Weird time to be a Gooner right now. My good friend E keeps texting me before games with: ‘Hope your team wins, Wenger Out Out’. E is a bright and loyal Arsenal supporter but he clearly has had enough of Wenger. Fair enough.
Yet we are playing a fricking FA Cup final in just nine days. Why are we not a lot more happy right now? Don’t bother to answer me as I have heard enough reasons over the last few months and indeed years. All valid but they do not work for me.
There was an interesting bit by Garth Crooks about Mesut Ozil in his BBC team of the week section after last weekend. He believed that Mesut would fit better at Spuds as they appreciate football more whereas Arsenal supporters only care about winning, he bluntly wrote. Clearly Mesut would never accept such a demotion to the swamp dwellers but does Crooks have a point re differing ways of appreciating football, and indeed a quality footballer like Ozil?
Ozil really divides the supporters and not just ours. Many a non-Arsenal supporter tells me how they don’t rate Ozil but luckily there are still some real football connoisseurs out there who do more than watch MOTD summaries. 😉
I do think we have lost perspective, though, to such an extent that we have started to take our team and manager for granted. Once we start doing that, dark days will be upon us. We have become a fanbase that rather focusses on removing Wenger than looking forward to a FA Cup final, and with that an opportunity to beat the Chavs at Wembley. There is also an opportunity to become the all time record holders of the most famous football cup in the world.
If the latter is not a reason for your personal happiness and eager anticipation, then maybe it is time to take a breather from the club and football as a whole. Or you could join me and fellow BKers who are still fuelled by the desire for Wenger to hold up the cup as the most successful FA Cup manager in the history of the game.
By TotalArseneWenger 😉
Bergkampesque 
I’m ‘in’ TAW.
That AFC sit on 72pts with a potential of 75pts this term?
And last season’s 2nd-place finish was at 71pts?
And if they somehow don’t claim a CL berth on Sunday?
ONLY means that the four other teams out-performed AFC this season– and barely.
(In Arsenal’s WORST season evah!!!)
There has never been as much managerial talent in the PL IMHO.
And only so many CL spots.
Could be worse. Could be fans of MU.
Something special going on up there don’tcha know?
Jose (DDLLD last 5) Mourinho will soon make MU fans wish LVG was still loitering.
Go Gunners.
Go Middlesborough.
jw1
TA, Nice alter-ego you have got there.
MOTD summaries are absolutely bull, and I watch the games (or repeats) rather than read the commentaries.
I will be rooting for the team to prevent Chelski from getting a double.
JK
Wonderful, TA, the way you have remained so fresh not stale like many of the fans. You smell like a rose flower, sweet. Am all with Cech who’s called out that we should embrace Europa. I’ve even gone further than that; I embrace every match that my darling team plays, every victory is a little trophy won, every defeat is a tiny battle lost within a mighty theater of war. My hope burns ever so brightly.
Europa or non CL might be a salutary experience for us so spoilt. It might help season us to moaning less, to being less self critical. It might even aid in helping us be more appreciative of ourselves, our team, our club, our history and our moment. Don’t get me wrong, there could still be a final twist on Sunday and we are back in the CL. But Europa I have already embraced and thinking we need a deep squad. Forward thinking they call it.
After this weekend, I’d be sitting on the edge of my seat, very expectant of the big big FA trophy. COYG!!!
That’s good work Total, really enjoyed it, luv your optimism, don’t ever lose it mate.
Or else you’ll end up like me… 😉
The obsession with money and the it’s impotence has permeated all areas of the game and even to the fans who talk about the importance of finishing in the CL positions. Even above and beyond the FACup and League Cup, and to a certain degree the UEFA Cup has only regained some lustre since the winner earns a crack at the bloody all encompassing Champions League.
Arsene has been complicit in this with his continual top four trophy (money) chatter, although now it seems that it isn’t life and death anymore now we look set to miss out. That could only be because we’re heading for the UEFA Cup, it could also be because the EPL TV money is so huge and compensatory these days.
I’m old school, I love the FACup, I love the League Cup and I will enjoy the UEFA Cup because for me, as an Arsenal fan, it’s about winning trophies, with style if possible, but the win to me is the priority. So I enjoyed beating Parma in 1994 and Man Utd in 2005, whilst outplaying Valencia in 1980, Luton in 1988, Galatasay in 2000 and Liverpool in 2001, but ultimately losing left me seriously down.
We can potentially reach 75 points, which will be the highest we’ve achieved in the last 8-10 years, yet we could finish 5th; it would seem the quality of the top 6 has gone up (and they won more games against lower placed teams). I think that, in itself, is reason for introspection and some pride, in the end. This must be the reason for Wenger’s faith that we should make a CL position because no team has reached 75 points and failed to be in the top 4.
However, should we fail to achieve CL placement, we can face the prospects of Thursday night foootball with gusto; it is, after all, a competition that nearly all the top placed EPL sides have played in recently. Which brings one to the fuss being made about this likelihood. Arsenal Wenger put this in the following words, filled with sarcasm and a swipe at the critics who have ridiculed his pride in leading Arsenal into the Champions League for the last 19 years:
“I answered for 20 years the question that being in the top four is not a big deal,”
“I’m surprised all of a sudden it becomes a big deal. We can talk and talk, at the end let’s make 75 points”.
After we ended that (25 (?) games) “unbeaten run”, Manchester United has not won a league game since with stats akin to relegation form. But you don’t hear much about that than the fact Mourinho is saving key players for the Europa final; the narrative is geared towards having us focus more at the upcoming final they’re in rather than the abysmal performances. Arsenal fans have to open their eyes to this obvious gimmick.
Cheers guys for some lovely follow up comments. The post is partly tongue in cheek but I am feeling really good about Arsenal and am proud we are in the final for the third time in four years. Fecking Cup Figthers, that is what we are!!
We cannot deny the importance of money, Kevski. The club needs to run like a business and a big chunk of (CL) money missing is not a good thing, especially if this were to become a regular occurrence. It is true that the UEFA cup has gained in importance by giving the winner an automatic place in the CL. I don’t like that at all. The competition’s highest reward should be the cup held up in the air. The football in the UEFA league has been of good quality, especially when it did not involve the manure lot. I have watched most Ajax games and they were among the best games I have seen in a long while…. and they were not spoiled by dodgy refereeing as UEFA send their best referees to that competition…
It would be sweet if Ajax were to beat Manure in the final in more ways than one. Will be hard though.
A day late on this one but again I’m very appreciative that you’ve put it out there, TA… Cheers! Cheers also because I think what you’re saying is (all too) spot on…
The tone of what we read (on the internet or back pages) is basically “anti-football,” IMO. The press and the pundits (professional and those who see fit to tweet out their anger) are so focused on results that it reaches a level of absurdity. If Arsenal (or any other team) wins, they have shown spirit and fight. If they lose, they didn’t show up or didn’t want it enough. It’s ludicrous but it’s probably always been that way. The actual football on display hardly matters…
What I see at Arsenal is a team of (mostly) good professionals, (mostly) working very hard–and for the manager–in a very toxic environment (desperately) trying to play winning football. On occasion, the pressure becomes too much and there have been a few games where they’ve been jumped upon by teams they would have hoped to beat with technical superiority. It’s always difficult in the away stadium (and losses at places like Everton, Man City, Chelsea, Pool, WBA, Crystal Palace and Spurs hurt a lot) but we could sure use the 5 points we might have won vs Watford and Middlesboro at the Emirates, or maybe something from opening day vs Liverpool.
The pressure surrounding Wenger and the winning standards he established are massive–as is the reputation for quality football he brought via players like Bergkamp and Henry (and developed with guys like Cesc and RvP). Buying a ton (tonne?) of young #10s was supposed to produce winning football AND something that was easy on the eyes. Perhaps if the money-down-a-hole clubs (Chavs, Man City) had not emerged, it might have had a better chance…
So–mostly because of Wenger–Gooners ARE spoiled but I also think that Crooks is wrong and that very few (in England at least) really care about the quality of the football. When you’re winning it’s something to be enjoyed, if you’re losing, then things like boring boring Arsenal (and 1-nil scorelines) are just fine, not too mention more defensive formations. Only if there’s enough winning does the quality becomes important. Look at the Merengues (Real Madrid fans), people who get huge doses of winning. First off, I give them huge credit for knowing the truth about Mourinho and his negative football (and evil persona)… I also admire how many of them were appalled when Ozil was sold–to help bring in Gareth Bale. Many, however, knew the other former Spur, Luka Modric, could pull the strings and keep the team ticking over. Additionally, they often boo (and whistle) the showboats and selfish types–Bale and Ronaldo and Benzema in particular (much as I criticize Alexis Sanchez on our team) but, of course, (we all) love the goals these players produce even when they’re selfishly crafted. Ask a Spur who was the better player, Bale or Modric, and my bet is that they can’t even remember the latter. Intelligence, of course, tapers off as you move further North and out of London and into Middlesex…
It’s not so good (intelligence–and appreciation of the actual football) in our part of North London right now but I was pleased to hear the (half-full) Emirates crowd get behind the team vs Sunderland and help push us on towards the breakthrough goal and another one afterwards. Maybe clearing out the protesters (and malcontents…) is exactly what’s needed. Those who did attend last Tuesday got to see some good football and a team which kept at it until they got the result. “It’s only Sunderland,” and “it’s too little, too late,” say the anti-footballers. (Then they say, Wenger Out, which means change for the sake of change…) Fine then, you did the right thing by refusing to watch. You should stay with that plan (but maybe peek your head out when Wenger is finally gone) but only jump back on the bandwagon when the results are more to your liking. Boycott the cup final too and let the true Gooners support the club–win or lose–at Wembley. (If we were to win, it’s just the FA Cup, after all…) Be sure to keep your backs turned and pretend that you’re the ones doing the right thing by insisting that it’s Not. Good. Enough. Clearly, you’re not football fans, so there’s nothing to see here…
I guess nobody was too impressed by the rant I posted above… Ah well… Maybe the match preview will be better…
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