I find all this "stay humble eh" stuff from Arsenal to be really cute. They've been little more than a joke to basically everyone for about 15 years, so they're jumping like mad at the first sight that they might be a great team again. What's all this "stay humble eh" nonsense gonna be for if they come up short and win nothing - again? You can't go round giving it bigun and then get yourself knocked out of both cups in the space of a few weeks while lagging behind in yet another title race.
Fact is, ever since the Adebayor knee slide they've been absolutely desperate to get one back over City. That day dented their ego and that entire period, as we went past them in the league while nicking their best players, did so much damage that they've never really recovered. So, exactly like they're doing now, they'll cling on to literally anything to feel like the big boys in the playground again. "Stay humble eh" is all they've got, let them have it.
When we went to the Emirates in 2010 and deliberately stank the place out to get a 0-0 they chanted "Boring boring City" at us. The pro-Arsenal pundits were apoplectic at full-time and called us all the names under the sun they could think of. Said we were approaching football the wrong way and that Arsenal's tactics were pure of heart. We ultimately finished above them in 3rd and won the FA Cup while Arsenal finished the season empty-handed.
When we went there in 2012 and beat them 1-0 to get into the next round of the League Cup, that Arsenal lad Frimpong ripped his shirt off at full-time to reveal his "DENCH" vest and decided to give Nasri a slap for some reason. Arsenal fans had a big laugh about that and called Nasri a fool for leaving. Nasri ended up winning the title in 2012 and Piers Morgan had to give him £10,000, and then Nasri beat them to the title again in 2014.
Frimpong was last seen playing in Cyprus and retired at the age of 26.
What they really, really can't stand is that we replaced them in the old "Big Four". Even before Pep came, we took their place, signed their best players, and won their titles. We took Nasri and Clichy out of a team that had won nothing since 2005 and immediately made them winners and champions. And they couldn't fucking stand it. But because they were nowhere near the top table between 2016 and 2022 they could do fuck all about it.
Which is why the game that really got in their heads and broke them psychologically was the 2-1 win on New Year's Day in 2022. Arsenal thought they were on our level suddenly, but shot themselves in the foot with the stupid red card and the silly penalty they gave away. Then we nicked it at the end. And it went right back to the 0-0 in 2010 in their heads - pro-Arsenal pundits in fits of rage that we'd done a job on them, unable to comprehend what had happened, claiming some cosmic injustice.
Since then they've had a major vendetta against us - they'll never admit it but it's absolutely true. You can see it on their faces that we rattle them to an insane degree. Rodri celebrating that winning goal flipped a switch. But they bottled it and collapsed in 2023, then bottled it and collapsed again in 2024. Rodri spoke honestly and saw right through them, that Arsenal don't have the mentality to win title races because they fold under pressure.
Haaland looked them dead in the eye earlier this season and said "Don't start acting like big men until you become big men" and they still just do not get it. They think one win in the league over a depleted City side suddenly makes up for two bottled titles and somehow makes them top dogs over us. Forgetting, of course, Haaland's point - that they've done absolutely nothing to justify how uppity and arrogant they've become.
What's funny to me is that, finally, City aren't good enough to win the league, but Liverpool have just breezed past Arsenal despite spending fuck all in the summer or January. Because Liverpool as a club, as an institution, knows how to win. We beat them to two titles by inches but it never broke them - they never got this stressed about it. They just moved on, won the league ahead of us in 2020, and they're going to win the league again this season.
By June, Arsenal will have gone 21 years without a title. 24/25 was their season to do it: City have finally fallen, Liverpool have lost Klopp, and Chelsea aren't the finished article yet. But Arsenal still can't get there. It's eating away at them like it has been ever since Gallas burst into tears at Birmingham all those years ago. They deliberately misunderstand the "stay humble eh" comment because if they acknowledge the truth of it, they'll snap again.
Can you imagine what it would be like if all we had over Arsenal, after all this time, was the Adebayor knee slide? What would it say about our failure to reach our own objectives? If all we had for ammo against Arsenal was the Adebayor knee slide it would mean they'd bested us on the pitch for 15 years. Instead we've overtaken them in every department, on the pitch and off it, to the point where nobody at City really brings Adebayor up anymore.
It's like that scene in Mad Men when your man turns to Don Draper in the lift and says "I feel bad for you". Don doesn't even look at him, he just says "I don't think about you at all" and walks off. That's us with Arsenal. They can shout "Stay humble eh" until they're blue in the face but they're still gonna finish this season with as many trophies as us. Zero. Actually, scratch that, we've got the Community Shield, so we've already got one more than they do.
I wanted to like Arsenal under Arteta. He was a terrific assistant for City during an incredible era for us and he deserved to make it on his own. But ever since that run they had at the start of the 22/23 season, they've become so entitled and arrogant. A reminder for us all that Arsenal fans - despite the last 20 years - just expect to win trophies simply because they've turned up. A far worse bunch than Liverpool by every conceivable measure.
