3 games this season that prove the ‘Arsenal are boring’ crowd don’t watch Arsenal

As Arsenal fans, we've got to stick together. If you're hoping that rival fans and the wider media in general are ever going to give this team credit, well forget about it. There is always a "yeah but".

Towards the end of Arsène Wenger's tenure, Arsenal famously played beautiful football, yeah but they never challenged for the Premier League and opponents could easily bully them. When Mikel Arteta's team started putting together title challenges against the behemoth that is Manchester City, built on an empire of sham contracts and financial cheating, yeah but Arsenal did not become champions.

Last season, after years of being told this team just needs to get over the line, yeah but it's about time, and yeah but they lost the Champions League Final. Even now, just ten games into this campaign with the Gunners five points clear, the groundwork is being set; yeah but everyone else is rubbish, as well as, yeah but it doesn't count because Arsenal are boring.

In fairness, Arsenal fans would ideally like their team to score more goals, albeit only five sides have bagged more in the Premier League so far. It is not Arteta's job to entertain neutrals, he simply wants to win football matches.

Nevertheless, this narrative intentionally ignores the Arsenal matches that are entertaining, so here are three from this season to disprove the theory.

Bayern Munich 2-2 Arsenal

Arsenal's recent Champions League tie with Bayern Munich was simply an entertaining match between two of Europe's best teams. There were 27 shots, of which ten were on target, seven big chances and a combined xG value of 4.02 as both teams went for the win in Bavaria.

Of course, the decreased stakes in the league phase remove any serious tension or jeopardy in these matches. Nevertheless, this game against Bayern underlines what a game looks like when an opponent is willing to go toe-to-toe with Arsenal.

Of course, Vincent Kompany's team have the ability to do it, while most Premier League sides do not. Nevertheless, solely blaming Arsenal for matches being uneventful feels purposefully misguided, when ignoring the low blocks employed by Nottingham Forest, Everton, Hull and others.

Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea

It is the recent games against Forest and Liverpool, both impressive 1-0 away wins by the way, that have ignited the latest Arsenal are boring discourse. Both have been in the prime time Sunday 4:30pm slot, when most casual fans are watching. Well, if those people cast their minds back just a few weeks, Arsenal and Chelsea served up a very entertaining London derby in that same time slot.

Despite falling behind very early, two beautiful goals from Kai Havertz and then Martin Ødegaard secured victory. Havertz's dummy in particular for the winner was a true work of art. Again, this match featured 29 shots and five big chances, of which four went the way of Arteta's team.

As with the Bayern game, it takes two to tango. Xabi Alonso's side were willing to go at Arsenal, in a way others are unable to, which is what produces an entertaining spectacle for the neutral.

Arsenal 3-0 Manchester City

Sometimes, everyone's first opinion is in fact the right one. Following August's FA Community Shield, a resounding 3-0 Arsenal win over Manchester City at the Millennium Stadium, the general consensus was that Arteta's team were miles better than Enzo Maresca's men.

Well, following three successive defeats for the soon to be sanctioned pariah club of the Premier League, perhaps that was correct after all. On a sunny afternoon in Cardiff, Riccardo Calafiori broke the deadlock inside 23 seconds, before Havertz and Ødegaard were again the scorers.

Following recent narrow wins, particularly the victory over Slavia Prague, the recapturing of this ruthlessness is what all Gooners are calling to see on a more regular basis. Well, a repeat of this scoreline when Man City visit North London on 29 November would go down well, wouldn't it?

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