"Our two biggest rivals had adjusted their whole season to this one aim of beating us. Of course, it is a big compliment that they were so motivated to stop us but it was very tough to face two matches like that so close together. Suddenly three trophies are down to one"
About this Quote
Bergkamp’s rhetorical move is to grant the opposition their agency while quietly exposing the asymmetry. Arsenal (implicitly) are trying to win everything; rivals can afford to play the role of spoiler with monastic focus. That’s the subtext of “one aim”: when you’re chasing multiple trophies, you’re distributing attention, rotation, and emotional bandwidth. When your only ambition is to knock the king off the board, you can put your best pieces on the table every time.
The tight scheduling matters. “Two matches like that so close together” isn’t just about fatigue; it’s about psychological whiplash. You don’t get time to metabolize a setback before the next knife-edge game arrives. The final line, “Suddenly three trophies are down to one,” lands like a cold audit. “Suddenly” captures how football collapses narratives: months of excellence can be re-edited by a week of adversity. Bergkamp, usually the aesthete, speaks here like a pragmatist confronting the sport’s cruel math: prestige is cumulative until it isn’t, and rivals know exactly when to press.
Quote Details
| Topic | Sports |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Bergkamp, Dennis. (2026, January 16). Our two biggest rivals had adjusted their whole season to this one aim of beating us. Of course, it is a big compliment that they were so motivated to stop us but it was very tough to face two matches like that so close together. Suddenly three trophies are down to one. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/our-two-biggest-rivals-had-adjusted-their-whole-111283/
Chicago Style
Bergkamp, Dennis. "Our two biggest rivals had adjusted their whole season to this one aim of beating us. Of course, it is a big compliment that they were so motivated to stop us but it was very tough to face two matches like that so close together. Suddenly three trophies are down to one." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/our-two-biggest-rivals-had-adjusted-their-whole-111283/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Our two biggest rivals had adjusted their whole season to this one aim of beating us. Of course, it is a big compliment that they were so motivated to stop us but it was very tough to face two matches like that so close together. Suddenly three trophies are down to one." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/our-two-biggest-rivals-had-adjusted-their-whole-111283/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.



