It’s OK to be happy when Arsenal win

Arsenal, as you obviously know by now, won yesterday, beating Bournemouth 1-0. It wasn’t, to oversimplify, a pretty game; Arsenal struggled to create much, didn’t really look all that fluid, and overall, probably should have done better against that level of opposition than labor to a single goal. But, at the end of the day, Arsenal won! They earned three points, they kept a clean sheet, and they’re currently sitting in third place heading into the international break.

Judging by the reaction around the internets, though, it would seem that Arsenal had the worst day in the history of bad sports days. People are raking Unai Emery over the coals, screaming about how Arsenal should be beating the Bournemouths of the world by more than a single goal, and just generally feeling like everything Arsenal-related is a flaming dumpster fire of a clown car driving over a cliff. All of which may be true. But! Here’s another Hot Sports Take for you, that I will put in bold type just so it doesn’t get lost:

It’s OK to be happy when your favorite sports team wins.

When Arsenal win, that’s good! We are all Arsenal fans, and we want our team to win. And that’s exactly what Arsenal did yesterday - it wasn’t an aesthetically pleasing win, for sure, but a win’s a win. And keeping a clean sheet, for this defense, is pretty great.

There is plenty of time in any given week to pick apart the last game, to question the manager’s tactics and squad selection, and to run back the game and see where things could have gone better or been done differently. And we will all do that. So why not, on the actual day of the game, take some time and enjoy the fact that Arsenal won, instead of being angry that they didn’t win better?

We all know Arsenal have a lot of issues right now. Many people aren’t happy with the job Emery is doing, and there are a ton of things going on right now, especially around squad selection and match tactics, that make people question his fitness for the job. And that’s fine, because Emery isn’t doing as well as a lot of people expect or want, and there are definitely things to be unhappy about.

But maybe, just for fun, take the period of time right after an Arsenal win and...enjoy the win? Be happy that the team you love, that you watch all the time (voluntarily, I might add), did the thing we all want our sports teams to do - they won. They moved up the table. Leave all the “yes, they won, but...” or “why aren’t they steamrollering these teams” thoughts aside, even for a couple hours, and enjoy the win.

I’m not saying you should be all fake sunshine all the time; again, I’m fully cognizant of the state of affairs at Arsenal right now. I’m just saying, it might be good to put that cognition aside, just for a little while, and enjoy a good outcome when it happens. Sports are supposed to be fun - it’s perfectly OK to let them be that way.