Arsenal Vs Newcastle United: Be careful what we wish for

Many Arsenal fans, including myself, wanted Arsene Wenger to heavily rotate against Newcastle United. Those same fans, including myself, were then upset when they lost. I guess we should be careful what we wish for.

The Europa League is the unquestioned priority of Arsenal football for the remainder of this season. Ever since that fateful week of a pair of 3-0 hammerings at the hands of Manchester City, that much was clear. The EFL Cup final was lost; the top four was now out of reach.

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And so, although gradually since late February, Arsene Wenger has shifted his resources from the remaining Premier Leagues to those crucial knockout ties in Europe. First, it constituted resting the likes of Laurent Koscielny, who is renowned for his injury problems. But as time has progressed, Wenger has been more wide-ranging with the changes that he has made.

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Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil have all been eased out of the domestic picture, so much so that they are now rarely even included on the substitutes bench, Hector Bellerin and Granit Xhaka, the two most-featured outfield players in the squad, have both enjoyed weeks off, while the likes of Reiss Nelson and Joe Willock have been introduced to deputise for those missing senior players, the latter of which making his league debut in Sunday’s 2-1 loss to Newcastle.

This rotation policy that I and many other fans have been calling for. The argument is a simple one: The Premier League is no longer of much importance, the Europa League is the unquestioned priority as it offers both a trophy and passage into next season’s Champions League, and so everything should be geared towards maximising the team’s effectiveness and performance in Europe.

However, and I include myself in this, perhaps judging by the response to the Newcastle defeat, we should be careful what we wish for.

Losing is never nice, even in a game that is seemingly meaningless. But I was livid in the second half of Sunday’s disaster. In the post-match report, I described it as a disaster. It genuinely enraged me, even though, prior to it, this was a game that I was quite happy for Wenger to essentially overlook in favour of more important fixtures.

But that is actually ridiculous. Logically, that response doesn’t really make sense. I guess I just find it amusing that we, as fans, can have grandiose ideas about the season should be navigated, but then, one apparently meaningless loss later, and we are bemoaning the performance of the players and the result of the team.

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In the end, none of us really know that much at all. I guess, then, we should all be a little careful as to what we should wish for, myself as much as anybody else.