London-based Arsenal Football Club is one of the most prominent and famous clubs in the world, but they have struggled to find championship form in recent years. In the latest incarnation of All or Nothing, Amazon Prime Video’s long-running single-team sports documentary series, we get an inside look at The Gunners’ 2021-22 campaign. Will they be able to regain their once famous glory or will they continue to be in the middle of the league table?
ALL OR NOTHING: ARSENAL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening shot: Footage of the Emirates Stadium, match highlights and a roaring crowd is interwoven with a narrative that explains the club’s position. To see also : Why shoulder season is the next big travel trend. It’s a quick, efficient piece of exposition; even if you don’t know the club, you are quickly caught up.
Bottom line: There was a time – not so long ago – when Arsenal were synonymous with success. The third most successful club in English football history (behind only Liverpool and Manchester United in terms of trophies won), the London Gunners became known as “The Invincibles” during their 2003-04 campaign, when they went an entire season without losing a game in the Premier League. Under the leadership of long-time manager Arsene Wenger and behind the record-breaking exploits of striker Thierry Henry, Arsenal have consistently been among the best clubs in England and Europe.
Of course, times are changing. Wenger and Henry are long retired, rivals like Manchester City are fueled by foreign investment, and well… sometimes teams just fall flat. Arsenal enter the 2021-22 Premier League season after six years without breaking into the top four, and with the youngest club in the league, they are not expected to change that. But can they change direction and find their way back to the top? That’s where we begin with this latest edition of All or Nothing.
What shows will it remind you of? So far, All or Nothing is one of the most prominent brands of Amazon Prime Video; since first launching in 2016, the show has aired more than a dozen single-team documentaries, focusing on clubs from the NFL and NHL to Major League Soccer and American College Football. However, if you’re not familiar, think of it as Hard Knocks, or even Drive To Survive, just jumping between sports.
Our take: There’s plenty of drama to be found in association football, even if you’re not a die-hard fan. In Sunderland Til’ I Die, we see the slow tragedy of a proud club sliding down the relegation ladder. In Ted Lasso, we saw an uninformed American reluctantly appreciate the sport. All or Nothing: Arsenal is a bit simpler – no do-or-die roles in likely relegation, no comedy writers’ room benefits; there is only a club whose fans expect to be at the top struggling to find a way back.
After the 2020/21 season, the club’s relationship with the fans is strained. They haven’t qualified for the Champions League for a number of years, and given their eighth place finish, they won’t be competing in any European competition for the first time in a quarter of a century. Distrust of the Kroenke family’s American-based ownership turns to full-blown fury when the club agrees to take part in the announced but ultimately scuttled formation of a breakaway European Super League, something fans see as the destruction of a centuries-old tradition.
Still, the offseason is always an angry time, and nothing takes the pain away like a win. The Gunners just need to find a way to start winning more. It’s a difficult task, given that the club enters the season as the youngest team in the EPL, and with the youngest manager – 39-year-old former team captain Mikel Arteta, in his first year as the first man. They have some talent, to be sure – young winger Bukayo Saka, veteran Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and the recent addition of expensive centre-back Benjamin White, to name a few. They are the biggest spenders in the league during the last transfer window and it is clear that they are interested in doing what it takes to bring the club back.
But talent has never been the biggest problem for one of the most supported and funded clubs in the Football Association; the results were. The new season begins on a difficult note, with three straight defeats opening their schedule, and the Gunners find themselves at the very bottom of the Premier League table heading into September’s competition with fellow cellar-dwellers Norwich City. Can I recover?
Farewell: Arsenal finally broke through in the fourth match of the season, recording a 1-0 victory over Norwich City that offers relief to players and fans alike. It’s only one win, but hopefully it can be a turning point. However, as fans note after the match, the first real test will come in the upcoming north London derby against old rivals Tottenham Hotspur. Another fan notes that “everybody’s got to win.”
Sleeper star: He may no longer qualify as a “sleeper”, but 19-year-old winger Bukayo Saka is certainly the most exciting figure in both Arsenal’s present and their future. We learn both about his immense potential and the abuse he suffered after the decisive penalty in the UEFA Euro 2020 final against Italy was stopped. His grace and resilience to the embarrassment of some England fans suggest he has a great career ahead of him.
Most Pilot-y Line: “Mate, I’ve got some young kids who absolutely give me heaps,” says Ben White, referring to the reaction to the 23-year-old’s £50m price tag. “They ripped me off straight away, they were like ’50 million, you’re a piece of shit.’
Our call: STREAM IT. If you’re a casual fan of English football, it’s a great way to immerse yourself in the teams’ up-and-coming success. If you’re a hardcore fan, it offers behind-the-scenes looks you can’t get enough of.
Scott Hines is an architect, blogger, and internet power user based in Louisville, Kentucky, who publishes the widely loved Action Cookbook Newsletter.
