AFTER ARSENAL'S VICTORY OVER RACING CLUB
— Lucien Gamblin | 13/11/1930 —

The magnificent match played on Tuesday in Colombes by the Arsenal team sparked lengthy comments throughout the sporting and political press. Particularly laudatory articles extolled the exceptional valor of the English team, who truly played splendid football.

And there is no point after the sensational match the day before yesterday to draw comparisons between the best English game and French football.

Without fear of being wrong, we can also add that there is only one football model: that from across the Channel.

How small appear next to the Arsenal "eleven" the players of the London League, and those of the numerous selected foreign teams, who nevertheless come to acquire with us, through clear victories, a glory and a reputation that the Colombes match has greatly diminished in our eyes!

I would have liked all the young French people who play our game to be present at the Olympic Stadium. May our rich Federation make a big financial sacrifice for them.

Our bleus, our hopes, our neophytes would have taken extreme pleasure in contemplating the British masters in the execution of perfect football. And In their minds would remain engraved in indelible lines the beautiful actions that our game allows them to perform.

And above all our young people would have understood that football is exclusively a team game. They could also have realized that the combinations to be made are infinite, and that crazy, wild races have nothing to do with football. They would have felt how much they still have to learn, how primary our current methods are, how much we still have to work to be footballers of this name.

I am not coming to dispute here that the French game has not progressed, the performance of the Racing Club de France against Arsenal would refute me. But I would like to declare, and I am only confirming the general impression, that we are still very far from the desired goal.

And this especially when it comes to technique. English professionals can afford to accomplish their collective and individual feats only because they are perfect technicians.

We did not fail to notice on Tuesday the force of man-to-man passes. And yet these passes were received without difficulty, without failure. The quality of the shot was also surprising, and the short, tight dribbles were carried out with such ease that it seemed to laymen that football is somewhat easy and extremely simple to play.

Such exhibitions need to be repeated. I want to believe that our public sports authorities will not fail.