Watching Arsenal at the minute gives me that nagging feeling you get when you know how this story goes. Tight game, not much in it, opposition doing alright, and then bang: a dead ball, a second phase, a bit of panic in the box and they’ve nicked it. That ability to get results over the line is starting to look like a habit, and habits win leagues.
Set pieces have become a proper difference-maker in modern football. Not in a trendy “nice to have” way either, but in the cold, boring way that turns draws into wins when open play isn’t flowing. Arsenal look like they’ve built a whole little industry around it. They’re not always blowing sides away, but they’re grafting out outcomes, and that’s exactly what champions do when the legs are heavy and the spotlight gets brighter.
Why it feels so familiar
The uncomfortable bit is how much it reminds me of Liverpool at our most relentless. Not every week was champagne stuff, but the point total kept ticking because we learned how to win different types of matches. It wasn’t always pretty. It was control, discipline, and taking moments. Arsenal are giving off that vibe now, and I can’t pretend it doesn’t worry me when you zoom out to the bigger picture of trophies.
When a team starts trusting its process in those small moments, you can see it. They believe corners are chances. They believe a 1-0 is enough. They believe the crowd will drag them through the last 10 minutes. You don’t have to love it to respect it.
From champions to scrambling
What makes it harder to swallow is the contrast with where Liverpool are. How do you go from being champions, adding exciting names, and feeling like you’re shaping the next cycle, to looking like you’re scraping around for fourth? That shouldn’t be normal. It shouldn’t be shrugged off as “one of those seasons”.
And it’s not even just the league position, it’s the sense of drift. You look at the gap to the sides above and it feels like we’re not properly laying a glove on it. Not really pushing for the next rung, not making it uncomfortable for anyone. That’s the bit that makes supporters restless, because you can accept the odd bad result, but you struggle with the idea that the ceiling has quietly lowered.
The blame game and the bigger issue
It also feels like there’s always a convenient fall guy. In your head you can see how it happens: pick one name, one department, one easy explanation, and pin the whole mess on that. But if the people at the top convince themselves that swapping out a scapegoat fixes everything, you’re just kicking the can down the road.
Truth is, even great squads need proper direction. You can stockpile talent, but if the manager isn’t getting the best out of it, it doesn’t matter how shiny the squad list looks on paper. Adding more players can help, of course it can, but if the underlying issues are tactical, organisational, or simply about how the team is being used, then it’s a plaster on a far bigger wound.
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