APOCALYPSE NOW?<\/p>\n
Perhaps Manchester City and Liverpool cruising to recent title wins made us forget that, deep-set in the making of champions, there will be wobbles, difficulties, forks in the road. As Pep Guardiola would happily tell you now, it\u2019s not supposed to be easy. Just look at Liverpool\u2019s attempts<\/a> to follow up last season\u2019s serene gambol to the title. The message to Arsenal, to quote the late, great Douglas Adams, is: don\u2019t panic. Mind, Adams also penned this passage in The Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide To The Galaxy: \u201cWhat\u2019s that, foregone conclusion then you reckon sir?\u201d said the barman. \u201cArsenal without a chance?\u201d \u201cNo, no,\u201d said Ford, \u201cit\u2019s just that the world\u2019s about to end.\u201d<\/p>\n Another message to Arsenal: the world is unlikely to end if the Gunners don\u2019t win this season\u2019s Premier League. Other factors are more likely to bring about the apocalypse; see Big Website<\/a> for further details. Though it probably feels imminent, Manchester United\u2019s 3-2 win<\/a> at the Emirates crystallised the doubts in Mikel Arteta\u2019s team. This is Arsenal\u2019s fourth season in contention and a familiar pattern is forming. In season 2021-22, Arsenal went five games without a win in January. In season 2022-23, Arsenal went four games without a win over January and February. In season 2023-24 Arsenal won once over seven games in December and January. In season 2024-25, they won once in five games in January. In season 2025-26, Arsenal have won just once in four games in January so far, with Leeds to visit next Saturday.<\/p>\n The portents of the past are not great, either. Arsenal\u2019s joint-top scorers are Leandro Trossard and Viktor Gy\u00f6keres, on five each, a historically low total<\/a>, when stretched to a full season. Both goals on Sunday were decidedly scruffy, while two of United\u2019s were half-chances that delivered the truly spectacular. Where was the xG? Well, frankly, who cares? Amid the prescriptive, proscribed, procedural fare that passes for modern football, someone forgot that taking risks and seizing the moment can win you matches. Arteta\u2019s Arsenal are far less Ars\u00e8ne Wenger\u2019s cavaliers than George Graham\u2019s \u201cboring, boring\u201d 1-0 specialists, though the latter was always an unfair characterisation of a group of players, hard-nosed as they were, who could play a bit.<\/p>\n That, considering the great expense laid out on a squad of all the talents, was what Arteta\u2019s Arsenal were supposed to become. And yet, his battalion of human cyborgs are wracked with nerves, just like fans in the stands who have seen it all before, their anxiety ringing out. Does this mean Arsenal are going to blow it once again? A glance at their chasers suggest there will be openings offered ahead. Guardiola\u2019s worries are shown by haranguing a rookie referee when his team had actually won 2-0 against Wolves<\/a>. Aston Villa are in danger of running out of players. What Arsenal are going through is something that just about every champion team must deal with. Their lead is four points, 15 games to go. Time to stare down the apocalypse.<\/p>\n LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE<\/p>\n Join Michael Butler at 8pm (GMT) for red-hot updates on Everton 0-0 Leeds.<\/p>\n QUOTE OF THE DAY<\/p>\n Sunday 27 January, 11.01am: \u201cHe should be doing well, but he needs time to do it\u201d \u2013 Leicester chief suit Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha goes on the radio to acknowledge that Mart\u00ed Cifuentes needs longer in the job to achieve the desired results.<\/p>\n Sunday 27 January, 4.21pm: \u201cThis has been a difficult decision and not one I have taken lightly. I would like to thank Mart\u00ed for the total commitment he has shown during his time at Leicester \u2026 however, I believe this is the right step at this time to improve performances and results, and to act in the best interests of Leicester City<\/a>. Mart\u00ed leaves with our thanks and our best wishes for the future\u201d \u2013 turns out Srivaddhanaprabha expected more progress<\/a> in the five-and-a-half hours he gave Cifuentes to turn things round.<\/p>\n A fitting photo, earlier. Photograph: Plumb Images\/Leicester City FC\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a disappointing late postponement<\/a> in the Turkish third tier at the weekend\u201d \u2013 Glyn Berrington.<\/p>\n Nice to see the officials were ready to go, just in case. Photograph: x<\/p>\n \u201cRe: Michael Bland\u2019s question (Friday\u2019s Football Daily letters<\/a>): do the Germans have a term for \u2018crappy football email of the day?\u2019 Well, of course they do, it\u2019s called Der Fussball T\u00e4glich\u201d \u2013 John Hodgkinson.<\/p>\n If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com<\/a>. Today\u2019s prizeless letter o\u2019 the day winner is \u2026 Glyn Berrington. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"APOCALYPSE NOW? Perhaps Manchester City and Liverpool cruising to recent title wins made us forget that, deep-set in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-438958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}