Boring boring Arsenal is a price worth paying

Finishing in the top-four matters more than entertaining the fans

It would be easy to brand Arsenal boring after the 1-0 win over Bournemouth but that is a price worth paying for success.

The games against Tottenham and Watford were certainly entertaining affairs but Arsenal collected just a single point from each game. Give me boring and three points any day as opposed to entertaining and one point.

Boring is watching Arsenal in the Europa League, boring is finishing outside the top-four and real boredom is no silverware.

Of course, it would be nice to win and be entertaining like Man City and Liverpool are but we do not have that luxury at Arsenal. The club has to work with what it has got and if they get more success grinding out wins then so be it.

Next season would be unbearable having to watch European football on a Thursday night for the fourth season running. You do not face Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, PSG and Bayern Munich in the Europa League. Anything less is true boredom.

The ultimate goal would obviously be to both entertain and win but when that is not possible then winning must be the priority.

There was a time that Arsenal was a boring club, they wore that branding as a badge of honour and they were winners. Given a choice right now, I would be happy to go back to boring if it means top-four football and silverware.

35 Comments

  1. I’d take a boring 1-0 win as it gives us 3 points, we climb the EPL ladder, gives us UCL. Even in the EL i’d take a 1-0 win if it would take us to the next round or win the cup, why not?End of the game you are classified as a winner or loser, results matter, not efforts. Silverware matters, not the brand of football. I’d even accept Unai next season if we win the EL or top 3 finish with boring 1-0 wins, how he does it, that is his problem.

  2. LDDWWWDWW..

    Yes winning beautifully is great. But right now I don’t care how we get 3 points.
    Ugly winning is highly accepted.

  3. Do football fans always set impossible expectations for their team
    so they can always be disappointed and have an excuse to moan all the time?

  4. Ordinarily I’d agree that Europa league is boring, however with so many exciting young prospects coming through the team I think it actually works in our favour this season as gets them some valuable experience before they are in Champions league next season.

    I’ll take winning ugly everytime over a loss right now. I’m not worried about the beautiful game, because watching how we play in the Europa/Cup games has given me the confidence that we can play attractive football and we just need patience for us to transfer the same form to the league too.
    If we are still playing ugly football by Christmas I may take issue with it (not much if we are still getting 3 points though) but for now I can be patient.

    1. Agree completely, Hatter, the Europa league is, at least for me, a pleasure to watch, as is the Cara Cup, exactly because the Arsenal youngsters are playing freely and are a joy to watch. Nevertheless, also agree that a win is a win, dirty or wonderful to watch notwithstanding, I’ll take it!

  5. Winning and playing beautiful attacking football is of course the ultimate. But nobody can do it all the time, and if you have watched Liverpool this year, they may have won all their matches, but most of the time, it has been through “efficient” football rather than “beautiful”.
    We haven’t been able to compete for the title for so many years, because we have failed to address our defensive issues and failed to adjust to modern football.
    It seems to me, we are on the road to addressing those problems, and looking at what our youngsters can do, when the opposition is not quite as strong as in the PL, I also think we will also see beautiful football once the transformation is complete.

    1. AndersS our youngsters are the main thing that excites me about Arsenal at the moment.

      They give me some hope for the future.

  6. i would also take boring at any given day given we take the three points or we qaulify for the next round or be it winning a cup this season.I think the problem with the boring Arsenal that played against Bournemouth is that the 3 points were not really beacuse they defended that well but rather Bournemouth didnt really come at us.Against Bournemouth we seemed as if we dont really know what to do with the ball once we got it from the middle of the first half and the rest of the second.Bournemouth didnt really put the pressure and for a few minutes in the second half when they actually did , they almost scored and the ball was cleared close to the goal line.If they had continued on that path i think it would have been a different result because our defending is that poor and there comes the problem. A boring but solid Arsenal yes , but a boring and fragile one no.That team played like the way we were playing our away games and if we play like that away at sheffied i dont see us getting the three points.

  7. We are not the boring 1-0 of old. The days when we could shut a game down as soon as went ahead.

    We now are the wrong and a dangerous type of boring. In fact today we are unlikely not to get scored on. Today a 1-0 victory says more about our opponent’s ability to score than our ability to defend.

    At the end of the season, only your results matter and how you got there not so much.

    However, when you are in a rebuilding phase you better believe it matters how you play and if you manage to improve the aspects of your game you are trying to improve. Closing your eyes to a lack of improvement this early in the season simply because you won a boring game 1-0 is not very smart or insightful.

  8. OT: Just read an article that Allegri told Man U he is only willing to come to them if he is asked in the next few weeks. Maybe we should ask him to come to us before he is of the table and gone to Man U.

    😉

  9. It’s not about being boring or winning ugly because we don’t have the talent to win playing great football, because we do have the talent, we do have very skilful players who can play beautiful football. We are winning lucky because of Emery, who sets league teams out to try not to loose rather than to win. I am more convinced than ever that Ljungberg has a massive influence on EL games with no input on EPL games. Emery is running scared, he’s in the final year of his contract knowing if we don’t get top four he will be sacked. Shutting a game down to protect a 1-0 score line is not necessarily boring and it’s not something we are doing or even capable of doing with the current defence and midfield. The game against Bournemouth showed how inept we are in both departments.

    1. Declan, please consider that four key players are returning from injury in Holding, Tierney, Bellerin and Lacazette, in addition to Mavropanos, who adds strength to the squad.
      Isn’t it only fair to lay off the condemnation of Emery, until we see how the team progresses with a fully fit squad available for selection?

      1. Yes OzzieG. Soon Emery will have absolutely no excuses left whatever so there should be a massive improvement. Let’s see who he picks then.

      2. You could be right Ozzie and I do believe the returning players will improve the situation massively IF Emery plays them. Unfortunately I can only make my comments on what I see at games with the way we are currently playing. We have some brilliant young players who have shown in games in the EL, albeit against lower opposition, that we can play exciting, winning football. The likes of Xhaka and Kolasinac for example, do not not impress me and our last game was against a league team who looked poorer than the EL teams we have played.
        Only time will tell.

        1. Declan, I agree that Xhaka and Kolasinac on current form should not be in the first 11, Now Emery has other options.

    2. Correct Declan. Glad to see someone else believes we DO have the talent and you’ve also noticed how Emery’s panic stricken approach of ‘Let’s not lose’ rather than ‘Let’s go out and stuff the opposition’ has made us the boring mess we are. A well below par Man U and equally well below par Bournemouth should have been absolutely hammered. But let’s pick a fear driven defensive lineup instead eh? Emery is sickening!

  10. Got to agree with MadHatter, SAGooner and Truth. The Europa team is far better to watch than the rubbish Emery inflicts on us in the EPL.

    Really detest the fear driven approach adopted by Emery and the other commenters. We could have played good, attacking, attractive football in the EPL and beat Man U and Bournemouth convincingly. Emery chose not to . . . as usual. Pathetic.

    1. It’s not a fear driven approach imo its a conservative one.
      In the league, if he loses and drops points it has an impact and could be impossible to claw back.
      In the EL/Cup games he has the luxury of being more adventurous because: 1) there is room for a margin of error, 2) opposition is lower quality and 3) because he has had the players available to do so.
      I could maybe see Emery letting Freddie take over the Cup (still doubtful though imo) but no way on earth is he letting Freddie run the EL games, not with his history with the competition and his job potentially riding on the outcome 🤷‍♂️

  11. We are boring, well Emery is, but at last we have a decent full back in Calum Chambers. He was bought as a right back and he knows how to play that position….and he is better than Luke shaw who was in front of him at Southampton. I’m so glad we are realising that this guy is up for a battle, which AMN is not. With Chambers and Bellerin battling for right back and Tierney and Kolasinac for left back we are in a better defensive position, so clean sheets are more likely.

  12. The club should be mindful of the international fanbase, who are a lot more fickle than us old gooners. I see the support shifting to ManC and to some extent Liverpool, and to European teams like Barcelona.
    We were known all along for our attractive game and that dividend is lost in just 1½ years, so the club management needs to wake up asap. In every forum I see every gooner happy about the 3 cup games so far, and that should be taken as an indicator, not to mention that Ozil is a big name in Africa, Asia and the middle East.

    1. Mate,
      You keep yapping on about how so many fans around the world will stop supporting Arsenal if so and so player is special treatment and shoehorned into the team just to please his social media cultists who are besides themselves due to him being treated like everyone else.
      Show hard work and commitment in training and then you will get a chance. Don’t expect to just walk into the team just because you have a very loyal fan crowd that get triggered every time you are criticised.

      In last last month or so I have read many comments from you threatening to stop supporting Arsenal if your special favourite player is told to work for his place in the team like everyone else.

      No one gives a monkeys if the likes of you and others choose to be player fangirls rather than club supporters / fans.

      And one more thing. Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.
      Smh 🤦‍♂️

      1. I find it hard to believe that Mesut is only walking around the training grounds and not giving his best as he has been a professional for 10+ years, Lets accept that Emery just doesn’t like Ozil period. If he is shipping out Ozil lets hope he can bring us someone like Cazorla, please God!!!

  13. @Dan kit
    @ThirdmanJW

    ADMIN COMMENT

    Stop your childish bickering and just talk about the football. If I have to delete one more comment you are going to be banned…

    1. TMJW. First understand that I am completely neutral regarding you and Dan kit as I have had many disagreements with you both.

      However, your calling of Ken1945 into question is ridiculous. For a start he is one of the few on here who actually THINKS, instead of jumping on every passing bandwagon as many here do. When he comments what he writes is worth reading and whether or not you or I disagree with them they are always sensible and well laid out.

      In fact he’s one of the few on here who I think would do a fair, unbiased job as one of the Admin. And that would include warning me when I get so frustrated at our manager that I go a bit over the top sometimes.

  14. Thinking outside the box, why can’t we have the same rules for managers too? When a player is out of form he is benched, so the same must be applied to the manager and remove him from the sidelines!!

  15. If playing boring football and winning is the way forward, it should be against ManC and Liverpool, not against Newcastle, Burnley, Watford, Aston Villa, Bournemouth and a poor ManU. Grinding out a win by digging in against top teams makes sense, but not against teams below us and that too at home.

    1. I don’t think we learned to win with boring football as some post and comments that I have read stated, It’s more of Lucky winning and poor finishing from the opposition. The midfield for the EPL Games with Xhaka in the middle would never work but for some reason Xhaka is the one that will play all our EPL games. If we are getting Ozil out of the Club Xhaka should follow him, I don’t rate him at all and I had enough of him. Torreira should be the one in the middle with guendouzi, willock or ceballos playing with him.

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