Ell

Two things bother me about the narrative building around Arsenal. First, we're told constantly that the Premier League is the most competitive league in the world. Fine. So what does it mean to be consistently fighting for the title in that environment? You can't celebrate the league's brutal competitiveness and then dismiss sustained title challenges as not good enough. Pick one. Second, and IMO this matters more, failure in elite sport is not losing. Luis Enrique said it. Many others have said versions of it. Failure is not trying again. It's accepting the ceiling. It's going through the motions. Arteta has never done that. Every setback has been fuel for the next attempt. The problem is social media runs on binary outcomes. Win or fail. Hero or fraud. No room for nuance. No room for the manager who rebuilt a club into genuine title contenders and is still hungry for more. Simeone has been at Atlético for over a decade. Two league titles, two Champions League finals. Still no European Cup. Nobody serious calls that failure. They call it one of the great managerial tenures in modern football. And I'm convinced that given 14 years like Simeone, Mikel will win more leagues than him. Arteta may or may not win the league this year. He may not lift the Champions League this year or next. But as long as he keeps pushing, keeps trying, keeps competing at this level, failure isn't what this is. Find another name for it By the way, if City wins the league, the achievement would of course be enormous.

For context. Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Ben White, William Saliba, David Raya, Leandro Trossard, and Gabriel Martinelli made their UCL debuts in 2023/24. Eberechi Eze, Cristhian Mosquera and Christian Norgaard made theirs this season. Lewis-Skelly made his last season. Stretch it further to that bench against Sporting Lisbon and you have Max Dowman and Marli Salmon, both 16 and have played in the UCL for the first time this season. In those three seasons of debuting for the ones initially mentioned, they've made the quarterfinals once and the semifinals twice. For the debutants, it's a semifinal appearance at their first time of asking. Zubimendi didn't make his UCL debut until 2023. Gyokeres only made his debut in 2024. It's their first UCL semifinal. That's a team that has done what most of them have never experienced. I don't care how they got there. It's big deal to them. It has to be. I'm looking at it purely from a player lens now because what it is to Arsenal is established. It's new waters. Arsenal were never in this position in that competition. To do what they've done in the last three seasons is not a mean feat and that group has to know they've come way. As always, titles crown glories in football, but context mustn't be die on the altar of criticism.

@bowercolin Yeah only Noni does just for him to dribble it out of play😂😂 don’t help that we don’t play to Viktor’s strengths but it’s difficulty when we play against 5-4-1’s a lot. Have to find a solution i think! Injuries haven’t helped this season either as can’t build consistency really

@ellethorne_ There’s something wrong. Our wingers can’t or won’t take on the full backs. They’re scared. Teams are suffocating the middle of the park which means we have no means of forming an attack. Mosquera is a great defender but not a marauding full back. Very little overlap tonight.

Back to back😎

@bowercolin I don’t think anyone can fault the intent and intensity, think we were set up to win the game by a 2/3 but the final third is just pants

@ellethorne_ Another tough watch, a better second half for sure. We move on.. 🔴⚪️

Pleased for him, he needed that!

How on earth are people not wanting to come tonight. Chance to go into a champo semi final where we’d have a reasonable chance . Used to dream of this type of opportunity.

@charnsb1 @will_caspari Extremely🥱

What’s the point in being a football fan, particularly a match going one, if you can’t enjoy the moment in front of you.

@paddrr_ All unique situations tho isn’t it, there’s a difference between getting carried away and having a laugh / enjoying a moment. At the time it felt like the closest we’ve been to feeling like we could do it so why not have fun if we’ve been waiting most of my lifetime for it!

@ellethorne_ I bet you won’t find any fans from any season singing this chant from a game at the start of March, unless 12-15 points clear. Getting carried away far too early from the actual reality of it

@Iatics Cool but it’s not really that deep? Match going fans who enjoyed a huge night aren’t going to care what people on Twitter think in a few months time whoever wins the league😂

@ellethorne_ They can enjoy the moment. They can also end up with egg on their face. The two are not mutually exclusive.

@CarefreeUlster i’d worry about your own club first😅

@ellethorne_ On the other hand, what’s the point of being a football fan if I can’t laugh at this video?

@afc_richard Yeah you’re not allowed to celebrate incase it bites you in the arse !

@ellethorne_ If you cant celebrate being top incase you dont win the league does that mean no one can ever celebrate a goal incase you don’t win the match?

@AckerooBanzai Massive difference between a supporter and a fan, on here shows it explicitly more

@ellethorne_ I think alot of people have lost sight of what supporting a football club is meant to be. If you can’t get any enjoyment out of it what is the point.

@Mattcj__ 100%. Sunday is enormous

@ellethorne_ Oh absolutely. Which is completely ok. I’d expect us to stumble over, but admittedly finding ourselves in this position is… far from ideal

@Mr_Perry11 people lose their minds when it comes to arsenal, then arsenal fans defend themselves which in turn gets them called unbearable - same cycle

@ellethorne_ I can't be asked with it all anymore, it's gone ridiculous

@Mattcj__ True, but your first title in 22 years is never going to be easy, there’s bound to be stumbling blocks annoyingly

@ellethorne_ I think 99% of teams could comfortably say they’ll win the league from that point too😂

@AckerooBanzai Yep, i hate it on here😂 full of engagement farming and click bait

@ellethorne_ Exactly. This is classic online nonsense

@Mr_Perry11 according to most on this app, apparently so😂😂

@ellethorne_ So basically you can't enjoy a win at the time, just incase of a future outcome, that would be against the team?

Every video I make about Arsenal goes viral because something about them as a club turns people fucking insane. I made a video about Mateta and Palace yesterday too but no one sees that or cares. That’s a fact. Three of my last 25 videos on TikTok have been about Arsenal 👍