Feature

The art of football

Stateside Gooner

By Chris Toronyi

Each of us have our own idea of beauty, of art.

It can be as simple as the fluidity of a raindrop running down your windshield, the contrast of the blue sky and the dried out Hollywood Hills, even something as predictable as Venice Beach sunset or a well written and acted scene. All are equally beautiful in their own ways. Each of these provide a degree of reflection, a sense of relaxation and satisfaction.

The first 45 minutes against Napoli was beautiful, it was art. It was creative. It was chilling. I think I safely speak for a majority of us that what we witnessed was magical and near perfection. It was the perfect scene where the script and acting was completely on the same page. I mean it's hard to remember the last time we had that feeling of being in absolute awe. It was the little things in our play that made the larger movements of the ball look so free and beautiful.

It was the simple brush strokes of running to space, creating space that opened things up for us to let our creativity flow. It was the delicate touches and control that made the runs and connections seem so seamless. The play between our 3 midfielders, the way they interchanged, they way they understood what the other wanted was as if they were met to play together. Cut from the same string of DNA(rsenal).

What was even more amazing about our display of football-art was all of our individual artists were on the same page, willing to create, focused on what had to be done and done to the highest degree. The skill has always been there, maybe a bit shy, but I think we can safely say the confidence to display this art is now out for all to enjoy. No longer does it stay neatly packaged in the locker, or closet, it's out for all of us to enjoy.

Now, as Amy Lawrence said on the podcast this week, it is early doors, but man what 45-minutes put in by this team. And this is only the first real piece of art produced by this team. Imagine when we complete another couple of pieces, find other ways to display our creativity.

It's gonna be beautiful. It's gonna be Arsenal.

And yes, I was smiling while writing this.

The Arsenal America Podcast welcomes Amy Lawrence of The Guardian and Observer, Tim of @7amkickoff and Phil Wall of the AST. We talk about Swansea, the beauty in the Napoli performance and the impacts of Flamini and Ozil. Please don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and you can also grab the RSS Feed.

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'Stateside Gooner' Chris Toronyi is a longtime Arsenal supporter and the host of The Arsenal America podcast, available every week at ArsenalAmerica.com and on iTunes. You can read more of Chris' thoughts on Twitter

The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of Arsenal Football Club or Arsenal Broadband Ltd.