I thought comment and analysis of Arsenal’s draw at Manchester City on Sunday might have sobered up with the passing of time but it seems I was wrong.
If anything, it seems to found a whole new bottle of hooch, downed the lot and kept the party going well into the new week, such is the absurdity of it all.
Arsenal have suddenly found themselves cast as some sort of footballing evil to Manchester City’s pious do-gooders, the Voldemort to their Harry Potter – have you ever heard anything more patently ridiculous or more ironic?
Quite how it has happened is anybody’s guess but the ‘Dark Arts FC’ narrative has taken root and blossomed to the point where entire articles are being dedicated to supposed time-wasting, nefarious tactics and ill-discipline under Mikel Arteta.
The Premier League, it seems, is well and truly rattled.
It wasn’t so long ago, remember, that we were told to toughen up while being roundly mocked for our so-called ‘soft underbelly’. Teams like Bolton, Stoke and Sunderland made hacking us to pieces an art form, their brutalist approach hailed by pundits and media alike.
Imagine the irony then, of having to sit through the drone of complaints about the team Arsenal have become now, one unwilling to sit back and take a kicking, one prepared to mix it on both a tactical and physical level.
No one likes us, we don’t care.
Who among us ever thought it might come to this?
Thankfully, we have a few days away from the Premier League to turn our attentions elsewhere. This week, it is the Carabao Cup. Frankly, it’s a bit of an inconvenience of a competition but it shows no signs of being retired or withdrawn so field a side we must.
Tomorrow (Wednesday), we welcome Bolton Wanderers to the Emirates, a side that has fallen quite far from its halcyon days under Sam Allardyce in the Premier League. These days, they ply their trade in League One.
As such, they should present Arteta with an opportunity to rotate a few of his over-worked stars out, although clearly not as many as any of us would like.
Injuries across the squad mean we will have to field a few more first-team starters than anyone might like but that is the nature of things this season.
Still, it should give an opportunity for us to get a good look at the likes of Ethan Nwaneri and Miles Lewis Skelly – two Hale End products who have been champing at the bit so far this season. For all its flaws, a competition like the League Cup gives these young stars a chance to make their case.
It also offers a chance for the likes of Raheem Sterling, Jorginho and Jakob Kiwior to get some much-needed minutes under their belts. We have a heavy load to bear this season and we’re going to need every squad player we have available to take some strain.
If we’re serious about some silverware in this campaign, preserving the likes of Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice and William Saliba will be paramount. After all, we are just a few injuries away from being in a real crisis.
In his pre-match press conference the manager was unable to put a timeline on returns for Martin Odegaard, Mikel Merino or Oleksandr Zinchenko so it seems we will have to cope at least until the next international break in October. He will have to be smart until then.
In an ideal world, the occasion will be too much for Bolton, they will roll over early on and we can have the result beyond doubt by the hour mark. We’re good enough now for that to be true. When all is said and done, though, I think I’ll be happy as long as we make it through the match without any injuries and I suspect the manager might feel a little like that too.
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