Here’s what’s inside:

🔥 Hottest of Takes — Johnny holds two things at once: enormous pride in what this team achieved, and real hunger for what comes next. Pete’s take cuts straight to the summer — the attack needs addressing, and he’s not being gentle about it

💔 The Champions League Final — Honest Debrief — Kai’s goal was a worldie. Mosquera was brave. The penalty decisions were shocking. Johnny goes through what he liked, what he didn’t, and is honest about the moments that cost us

🟥 The Referee — Pete and Johnny have a lot of feelings. The Noni penalty. The corner at the end of the first half. The yellow for Saka. Johnny chooses his words very carefully. Pete does not

💸 The Summer Window — Kruppi, Morgan Rogers, Alex Isak, and a Bellingham question that has Johnny very excited. Why Premier League-proven players are the only names Pete wants to hear this summer

😤 Everybody Hates Arsenal — Chelsea’s trophy post. Nottingham Forest. Jed Spence. Johnny and Pete on why rival clubs need to have a serious word with themselves

🚀 This Feels Like The Beginning — 2006 felt like the end of an era. This feels like the start of one. Declan Rice after the game said we’ll be back. Pete and Johnny believe him

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Felt the need to just bang out a few words before we get into the inquisition phase of the project, mostly because I am immensely proud of Arsenal. The team, the players, the manager, the backroom staff, the fans, everyone who made this season one of the most memorable on record.

The Champions League, once a team is in the semi-finals, is a roll of the dice. You don’t need me to tell you that, just listen to Luis Enrique before the game, stating with seriousness that 10 teams can win it.

Paris is run by a man of class. I love Enrique; he’s one of the true role models in the game, and he’s been through absolute hell in his personal life.

But the club? The most monied on the planet. They are underpinned by unlimited funds, a compliant league that gives them rest between games, and they are also blessed to be disgracefully overpowered compared to their local competitors. You have to add up the wage bills of the FIVE teams behind Paris to get close to their wages, which are higher than Man City’s. It’s a nation-state club, and its whole existence is geared towards winning one trophy, and they won it.

We took that team to penalties; they had three shots on target, and two of those were errant crosses, and the other was a penalty. You have to salute the defensive lockdown of Paris.

Arsenal were also refereed very differently in the second half. It was incredible. We got absolutely nothing. I will never stop thinking about the refs' mindset for not revisiting that Noni foul in the box. Doesn’t matter if the Mendes arm was held, it went over the player, and there was no attempt at the ball. Absolutely disgusting officiating.

We’re well beyond crucifying players for missed penalties. It is what it is. The only thing you ask for is that players at least make the keeper work and we didn’t twice. You’d hope that someone other than Big Gabi would be taking number five, but the fact he stepped up deserves all the credit in the world.

I’m not hammering anyone today.

If there is a clear vision for phase 6 of Arsenal, it’s that we need to find players with more about them in the final third. That’s something that we’ve needed in the league. But, let’s be clear, Kvara was rubbish bar winning a penalty. Dembélé was nowhere. Can’t remember Doué doing anything of note all game. These are three of the best attackers in the game. They didn’t make much of a difference.

Defensively, we were monstrous. No arguments. Every single member of the starting 11 did their job. Maximal concentration all game. No major errors. No real scares, bar a couple of mazy runs by Barcola when he came on. Arsenal were so good defensively, PSG kind of gave up after 80 minutes and the game rolled into a stalemate.

Where would I have liked to have seen more good times up top? We didn’t create much all game. Arsenal have been better against PSG in the past. But we were quite focused on this game being a grind fest. Saka wasn’t great, nor was Martin, and I think Trossard struggled. It felt like a game that Max would have been more appropriate as a sub as well.

Arteta is the best manager in Europe for subs of consequence and you felt he let a very hot game go a little too long before making a sub. Getting Timber on at 60 would have been better. He wouldn’t have lunged in like Mosquera did. Life could have been different. But, again, this is a guy who has had next to no minutes. Can you bring him on at 60 knowing he could have to play 50 minutes with extra time? But… let’s be clear, Mosquera was absolutely incredible bar the penalty give away. It was his best game, so I’m not down about that.

We will win the Champions League under Arteta. If we upgrade our attackers to be better passers and more aggressive about final output, we’ll win the comp. We’re an incredible team. Arteta is an incredible manager. The only silver lining I can wrap into this afternoon is that winning it all at once might lead to a flat new season… now we have something to keep us motivated.

Final thought goes to the Arsenal fans. They were incredible. The vibrancy of our fan base over the last week has really shown the world how big this club is. More of that next season.

I also want to thank all of you who read this website. The folk I fight with in the comments. The people who send nice messages. Those who send mean ones. Those who say hi when we’re in London. I love you all, and I’m so happy we’ve been on this mad journey together.

We’ll get some down time this summer, the club will spend some money, and we’ll have another crazy one next year knowing we’ve won at least one major trophy.

This is the start of a dynasty, let’s see how far the club can take it, I can’t wait. x

P.S. Dropped a little bonus OTW with Jacob. Sound isn’t great because he was out in London. But we did it anyway.

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The biggest game of the century is nearly upon us. After 20 long years, hanging out in the wilderness, we have arrived at the very top of the game, to play 90 glorious minutes against one of the best teams ever assembled.

“I think it’s the opportunity to own the moment because it’s the second time in our history that we are here.

“We have the opportunity tomorrow to write a new chapter in the history of this football club.

“In order to do that, we have to play with such clarity, a lot of courage and a relentless desire to win. We have those three aspects and I’m sure that we’re going to be close to winning.”

This is why we do it. The very pinnacle of world football, and it’s our players, and our manager, who have the chance to write a new history for The Arsenal.

The press conferences from Bukayo, Martin, and Mikel read calm, assured, and very confident in the job that needs to be done. They all say the Premier League hasn’t changed them, but you know damn well that the early win will have done wonders for the belief. No one wanted to head into the Paris game with another 2nd place on the books.

It also sounds like Mikel has run the videos back of our last three games and realised that we’ve actually been far better against Paris than the 2 losses and 1 win would suggest. 5+ shots on target in each of the games. Narrow margins. Loads of injuries to deal with in the semi-finals.

The game today is going to be very different. For the first time in an absolute age, we have the majority of our squad ready to go. Ben White is the only major absence we’re dealing with at the moment. The biggest piece of winning news we have is that, according to reports, Jurrien Timber is available. It’s the biggest drama we’ll have to deal with pre-game. My view is that this is f*ckery. But, the main caveat is that Jurrien is a warrior and will put his body on the line to be in the mixer. So who knows, it’s good news that he’s at least on the bench. My main concern here is Jurrien potentially representing the one galaxy brain opportunity of the evening… do you dare risk someone with no match fitness against Kvara? That feels like a step too far regardless of the talent on offer… but, I’m also a little bit scared that if it’s not him, it’ll be Martin Zubimendi in an unfavoured position, which also feels a little bit galaxy-brained… but so does putting a lanky right-sided centre back there… it’s honestly breaking my fragile brain right now.

The rest of the team kind of picks itself. Or does it?

Calafiori gives us a crazy dimension of attacking options at full back, but Hincapie is a lockdown beast against crazy fast attackers. Trossard feels like the form guy on the left, but Eze gives you edge-of-the-box magic. I don’t think there can be much doubt about starting Kai because he can control the ball and hold it up. He’s also a major threat from corners and we might need to be bullies in the box.

The view is that we’ll sit back and absorb the waves of attack, but I think we might surprise a few people and be more front-footed and aggressive.

The key is not to let them transition against you. No errors in the final third. No loose balls or bad crosses.

Paris are also one of the worst teams in the Champions League for turnovers in their own third. They can be rattled, so having our press at optimum levels is going to be essential, because there will be pounceable moments.

There’s also their keeper who I’m not quite sure about. He’s not a superstar by any stretch, and he let some howlers in against Bayern Munich. We have to test him early and we have to get at him mentally.

I’m extremely happy to be anywhere near a game like this after so long on the sidelines. We have to accept that these sorts of outings are very rare; the next time this comes along could be another 20 years, and I’ll be retired from the workplace with kids in their first jobs. You have to treasure these moments.

The other side of that is that the players have to realise that they are stepping into a moment that might only come once for them. Some players never get here. Do you want to play with fear and regret that? Or do you want to put it all on the line, play with freedom, and create a history that can never be taken from you?

I’ll be proud of the team, whatever happens. This game will involve bouts of suffering. There will be near misses, moments of magic, maybe a horrible error… but it will be a day spent in the margins, we just have to hope we can dominate those margins, and finish out the day with a win for the ages.

This is special. We’ve come a long way together. Not many of us dreamed there would be days like this again. But here we are, holding hands one last time on this epic journey.

Good luck… time to drink 5 pints and start believing. See you on the other side and in the comments. COME ON ARSENAL x

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Here’s what’s inside:

🌳 The Timber Question — Jacob made his call in therapy. Does Pete agree?

🔒 Locking Down Paris — how do you stop the fastest transition team in Europe?

🧤 A Test of Keepers — Raya vs Matvéi Safónov. The gloves that could decide it all

⚙️ Myles or Zubimendi? — the most important selection call of the season

🔮 Predictions — the lads go on record. One last time

Members only — thank you for being part of the AOP family. On The Whistle drops Sunday. God speed. 🔴

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Here’s what’s inside:

🔥 Hottest of Takes — Jacob goes full conviction on the team sheet. Pete’s take is about a game plan that will shock everyone expecting Arsenal to sit deep

📊 Are We Sleeping On Noni? — gradient data that will make you reconsider. Where Madüeke ranks in the Champions League for on-ball attacking is genuinely surprising

💸 The Summer Window Opens Early — Rogers, Alvarez, Kruppi, Barcola, Jesus, Martinelli, Ethan to Chelsea. Pete and Jacob go through every name with data

🤔 Alvarez vs Kruppi — Pete puts Jacob on the spot. Proven Premier League winner or elite 19-year-old with frightening shooting numbers? Jacob makes his call

😬 Ethan Nwaneri — the Marseille loan has quietly told Arteta everything he needed to know. Jacob thinks it’s over

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Love it when a new turn of phrase catches on.

‘Lock in’

I’m just saying it all the time. This is better than when the word ‘lit’ hit the streets. This sort of language is crack cocaine for men in their 40s who work in offices with younger people.

‘Yo team. Lock in’

I can say it? Why? It just lands so well. No one thinks I’m cringe. They think I’m connected to the cool things like Parisian workwear and matcha raves.

‘Bro, you play Fortnite too and you use the word bro to greet people?’

Yeah. I’m locked in on this Champions League final. I’m deeply satisfied with where this season has landed already. Two Cup finals and a Premier League win. Whatever way the weekend goes, this season has been a roaring success.

I’m also a big fan of Arsenal being massively underestimated. Most of the Premier League crowd doesn’t want to see us crowned into immortality, but I suspect a lot of Europeans are keen to see us put in a performance and wrestle the Champions League from a team that just machine guns money at their squad with the sole purpose of doing well in one big game a year.

Before we get into thoughts on the MEGA game, it’s worth updating on transfers, because it would seem that Newcastle has already made its first big sale of the summer… Anothony Gordon looks like he’s heading to Barcelona for 80m euros. Quite something. The most Scottish-looking Englishman in the world will be slathering on the SPF 95 and heading to Catalunya to get a McTominay glow-up in one of the most beautiful capitals on the planet.

The move still baffles me a little bit… his power, pace, and ball carrying in La Liga is going to make him look a man amongst weak, malnourished soy boys. Good for him, but secretly, I am quite pleased we’re not bringing him to the carpet, I’d hope we could do a little better… though I do think we naturally underrate him because he looks like the kid who asks to borrow a pound when you’re outside a Tesco Express in Southwark.

Transfer exits are also talk of the town at the moment. The word from Arsenal insider Hand Of Arsenal is that the club is going to make sure they’re getting good fees for our players. Love the stance, but £20m for Gabriel Jesus, a man with paper hamstrings, and no pace, on £250k a week… seems ambitious to me. John Cross has also indicated that Jesus is more interested in getting British Citizenship than heading back to London. This is the thing with older players and why it’s always risky to sign late 20s players… football careers are short, priorities change, and you have to start thinking about the big picture… which is 50 years NOT playing the beautiful game. Don’t blame him for wanting to secure his family in London. But, it is annoying that we’ll have another season of him clogging up a place that could go to someone more suited to our future.

Let’s talk about injuries. Arsenal have had lots of them over the last two years. This below chart shows just how many we’ve had over the past two season.

When you are trying to quantify the quality of coaching at Arsenal, it really is quite astonishing that Arsenal has suffered incredible amounts of downtime from big-name players and…

Finished 2nd, made a Champions League semi-final, made a League Cup final, won a Premier League, and about to play a Champions League final.

Spurs top the list… 17th twice.

Chelsea 3rd in the list… out of the Champions League and Europe.

Newcastle 4th in the league… out of the Champions League and Europe.

Celebrating how well your car survived a car crash you helped cause might not be the total flex I’m painting it as… but the deeper story here is one of marginal gains. If you’re telling the world that creating AI music was a win for the squad, maybe you should ask why so many injuries occur every April and… fix it.

If Arsenal keep the key players they lost to injury this year… fit. They will hit 90 points next season and win the league. The biggest maximal gain we can achieve next season is to dial back the intensity of how we train our players. Fitter players, more points, less fine margin games. It’s a simple win.

Let’s talk about Myles Lewis Skelly. Simply put, he has become a revelation since moving into midfield.

Look at those numbers. Astonishing. No mistakes. Great passing. A boldness with how he operates that is putting Zubimendi in the shadows. When the Champions League selections come in… would you be shocked to see Myles getting the nod in midfield? No, you wouldn’t. What does that mean for the summer of midfield movers and shakers? Don’t you dare ask me before a big Champions League game.

This graphic from Opta is quite telling.

Arsenal players have been clocking insane minutes all season because the Premier League is so high-quality. PSG, meanwhile, uses Ligue 1 as a training facility so they can be fresh for big games. Never forget, they moved a top-of-the-table clash against RC Lens, against the wishes of Lens, so they could be fresh for Liverpool. Just crazy. Especially while we’re out here celebrating a 6-day break between games like it’s a preseason.

The absolute hottest news off the press is the training session Jurrien Timber took part in went well, he will be on the plane to Budapest, he is, apparently in contention.

I’ll roll with it… but I have doubts. It’s in the clubs interest to make sure people think there’s a chance one of the most unique right back profiles in the world could be available for the game… I’m just not sure how viable a start or even 20 mins is going to be after no game time since mid-March. He won’t be fit by a long shot, and if he starts, PSG will actively target his rustiness. Is it worth the risk? Even just the issue of him reinjuring himself is a worry. I’d still color the chances of him starting at a 3 out of 10. But who knows, the man is a warrior.

One of the keys to whatever happens in the final is the fact Luis Enrique and his team of analysts has no idea what Arteta is going to do. A full squad to choose from. That is going to make things tough for him. There are loads of configurations that’ll require different ways of looking at the game. This is a huge bonus. One Arteta has rarely had the luxury of. So let’s see where it goes.

Ok, two things to share before I leave… one of my favorite pieces of content post Premier League win is this from Sky. Just great broadcasting.

Fair play to Gary Neville, the way he handled this, with Ian Wright, was exceptional. Everything just feels so different now we’re winners.

Now get on the latest podcast. There are some deals on memberships if you want to sign up ahead of a beastly summer of hardcore transfer news. I don’t have anyone to do the Champions League final podcast with. So, probably not getting to that until Sunday.

Have a GREAT day. x

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Here’s what’s inside:

🔥 Hottest of Takes — Matt’s is a love letter to the support cast of every Arsenal fan’s life: the partner…

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Shall we take a day off from the pressures of winning trophies and battling it out for the Champions League on Saturday?

Let’s do that… we should talk about transfers instead.

We’re getting information from all sides that Arsenal are very much entertaining the idea of rebooting the attack this summer. It’s clear, that we have some concerns with talent we purchasd, talent that we’ve had for a longtime, and really… availability.

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Pete and Matt. Premier League champions. Champions League finalists. Saturday in Budapest. This is the last before the whistle of the season and the boys are floating.

Here’s what’s inside:

🔥 Hottest of Takes — Matt’s is simple and beautiful: the season is already complete,…

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Ok, time to refocus, we have a Champions League final this Saturday and I’ve been drinking for days and I’m not sure if I vomited in the plant pot inside or outside but nice candles will keep the family guessing for days.

I wrote a big piece yesterday and accidentally put it behind a paywall, take a read if you didn’t.

How are you? Good. Now tuck your shirt in, get some coffee in the system, and let’s get stressed about Saturday until we make ourselves ill.

Let’s get back in the victim hole nice and early… it does appear that now the Northern media has realized how massive we are, the next move is to paint our fan base as upper-class and affluent. I swear I saw a broadsheet interview a woman with the surname Coutts-Money. That’s like working in tech and being called Jobs-Apple. So bad, I’m not sure AI would have offered it up.

There will be hangers on through this phase we’re about to enter. Celebs speaking out for their Arsenal faux fandom, their publicist recommended, losers you know from back home dusting off an Arsenal shirt they’ve never worn, and the general ‘I mostly support England’ crowd trying to align themselves with what is happening in the moment.

But regardless of the country you were born in, the hood you grew up in (Upminster, bitch), or how you came to be an Arsenal fan… if you’ve endured this banter era, you are part of the mandem.

One thing I’m actually really happy about is the under-35s who’ve spent the last 7 years purring over Santi Cazorla and Aaron Ramsey like United fans eulogize over the Class of 92. Like, I kinda get it, but really, you’re out here fighting online about the lost greatness of Abou Diaby and the underrated finishing of Theo Walcott? Damn, that is poverty… but now you can move on from that. You’ve witnessed greatness. It’s Eze and Bane masks from here on out. You’ve been freed from the shackles of mediocrity.

I still kind of love that Arsenal are this monster club for no reason grounded in anything outside the hope of greatness that was never achieved. We shouldn’t be as big as we are. We’re a prestigious club, we have great colors, our history has been marvelous… but why we ‘Dallas Cowboys’ big without the honors? Why did the world decide that following an Arsenal that was forever on the cusp of good was the thing? It’s crazy. But beautiful.

You see a guy in a bar with a United shirt, you know how that happened… you see a person in a bar with an Arsenal shirt, especially in a foreign country, it speaks to a resilience you can’t underrate. Truly, it is the weirdest and most beautiful phenomenon in sport. Man City have done everything needed to be a super club, yet you never see a shirt wandering New York, and they still put their tickets on general sale during a title run-in. The only way to get a spare ticket to Arsenal is to meet a dark internet hacker who can unlock encrypted phones and hack like Neo from The Matrix. There’s levels, my friends.

Let’s talk about Arsenal this week…

The team exits the country on Thursday to prepare for a BIG weekend. That means they’ll be in training on Tuesday and Arteta has a huge job to do to get everyone nice and focused for the biggest game in our recent history.

I don’t want to preview the final right now, but let’s just consider the moment.

Football has never been more monied.

The Champions League is currently extremely stacked. You have nation states, loads of mega rich English teams, and a group of Euro competitors that dominate the league because they take all the money.

Getting to the semi-finals is an achievement, after that, it’s a fine margins game. Don’t listen to anyone tell you anything else. The best players, the best managers, the biggest occasion… it’s all a roll of the dice. The job is to make sure you’re on the right side of those margins. Which is fucking hard against players like Dembele and Kvaratskhelia.

What I love about this PSG match-up is the general view is that we’re going to get walloped by the most delicious attacking setup in world football. Luis Enrique, one of the best managers and one of the greatest role models in the game, has PSG playing football from an era of yesteryear. It’s 2010s Barcelona. He can do that because PSG doesn’t have a league to contest, they are a £460m-a-year team built for the Champions League. Most of their stars have played under 1,700 minutes in Ligue 1, those minutes are against desperately underpowered French teams, in a league that is so uninteresting, it can barely get a TV deal.

PSG would not win the Premier League. Don’t hem and haw on this. It is a fact, they would break, they’d buckle, they would be totally bullied if they had to do 3 games a week and be serious in the most savage league in the world. It’s not a criticism, it’s just a truth you have to accept.

That is an advantage. Arsenal are street fighters who might not be the most attractive in the ring, but they can get it done under any circumstances. PSG are the rich kid who has been trained by an ex-Champion because they have insanely rich parents. They can only win because they have privileges Arsenal do not.

No one thinks we can win. That is a blessing. Because we can absolutely use our brute strength and ugly features to get this game under control.

Our defence is the best in the world.

Our fitness and power is unmatched.

We can grind harder than anyone.

PSG’s strength is how they break from their box when you f*ck up a final action. Best believe it’s better to sky a shot than create a turnover that moves the ball from their box to ours in 6 seconds.

Our strength is the control we have in the final third because taking risks isn’t really our thing.

Another strength we have is a full squad. It’s pretty easy to guess which team Enrique is going to choose. There aren’t many surprises.

Arsenal? Who knows.

Kai or Gyok?

Zubi at right back? No way. But Arteta did it and he’s done mad shit like this in the past. How about Mosquera? What about Timber on the internet saying he wanted to play? Hincapie also capable on either side.

Myles at the base of midfield? But he’s a baby. What about Zubi? They sometimes put Declan there.

Creators? Eze does 10. But so does Martin. What about Declan in that 8 position? Merino also did 30 and looked good. Surely not?

Saka on the right, sure. But the left? Could be Trossard, Eze, or Martinelli who was excellent against Palace.

The whole point of a deep squad was not so Arteta could break players and it’d be fine. The actual point was that we could put analysts on the back foot.

Now we have most of our players fit, so we can make Enrique guess. That is a huge, huge advantage.

The other major win we have in this game is that the main margin grabber last time was… Donnarumma. MoTM in both legs. Arsenal were by far the better team in both games, depleted. This time, we have the best keeper. They’re rolling with Matvey Safonov, who is not world class in my opinion. Good, but Donnarumma levels? No chance.

This game is going to be hard, but give me a team that actually doesn’t understand the concept of a deep block all day long over a peak Inter Milan. We will not be walkovers. If we can manage the fears, the doubts, and the feelings that we don’t belong… we can win.

I’m extremely toxic positive on this. Means nothing. But this opportunity is a once-in-5-years thing. Getting to finals is a freak. Pep G hardly did it in his whole career. We’re blessed to be here. Arsenal players need to know this could be the last time they’re ever there. Do some f*cking damage. Show up. Make them know you’re there.

Can’t wait. Not sure how I’m going to compute this all. I have no On The Whistle hosts this Saturday night, but willing to do it on Sunday. Do you want an On The Whistle? Let me know in the comments. x

P.S. Got a Champions League monthly special deal if you want premium content. Get Johnny’s final ratings of the season as part of that deal. x

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Hard to picture a more perfect way to end the Premier League season. A beautiful sunny day in South London, the Arsenal in their white shirts, a heavily rotated 11 doing what they needed to do, at 70%, to land a higher points total than Liverpool last season.

Just brilliant. 5 wins from 5 games to close out the season.

The journey has felt like a long one, because it has been. It didn’t start with Arteta, it’s been going since Arsène Wenger had to break down the Invincibles side in 2005 so the club could afford to move to a new stadium half a mile down the road.

We’ve had false dawns, plenty of them. 2006 Champions League final we lost after an early red card. The 2007-08 season with a fun young squad that collapsed after Eduardo broke his leg. 2011 when Eboué gave away the penalty. 2016 when Welbeck had us believing we’d take over Leicester.

The decline of Arsenal took an age — it was like a cruel degenerative disease that took a long while to really set in. The biggest voices didn’t want to believe the diagnosis, we had to be satisfied with top four mediocrity, because as the story went, you could only fight for trophies if you were the richest team in the world. Otherwise, give up, and accept your fate.

Having an ownership group that wasn’t a nation state stung, even if there was a principled backbone to the idea that our money would have to come from books that weren’t cooked. It also didn’t help that the people that owned Arsenal were mostly amazed at the resilience of English fans when it came to paying for a shite product.

But that all started to change when the king of Arsenal’s decline moved towards a terminal problem. We missed out on Champions League spots. The club rushed to give a man not connected to the needs of a modern team a lot of money, it went poorly, and then we started to spot the unthinkable… empty seats at one of the most prestigious clubs on the planet.

Change arrived, so did the money. But the first attempt at doing big club things happened with awful people. I won’t mention his name, but one of the worst football operators on the planet overspent on dross and agent fees. He brought in Unai Emery, didn’t give him the players he needed, or the faith required to overhaul a squad full of absolute bums who cared more about social media than doing bits on the pitch.

I was told that Edu was given the chance to lead the hunt for the Emery replacement, largely, to be the guy who took the fall if things went badly. The Invincible was sent to meet Arteta after he narrowly missed out after Wenger left. The meeting was mesmeric, a wonder, the best thing that ever happened. All the chat about the famous presentation that Emery produced was a counter to the truth that it was Arteta who blew everyone away the first time around with a deck. Edu was blown away by Arteta, so was everyone else at the club, and he landed the job.

Arteta won a trophy in his first 6 months. An FA Cup, with a set of cloggers, using four or five choreographed moves that managed to secure silverware. Auba was a king. Arteta and the club made the same mistake they made with Özil, and they gave an older player a massive contract, based on emotion… and it was a bad idea.

The next 18 months nearly crushed a fledgling Arsenal career. Arteta lost faith in senior players. Senior players went to war with Arteta. The training ground was a mess. Big name moves on ageing players like Willian went to shit. Wins were hard to come by. The bad run around December went on and on and on and on… the club should have sacked Arteta, the YouTubers reveling right now were baying for blood, the media were calling time on him, but the club… kept the faith.

I was told by someone at the club at the time that they’d never seen a manager have staff rally around a person like they had with Arteta. The young players loved him. The underlying numbers were good. The ideas were world-class. Pep G wasn’t lying when he said publicly that Arsenal should back his friend.

… then something clicked. Young players were seen as the solve. They were the most bought in. Was it better to play Premier League winners who didn’t give a fck… or invest in young players who only had one thing on their mind… becoming the best they could become.

Arteta went young. He binned the older players. He decided to build a phased project that would culminate after 5 years. Young players, growing up together, losing together, feeling pain… driving the club to the promised land by peaking at the right time.

We still experienced pain that fed into the ‘you shoulda hired a winner’ narrative. Conte took a very lucky Spurs side to 4th. Arsenal missed out narrowly. But it was a godsend, UCL was too early. The next season saw us add Zinchenko and Jesus. We shocked the league, started strong, played some of the best football you’ve ever seen, and went hard at Man City, finishing second, 84 points to their 85. The accusation was we were too emotional, not strong enough, we were bully-able.

Arteta answered that by signing Timber, Kai, Declan, and Raya. The most consequential window of Arteta’s reign? No doubt. We pushed City even harder. 89 points. The season went down to the last game of the season. We scored 91 goals. But we lacked a true number 9, we struggled with injuries, and we dropped points against teams we shouldn’t have.

The following year, we didn’t really invest in the squad, we passed on signing a striker, we didn’t spend enough money, and the squad was far too short knowing how Mikel beasts it. PGMOL killed us early in the season with some of the worst red cards you’ll ever see in your life. We lost big names to big injuries. We were rolling with Mikel Merino as our 9 for large chunks of the season. Arteta broke Kai in Dubai. It was horrible. But we made a semi final of the Champions League, we beat Madrid twice, it was still clear that we were a great side… and we finished second to a Liverpool who had insane amounts of luck.

Then this season happened. Arsenal hired Andrea Berta. The strategy was a very simple one. Volume of players over insane A-list quality. Overpay if you need to. Overindex on experience.

Arteta answered the man-to-man era by having a team that was extremely physical and great in the margins. We built the best set-piece team on the planet. Our defence decided it would become the best in the world. Arsenal’s players had developed a winning character that would carry them over the line in so many of the biggest moments.

… and the boys were brilliant.

They went up against the nastiest media environment I’ve ever seen. Insane amounts of hate thrown their way all season.

They battled harder than anyone in the highest quality Premier League of all time.

We downed a Man City side that spent £600m to catch us… then spent another £100m to roll the dice again in January.

We did all this whilst absorbing one of the worst injury runs in the Premier League. The numbers will come out in the wash, but don’t be shocked to see us top the league for key players missing this season. Our best number 9 didn’t break 1,000 minutes, our captain didn’t break 1,500 minutes, we lost the best right back in the league at the key part of the season, Saka only did 2,200 minutes after returning from losing his hamstring off the bone. You think Man City would have coped with that? No chance. You can only crow about depth when you win the Premier League like that, but damn, the back-ups were great.

If Arteta truly has learned his lesson when it comes to beasting players and he can keep more of his best players fit for longer next season… we’re breaking 90 points and no one is touching us next season.

Arsenal have been extraordinary this season. Arteta is the generational manager. He’s kept the players focused on the job all season, despite more interest in our affairs than we needed. His crazy AI videos, asking the players to celebrate wins before they’ve played, writing bad thoughts on paper to burn in the fire pit, hanging out next to a tree he’s planted… it worked. If you’re denying the importance, you’ve never worked in a team, you’ve never met players who lap that sort of thing up, or you’re burned out by too many trust exercises at your B2B SaaS weekenders at Center Parks. The fan demands can get irritating, but you, person who goes to the games, played a role. When The Emirates is on fire, it fires up the players, they love it, they feel it, that’s why you see so much arm waving.

I know it’s peak blah blah blah to quote Steve Jobs, but one of the most profound things he said was this:

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards… You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever — because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path.”

Mikel Arteta was a trolley-dash signing who joined Arsenal knowing it was very unlikely he would get a big move if Arsène didn’t get his arse handed to him by United in that 8-2 mauling. He joined in peak banter era. Underpowered Arsenal, bullied, battered, and beaten by better prepared teams. He saw dressing room smokers, away day shirkers, rich brats putting 52 on their shirts.

It hurt him.

But he used pain for good. All those things he saw in the banter era, he corrected in his management era. His journey under Arsène Wenger influenced him in profound ways. He said no to him when he was offered a job. He went to work under Pep Guardiola, got himself a Harvard education with the greatest, then plotted his move back to Arsenal. When the call came the second time, he turned down the chance to one day manage City.

An ex-captain, rebirthing the club that gave him the chance to shine on the biggest stage. Connect those dots. It’s just beautiful. We’re so lucky to have borne witness to the magnificence of the journey. But the journey hasn’t ended yet. We have PSG in the final of the Champions League. A club that has tried to hire Arteta inside the last 3 years. A club he played for. We won’t get to many of these. We can beat them. The story can go from greatness, to immortality. That is this week. What a dream. To be experiencing this is otherworldly. So treat it that way. Enjoy the feeling of hope until it is dashed. Let’s have a great week together. Dreaming of being at the peak of relevance in the greatest cup competition on the planet.

Final remark, I don’t want anyone to think I’m not extremely thankful to Arsene Wenger. His DNA is all over this league win. He was the manager who made Arsenal relevant to a global fan base. Arsenal are the club we are because of his impact. Without him, there is no Arteta. The away fans singing our legendary manager’s name was a stunning gesture that was fully deserved. Connect the dots, Arsene is always there.

I hope you had a beautiful day and reveled in the glory as hard as humanly possible. xxx

Ok, now sign up for a membership. 7 days free. You’ll get the Champions League final, and the premium reads I’ll be dropping. x

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PEDRO AND JOHNNY TALK ABOUT ALL THE HOT TOPICS FROM THE GAME!

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We’ll start off the blog today with the only negative I care to think about this week… player of the season. I’m not really one for awards muck. If you’ve ever worked in advertising and pitched the slide where you say, ‘not that we care about awards, but…’, you’ll understand where I’m coming from. It wasn’t even advertising that sullied my view of them; it was Thierry losing out to Nedvěd back in the day. A bigger criminal act than Sinners for an Oscar.

But, if we do want to talk about awards, in football, let’s just lay out my basic view.

• You need to have shown incredible consistency.

• That consistency needs to have mattered to the team.

• Your individual excellence should really have counted towards a trophy or at least a meaningful challenge (on something, anything).

I have nothing against Bruno Fernandes, he had a nice season, he bagged some goals and assists, and broke a record.

Good for you…

But player of the season?

Did the assists have a top scorer attached to them? No. United’s top scorer was Sesko in the league with 11.

Did United end the season with the most goals? No. They finished third despite spending £200m on elite attacking talent last summer.

Did United have a role in the title race? Again, no. They finished third, 14 points behind Arsenal.

They lost a manager at Christmas because fans were protesting at how bad the football was. Man United, as a team, did nothing of consequence in the league. They didn’t have any European competitions. They went out of the League Cup to Grimsby. They went out of the 3rd round of the FA Cup to Brighton. So literally 1 game a week all season and they still finished 3rd.

In all competitions, Man United had 19 wins.

Arsenal won 44 games in all comps.

Arsenal have 31 clean sheets.

If we’re being totally honest, Bruno Fernandes, at any stage of his career, would not have landed a starting position for the current Man City and Arsenal sides. He’s a player of yesteryear. Incredibly talented when everything is geared around him, but there’s a reason he only had Al Hilal as an option last summer.

"From the club's side, I felt a bit like, 'if you leave, it's not so bad for us.' It hurts me a bit. More than hurting, it makes me sad because I'm a player who has nothing to criticize. I'm always available, I always play, good or bad. I give my all. Then, you see things around you, players who don't value the club as much and don't defend the club as much… that makes you sad."

So how did we get here? A Premier League season that has been absolutely brutal on Arsenal. We have the best defensive record by a margin. This is the greatest Arsenal side of all time when it comes to win percentage. We have players at the peak of their powers doing things of absolute consequence. Arsenal have been top of the league for most of the season. Across 61 matches in all competitions, Arsenal have been behind for just 403 minutes.

… yet somehow, the FWA & Premier League pro panel couldn’t find a player that shone more than Bruno, who took United to 3rd in a season with no Europe or cup runs? The Premier League player of the year doesn’t belong to the team that won their first title in a generation? I mean, even if you’re desperate not to give it to an Arsenal player, how is Igor Thiago, playing for Brentford (17th in the league for wage spend), not the player of the season? 22 goals for Brentford, a team that could make Europe for the first time in their history.

It’s quite something.

Arsenal had Declan Rice, Big Gabi, David Raya, and William Saliba, all of whom were better individually than Fernandes. Not even a debate. ‘Whom’ in a Le Grove piece means shit is getting very serious.

All of this is just another sharp reminder that people hate Arsenal because we’re massive. They hate us because we have the most insane fan base, even without success. They hate us because we did it the hard way.

F*ck ‘em.

The only thing that matters is what you can control. I mean, I don’t control Arsenal winning the Premier League, but I do support a team that has controlled the things that really matter. The biggest prize in football… the Premier League.

That’s what we’re going to lift today.

Can you believe it?

It’s extraordinary. Arsenal. Premier League Champions. Banter Era to the very top.

No one can take that from the manager, the players, or us… the fans.

I hope you have a little bucket and ice, some fancy champagne, and a few glasses… not for other people, but so you can chain multiples without needing to repour.

This is YOUR day to relax. You don’t need to worry about Aston Villa celebrating like relapsed booze hounds and not giving a fuuuck about Man City. There’s no need to concern yourself with Glasner’s guilt. All that should fuss you today is player fitness. We just don’t need any damage to key players.

We’ve waited 22 years for this. Savour the feeling. It won’t last long. The journey is more fun than the destination. We have a whole summer enjoying what we’ve done, then it’s a new world, defending Champions, something we’ve never done in Premier League history. Those worries are for another time.

I’m hoping this is going to be a walk in the park. I’d love to see a heavily rotated side — but suspect we’ll see a strong side, with the focus on subs. I want to see Marli Salmon and Max Dowman get minutes. We need to see Merino get time, let’s start with Madueke… I want a win, but not at the expense of risk to key names we’ll need in 6 days’ time.

This post wasn’t supposed to be a long one… but before we go, I do want to say thank you again for subbing up, typing Le Grove into your address bar, dropping comments, and contributing to the spaces this idea occupies. I was on a precipice a couple of years ago… the posts had dropped to the lowest number ever, I was at a low ebb personally, and the podcast was getting too hard. Quit and call it a day. Or go all in and see what happens. I went all in, upped the focus on writing, professionalised the podcast, and a whole bunch of you stuck with it, and even more joined the party. So, thank you. It means the world to me that you can put your Arsenal attention on any number of world-class spaces, but you bring it here, and it makes me very happy. There is no greater creative privilege than having an audience that comes back. I don’t take it for granted. Thank you.

Enjoy today, you deserve it. x

P.S. Get a membership for a very good price on the link below. We’ll be going all summer long with HOT content about players we’re gonna sign.

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I feel like a dandelion floating on the wind, still high in the sky, but a little closer to the grass this evening.

My word, just reread that. What a terrible opener. Gonna leave it in there so you know AI doesn’t right this mess of a blog (write, I jest).

I’ve consumed about 300 hours’ worth of Arsenal content since we found out Arsenal were going to be crowned Champions this Sunday. The evil algorithms were as overwhelmed as the streets of London and Nairobi were with Arsenal fans… they took more strain than the back of the African guy carrying a goat with an Arsenal shirt on through the streets (power move of the season)… it was all Arsenal, I haven’t seen a LONDON IS BURNING post all week on Twitter.

The Arteta stuff has been superb. This is a man who genuinely sacrificed a part of himself to take Arsenal back to the top, actually showing something close to emotion in interviews about the moment, his family, and how he maintained the energy to deliver on his promise.

All very beautiful.

It’s been a weird week for me emotionally. I’ve felt flatlined at times. Like, I’m mourning the death of a dream I never thought would be realized. Is that weird? Feeling lost in the swirl. When you’re so laser-focused on the thing and then the thing lands, it’s hard to pivot the thinking. It’s still a bit of an unreality. I’m talking like I was on the pitch. But you get what I mean.

… then I realise, it’s not even over yet. We haven’t seen the Premier League trophy yet. We still have a historic Champions League final in Budapest. This moment could actually get better.

I’m lost in a good way. Just thinking about all the crazy moments we’ve all had together over the past 22 years. Near misses, false dawns, devastating collapses, embarrassments on and off the pitch, and that dreadful feeling of apathy, wondering why we didn’t strike the jackpot with an ownership group that cared.

This Premier League win will be written about as one of the greatest from an Arsenal perspective. The story arc of an ex-captain returning to save the club from itself is truly beautiful. He didn’t come back because the money was better or because he’d get an unlimited war chest… he came back because he loved the club and knew, deep down, it could be restored to greatness.

We live in a highly connected world. But deeper than that, it’s a world where every move is documented, recorded, and stored for future weaponization. The kids don’t dance in clubs now because they fear someone might be filming. The world conforms to an algorithm crafted by tasteless nerds. We read about the blandification of fashion and art. The kids fear they’ve all become boring conformist NPCs, shaped by mass social media slop. We all watch the same things, behave the same way, and everything can seem a little vanilla. So when a young rookie manager steps out of the seat next to Pep Guardiola to tell the world he’s taking Arsenal back to the top, you have to take notice of the cajones. The fearlessness to go on the press room dance floor and cut some Napoleon Dynamite dance moves and not fear the consequences because you know in years to come, those moves will be appreciated.

Arteta landed a big job at Arsenal. He didn’t have the credentials. But he arrived understanding the business, where the dead bodies were, he’d witnessed greatness under Pep, and he had an unshakeable belief he could return Arsenal to the top.

It was kind of crazy how long it took certain parts of the fan base to warm to him. Even this season, we’ve had mini bouts of Arteta OUT. But I’ve come to learn that this is part and parcel of the modern fandom. The Mourinho years of spending with no competition convinced people that there was always an easy fix to problems. Chelsea singlehandedly convinced the world that sacking fast was a sign of elite mentality. We were conditioned to believe that patience was for cowards. Process? Loser talk. Even though most of you reading this now understand that building anything successful in life rarely comes easy (or fast).

We also don’t want to experience pain when we watch sport because there’s too much of it in our personal lives. So when Arteta came with his 5-phased plan for dominance, people weren’t really having it.

Mad when you consider how many of the basic bitch Arsenal fan problems he fixed…

• Sign big players

• Sign a good goalkeeper who can pass and catch crosses

• Get players to press

• Sign players who revel in the dark arts

• Do fine margins things

• Be tactically flexible

• Don’t worry about arty aesthetics if it hinders winning

• Build from the back

• Be a manager who shows some passion from the dugout

• Be a manager who bangs the table for money

  • Be a manager who gets the money, then asks for more

• Be a manager who gets the fans onside

• Get us back into the top four

• Get us competing with the very best

• Be ruthless, even with the players we love

• Be a winner at all costs

• Make Arsenal hard to beat and scary to play

• Learn from your mistakes

• Be relentless about making Arsenal the best

But now we’re here, at the gates of the promised land, we should be proud of the journey. Arsenal did it properly. No shortcuts. We had to work harder than other clubs, with less money. We had to be better behaved in front of refs. We had to play by the rules. We had to pretend other clubs didn’t have massive unfair advantages over us.

… and isn’t that, oddly, one of the most satisfying parts about our success this season? We beat the best there ever was, trying his absolute hardest. He spent £600m trying to best us. He broke the emergency glass in January and spent another £100m and put another £31m on wages. £151m more in wages a year after January… 12 Bukayo Saka’s extra wiggle room in their squad… and we still beat him. There’s still time to beat the other nation-state club from France. A massively overpowered team by Premier League standards, but their secret sauce is the league is so bad over there, they don’t have to play their star players.

Don’t let anyone underplay the job that has been done at Arsenal. The class it has been delivered with. Arsenal are the best team in the world, and judging by the fans on the streets, we’re the biggest club in the world full stop. Who else shuts down the streets like Arsenal? No one in Birmingham or Manchester, that’s for sure. You can still buy general sale tickets for City’s farewell party for Pep Guardiola, a little sad, you have to say. Arsenal is struggling with resellers for a watch party and it’ll cost you about £100,000 to get a flight, hotel, and a ticket to Budapest… and people will pay it.

The job still isn’t done for the season and as much as I’d love to see Win the dog at full back with Gunnersaurus in the mixer from setpieces, the Palace game still means something. It’s the chance to max out the season with more points than Liverpool took last season. We can still use the game to explore starting 11s, help players recover form, and get minutes in the legs of those that haven’t had them.

Palace are in a Conference final in 3 days time, they won’t be putting any pressure on their first teamers. Arsenal will have 6 days until the Champions League final, I’d be hard pushed to imagine Arteta is going to go too crazy with his favored players, though we’ll have to see a chunk of them because they’re lifting the Premier League title that day.

Mikel Merino will be in the squad, which is fabulous news. He’s been an underrated star for Arsenal, and you never want to see someone lose out on a World Cup spot at 29 years old. He could be such an asset to bring on late in the game at PSG. Timber likely won’t make the squad, though the player is making rumblings that he wants to be ready for the final. I’m a touch torn here… love him, but would the club really put a 60% fit player up against one of the most brutal attackers in world football? I’m not so sure the answer is a simple on here.

Arsenal have earned the right to take it easy in this game. Freshness is a crucial factor heading into the final next week. I’ve banged the drum on that all season, some people even suggesting that I cut back on it… but as you know as a longtime reader, I rarely bark up a tree unless I know there’s a bird in it, and this story from Miguel Delaney hopefully gives you all you need to know there.

A growing problem at that point was not just psychological, though. It was physical. Arsenal’s players looked and felt exhausted.

That was partly because of the schedule, but also Arteta’s own training demands. The Basque’s response to any setback was to work even harder on the training ground. It was an ethic that could be construed as admirable in other circumstances, but not with finely tuned athletes. The effects could be seen in the injury crises endured every April.

So, Eberechi Eze, one of the newer players who was also among the most laid-back, went up to his boss. In so many words, he told Arteta, we can do this, but we need a bit of space.

The manager listened.

I started the season saying the biggest weakness of Arteta is how he manages the load of players; it nearly cost us again this season, but the story of Eze’s leadership above gives me hope.

We all see the laid-back guy who takes football in his stride, something I didn’t think I’d be writing about is how one man’s intervention might have saved our season from going off the rails. This intervention also only happens if you have experienced names in your squad. Are we getting that intervention if we signed Cherki? Probably not.

But we must salute Eze. It takes guts to deliver a message like that to a manager who is extremely focused and dogmatic in his beliefs. It’s one thing to say, trust us. It’s another to make sure that trust isn’t breached with a collapse in results. Eze took all that responsibility on his back, and it worked. Arsenal haven’t looked back since Bournemouth, and now we’re Premier League Champions. Sometimes, less is more… I dearly hope that lesson is taken into next season.

Also, Eze, god bless you. This is the funniest thing on the internet right now.

I just can’t imagine having to wake up every day knowing my biggest moment in life was becoming a point of ridicule for Arsenal fans and players. This home and away City fan, as dedicated to a club as a man can be, will be forever known as the guy who fueled an Arsenal title win. I’m not sure how I’d handle that. But god bless schadenfreude when it lands like that.

Also, god bless Kai Havertz winner, and Kroupi doing a number on City this week. Unai Emery’s Aston Villa butchered Freiburg and, as I predicted with clarity, his team went out on the piss after… Emery, looking ravaged by Jaeger shots, said this.

It makes me so happy he can’t hurt us this weekend. So, so happy.

Not as happy as I am to see Pep Guardiola leave Man City. The greatest there ever was is being replaced by a coach I’m not quite sure I’d class as an A-lister. It wouldn’t matter if it was, no one can match Pep Guardiola and there will be a dip there next season. Bernado is out, Rodri has been twerking for Madrid, and I suspect others might bang the table to leave now the king of managers has tapped out.

Arsenal winning the Premier League at this point really does feel quite meaningful. Chelsea are still in a messy rebuild with shaky foundations. Man City have rebuilt but they have a new coach. Liverpool and Slot do not look on solid ground. Newcastle are nowhere. United did a deal with Carrick, even though underlying numbers were worse than they were under Amorin. If we keep our best players, add some real quality, why can’t we have more season like this?

A question to ponder another day… I’ll be back before the Palace game. Enjoy the members before the whistle right now! x

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Here’s what’s inside:

🔥 Hottest of Takes — Matt makes the case, with actual facts, that Arsenal are the biggest football club in the world. Johnny’s is more personal. Pete reflects on 19 years of the blog and what it means to finally be here

🏟️ The Scenes — the videos, the crowds, the silence of everyone who wanted to take the shine off. Why nothing cut through and what happens when a club taps into something beyond football

🎨 Eze Saved Our Season — a bombshell behind-the-scenes story drops. Eze walked up to Arteta, told him the players needed space, and the manager listened. Pete takes his moment to say told you so

🪖 The Arteta Mega Deal — he’s getting a new contract. Pete and Johnny on what five more years means for the dynasty

🦺 Timber for Paris? — Johnny has made up his mind. Pete is slightly less certain. One of the biggest selection calls Arteta will ever make

🎙️ AOP Tattoo Update — that joke from eighteen months ago might be about to get very permanent

Members only — thank you for being part of the AOP family. Come on Arsenal. Paris awaits 🔴

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The content has just been too good.

Right now, we’re in the glory stage. Everything is a celebration. The players rolling around the stadium at 06:30 this morning after their night out at the club, celebrating with fans, was quite simply awesome.

I suspect, at some point this week, we’ll start cashing cheques from some of the folk who tried to ruin our season. The Man City bottle fan who: put his stunt on the front row of a major global game, took his act to the concourse, went on numerous podcasts, and carried a bottle to Everton away… wants to tell us it was just banter.

Sure, we’ll accept the banter, but you will live on in infamy as one of the legendary characters who will be forever known as the made-for-camera WWE super villain who… helped shift the title Arsenal’s way.

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It’s Johnny and Jacob!

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