Arsenal: A win is a win, isn't it?

I’ve been waiting all my life to win away at Arsenal and that statement alone puts the rest of what I am going to say into perspective. We’ve achieved something almost unique in the last 50 years. If you look at this in a bit more context you will no doubt remember that for most of those 50 years the team that Arsenal had at their disposal has been literally miles better than ours. They were a team fighting for titles whilst often we were a team fighting relegation.

The gap between us and them right now, however, has probably never been smaller in my lifetime. Player for player there is not the vast chasm that there used to be and we finished above them last season. I can’t help feeling a little bit disappointed with our approach to this game.

I’ve usually been the first person to say that I don’t care how we win, but that we just win. I feel almost guilty for not being as overjoyed at finally beating Arsenal away as I should be, but I can’t help having a few concerns about the evolution of our team. It’s not so much the game on Sunday, but how this approach will carry over into other games this season.

Rodgers may now be lauded as some sort of tactical genius and, I can’t really argue, as a win is a win isn’t it? Maybe I shouldn’t be contemplating how the game might have evolved had Arsenal’s goal counted and we suddenly faced the rest of the game with no striker. Maybe I should presume that Rodgers is making the best of limited resources at present with key players injured.

Previously we’ve seen unexpected away wins against decent opposition see us set up a similar away against lesser teams that we probably should try and blow away: two defensive midfielders or five at the back against lower quality opposition. We’ve subsequently looked laborious and uncreative against teams that just sit in and have struggled to break down the opposition. The system has also seen us rely heavily on the incredible attributes of a striker who is edging towards the end of his career - as was the case against Arsenal.

I’m just nervous that the evolution of the side may be impaired if we continue with this cautious approach and don’t develop a style that brings others into play to share the goalscoring burden. It’s sometimes easy to praise when we win and condemn when we lose. We’ve won. We beat Arsenal away. Maybe I should just take it and move on.