Partey. It had been reported for years that an unnamed premier league player from London was subject to multiple sexual assault investigations, but due to privacy rights laws the press were not allowed to name the player. It was an open secret though that it was Partey. Arsenal hid behind those privacy laws to pretend there was no issue and refused to suspend him or even acknowledge the situation. That legal argument for what they did given the case Mendy brought against City for suspending him over similar allegations, but Arsenal went further and tried to extend him with a new contract.
The Crown Prosecution Service announced formal charges against him just a matter of months after he finally left Arsenal.
We are living in such strange times that I would rather City won the Prem than Arsenal. City are cheats. The whole world knows it. If they win the title again it is just another meaningless bauble to add to all the other illegitimate trophies. Hopefully they will get their just punishment, and the lot will be chalked off. But even if not, I don’t see their trophies as legitimate.
Arsenal are an interesting case. I used to like them under Wenger and they used to play great football. In many ways they are a proper club, run in a proper way. They are not cheats in the way that Man City have been. So if I could just leave it at that, then I would strongly prefer Arsenal to win the title over Man City.
But there’s more! Arsenal have become a snide, horrible outfit. Arteta is all about marginal gains. They have spent a lot of money but they are a glorified Tony Pulis outfit. They are influencing the wider game in a direction I can’t stand, so for that reason, I hope they lose.
I was listening to the roundtable on the Athletic about Arsenal bottling it and I thought their entire premise was wrong. They said Arsenal just need to concentrate on what they are good at and not try to be someone they are not against City. Being safe is simply Arteta is as a coach and this coming weekend is not time to do anything different. Go and get the point and move on.
I find it interesting that people appear to have forgotten that the corresponding game against City two years was the point where they first rolled out their safety first approach and how an abrupt change in personality that was for the team
I think there’s more chance of City being close to perfect than there is of Arsenal doing that.
If it is a draw on Sunday and if City then win their game in hand against Burnley then, obviously, City would be only only three points behind. I can easily see City overhauling that gap.
I still expect Arsenal to win it because of the point advantage they’ve accumulated but I will watch this game with interest (provided Everton don’t embarrass us first, haha). I feel that Arsenal going against their character and relentlessly attacking Man City would actually be the best way for them to inflict damage but Arteta probably won’t even think about it, especially after their recent wobble, so safety first, I guess?
With midfield balance and pace and creativity in their attack, they should be blowing teams out of the water. The blame for failing to achieve that should ultimately be placed at his feet, though.
Hard to change to such a system, I do wonder if Soton has done a bit of damage with their game plan, didn’t see Bournemouth so I don’t know if they were similar but it wouldn’t be the first time it all goes to pot for a team after playing Southampton this season
