Arsenal destroyed PSV and won the tie in a bonkers match in Holland tonight. The first five minutes were fairly quiet. After that, it was non-stop…
Nwaneri played a dangerous cross to the far post where Gabriel volleyed it back too high across the box in a sign of intent from the visitors. Soon after Ødegaard received a crisp ball from Partey and danced through into the box. As he pulled his foot back to shoot it scraped the leg of a defender running back, enough to make him swipe at fresh air. No penalty given. It was the first bit of luck for PSV, although we would also get some of our own.
It was all go as a couple of minutes later Rice had the ball in the net with a crisp strike across goal into the side netting only to see it ruled out for a close offside earlier in the move. Keeping up the tempo it was PSV’s turn to come close after excellent play from the evergreen Perisic who tempted Raya to come for a low cross only for it to squirt free across the box. Some PSV lad should really have scored but he smashed his shot into the bar and the rebound was hit just wide of the far post. Definitely a let off for us.
We took full advantage and two minutes later we had the lead. MLS did brilliantly to ride a challenge in midfield and send the ball through to Rice, who worked the space to find a left-footed cross high to the back post where Timber was in exactly the right place, rising highest to head us into a lead. Let’s hope he has a few more of them in the locker between now and the end of the season as this was excellent from him.
We only had to wait three more minutes to go two up. Trossard played a ball inside to the marauding MLS and his deflected cross slid across the box for Nwaneri to absolutely leather it high into the net from six yards out.
MLS then got a soft yellow for a shirt pull that his opponent made the most of. De Jong, in particular, was adept at drawing fouls even when replays showed he was clearly backing into his man instead of looking at the ball. Our Hale End graduate needed to be careful but two minutes later he had his heart in his mouth. He went to make a sliding challenge but hesitated for a split second as he obviously realised he was on a yellow and did not want another red. However, the ball was there for the taking and his natural aggression won out – he went for the ball. That momentary hesitation cost him though and he got there late. You could see from his reaction that he feared the worst, all those thoughts running through his head about getting another red… The PSV man made the most of it but he could easily have been off. Fortunately for us, the ref used some common sense (read, ‘unreasonable leniency’ if you’re a fan of the Dutch team who’s stumbled in here) and kept his cards in his pocket. It could have been a turning point. Maybe it was.
Only another two minutes went by before we were three up. Nwaneri and Timber had found the same wavelength on the right, and it was tenacious play that saw them win the ball and work it into the box. It got a bit scrappy as defenders went to challenge but when some PSV lad touched it weakly whilst falling over Merino was there to apply a calm, precise finish low into the far corner. There was a long VAR check for offside, reminiscent of the Premier League, but it went our way and the goal stood.
We’d barely finished celebrating when Arteta hooked MLS for Calafiori, aiming to keep us at eleven men. The young man had made a decisive contribution and he will learn how to keep his cool when opposition try to work him like this. There followed a full eight minutes without a goal or a nearly moment. In the context of a crazy first half, it felt like a real breather.
The respite ended on 42 minutes when Partey gave away a penalty defending a free kick. The Ghanaian was blocked from getting to his man and reached out an arm to make up his positional shortfall. As all game, the PSV lad went down like a sack of spuds. Savvy play but no real complaints from us. It was a deserved penalty, even if a yellow card added insult to injury. Lang stepped up and hit a strong shot to his left past the stationary Raya who gambled he would put it down the middle.
Rice then hit a cracking shot which was flying in until the keeper tipped it around the post, somehow avoiding the concession of a corner.
There was still time for Malacia to whip a ball to De Jong who headed a very presentable chance over. The whistle went and we could all catch our breath. 3-1 at half-time and no-one had seen this coming.
The second half started the same way, with Arsenal scoring after 90 seconds. Merino funnelled it to Nwaneri, brimming with end product on the night, and he hit it hard and low across the six-yard box where a hand from the keeper played it into Ødegaard’s path for the captain to pass into the net.
We scored again two minutes later, Calafiori sliding in Trossard (after receiving a lovely flick from the Belgian) who dinked it over the keeper from close range. We were four goals up, which wasn’t bad for a team who can’t score.
PSV came back, first with a venomous shot blocked by Gabriel and then after reworking the resultant corner into a headed chance for De Jong which Raya saved at point blank range because he had his hands up in the right place. Nwaneri went on an adventurous run ending with a hard shot that forced a save. From a Rice corner Gabriel had a free header from a few yards out. He should have scored and he looked annoyed not to. At the same time, Timber was being manhandled, pushed physically off the pitch, and I have no idea how that was not deemed at least as bad as the Partey challenge. Both sides were lucky at times tonight.
Timber was then unlucky to get a yellow card which could just as easily have gone to the Dutch side, when he dallied too long taking a free kick, even though at no point did the closest PSV player retreat to the proper 10 yards.
Trossard was clearly offside when Calafiori’s high pressing deflected the ball to him, so no-one was surprised when his finish was ruled out. It was soon forgotten when Ødegaard ran into central space and blasted a shot that the keeper should have saved. Instead, he let it through him for our sixth of the night and our captain’s second. I think that doubled his total for the season.
We made some subs, White, Zinny, Tierney and Sterling coming on. They also made changes, including Bakayoko, who was a dangerous presence. Zinny nearly scored a blinder, controlling a chipped ball from Tierney and volleying at goal. The keeper touched it wide, demonstrating again his ability to do this without conceding a corner. It’s not as good as saving shots, but it’s no bad skill.
After eighty-two minutes we won a corner after Raya grabbed a PSV corner out of the sky and punted a long ball at Rice who busted a gut this late in the game to collect it in front of a flagging defender, who just got back to nick it behind. Typical of the effort that Rice, and everyone else, put in all game.
A couple of minutes later Ødegaard played an Özillian ball with the outside of his boot from the half space on the right where he operates so dangerously when White and Saka are his partners in crime. Calafiori had made a beautiful run and his right foot finish was slotted past the keeper and into the side netting. Sublime stuff.
Raya came to sweep up a long ball and ended up juggling poorly about thirty yards from his own goal. Just for shits and giggles. We were winning SEVEN – one, and he could do what he liked.
The final whistle went.
It was a crazy game and we were very, very good. Let’s hope it is a result that puts us back on track. I’ll look forward to hearing from you all in the Drinks…
Until next time, ‘holics.
That is bonkers speed for posting a match review, GSD. Now to read it.
An accurate reflection of the action. Impressive real-time reportage, GSD.
I just heard Jamie Carragher say the result won’t answer Arsenal’s critics, so we shouldn’t get carried away, even if he should.
My only disappointment was that neither Butler-Oyedeji nor Kabia got brought on, especially given the scoreline.
Given that I was hoping for a 1-0 away win and preparing to settle for a draw, a 7-1 smoking was a very pleasant surprise – as was your lightening fast report, GSD. I can’t add to the excellent detail you’ve recorded.
Brilliant Dino, thanks and yeah as you say some sublime stuff.
I suppose them missing a sitter was a turning point and we had a bit of luck with MLS
but excellent from everyone with Declan and Ode really leading from the front.
Apparently MA had asked the defenders to get forward unexpectedly more than usual
as we needed to support Merino – they certainly listened in Timber and Cala’s case.
Very happy over my morning coffee – must give everyone around the club a lift and
we go to Old Toilet in good heart
Faberesque speed GSD !Thankyou for giving us a chance to discuss the game so soon after the game
A very comprehensive report and what a great ( and unexpected ) night . Everybody deserves big props . I’d particularly pick out Odegaard for running the game , our two centre backs who defended like tigers , Nwaneri for being such a live wire and a huge goal threat and I also Merino gave a great target man impression . This result effectively gives us a pressure free week next week and it will enable Arteta to manipulate his team selections under much less pressure
Great report. Seen the goals in the highlights. Now settling down to enjoy the game. Like most, after recent events, I would have settled for a draw and prayed for a 1-0 win but I never dreamt of such a scoreline. Well done Gunners.
Truly, like Champion The Wonder Horse, like a mighty cannonball your report seemed to fly. Great work, Dino.
Few points. Firstly, the coverage on Amazon Prime was excellent. Devoid of idiots like Ferdinand, Carragher and Neville and with grown ups like Gabby Logan in charge, the assembled band of ex pros were interesting and insightful. And this list included historic platitude quoters Shearer and Walcott. See, you can do it when you try. And shame on Sky, TNT, BBC etc for dumbing these people down in their channels.
Secondly, thank you Mikel. Excellent football, excellent selections and excellent substitutions. It’s almost as if he knows more than us.
Finally, a note to all the distraught “journalists” who will have had to stay out of the bar while they rewrote their pre-written Arsenal lack striker death spiral crap.
Now you have the vaguest inkling what a real job feels like. You know, like when you actually have to acknowledge facts rather than try to kid your readers that what their eyes feed their brain is wrong. It’s a bitch, isn’t it?
Cheers GSD and many thanks for the great report. I’ll have say some of whatever CER is drinking please, barman. 😄😄
Not bad for a boring 0-0 match report.
That was thoroughly enjoyable. Cheers GSD!
Great work at breakneck speed, GSD.
Nothing to add to your report – but an endorsement of what CER said about the coverage on Amazon. And those journalists would all be eating large helpings of humble pies this morning if Wayne Rooney hadn’t clearly eaten them all already. Talk about carrying some Timber …… no, not him ….
Great performance all round. MLS looked years above his age until he had to really be hooked for his own protection – he needs to be careful around experienced pros who are out to win free kicks and get him carded. A lesson this season is teaching him at some speed. But what a player. And then there is Nwaneri. Wow !
I endorse what CER was saying although we had buffering from time to time on the screen. The thing was it was an intelligent analysis of a game and what actually happened , not an agenda driven poke at Arsenal’s inadequacies as their season imploded . Sky would have been soooo uoset . As would TNT. The coverage of a side with a whole host of serious forward injuries completely outplaying the third team in the league on their own ground was transformed into Liverpool canter to glory because they are so much better than Arsenal – a couple of months earlier Liverpool scraped a 1-1 draw at Forest and were praised for their grit and ability to score from set pieces . Tonight they analysed what we saw cogently and didn’t relate it beyond Arsenal – and Clattenberg made Mike Dean and Peter Walton look like the twats they are by sensible commentary on what actually happened. It’s a recipe for good coverage .
Shearer’s commentary was very good. Clattenberg’s contributions were articulate, clear and insightful and, dare I say it, close to the level which is already commonplace in the on-field commentary provided in complicated decision analysis during rugby internationals. Gabi Logan, married to Scots rugby international Kenny, might well be expected to be fluent in the egg chasing game; similar fluency in football isn’t something that should necessarily have been anticipated. Nevertheless, her contribution was first class, as it is invariably when she covers international athletics events. I don’t listen to SKY commentary, but I did enjoy last night’s on Prime.
That was indeed rather good!
Our determination was epitomised by Rice thundering down the left wing in at the last minutes of a game we were winning 6-1 to chase the superb long ball from Raya and win a corner that ultimately led, after another corner, pressure and some interplay, to the beautiful seventh. I remember watching the execrable Roy Keane show that drive in a game they were already winning well some twenty years ago and thinking how much his drive and determination contrasted with Patrick Vieira’s approach of showing how well we could control the ball and play for “Olays” rather than going for the jugular once we had established a winning position.
Good stuff. Now that we have found the way to goal again, more of the same please.
An excellent & lightning match review Dino 👏.
An enjoyable match to watch and the commentary / punditry enhanced the evening. It just highlights the crassness we endure from the other broadcasters ( I normally switch it off when Neville/Carragher/Keane et al are on duty). Once again the non PGMOL referee had an excellent match – it wasn’t about him!
The team had a week to prepare ( no weekend match ) – maybe this had a factor in how we played, we certainly were “up for it” right from the start.
It will be wonderful to carry on in the same vein at Old Toilet on Sunday.
Btm@12
Gabi Logan is of course the daughter of Terry Yorath of ‘ Dirty Leeds ‘ fame but your point is well made
BtM@12 and TTG@15: Gabby Logan was also an international gymnast, which will help with her understanding of elite sport. However, apparently she is a Newcastle United supporter, which will be less helpful in that regard.
Ned
I thought she was a rhythmic gymnast which seems to me to consist of waving ribbons . But that may be highly unfair and misogynistic . Certainly the Toon Army association is distressing. I met her at a conference she hosted at the Barbican with Sir Dave Brailsford ( currently doing a great job of sabotaging Manchester United ) a few years ago. She was extremely professional and impressive and is better looking than Garry Neville .
One interesting point about the win yesterday which the monks may be able to confirm is that reaching the quarter finals is apparently worth an extra £10.5 million ( give or take the odd rounding error and the collapse of the euro ) . I think we can consider that amount trousered .
CBS has the CL rights in the US. Its post-game studio analysis team is Jamie Carragher, Micah Richards and TH14. Manchester-born Kate Abdo is in the chair. TH14 is quietly thoughtful, and the more impressive as he is not using his first language. Richards is a decent analyst. His pregame analysis of Atletico’s implementation of Simone’s defensive system was good. He also often asks better questions of his fellow panellists than the host. But he can be a bit over the top and there is too much time-wasting ex-pros banter with Carragher for my taste. Carragher is Carragher. ‘Nuff said. As for Abdo, you can take the girl out of Sky, and all that…
The PSV-Arsenal match commentary was pretty level-headed. Thankfully, we were spared the rocket-fuelled metaphor-mangling colour commentary of expat Geordie, Ray Hudson, who models himself on the darts commentator Sid Waddell and was working the Madrids match.
TTG@17: She competed in a Commonwealth Games, so I think that counts.
Being better looking than Gary Neville is a low bar.
On your question, clubs get a participation/performance fee of €12.5 million for appearing in the quarter-finals of the CL. That fee is €11 million for appearing in the Round of 16. The deeper a club goes in the competition, the more it will boost the other slug of prize money, contributed via broadcasting rights and UEFA club coefficients.
The season ticket price rises announced today, 3% for the upper tier and 5% for the lower, will raise an additional £6m of revenue next season.
C100- thanks for that information . The club owe me more than 3% on my account so I won’t feel the pain too much . I wouldn’t have thought if the bulk of that money is reinvested in the team fans would worry too much
AISA are protesting the rises.
With £6m added there and the extra CL money we’ve effectively earned this week, we can give Willy Saliba a new contract
The CL starting to get a familiar look for the last 8.
And the 5th place for a PL team looking likely too.
If it weren’t for Alisson, Liverpool might already be all but out.
And for a significant refereeing(+VAR) mistake, as Konaté should have walked.
Their luck seems to know no bounds.
Ollie- absolutely agree . This season was obviously designed by Carlsberg who I think used to be their sponsors . PSG battered them yesterday . Don arum a had one save and he fluffed it . I wonder what the reaction woukd be if we had played like 5gat and got tgat result?
The three English sides all won away from home meaning our co-efficient is likely to be very high if we have three sides in the QF. I may be on my own but I think PSG might roll over Liverpool even at Anfield . But it’s looking good for the English teams . There can only be two Spanish teams in the QF and one of them is going out to us ! 😀
You can probably see why I am close to the bottom of the Predictathon!
The likely identiry of our next Sporting Director seems to be changing daily . Yesterday Yossi Benayoun was touted as a likely candidate . We have had Dan Ashworth , Tomas Rosicky , Jason Ayto , Luis Campos and Olabe the Real Sociedad SD. Romano seems to believe the most likely candidate is Berta who was at Atletico . Given the way transfers are done nowadays and the time they take to set up one would expect an appointment very soon.
Well I won’t mention the Predictathon this season, TTG….
Yeah. We defijitely need the Sporting Director in place long before the end of the season. Very important summer ahead.
TTG @21. Got to say mate, I find your response to the price rises a bit complacent. It’s all right for comfortably off pensioners like you and me. On my row I have a couple of working people who have bought season tickets for their school age kids. They are going to find this hard. Liverpool and several others have frozen ticket prices. My tickets in the cheapest part of the ground will cost £1150 each next year. The last 16 champions league game on Wednesday against PSV is £71. The cup games, bar the group stages all have to be paid for as extras.
£6m will go nowhere in the grand scheme of things. I think the club would like to freeze out ST holders. When I go to Arsenal I buy nothing else. Once a year visitors go to the club shop and buy food and drink.
Greedy.
Exactly, C100!
Here’s gunnerblog (block 5 ST holder) with some more facts around the subject (the Athletic so paywalled)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6177419/2025/03/06/arsenal-ticket-prices-investment/
C100@27, as you know, I am no longer a ST holder and the ballot ensures that my two offspring and I now rarely attend matches together which for over 20 years was one of my greatest pleasures, despite the toxicity of the later Wenger years and the turgidity of Emery’s tenure, so I have less skin in the game, and perforce can take an objective, or even jaundiced, view. I found the relationship between the club hierarchy and fans to be as close to a feudal experience as anything I have experienced in life even before the Kroenke takeover.
Your observation on the added commercial value of tourist fans is absolutely correct though those ‘fans’ will evaporate when the inevitable cycle swings round again to mediocrity. I am sure you are correct also that the club’s regard for season ticket holders may be less than it once was; that has certainly been the case for silver members over the last few years, though interestingly the introduction of the 19 game season ticket is being dressed up, not as making the price more affordable but as making more European competition tickets available to silver and red members. However, in an era where, because of demand, the club could sell the tickets for almost every game several times over, and with an American owner steeped in the culture of the capitalist market place, it is perhaps surprising that the price rises are so small.
Of course, they take advantage of the loyalty of ‘legacy fans’ with season tickets in a culture in which football has long since eclipsed religion as the focus of society’s hopes and aspirations. The club will hope legacy fans who rarely now get tickets will still be around to fill seats when the tourists have moved on to their new favourite club or sport. Meanwhile the atmosphere in the stadium has long since ceased to reflect the terracing that I grew up on though I don’t lament the absence of violence or indeed the threat of it, indeed I noticed that ‘gentrification’ take place long before the move from Highbury though it has certainly accelerated since that move. I empathise with your friend and his children’s season ticket costs. It may seem harsh, or even treason, but I have found that the multiple levels of the game beneath the pampered elite still offer much enjoyment and if the family budget is tight, there are other more affordable alternatives. To that end, I am off to watch the Baggies again this weekend.
As with much more important current issues, the world has changed.
I can only echo the views of C100 and Bath. At the same time , I am used to it. As an Islington estate kid, I grew up at the Arsenal. The whole family was steeped in it, as were/are the families of all my mates. Over the last 30/40 years, so many have been socially cleansed from Islington, priced out of property and moved out ifi the area. You couldn’t have given away property in Stoke Newington when I was a kid. The process at the Arsenal to my mind simply mirrors this. Moving out the incumbents in order to bring in sone thicker wallets. These spare tickets won’t be going to Islington kids but to football tourists both from near, who have moved in to replace the liocals and far away on football tourism packages. Both willing to come once a year and buy a shirt and scarf, go round the museum etc. I’ve had 50-odd years going as a fan, singing, shouting, the works. These people are just spectators. They add nothing to the spectacle, nothing to the atmosphere. And they will disappear as soon as football is no longer flavour of the month.
As I say, I am resigned to it. It’s change. But not progress. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
Pretty much agree with everything being said about how it was going to games in the 80s and how it is now. You can’t just walk up and pay 75p to get in these days.
Even the baggies will probably be £30 a ticket I should imagine.
I love non league games and my very local team Shortwood United play in the UHL division 1 with attendances of 75. The football is really quite good considering no one gets paid. And there’s a bar and you even get the odd roar of a crowd from our very near neighbours on the hill at Forest Green Rovers.
I’ve never had that tap on the shoulder from Stan or Josh to step up to the board . I’m still hopeful . If I did and looked at at a business that has lost money for the last four seasons I would take cognisance of the huge investment in the squad in terms of new players and better contracts for key stars and that it needs to rebuild and extend its premises . I think the proposed increase is reasonable given inflation forecasts and given that key elements of football inflation ( particularly salaries ) rise by more than inflation .
There is a big debate to be had about the match-going experience and how it has been tarnished . Arsenal’s catering and beer is awful and parts of the AV announcement ( the puerile repeat chanting of scorer’s names for example ) is execrable but by and large we’ve had super entertainment overall during the last three seasons .
I’ve questioned fans who have chanted. ‘ spend some fucking money ‘ in the past and have often found their expectation is that billionaires should just open their purse strings indiscriminately. PSR now requires careful financial husbandry and just as theatre , opera, concerts , gigs and upmarket restaurants are now extremely expensive so is Premier League football . These are not punitive increases in my view
At the risk of having my cake and eating it, I agree with every word, TTG. The bigger picture is that the entire pitch has been tilted by the financial shenanigans carried out by Chelsea, for the second time in the last 20 years, and then City. What we are now seeing are the results of that playing out: Football clubs are businesses. Owners want returns. And the result is that revenues have to be driven. For years our commercial side has been a joke. First Dean and then Gazidis were asleep at the wheel as MD’s. Venkatesham was a stuffed shirt. As a result we have been way down on that revenue stream compared to the paragons like United and Liverpool. You can exclude Chelsea and City as their commercial numbers were frankly fantasy. We are now rapidly improving, viz. the constant mails and website adverts for clothing at an interesting price point.
Complaints about lack of investment by the owners are nonsense, as you say, TTG. When the wage bill goes up by £100m in 1 season, that says it all. Unfortunately, most football fans only see finance as a one way street, bringing sparkly new toys. The equation needs to balance.
For clarity, that last point wasn’t a dig at any of the venerable denizens of this bar. It’s just that the way finance plays out us, as usual, by impacting these least able to meet the new demands. It’s ugly, but it’s reality.
As per the most recent accounts, of the three main revenue streams, match day was up the least at 28% year-on-year. Commercial was up 29% and broadcasting up 37%. The jump in broadcasting was driven by success on the pitch, which is the chicken-and-egg of the football business.
As Swiss Ramble observed in his analysis of last year’s financial results, Up to 2019 owner Stan Kroenke had put nothing into Arsenal (apart from buying the club), but since then he has provided £334m of loans “both to underpin transfer activities and for working capital purposes as required”, including £62m last season.
Now, those are loans, not capital injections, and I doubt they are interest-free. Yet, they are probably at friendlier rates than the club would get from its bankers and unencumbered by the conditions a bank typically would insist on.
TTG why can Liverpool freeze prices and we cannot?
Ned @37- Given global economics ( as far as I can tell from a small rock in the North Atlantic), I would be very concerned about both the commercial but more particularly the tv rights revenues for the PL clubs going forward. Certainly in the UK, tv revenues have little to no room to increase. Subscriber numbers are pretty much saturated and costs are eye watering, It’s an easy one to sacrifice if the primary concern is domestic budget balancing.
I guess with the 2026 World Cup coming up, they are anticipating a pre and post competition increase in interest in the PL. Is there room for subscriber increases over there?
I noticed Swiss Ramble analysed Liverpool’s accounts recently but I didn’t read it and anyway what Liverpool do is entirely their own affair. They are not identical to us . They will have a different age structure, wage structure , relationship with their shareholders ,different arrangements for financing a ground with a different capacity . Above all I suggest they generate more commercial income than we do. Our board needs to decide what is prudent in our situation and I am comfortable that they are good stewards of the club and I know from my contacts with the AST that the club consulted widely at Garlick, Lewis and Josh Kroenke’s level.
CER outlined the challenge very well, C130 y and Chavski skewed ( and screwed ) the Premier League . I’d blame Gazidis for a lot of the problems we face in revenue terms. He was asleep at the wheel and we fell hugely behind our main rivals ( including the Spuds ) in what we generate in commercial terms .
CER
Again you are on the money . We tend to pooh pooh ‘ tourists ‘, a number of whom find their way into our part of the ground and travel from all over the world. Given what CER says we need to tap into international revenue streams because of the pressures on UK tv income . From my experience people love the club and are much more committed Arsenal fans than some I could name who live much closer . Possibly we might invite Nigel Phillips of the AST to write about this issue of season ticket holders versus overseas tourists because I sense the club is very aware of its local supporter base . We can’t criticise the club’s poor results in generating commercial revenue and then expect them not to maximise income from overseas fans .
I’ve got to know Andy Exley who edits the programme and writes most of the communications from the club ( he wrote the climb down statement after the European Super League ) and he is immensely conscious of the love invested in the club from its traditional customer base – he is a long-time Gooner himself! I think Josh Kroenke is very emotionally intelligent and gets what Arsenal is about. But he’s a commercial man too.
There we part, I’m afraid, TTG. I see no evidence that the club or ownership gives a flying one about about its local supporter base and certainly not the season ticket holders. Perhaps that’s a natural corollary of ownership being based 4,000 miles away. Local to what exactly? I get why that is. But it all smacks of lip service and window dressing. When actions speak louder than words, I tend to watch the actions. Again, it is what it is, but I see and hear a large number of season ticket holders at or close to breaking point. Spreadsheets don’t tell that story.
? Breaking point ? With the club? Why ?- price of tickets? Quality and success of football ? Facilities ? If an Arsenal fan is close to breaking point I can’t work out why. Nobody who sits near me is at breaking point and most supporters I know would prefer owners who were more integrated into the history of the club but they are reasonably satisfied with the ownership .
I was very anti KSE but I think they have become much more cognisant of what Arsenal fans require . I’m not sure with all the ownership models there are many I’d prefer to ours
CER@39: Cable bundling makes watching sport on TV expensive and as a minority sport soccer is usually a premium add on. Even if you cut the cord, subscribing to a streaming service can mount up as you have to subscribe to several to get all the Arsenal games. Streaming fees are generally on the rise, if modestly. The big networks own the US broadcast rights. There probably isn’t much headroom for subscriber growth overall but there is scope for driving soccer audience and so ad revenue. The World Cup here will be a big boost for that.
You are right about UK broadcasting rights revenue topping out, as the have in continental Europe. There might be just one more UK contract before clubs switch to streaming their games directly. There are signs over here already that that is the direction of travel.
Thanks Ned. Interesting comparison with the UK then.
TTG – I choose to sit in the cheap seats. I have to concur with C100 who sits not far away that downstairs the feeling is increasingly one of being close to breaking point- with the season ticket. I know people who have given theirs up, There are others talking about it. Actual inflation has severely dented real earnings for many people, as have mortgage rates and house prices. For those of us with sufficient means, it’s something of a hypothetical exercise. But for some it is becoming a financial reality.
Have to agree with CER @ 42 and 45, from my own observational and slightiy unusual vantage point (also, I am fattening both Arsenal and Eurostar’s wallets, and despite my regular grumbles, I am feeling generally cared about better by the latter).
I’m not a ST holder, and I do wish it were easier to get tickets for games as a red member. That’s not really the debate above though, and I appreciate the points made, and the time taken to express them so clearly and thoughtfully. Excellent stuff, drinks for all!
Ned@44 – I remember reading a long time ago that what Stan Kroenke really wanted from Arsenal was the broadband rights to stream Arsenal games to a huge American audience.
That seems to have been borne out by his willingness to join the horrendous European Super League, thankfully squashed as soon as it approached reality.
We have seen greater investment in the squad in more recent years but as you said yourself, that has come in the form of loans and not a free cash injection. I have not been able to get to matches for a while now but in our last year of Champions League football in the Wenger years, my season ticket cost a touch over £2,000. For that we got Emery and the worst squad I can remember. I honestly have no idea what it is now. I realise that the Kroenkes are business people and the only realistic alternative to that, if you want to remain competitive, appears to be funding from a foreign national state fund.
Nobody I know wants that to happen at Arsenal – and new financial rules have made those cash injections seemingly impossible anyway.
When talking about traditional support – the people who grew up in or close to North London Forever territory – I have no idea how fathers grappling with huge mortgage hikes, cost of living inflation and then football ticket price rises can afford to do the traditional thing and take their kids to games anymore.
*kicks it long*
Bang!
I think this discussion has highlighted the demographic differences in our fan base and clearly the more squeezed your finances the more difficult discretionary spending is . I am sorry that a portion of the fan base is under such financial pressure . Arsenal have a season ticket waiting list of 50,000 plus I understand so know they can fill these seats . But I still think the increases are not unreasonable and businesses have to reflect the costs they face .
Good finish TTG.
The increases are probably ‘not unreasonable’ from a point of view, but they are certainly not welcome, and the question is of course ‘could they have been realistically [a word in itself very open to debate too] avoided?’.
The impression I get from inside (a different one) and outside is that more and more, ‘businesses’ certainly care for their finances and costs (granted, they have to survive), but nowadays care less and less for their customers or their employees….
I haste to add that I am lucky to be living and working in France in terms of workers’ rights in general.
Nice reply Ollie.
I fear the club is fast approaching (has approached?) the point where it knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
Well in for the half-ton, TTG.
CER@45 & Trev@48: The convergence of the sports, media and entertainment industries is more advanced in the US than the UK. US pro sports leagues and clubs are establishing their own streaming platforms and creating content for social media channels on a scale beyond anything seen in the UK. You will undoubtedly have noticed the increase in videos the club puts out on dotcom and social media, especially ‘back-story’ content about the players. However, this is nothing like the volume we get over here.
US pro leagues and teams are building up the infrastructure to eventually disintermediate the broadcast/cable/streaming companies to which they now sell the rights for live games and capture the full value for themselves, including all the monetisable direct relationships with consumers and their data that come with digital distribution.
The annual value of US pro sports rights is already more than $30 billion and growing. The honey pot is approaching the size where it is large and profitable enough for the leagues to consider it worthwhile to take on the production and distribution costs themselves and forego the convenience of outsourcing to broadcasters for a flat fee. Of course, this is all being carried on a deeper undercurrent of digital streaming and social media changing how people, especially younger people who comprise the most attractive demographic groups for advertisers and sponsors, consume content, fragmenting traditional media.
That undercurrent also affects UK media. With US investors owning half the PL clubs, the impact will inevitably reflect what is happening in the US. Differences will remain. US leagues hold relatively more power over their clubs than in Europe, so the battle between the big clubs to grab more of the revenue and share less with smaller clubs will be more intense in the UK, with Ofsoc, of which there is no US equivalent, likely sticking its oar in.
The National Basketball Association (NBA), which has the nearest international reach among US pro sports to the PL and the most extensive social media following of individual players, is the one to watch for the trends that will make you even more of an entry on the average revenue per user line of the leagues and clubs’s accounts than you already are. It already has a category of what are called lifestyle fans, international followers who buy merchandise and follow star players on social but don’t watch games and will never visit the home arena.
I’ve definitely come to the realisation that I will never get to see Arsenal live and I gladly accept that if it brings us success but right now we seem to be in a place where getting results done is tough.
Great report GSD of a game that kept me feeling good for days and I hope will be repeated (maybe not the scoreline) against that lacklustre Manchester outfit this weekend, sorry I mean the ones in red not blue
When I first became interested in the club’s finances, Arsenal’s annual realisation was a quite commendable £300M which derived in virtually equal amounts of £100M from Matchday, Broadcasting and Sponsorships (aka Commercial).
At that time there was a fairly widely shared view that the Matchday was achieved ‘unfairly’ off the backs of ‘us fans’ and derived directly from the highest priced seats in the League. Some saw this as a portent of an almost empty future stadium when fans rebelled.
Arsenal under Wenger were regular Top 4 Trophy/CL competitors which, with the ever-increasing global growth of thirst for ‘soccer’ secured excellent share access to Broadcasting income.
Regarding Sponsorships, Arsenal’s board appeared quite happy to have secured both a stadium and a kit sponsor and (in my mind) were content to let others grub around for additional deals in a way that ‘wasn’t quite us’. That was a great pity, because even then Man U were earning £200M – with the extra +£100M coming in quite handy for the annual purchase of at least three quality players (RVP for £28M).
Have things improved over the years? Yes, certainly. The League has become a money machine. Arsenal’s income has benefited. Matchday (+£53M), Broadcasting (+£205M). Even Sponsorship, which at (+£158M) doesn’t look too bad, until you compare it with our peer group where we sit in a lowly 10th spot behind even the Spuds. How on earth has that been allowed to happen?
Arsenal’s board has had a Commercial blind spot. Success requires development and clear articulation of the Arsenal brand and the promise of the experience it guarantees, as a strategic starting point. This then becomes the basis for dialogue with potential new partners, particularly those desiring more of a commercial relationship than their name on clothing and hence on TV.
‘Us fans’ still tend to want to have it both ways. “Arsenal’s hands on Old Big Ears for the very first time and that all wrapped up nicely with a home base treble if you can manage that please, Mr Arteta Sir. But please, Arsenal, don’t ask us to pay a penny more for the pleasure of watching and enjoying this happen”.
Inevitably, we can’t have it both ways.
Football is a major part of the global entertainment industry in which the very best enjoy magnificent success and their followers bask in the glory of association. Achieving and then sustaining the heights requires the very best talent, carefully nurtured and rewarded weekly with bars of gold. Do it properly and millions will beat a path to your door annually and pay any price you ask, mostly with pleasure.
The single route to footballing Nirvana requires 1) maximisation of the top income line in our category driven by Matchday, Broadcasting and Commercial and then 2) expenditure of all of that and more, mostly on ‘the talent’ (so don’t expect any profit at year-end).
As with much in today’s world where distribution of wealth is so grossly, unfairly skewed, we’re on a pathway where the contents of your wallet rather than the contents of your heart are the key to watching the Arsenal. Other brands are available, often at much more manageable prices.
I saw it this way a decade or so ago and the shadow on my sundial keeps pointing to ‘inclement but unchanged’. To make the hearts of the clients it wishes to attract most very happy, Arsenal will need to keep pushing that top line and lower priced seating (other than that available by moving along the road to Leyton Orient) is rather unlikely.
BtM@58: That is a very clear-eyed view, if not one that stirs the soul.
Thanks, Ned @56, for the description if thecUS sports environment and of the shape of things yo come.
Perfectly articulated, BtM @58. I do appreciate the realities of the situation and I’m trying not to bleat. What I’m struggling with is the cognitive dissonance required not to pull my hair out. My metaphorical hair, obviously.
Superbly articulated Btm . I think we are all violently agreeing with each other about what has happened. Any dissension relates to the extent that the club could cushion the financial effects for loyal , less affluent fans .
I once had a conversation about this with a lad at the ground. I pointed out that the increase that year was equivalent to foregoing one small beer pre-match .He would habitually have three or four pints pre-match . If he had them in a local pub the club didn’t benefit. If he drank in the ground they did .
‘ Why the f*** should I give up my beer?’ he said , ‘ I love a drink before a game . I pointed out that if the club stood still financially so he could have an extra beer that seemed to me to be unfair too. Camden will of course be paying a serious wedge for the beer concession and frankly three pints of Camden piss is enough for anyone but the point is that we need a spirit of give and take . I want everyone who loves Arsenal to be able to enjoy the match ( and have a drink ) but I want to see us lift the Cup with big ears, I want us to buy Alexander Isak, to offer Willy Saliba a contract that wards off Real Madrid and to build a ground that is comfortable and a source of pride .
I received my Council Tax bill and it’s gone up 4.6%. I’m told that’s normal in this environment. That’s what I was saying about Arsenal’s increases too.But I am aware that it appears to have caused a lot of pain to loyal supporters .
And who doesn’t love a bit of violent agreement?!!!
Re the beer, outside our block they have now installed beer machines. Now, it’s still Camden Nondescript, but it’s quicker to dispense and seems to taste better. Now that is not change. That is progress……
Violent agreement? Sounds proper naughty.
Amorin is whining that he won’t get given the time Arteta was. He shouldn’t have joined a badly managed club, then.
Classic managerial distraction technique. Is it a Portuguese thing or what? It’s hugely unappealing and infradig. Get on with your job, you clown.
CER TTG@much earlier: Swiss Ramble had this to say about Liverpool’s season tickets:
Liverpool increased season ticket prices by 2% last season, which was the first time these had been raised in nine years.
The Supporters Board was understandably unhappy, “To implement any price increase during this cost of living crisis is cruel, unjust, unreasonable and unfair.”
The good news is that the club has recently announced that prices have been frozen for the 2025/26 season, despite “significant increases in Anfield match day operating costs and continued rises in the cost of football operations in general”.
My 2 cents is that Liverpool can freeze season ticket prices again because (i) they have expanded capacity at Anfield, so total matchday revenue is at least keeping in touch with the growth at the other big PL clubs, and (ii) their commercial revenues have grown so strongly (second only to Man City now) that it lets them cross-subsidise season ticket prices.
It is conceivable the ownership values having loyal and regular local fans, but it seems rather a bizarre idea.
Oh for a bit of violent agreement – sadly not on these knees, me thinks 🤷♂️
Some seriously good posts above from everyone on all sides of the discussion.
It’s all actually taken me back to a time when nobody – well certainly not me at that young age – even thought about the clubs finances. It was a time when I’m sure we wanted success as much as we do now but we demanded it less than we do now. Probably because we now feel more entitled to success, due to the very high prices we have to pay.
In those days you could probably name the chairman of the club but would have struggled with any of the directors beyond that. Commercial, broadcasting and sponsorship departments ? Not even in the landscape ! It all just happened and we were oblivious to anything other than what happened on the pitch on Saturday afternoon between 3.00pm and 4.45pm.
What happened for me was that I stood on the North Bank for £1.10p and watched the likes of Alan Ball, Supermac, David O’Leary and Liam Brady. How did we ever manage that ?
I wonder how much clubs like Arsenal actually make from refreshments such as beer and hot dogs?
I would imagine not very much given the 60000 footfall they have.
And why is that? Because it’s ott expensive and the quality is utter shite.
SP@68, you are absolutely right about the poor quality of fare offered within the Grove. I still lament the disappearance of the little guy who used to sell filled bagels in the North Bank at Highbury. He got edged out by the caterers who won the contract after the move and who serve inedible crap. It’s a long time since I bought anything other than an overpriced bottle of water inside the ground. On a cold winter’s afternoon or night, the Bovril remains tolerable but the hot chocolate is disgustingly dilute. Improved quality would certainly improve sales.
Shocked at being charged £2.25 for a 250ml bottle of water at the Emirates several years ago now, I actually bothered to work out that to fill your 2 gallon garden bucket would have cost a touch over £81 !!
£40 a gallon for water while there was uproar over petrol rising to £7 a gallon 🤷♂️
If Arsenal sold petrol at the ground to the same concentration as their beer and Bovril, a full tank would just about get you from Drayton Park to Holloway tube.
🤣🤣
Best stadium song of them all? Hibs fans singing Sunshine on Leith written by their fans The Proclaimers wins it hands down for me.
Charlie and Craig used to live two doors along from me. As young lads they were absolutely identical and we knew them the as Blue Man and Green Man (their mum gave one a blue anorak, the other a green anorak to aid identification). Yep, I’m biased, but that doesn’t change an absolute fact.
North London Forever, also written by one of our fans, has potential to get right up there too. Both leave the Virgil Van Dyke anthem, You’ll Never Walk Again way back in the woods.
More transAtlantic comparisons: the cost of a beer (16 fl oz US pint, not 20 fl oz UK pint) at an NFL stadium this season just finished ranged from $16.49 (£12.76 at current exchange rates) at the Washington Commanders to $6.80 ($5.26) at the Cincinnati Bengals. Stan Kroenke’s LA Rams ranked sixth out of the 32 NFL teams at $14. Being American beer, it comes pre-diluted if you buy the mass-produced brands, although some stadiums sell local craft beers.
The average cost for a family of four to go to an NFL game (cheapest tickets, parking in the stadium lot, a beer each for the parents and a soda for the kids plus a hot dog each) is
$646.88 (£502.59). The average for the National Basketball Association is $304.64 (£235.82) and for Major League Baseball, $180.54 (£139.75).
It should also be remembered that most US pro sports stadiums have massive and cheap parking lots to accommodate tailgate parties — where fans arrive early and cook out food they have brought from home and drink the beer they have brought from the back of their vehicles, and so have less need for expensive in-stadium fare.
Not a cup of Bovril to be had anywhere, though.
Not so easy to get anything at Forest these days 😂
BtM@73: That is very stirring, and good to see the team singing it, too. Another song that has become a great football anthem by adoption is Dafydd Iwan’s Yma o Hyd, sung at all Wales games in recent years. The chorus expresses the fundamental nature of being a fan — in spite of everyone and everything, we are still here.
(Warning: does contain images of Gareth Bale)
Thanks for those stats Ned. I enjoy debates about beer although some of the stuff we are describing barely passes muster .
When I was at Harvard some lads from A.T& T invited me to see the Red Sox. Just before we went in to Fenway Park one of the lads said ‘ I hope you’re ok with the drinking. We do like to load up with beer !’ Beer was dispensed at our seats but it was the weakest and worst beer I have ever tasted and dispensed in pretty meagre plastic containers . I preserved British drinking ‘ honours’. They commented that it looked like I was ‘ pretty used’ to drinking beer ! Frankly I could have had an intravenous drip of the stuff during the game and not noticed ! The price I remembered to be about double what you’d expect to pay in England at a football match ( beer tends to be of much better quality at cricket ) .
I don’t know the details of our deal with Camden Brewery but I guess they pay a large amount for the exclusive franchise and Arsenal would get a commission per pint sold .
Bath, Btm and I went to Fulham a couple of years ago and had a pint of Camden Pale Ale to celebrate victory after the game as they also had the franchise there . I bought a round in Wetherspoons locally , on the following day for over a dozen people and it was cheaper than the pints I bought at Fulham ! I’d really prefer us to have a decent beer partner at Arsenal. I hope the choice is not purely determined by the amount Camden pay us .
TTG@77: Typical alcohol content for popular brand US beers is 4/4+% by volume; ‘Lite’ beers will be up to half that. Non-alcoholic beers, which can have up to 0.5% alcohol by volume, are growing in popularity (and taste quality). Craft beers will be 6/7/8% but can go higher. Bars mainly serve draft beer in 12 oz measures, not full US pints, which might explain your seemingly small plastic glasses at Fenway.
The above numbers are based on diligent, in-person research…
Another data point on season tickets, from a report which looked at Valencia’s adoption of dynamic pricing for tickets:
In contrast, the Premier League, with its structured approach and strong fan engagement requirements, has largely avoided dynamic pricing. Clubs are required to publish ticket prices before the season, and around 70% of tickets are sold as season tickets that are exempt from price fluctuations (during the season). However, 2024/25 saw 19 of 20 Premier League clubs raise ticket prices, sparking protests from fan groups.
FC Copenhagen has introduced a subscription option that lets season ticket holders pay over three, six or ten months to spread the cost. The cheapest monthly subscription payment (standing behind the goal at the home end) is less than £9, which gives all home league and cup games. European games have to be bought separately. By way of comparison, a stand seat with European games included would be around £45 a month. Watching the Danish Superliga is obviously a lot cheaper than watching the PL. Paying monthly works out slightly more expensive over the season than paying upfront, mostly because there is a 10% discount available for up-front renewals.
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