I’ll start this blog on a slightly unorthodox note, with a few words of praise for Sean Dyche’s Everton.
With their relegation travails behind them and precious little to play for on Sunday, you could be forgiven for thinking the visitors would have one eye on the beach, and who could blame them?
It’s been a difficult season for them both on and off the pitch, and it may not be done yet with ownership issues still swirling. Despite that, they turned up at the Emirates ready to play and with every intention of taking points.
They defended superbly throughout, as one would expect of a Dyche team, and they were lively in attack too. Sure, they didn’t see that much of the ball but, when they did, they made every effort to get forward in numbers and stretch Arsenal; something they managed on a few notable occasions.
They performed as if those points meant everything to them, as every professional should.
Such a shame then, that the same could not be said for absolutely any of the sides to have faced Manchester City in the last two months. It has been a procession of cowardice, of submission, of pathetic resignation.
If any side had put in half as much effort as Everton on Sunday, perhaps City might not have cantered to yet another title in second gear.
If anything rankles about the way in which this season has panned out, it’s that nobody even tried to stop them. This relentless, money-bloated, nefarious, 115-charge grotesque of a football club – a side drunk on its own arrogance and cock-sure that everyone before them would fold. In fairness, they were absolutely correct.
The Gunners, meanwhile, have had to toil for almost every point. Bar a few matches in which our excellence was simply too much for our opponents, we have had to grind out wins, overcome relentless pressure and push ourselves to the limit again and again. That is how it should be.
We can all be hugely proud of the strides this team has made. It’s been a brilliant campaign throughout and deserved so much better than it got. To think a side as good as ours, which has knocked down records right and left, should come away with nothing its a bitter pill but, at the same time, there is a huge amount to appreciate.
This squad is fully bought into what it is being asked to do. There is a rare sense of togetherness, there is fight, there is flair, there is a humility and a dignity about the way they operate and, above all, there is a beautiful connection with us fans – something that was missing for so long.
So, bollocks to Manchester City. Bollocks to the sterility of their operation, to their arrogance and hubris. They have nothing of the quality that makes us great, that makes us a joy to watch and the envy of all others. A day of reckoning awaits City and their whole rotten operation. It can’t come soon enough.
As for Arsenal, it’s time for a restful, relaxing summer – god knows every one of them has earned it. A rare chance to recharge, refocus and turn attentions to doing it all again, and doing it just that little bit better, next year.
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