Worthy winners?

Arsenal, I would say, came out as worthy but dull winners of the Premier League title this year. 

And I'm not at all an Arsenal 'hater'. In fact, I have quite a soft spot for the club - primarily because they often played such lovely football during the peak Wenger era. I suspect that a large part of the widespread antipathy - or at least, lack of enthusiasm for - Arsenal's win this year stems from the starkness of that contrast. Arsenal suffered a long period without major 'success' in Wenger's later years; but they still played some of the most attractive football in the Premier League. This year they've returned to the top of the heap - without entertaining anyone. Compared to the great Wenger teams - heck, even compared to this team two or three years ago - this year's Arsenal were often just painful to watch.

And also, frankly, they did win the title somewhat by default. Their final total of 85 points is the lowest for the champions since Leicester's surprise everyone-else-was-crap-that-year win in 2016; in some recent years that might not even have been good enough for third place. And their haul of just 71 goals - barely two-thirds of the record total City set in 2018 - is really pitiful. All of their expected rivals - City, Liverpool, and Chelsea - had severely disappointing seasons; that was a huge factor in their success.

These are introvertible facts. But I don't want to be completely dismissive of their achievement. They have deserved their success. They have shown tremendous organisation, determination, team spirit. It has been impressive to see how often they were able to doggedly grind out results, even in games where they hadn't played that well; that kind of resilience is a true hallmark of champions. (And they did often seem to play much brighter, more adventurous football in their Champions League games!)

But there have been a lot of negative aspects to the way Arsenal have played this season, which have alienated most neutral football fans from them, and rather taken the gloss off their triumph. For me, it's not the over-reliance on mauling at set-pieces (or the undue tolerance referees have been showing them in regard to this), or the numerous other 'dark arts' they've cultivated to try to eat time off the clock, or the fact that in general the officiating breaks seem to have been almost all going their way this year - irksome as these things have been, I do not think these are most people's main 'problem' with the Arsenal title win; they're not my main gripe, anyway. Rather, it's the general style of play, the Arteta philosophy that's so unsatisfying about this year's Arsenal - the excessive prioritization of 'control' which seems to stifle individual creativity. 

Odegaard - when he has played - has increasingly been getting stick from his own fans for passing the ball sideways too often and not producing as many attacking contributions as in the past; but that's obviously how he's been told to play. Saka has suffered the same sort of drop-off in his attacking output; and when he, or Trossard or Eze or Martinelli, do occasionally cut inside and have a pop at goal from around the edge of the box,.... you sense that they're impulsively 'going off script', and that Mikel doesn't really like it,... even if it's saved him the game.

It is alarming to me, too, that the Champions tend to set the zeitgeist that will mould the rest of the league's attitudes in coming seasons. In a year in which defences have mostly been decisively on top, and attacking returns constrained (it didn't help that so many of the best creative talents were missing for most of the season), almost every club has moved more towards prioritizing set-piece routines as the likeliest source of goals; and, with PGMOL being so lax about curbing the amount of wrestling that this leads to in and around the six-yard box, most of them have lapsed into this sort of cheating and thuggery on occasion too. All this isn't entirely Arsenal's fault; but it is to a significant extent - they have set the tone, set the example, and they've now proven that it can be a key to success. There is now a danger that we will see even more of this sort of thing next season, as a result. These misgivings about the possible future impact of the manner of Arsenal's title win has rather tarnished the achievement. 

I hope that these issues can be sorted out next season. We need a few more players like Cherki (and Palmer and Wirtz... and Eze!) to prove that defence-defence-defence is not the way forward, to open our game up again to more end-to-end attacking play. [The problem with the primacy of defensive play at the moment is threefold. First, teams have got so good at implementing 'hybrid marking' systems, and defending in a low block around the edge of their own penalty areas that it is very difficult for opponents who enjoy a lot of possession to create open-play chances against them. Second, this is leading many teams to almost 'give up' on pursuing traditional creativity, and to cultivate long-ball football and set-piece shenanigans as the likelier route to goals. And third, some of the more dominant teams may be tempted to follow Arsenal's example and give more priority to 'defending with the ball', concentrating on not making mistakes and hanging on to possession for long periods - rather than attacking.]

Arsenal have shown formidable tenacity, consistency, and defensive solidity this year - and that's what won them the title. But they won it with a notable lack of flair. And the possible legacy of this win, in terms of how it may shape Premier League football over the next year or two, is a cause for concern.

 That is why, Arsenal fans, the majority of neutral supporters feel unable to join in your celebrations; it's not because we hate you, it's because we love football.