How the magnificent Arsenal defence formed a Bernabeu barricade 

Here's Gooner Fanzine print columnist Rich Howes with his Howes Growls opinion piece after Arsenal's superb showing against Real Madrid

Mile High Soccer

Back from Denver, Colorado, Howes Growls at Arsenal’s offensive order in N5 — even if we can only purr at our most recent masterclass on the road.

Ahead of another guttural roar in Gooner print, columnist Richard Howes wonders if we should take the less likely option more often, especially in attack. 

William Saliba’s brain fade and one or two other scares aside, the Arsenal defence formed a Bernabéu Barricade in Madrid.

We were a constant threat going forward too.

Jakub Kiwior could still be out there now without putting a foot wrong.

Our full-backs, sensational.

Our midfield, magnificent.

Declan Rice, otherworldly.

Our makeshift striker, Mikel Merino, a matador etc etc

We were tactically superb.

However, we ain’t won anything yet. Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) await in the Champions League semi-final, and Mikel Arteta’s playbook will only take us so far.

Let me take you back to the first leg for evidence of that…

Slideshow job

“Are you watching the next presentation,” said a colleague.

“Stuff that,” I barked back, “We kick-off in an hour.”

It was midday on Tuesday, April 8, in Denver, Colorado, and Arsenal hosted Real Madrid in the quarter-final first leg 60 minutes later, local time.

Suddenly the importance of the business convention I was attending dwindled. There was now a fool’s errand to run — to find a soccer match on a television in the U.S.

Say what you want about the game’s growing popularity on the other side of the Atlantic, this task is still not easy, especially if you can’t get to supporters’ group pubs, like The Celtic on Market, where the Denver Gooners congregate.

Instead, I made it to the Yard House, located within the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel. Screens were hanging from the ceiling every few feet around a busy boozer; it was lunchtime. Predictably, none of them were showing the build-up to the match.

It’s not because Denver, the ‘Mile High City’, isn’t a sporting town. It is. Stan Kroenke, owner of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which is the holding company of Arsenal, also has stakes in a host of local teams, like the Denver Nuggets (basketball), the Colorado Avalanche (ice hockey), the Colorado Rapids (soccer), and the Colorado Mammoth (lacrosse). Many of these sports — and others — were being well covered around the Yard House, as burgers were served, and light lagers were downed. Soccer just ain’t that important to most Americans.

I knew Paramount+ and CBS Sports broadcast the Champions League, so I pulled a table server to one side to ask if a screen or two could be switched over. He obliged and I nervously settled down. Chicken tenders and fries were washed down rapidly with Coors Light.

Al Tanzil, a Gooner who was also at the trade event, had made it into the bar too; we’d discussed the match the day prior and wondered if our work commitments might have seen us miss it given the seven-hour time difference to London. As if.

Throw away the playbook

At half-time, various WhatsApp messages from home all followed the same narrative; we were unlucky not to be ahead, even if Real Madrid were dangerous at times. Tanzil agreed.

But it was the second half where it all happened, and we can learn from Declan Rice overlooking set-piece coach Nicolas Jover’s instructions to cross his 58th minute free-kick. With Jover arcing his arm towards the back post, Rice whirled the ball sensationally inside the other one. Yard House patrons were oblivious then, and disinterested still, even as Rice scored his second of the night with a strike of arguably even greater quality about 12 minutes later.

This time, Jover was surely shouting, “Shoooooot!”

It was Mile High Soccer… Football, I mean. And we’re going to need more of it if we’re going to overcome France’s PSG and then win the final. More specifically, we’re going to need Slam Dunk moments from our Most Valuable Players, which might mean the coaches stepping back and letting them get on with it.

Nicolas ‘Set-Piece Again’ Jover has been at the heart of so much that has been good about this season but, more generally, we would be more fluent in the final third, especially in open play, particularly at home, if we saw the opportunity in real time, rather than meticulously planning for its arrival. We know Arteta likes his stats and percentages, but, as Rice proved, creativity and flair has its place too.

Watch sport on TV in the states and it is statistical overload. After five minutes of any game, the screen is already full of data about yards gained and passes completed. They love a percentage play too. It does my head in, much like the arm flapping and constant waving from our coaches these days.

Think of your most magical, dewy-eyed Arsenal memories. What were the chances of them happening?

Way to go, Declan!