The quest for meaning, the need to form the unbearably random constituents of our existence into some kind of order, to create a narrative or a value-system, to believe it all somehow matters – it seems integral to humanity. But sometimes a late-season game between two sides with nothing much to play for is just a late-season game between two sides with nothing much to play for. And yet, of course, that very meaninglessness is itself meaningful, a sign both of Rafael Benítez’s success and Arsène Wenger’s failure this season. When the sides met in December, there were 14 places between them, less because Arsenal were threatening to challenge at the top than because Newcastle were in...
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