Can anyone explain why every signing the Arsenal women's team makes has to be top secret and kept under wraps until the league season is ready to kick off? Most WSL teams have announced new signings except Arsenal. Holding back takes away from the joy we are supposed to feel...
Now that Arsenal fans are booing their own team and former players are lining up to criticise, let me offer the bigger picture, the one you hear across Europe.
Arsenal are not seen here as a team that has stalled. They are seen as a reference point. As the team many look at when trying to understand where elite football is heading.
The game has shifted, it is no longer enough to dominate the ball or to attack well. The top sides now compete in, and often decide matches through, the four phases that make teams excellent: organised attack, attacking transition, defensive transition and structured defence. At the highest level, those phases matter more than possession percentages or aesthetic debates.
This is where Arsenal stand out.
Under Mikel Arteta, Arsenal control space, time and another very important element, rhythm. They are aggressive without being chaotic, but can create chaos to find gaps, they are compact without being passive. Their pressing is prepared in detail, lose the ball and the reaction is immediate. The opponent is denied oxygen.
Across Europe, this is understood as modern dominance.
The key battleground today is transition. Not what you do with the ball, but what happens the instant you lose it. Defensive rhythm has overtaken offensive rhythm. Space is smaller and time is shorter. The teams that survive are the ones that arrive first, win duels, plus reset order before danger appears.
Arsenal do this as well as anyone.
In Europe, Arsenal are seen as a team that has absorbed Guardiola’s ideas and pushed them forward, they have strengthened them for a football world that now plays faster, presses harder, and it totally punishes hesitation.
At the very moment Arsenal are being questioned at home, they are being analysed as a model.
Progress is often uncomfortable and it rarely moves in straight lines. Arsenal don’t look lost. In my eyes they look early!
Huge happy 80th birthday to the legendary @DollyParton 🎉- we are marking it with a parody of her 2nd number one hit, written by the @BeeGees.
Our 🎶 version's called "Donald's Sewage Stream" - since he brought his sick drivel to #Europe#Davos#NATO & our #armedforces this week
What hard work and faith can do. I believed in the girls. Most importantly, they believed in themselves. Arsenal womens football team......best in Europe. Get used to that!
Today's game at the Emirates Stadium between Arsenal and Manchester City proves that such games can be managed without the referee sending off an Arsenal player. I hope Mr Michael Oliver was watching.
@Adam_Salter4@sportingnews It's amazing how you seem able to read the reeds 4 games into the season. Yes, results have not been great lately, but that happens to every football team. Changing a manager 4 games in will set the team back with little hope to salvage the season. All that is required is a spark
@ArsenalWomenSC Imagine if the women's team got to play ALL their home games at the Emirates Stadium. That has always been my hope and my dream. Sheer magic. But it will happen. The women's team have worked very hard for it and they truly deserve it.
@ArsenalWomenSC Getting the women's team to play home games at the Emirates stadium has contributed significantly to the explosion of interest and involvement. The Emitates ensures more fans are able to see their team play. The future is looking very bright.
@CharlotteG_foot#DeclanRice is only the 18th Arsenal player to captain England at an international game. Before him there were 9 men and 8 women. #Factsmatter.
@miedemastuff Our thoughts and prayers are with you at this difficult time with a fervent prayer for all the courage and fortitude to bear this irreparable loss. You are not alone. Stay strong.