Oh Arsenal…Thanks for coming…

So, it is the business end of the season when football dreams are realized while others completely shattered. For those who run marathons, we know that those who perform best are those who are able to manage their pace, especially earlier on in the race. When your energy is at peak, there’s always the temptation to push harder. You are feeling good anyway, no? Wrong! A marathon starts at 35kms and the next 7kms are basically mind over matter. So, if you managed your pace well earlier on, you will be guaranteed some reserved energy at this critical time of the race. More of that when we meet on the track…

?The Premier League, and any other league for that matter, is just like a marathon. “Weaker” teams can be forgiven for starting the season on fire, especially those who have just been promoted into the EPL. This is the best time to pick up three points here and there while the big boys are still trying to organize themselves and gel in the new signings. After all, if you can hit the 37-point mark in the season, there are always high chances of survival. It is not uncommon to find a just-promoted team lingering around top-four by around October. At this stage, many wannabe pundits are always yapping about how such and such a team will be in top-four. How wrong they have been! Once the traditional old-boys turn up the screws, it will be a ‘Hallelujah’ if you escape ‘The Etihad’ with just 3 goals to nothing. Nevertheless, there have been surprises and this season, Bournemouth, Brentford, Aston Villa and of course Newcastle United have held up well.

?At the beginning of the 2022/3 season, I wrote an article assessing each team’s performances in the first few games. I must say I got most of the predictions right, except for Arsenal. While I rightly predicted that they’d start the season on hot form, I got it wrong as to when they’d eventually collapse. First, I would like to give due credit: Arsenal has surprised many of us but more-so their own fans. To hold up for that long was unforeseen and while at the beginning, I was very certain of a final surrender, my certainty changed to prayers, sacrifices and intercessions to the ancestors of football. Like I said in that article in September, had Arsenal won the league, many of us would have had to look for bunkers to stay in, at least for 6 months. This city, this country and even this globe would have been too small to accommodate us all. I don’t like Manchester City but they deserve an award from UNEP – they (City) have just saved the world from noise!

?So, congratulations to Arsenal for keeping your fans alive while almost giving us high-blood-pressure. My forefathers have a term: Onyalo Biro! Loosely translated, it means ‘Thanks for coming!’

?I like assessing the future based on the past and I would like to make a small prediction - not too nice for Arsenal fans. I don’t see Arsenal pushing as much as they have done this season. This was their chance to finally win the league and while I won’t say they bottled it, I think this is the furthest they can get. This team, if it stays together for the coming season, will crumble under pressure and expectations. Every game next season will be assessed on the basis of their stellar performance this term. A draw next season with a team they beat this season will be frowned upon. A loss against a team they beat or drew with will equally generate negative reactions. Time for the ‘haters’ to renew their subscriptions to AFTV, coz pure entertainment is coming.

?I draw my predictions from three teams of the recent past. Borussia Dortmund, Atletico Madrid and Tottenham Hotspurs have in the past had excellent runs in their respective leagues and onto the Champions League finals where coincidentally, all fell short. Credit to the first two, they won their domestic leagues against odds and broke the monopoly of one/two teams. Spurs bottled it in 2015/16 and gifted it to Leicester City. Nevertheless, what followed next for each of these teams was a total collapse. Spurs has never recovered from their loss to Liverpool in the 2018/19 UCL final while Dortmund has occasionally threatened to beat Bayern Munich to the Bundesliga title. All the Bavarians do is change coaches mid-season and the latter automatically collapses (this season is still open though). Atletico has surrendered the top two spots in Spain and seem to always just be satisfied to be third. I suspect this fate awaits our beloved Arsenal but going by their recent history and the competitiveness of the EPL, they’ll gladly grab that position if offered every season.

?I have been wrong previously in my predictions and I could be in the above case. For now though, there’s the ‘small’ matter of the UCL and FA Cup finals. Place your bets gents and ladies…