Arsenal’s mediocre start is a cautionary tale for football discourse

Arsenal’s journey has been a wild rollercoaster of emotions, complete with fiery hot takes warning of impending doom – which was clearly a waste of energy, writes Lawrence Ostlere

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta celebrates with goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale after the victory over Spurs on Sunday (Getty)

After three matches of the new Premier League season, Tottenham were top and Arsenal were bottom. Now, after six, they are wedged together in 10th and 11th with the same points, wins, losses and goal difference: Tottenham are top of the bottom half and Arsenal are bottom of the top half.

Arsenal’s journey to this place of barely noteworthy mediocrity has been a particularly wild rollercoaster of emotions, complete with fiery hot takes warning of impending doom, which we can see with hindsight were not only misplaced but something of a waste of the footballsphere’s collective energy. After all that stern-faced talk and searing analysis just a month ago, it is worth considering whether any of it was necessary, or indeed preventable.

Arsenal’s season thus far is a cautionary tale of the extreme reactions in sport, and in particular the social media-fuelled football discourse. After three defeats, the club’s manager Mikel Arteta was a dead man walking: pundits condemned a lavish and wasteful transfer outlay (at £160m, Arsenal were Europe’s biggest spenders this summer) and the club’s admittedly cringe-inducing mantra of “trust the process” – referring to their long-term plan built around investment in youth – was roundly mocked online.

In some ways the vitriol was justified: Arsenal had played terribly in their opening games; they did appear to be without a cohesive plan; and they were, undeniably, bottom of the league.

But there was also a staggering lack of context for such a small sample size. For example, something mentioned only in passing was that Arteta’s squad was beset by injuries in August and new signings were still arriving, to the point where only four of the team that sank Spurs on Sunday started their opening defeat at Brentford.

More pertinently – and this is relevant to every team, all of the time – fixtures matter. Arsenal played the Premier League champions Manchester City and the European champions Chelsea in games two and three, and lost. Then they met Norwich and Burnley, the two teams at the foot of the table, and won.

Replenished, they then beat Tottenham and now sit 10th. The discourse has spun into overdrive once more and on Monday morning, Arteta was being hailed as “the next Arsene Wenger”. But take a step back and they have played six games against some good teams and some bad teams, with injuries and without, won three and lost three. They are doing fine, OK, as to be expected.

They are on an upward trajectory, of course, giving rise to renewed optimism, but form is not some unfathomable mystery – it is the result of a confluence of factors including injuries, confidence, tactical solutions and so on. The overriding factor is fixtures and it should be the starting point of all analysis and predictions of what might be around the corner.

The Premier League is not the Premier League without a little melodrama, but perhaps the lesson of these opening weeks is that some considered thought would have saved a lot of wasted breath.

Yours,

Lawrence Ostlere

Assistant sports editor