I had hoped to send this email out this past weekend accompanied with a drawing from our 22-0 bashing of West Ham, but turns out the football gods didn't have that on the cards for us.
Anyway.
Last week marked the 9th anniversary of Poorly Drawn Arsenal. And while matches lately have felt a bit like this to watch
As per usual here are some stats from this last year
- I drew 105 drawings (made 270 last year)
- Made 12 animations (Made 30 last year)
- Didn't travel this year for Poorly Drawn Arsenal because Arsenal came to Philadelphia (traveled 4 times last year)
- Went to 1 Arsenal game (went to 2 last year)
- Made a poster for the club
- 1 sold out show in a 300 seat theater.
I slowed down a lot this year. Part of that is because I got married and moved this year, but I think on another level I have found this season to be exhausting. Poorly Drawn Arsenal's mission, if you want to call it that, has always been to find the joy in things even with the bad.
That has been harder this season than it has been in the past. Every time we find ourselves in a groove someone’s hamstring (held together by scotch tape, string, and a strong dose of hope) snaps. I’ve learned more about the anatomy of the upper leg than I think I ever cared to in my life. This information will most likely amount to nothing outside of the Arsenal context.
Maybe one day I will see someone running to catch a train and suddenly grab for their hamstring. A crowd of people gather around this person, no one knowing what to do. Someone in the crowd screams, “surely there’s a hamstring specialist in this crowd of people!” I emerge putting on my glasses.
“I saw this once way back in the 2024-25 with a man called Bukayo Saka. This is a grade three tear,” I say.
Complete silence comes over the crowd. Suddenly, one man starts slowly clapping and says “He’s done it again” then the entire crowd roars. Someone offers to lift me up onto their shoulders, but I refuse. I also have a train to catch.
Outside of that situation, I can’t see a use for this knowledge.
I sometimes worry that this injury curse is doomed to follow me for my entire life. My favorite basketball team is the Philadelphia 76ers. They once drafted a player and he immediately broke his foot. While he was recovering he ate something with sesame in it only to discover he was allergic to sesame. The allergy nearly killed him, he lost so much weight he had to rework his shot, and he ended up only playing 13 games in the NBA. I guess, luckily, things have not gotten that bad for Arsenal.
It’s because of this exhaustion there hasn’t been as many drawings or animations this year. I'm sure someone reading this is thinking this write up will lead me to say “well, that was the final season of Poorly Drawn Arsenal, nice knowing you!” but that’s not the case. I still feel the desire to do this. I feel the desire to draw, I just look out at the storylines of this season and there’s just not much there.
I still believe in this team. I believe in the coach. I can so vividly see me a drawing of Odegaard lifting up a trophy. It still feels like a matter of time. Just maybe during a time when we have a forward who’s hamstring isn’t held together with glue, two magnets, and some chewing gum
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