Morning.
It’s another one where I get up, make coffee, have a look around for the Arsenal news, and try and avoid the actual news, which is just too profoundly stupid and depressing for my liking these days. Even with a diminished social media footprint, it’s hard not to see the headlines.
I don’t think we’re supposed to be bombarded with that much information first thing in the morning. The evolution of humankind saw us get up with the dawn light, ease into the day, go about our morning business/ablutions, before at some point some lad would arrive with tales from the vicinity.
“Over yonder village, they say a wolf has eaten the sheep and perhaps a small dog”, he might say.
“Oh well,” past me would say. “That’s tough for them. I will now tend to my crops.”
I think it’s also fair to point out that I would have been dead of scurvy or something, because I’m not very good at crops or gardening, although I did plant a tree last year which is doing very well thank you. It’s got branches and shit, and it’s getting taller, which is always a good sign.
Anyway, the point is we wake up every day and turn to phones. Or, to give them their real title: Portable Dread Machines. There, in your very hand, is all the information in all the world, and we open them up and immediately see stories to ensure we start our day with a good dose of DOOOOOOM. It can’t be good for us.
“What did you have for breakfast?”
“Coffee. Eggs. And some toast slathered with existential dread.”
Anyway, I just needed to get that off my chest. I hope you’re all doing ok wherever you are today.
Arsenal can often be a distraction from that, but this season we’ve been dealing with our own Arseistential Dread. The Premier League campaign isn’t what we had hoped for, we didn’t do ourselves justice in the cups, but at least we have the excitement of the Champions League and the games against Real Madrid to come. It’s hard not to think back to 2006, the last time we played them.
When this draw was made, the conversations have noted our significant injury problems, and the quality that Real Madrid have. Kylian Mbappe, Rodrygo, Vinicius Jr, Jude Bellingham … what a challenge they’re going to provide our defenders over the course of two legs. No doubt about it.
Back in 2006 though, we had injury problems galore, particularly at the back. That ‘makeshift’ back four of Emmanuel Eboue, Kolo Toure, Philippe Senderos, and Mathieu Flamini was hardly one to instill a great deal of confidence ahead of two legs against a Real Madrid side containing, Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Raul, David Beckham, Guti, Roberto Carlos and lots more. And yet … football is the strangest of games (beyond some kind of slippery Twister involving members of the aristocracy who are all wearing rabbit masks, the weirdos).
180 minutes+ played. 0 goals conceded. Andrew Allen sent me a video of the Highbury game yesterday, the quality of the footage is poor, but holy crap, how this one ended 0-0 is anybody’s guess. Sometimes a 0-0 can be the dullest game possible, other times not so much. This is one of those times.
The key difference between then and now is that you could, to some extent at least, offset defensive worries with the quality of Thierry Henry up front. Those lads at the back dig in, be obstinate, ride your luck a little along the way, and then one of the best players in the world gives you a chance to make a breakthrough. Which he did in some style in the first leg. We don’t have that player for these games, although on paper we have a defensive platform which is far superior to the 2006 version.
I also think Real Madrid, if they are weaker somewhere, it’s at the back, although it’s not exactly a weakness per se. Barcelona lead La Liga having scored 71 goals which conceding 25; Real are second having scored 57 and conceding 26 – so they lag a little way behind their great rivals in terms of firepower, although they’re equal on points. Perhaps the most interesting La Liga stat is that Atletico Madrid, just a point behind those two, have conceded just 18 goals in the league this season, and without the forward line we’d ideally want, maybe it’s better (in as much as that word works in this context) for us to face Real Madrid.
I think it just means these ties are going to be intriguing in terms of approach and tactics. I’m sure Mikel Arteta will be asked about it at his press conference this afternoon as we start to look ahead to Chelsea on Sunday. He’s got plenty of time to think about the best way to make progress, but we do have other fish to try before these games come along.
As ever, we’ll have all the press conference stories on Arseblog News later, and a preview podcast for you on Patreon too. For now, have a good one.
