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Trophies Ain't Everything, Vol. 92378654

The choice between winning trophies and watching entertaining soccer is a false one - teams can have both. However, the absence of the former does not mean the latter is also gone.

Laurence Griffiths

I won't waste your time here recapping all the arguments about Arsenal's lack of trophies and whether it matters one damn bit. You know them, you can recite them rote. You're tired of them, and we're tired of rehashing it every few weeks. You have your opinion, and you're welcome to it, whichever side of the debate you reside on.

I will, however, point you to an interesting article in today's Guardian, in which Scott Murray reinforces the argument that entertainment is in fact the point, and that trophies are the by-product, not the other way around.

It's easy to lose sight of the fact that sports are a diversion from the daily grind and not an addition to it, particularly when the importance of every little thing is shoved down our throats with a jackhammer by a media/PR machine that wants us to believe that sports are more important than life, more important than your family, and altogether the reason that the world spins around every day.

Murray's piece, though, reminds us that what we're seeing now is completely entertaining and awesome, in the same way that a rollercoaster ride is awesome - you may be nauseated a bit at the end of it, but there's no denying that you get your money's worth when you watch the Arsenal these days.

So instead of gnashing your teeth, rending your garments, or portending Arsenal's doom, might I suggest that you look at games like yesterday as the sublime, yet ridiculous, form of entertainment that they truly are? I didn't see it, but that game sounded like a whole lot of fun (at least the second half), and that's the point, right?