There are times when the best thing for a side is an uneventful win. Titles are won less in the big set-piece games than against mid-table sides in the easily forgotten circumstances of a Saturday afternoon. Arsenal weren’t brilliant against Sunderland, but they were good enough to win comfortably, and that increases their lead at the top of the table to nine points, adding a degree of extra pressure to Manchester City’s Sunday visit to Liverpool.
In a way, this was the platonic ideal of Mikel Arteta’s football. Not a huge amount happened but most of what did was in or around the Sunderland box. It was bitty, stop-start, built around set plays and devoid of much in the way of imagination or spontaneity. Coaches obsessed by pressing patterns probably loved it, but it will not live long in the wider collective memory. For a long time the game seemed in danger of being mutually respected out of existence, both teams watching, probing warily, even if in the end Arsenal’s probing proved far more dangerous.
Continue reading…There are times when the best thing for a side is an uneventful win. Titles are won less in the big set-piece games than against mid-table sides in the easily forgotten circumstances of a Saturday afternoon. Arsenal weren’t brilliant against Sunderland, but they were good enough to win comfortably, and that increases their lead at the top of the table to nine points, adding a degree of extra pressure to Manchester City’s Sunday visit to Liverpool.In a way, this was the platonic ideal of Mikel Arteta’s football. Not a huge amount happened but most of what did was in or around the Sunderland box. It was bitty, stop-start, built around set plays and devoid of much in the way of imagination or spontaneity. Coaches obsessed by pressing patterns probably loved it, but it will not live long in the wider collective memory. For a long time the game seemed in danger of being mutually respected out of existence, both teams watching, probing warily, even if in the end Arsenal’s probing proved far more dangerous. Continue reading…
