GUNNERS ARE BORING ME TO TEARS

Mikel Arteta is another Jack Charlton with better hair

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ARSENAL are winning. But my God they're dull.

It’s George Graham all over again. It's Bertie Mee.

It's “1-0 to the Arsenal” reborn in HD.

They talk about “progress” under current manager Mikel Arteta in his spell at the club. I talk about boredom.

“Boring, boring Arsenal.” That song is back. And it drives me mad because football should make you feel something.

But this Arsenal team makes me want to check my phone.

You look at them. All precision, all discipline, all set-pieces. Corners, long throws, free-kicks from the training manual.

Every goal feels like it’s been drawn up on a whiteboard.

Where's the chaos? Where's the joy? Where's the swagger of club legends like Henry, Pires, Bergkamp?

Where is the legacy of Charlie George, Liam Brady and Rocky Rocastle?

Arteta has built a machine. It's football for accountants.

He learned from Pep Guardiola, they said. Really? He's playing more like Jack Charlton.

Long throws. Second balls. Win territory, not hearts. It’s effective, sure.

But it’s not the Arsenal we came to love under the great Arsene Wenger.

During the Frenchman's heyday, from 1998 through to 2006, Arsenal were a work of art.

Wenger changed English football. He gave us imagination, rhythm, beauty.

He made football romantic again. Arteta has ripped the romance out of it.

He's built a team of soldiers. Not artists. And that’s the tragedy.