Football runs on narrative cycles as much as anything else in sport, culture, or life. We ride the troughs as best as we can and enjoy the crests because we know they won’t last. The good news is there is always the next game. The bad news is, well, there is always the next game. What side of the divide you fall on is determined by where your football club is within its own current narrative.
Arsenal versus Manchester United. Both teams with new managers, albeit not under the same circumstances or for the same duration. Both clubs searching to cement a new identity moving forward; a sustainable future without the last great manager to give them success and longevity. One, coming off the heady back of his team achieving the improbable in Europe; the other, well, let’s just say his team seems to be taking a few steps back for every three steps taken forward.
Unai Emery’s team had found themselves on a 22-match unbeaten run very early on in the new manager’s time in North London. A combination of fresh ideas, some very good performances, and also the shiny luck of the new. Going into today’s game at the Emirates, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men were undefeated in domestic competitions (a run of nine games) and undefeated away from home in all competitions. The caretaker manager was responsible for an emphatic resurgence following the departure of Jose Mourinho; one that you had to admire even if you weren’t a Red Devil purely for the unexpected quality of the beautiful game.
What is the point of any of this, you ask? Well, big games are always subject to more of a narrative than the others over the course of the season. We are, after all, storytellers, creators and consumers, all of us playing each of these roles, sometimes at the same time. The stage for today’s match between Arsenal and Manchester United was set–top four in the balance, bragging rights to a fierce rivalry with lots of history, and manager narratives.