegaard
• Havertz
• Saka
• Jesus
• Trossard

Trossard gets a run out which feels very much deserved after his performance against Bayern. He’s probably one of our best finishers, he will get chances today, this could work really well for us.

The rest of the team is as expected. No hard rotations. No shocks. Just a big starting 11 that needs to get a win!

P.S. JW1 in the comments suggested I get a Substack ready for Monday so you can have a play around with it. I had strong recommendations from some writers I respect. You get email, an app, and easy to read articles. Think it could be a nice upgrade.

ON THE WHISTLE will be on Patreon. Come join the fun. x

The Premier League weekend got off to a bang with Spurs losing 4-0 to Newcastle in horrendous fashion. Angeball is coming unstuck of late and this was another example of what happens when you start to get sussed in the Premier League. Not too many Arsenal fans complaining we should have signed Maddison over Havertz now, are there?

This does alter the maths a touch for the game tomorrow but I doubt Unai Emery has the squad to do much differently.

Villa is now outright 4th place having played the same amount of games as Spurs. A win against Arsenal, combined with Spurs death run of matches, could all but secure Villa a Champions League spot. A magnificent achievement for the man who made the gilet central to men’s fashion 5 years ago.

(more…)

EUROPA DA DAH DA DAHHHHH! (Or something like that)

What a night in Europe’s third-best competition (Champions League > Eurovision > Europa League).

So many bad things happened to teams we are in direct rivalry with. Let’s go through them.

(more…)