What do you do when you achieve something you’ve wanted for most of your life? That question is pertinent for Arsenal this season. This group of players have done something many of them have wanted to do since they first started playing football. But for many fans, the first title in a generation begs the same question. Will it all mean the same?
A fair warning: this is going to be a lot of navel gazing. This is the first real title that I’ve wanted. When Arsenal won the league in 2004 it was the third
time of my life, the second time in 3 years, and at 10, I just assumed it was a thing that happened, like visiting your grandparents. I’ve written about this before but essentially, it took until I was 13 to realize, no, Arsenal don’t win the league every season…and 19 years later Arsenal finally won the league I’ve wanted us to win. Wanting something for 19 years is interesting in terms of development. Wanting Arsenal to win the league has seen me from puberty, school, university, a graduate degree, a second graduate degree, and a career. I’ve lived in multiple places, but the one constant–aside from some of my best and closest friends–has been wanting Arsenal to win the league. It’s been achieved. How do you go again?
For the players, I think it’s simple. They’ll want more. Bruno Guiamares hasn’t won a league title. Nor has Ezri Konsa. Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard, and Kai Havertz all have more to give. And the group will want to go again, to become talked about in the way that teams like Manchester United were talked about and to prove bitter, small time people, like the Athletic’s Manchester City stenographer Sam Lee, wrong.
And for the fans, I think it’ll be similar. First of all, Arsenal have a chance to retain a title, something that hasn’t been done since the 1930s. And secondly because when you win, you want more. I’ve been more rational this summer, calmer during other football matches because I feel satisfied. This season will be different: the conditions that led to the explosion of joy at the end of last season won’t exist (unless Arsenal win the Champions League), because Arsenal aren’t coming off of a 22-year gap. And maybe the feeling of 19 May means that when Arsenal drop points in November it won’t feel like an existential crisis, because the pressure to win, especially after 3 second place finishes, won’t be overwhelming. Perhaps that’ll be the biggest difference: instead of feeling a deep need to win, to fulfill a lifelong dream, to end the crap jokes from colleagues and the stupid second again ole ole chants, the desire to win will be because I’ve loved the feeling of being Champions and want to feel it again next May.
