At one time, UTA Arad was the only Romanian football team to hold its own against Bucharest's footballing giants. Arsenal was the team that UTA Arad modelled their style on.
Arsenal fans should embrace the team's waterboard football phase and stop trying to say it's actually beautiful. It's not. Arteta's face looks like a closed coffin as he stands on the sideline. Something inside the coffin laughs. Something small, black, and satisfied.
Same people who enjoy today's garbage football will soon be calling for the introduction of recurring breaks and timeouts so that managers can call "plays" to bumrush the opposition.
๐บ๐ At the 2026 World Cup, FIFA will allow TV networks to cut to commercial breaks during the 'hydration breaks', reports @HenryBushnell/@TheAthleticFC.
There's no way that Guardiola actually enjoys football. 'If it's effective, fine.' Seriously? In his eyes, Bergkamp's goal against Newcastle would have been a system failure.
๐จ๐ฃ๏ธ Pep Guardiola on the rabona assist by Rayan Cherki: "I never saw Messi play and make a cross like he has done.... Messi is the best player to have played the game, and I never saw these kind of crosses."
"Crosses is fine, it's fine... It doesn't matter if it's right foot, left, part of your foot, the head, doesn't matter. If it's effective, fine."
"But I like simplicity because I learned from Messi he never made a mistake, and never made a mistake with the simple things. Never. Simple things he does perfectly... And after dribble past four, five players."
"And what I want from the players is the simple things to do it well, and after that if you do this rabona assist, players have special talent that mum and dad give to you, and he can do whatever he wants."
"But if it doesn't work, now it will be a problem. Now you'll be in trouble."
Our efficiency is suffocating, tedious and soul-crushing. We should take solace in this new reality. Arteta should embrace this style too and stop justifying himself to the media. Emirates has become a place where dreams are strangled. More goals from corners please. Bwahaha!
J. Archives: Arsรจne Wenger Edition
๐ Happy birthday to the former Nagoya Grampus manager, Arsรจne Wenger.
From the touchline in Nagoya to global football legend - this 90s fit is as iconic as his legacy.
Vintage. Timeless. Pure J.League history.
#JLEAGUE
It's no longer about Saka's Arsenal or Griezmann's Atletico. The player is merely a brushstroke in the grand, boring painting that the manager wishes to hang in the museum of his own ego. They want to control every drop of sweat that runs down a player's brow. Absolute tyrants!
@eurofootcom UEFA Champions League tactical warfare incoming. Arsenal vs Atletico Madrid in Group Bโa chess match between Arteta and Simeone. Defensive masterclass meets fluid attacking philosophy. 5/2 says this fixture rewrites European football dynamics. $ODDS/SOL #ChampionsLeague
0 - Arsenal haven't faced a shot on target in consecutive Premier League games for the first time since November in their last title winning season of 2003-04, with the second game in that run also coming against Fulham. Bouncers. #FULARS
Lamine Yamal is defying the gods of possession and pressing. Most managers would prefer to have eleven reliable players marching in formation to a 0-0 draw than a player like him, who might lose the ball nine times to produce the one thing that makes it all worthwhile.