Saving Your Best Form for When it Barely Matters

Last night, Galatasary waited until they needed to score 5 goals against Real Madrid before they ever looked like a team that was capable of knocking Los Blancos out of the competition.

3-0 down on aggregate, Galatasary conceded a further early goal, and still didn’t really begin playing until Emanuel Eboue’s thumping drive in the 56^th minute led to two more goals, and for the first time, some hope that they might go through.

Wesley Sneijder missed a sitter before converting a much more difficult chance, before a Didier Drogba backheel goal, however Ronaldo’s second goal of the game brought everyone back to reality.

League form

 In Europe’s domestic leagues, many are already as good as over.  The German Bundesliga has been won in record time by an astonishingly strong Bayern Munich team.  The Scottish Premier League can be won next weekend by Celtic, and it would take a massive leap of the imagination to see anyone other than Barcelona and Manchester United winning their respective leagues.

Roberto Mancini, the Manchester City boss, expressed his frustration at playmaker Samir Nasri after his inspired display against Stoke City, stating that he wanted ‘to punch’ him, because Nasri’s performance had shown what he was capable of, so why hadn’t he been able to produce performances of a similar ilk for the entire season?

Mancini must have wanted to punch a lot of his players after their victory over Manchester United reduced the insurmountable gap of 15 points between them, to an insurmountable gap of 12 points between them

Arsenal

It is well documented that Arsenal haven’t won a trophy in 8 years.  After going out tamely in both domestic cups and falling far behind in the league, the Champions League was their only remaining hope.  After surrendering 3-1 in the home leg to Bayern Munich, Arsenal’s hopes of a trophy were hanging by the thinnest thread.

After managing to win the return leg 2-0 against Bayern Munich, unfortunately not quite enough to see them through, Arsenal have won every game since.

This burst of form may help them overtake local rivals Tottenham in the league and secure an all important Champions League spot, but it is a bare minimum for the Arsenal fans who demand trophies.

Pressure

There is an obvious reason why teams often do better when all hope appears lost; the lack of pressure.  When it seems impossible to achieve, there are no expectations, and players like Arsenal’s can play with freedom.

There is also an element of other teams taking their foot off the gas.  With Manchester United out of all cup competitions and sitting comfortably at the top, they will canter to the end of the season.  Man City had much greater motivation going into the match. 

Arsenal are also said to have conditioned their players to come good towards the end of the season, perhaps in anticipation of a title charge, however a sprint finish won’t work if you give yourself too much ground to give up, and that’s what Arsenal have done in numerous recent seasons.

Perhaps next year Arsenal can remain in contention to actually achieve something when they hit their end of season purple patch which has not worried their traditional top of the table rivals for years.