Football is a game of theories. Or is it opinions? Like armpits we all have two they say. Or not. In any event I have a theory or two one of which involves this weird, arcane mystery we call ‘form’. Teams have it, players have it, a player can lose it while playing in a team that still has it a team can lose it while a player integral to that team is finding it playing in a team that has lost it. It is linked to class but only in cliche, it is a transient, intangible wil o’ the wisp entity, a surfboard which, once a team or individual is fortunate enough to clamber onto, can be ridden to the admiring gasps and applause of everybody on the beach.
My belief or theory is simply this. A team will carry the form from one season into the next. There, not too contentious nor too difficult to grasp. There seems no rhyme or reason to this. Different playing personnel, a new guy in the treatment room , higher ticket prices a dry and rainless September; all irrelevant. Regardless, it seems to me of outside forces or inner turmoil or calm or whatever, we will start off where we left off. We ended last season struggling to find our form. We stuttered and coughed our way to the FA Cup Final like my old Lambretta Li 150 used to splutter it’s way to Bath in the morning when I worked in the MOD at Ensleigh. We barely made it through the semi final and then huffed and puffed before finally blowing Hull’s house down at Wembley and we have been battling to get out of that rut ever since.
Unsurprisingly and in similarly unscientific vein I will support my theory by going back to the start of last season. We began really well, coherent, cohesive, confident – we were table toppers, sweeping all before us with breathtaking displays of consummate footballing ease. Scoring erection inducing goals like the orgasmic one touch team effort against Norwich, and producing climactic football of bewildering telepathic style as we swept Napoli aside in an unforgettable first half, as good a first half as I can remember. I wasn’t in any way surprised by the way we started our campaign last time around because it was in precisely this unbeatable form that we had ended the season before, thundering up the table to claim our rightful place among Europe’s elite. Of course for reasons we all know and which have been sufficiently rehashed here and elsewhere we faltered. Confidence, that elusive and teasing lover turned her back on form and we fell just short, a couple of places and a few points shy of where we wanted to be.
Why does this happen to teams, to individuals within those teams? Why are athletes, all so rigorously trained and finely tuned susceptible to losing their mojos and how do they get back into the groove? Arsène seems to believe that you simply have to keep on doing what you’re doing, keep on trying to do the right things and as long as you have the right players and the right balance in the side then the good stuff will once more start to flow and confidence will flutter her eyelashes, then where form once shrunk shrivelled and forlorn he will grow firm, tumescent and proud and we will be rampant once again. In other words there is no magic formula nor any science that can be brought to bear. These things come and go, are cyclic in nature, you just have to believe that positive effort will breed positive results, or as a mathematically inclined and literal friend of mine used to say, x = x.
Let’s not shy away from the truth here. It is obvious that we are stuttering a little this season. A couple of players are clearly struggling to produce the form of which we know they are capable and the understanding between team mates isn’t always evident. Passes appear to go awry because the intended recipient moves in an unexpected direction or doesn’t make the anticipated run, two players find themselves occupying the same space and attempting to play the ball at the same time, majestic, sweeping cross field passes are over hit by the merest fraction of an ounce and sail out of play. We seem sometimes to be trying to force the issue, confused when the move breaks down, when the one touch passing is intercepted, struggling to repair the damage when a usually reliable player is dispossessed. It’s as if there is a drop of water in the carburettor and the normally quiet purr of the Arsenal engine experiences an occasional cough, an arrhythmic interruption in its usual sweet melody.
Now, before we get carried away, I have to say that we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that the vehicle we’re discussing is not something thrown together in Harry Redknapp’s scrapyard. This is a beautiful machine, lovingly assembled by one of the games greatest craftsmen, superbly engineered from nothing but the finest components and even when not running at its smoothest is still a far far better ride than ninety percent of all other cars on the road. The only problem is that when you meet Dortmund in the scintillating pomp of their very best form or Martin Atkinson and Eden Hazard playing at the absolute top of their game at Stamford Bridge then you need to be firing on all cylinders, anything less and you get found out.
Will Sunderland be the game in which we turn the mythical corner of which bloggers and journalists are so fond of speaking? I don’t think so. Not because I have lost belief in the team or the individuals within it but because I don’t subscribe to the bunkum that good form is regained overnight or in one afternoon. It is a gradual process and a good win today will be a step on the road nothing more. Confidence can be easily lost but has to be found again carefully, it is a cumulative and delicate process. Unless of course, you are Lukas Podolski . I suppose some players just have that innate brashness and joie de vivre that allows them to express their love of the game and all round happiness with their lot by sauntering into a cauldron of uncertainty and trepidation and calmly banging home the ball at the first available opportunity. Just like some folk respond to praise while others like to have their faults explained to them in agonising detail so they can better address them, footballers are individuals, human beings and no matter how well trained nor how lavishly rewarded are frail and susceptible creatures just like you and I.
Of course one thing is beyond question. All sportsmen respond better to a positive, supportive and encouraging environment. No one ever performed better because some mindless, talentless, moronic oaf yelled abuse at him or whipped up an angry mob to decry his ability to succeed. How well would you do your job if folk gathered around you to groan every time you tried something and it didn’t quite work? I firmly believe that Arsène’s beautiful, sexy machine will soon be running smoothly again, that Santi will find his passes that Aaron will find the goal and that before too long we will all have plenty to celebrate. In the meantime we can help each other and help the team by staying positive, by keeping to our principles and by doing the one job that supporters have to do. Support.
Positively Arsenal 
As usual, excellent. Thanks Steww.
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I agree with Sav, nice one Steww.
Fitness and conditioning is important too. As per Per’s latest comments on his post WC adrenalin high comedown. And he didn’t even play the last two games of the WC. Özil must have been cream crackered when he played against Leicester and Everton.
“All sportsmen respond better to a positive, supportive and encouraging environment.”
It’s true. Unfortunately can read signs like this at children’s football and rugby teams up and down the land,where the coaches feel compelled to take the piss out of the parents:”this is not the six nations”. Parents that were such experts in their own sporting careers that they take out their frustrations upon their children.
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Fins – that sign is tragic. That there is a need for it at all I mean.
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The cultivation of negativity has reached epic proportions. There are now more Zombies than humans ,or so it seems.
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Enjoyable. steww, thank you.
I guess, for me, there needs to be a definition of what ‘form’ means, and most might agree that a reasonable stab at it would be; -“the comparison of an expected standard of play, or success, of a footballer, or his team, with regard to his or their current standard of play.”
It would be pointless, for example, saying that Crystal Palace have lost their ‘form’ because they are lower than Arsenal in the League. They are always below us in the league, so the comparison element is essential, because compared to last season they appear to be doing well currently, even tho’ they are not as good as a slightly below form Arsenal.
As you say, comparing the current Arsenal team with the swift moving, slick passing. entertaining and successful teams of the past, could lead us to say our form is not good this season.
But, again, you correctly introduced an element of ‘time’ into the comparison, and looked at the team earlier in the season with our current play. So what seemed a reasonable, if basic, definition above does have some flaws.
Liverpool’s ‘form’ comparing last year to the current season has been poor. But here is the thing. They had one player in the team, Suarez, who had an outstanding season last year, and now, without him, they have suffered. So, evidently there is another dimension, which you have also touched on, in that the individual quality of players within the team are fundamental to that combined team’s current form or success.
Similarly, Barca have a wonderful player in Messi, and if he is playing at his peak form, (and he usually is) so does his team. But the whole team’s form and those of other members of the team can go out of the window when he is not up to scratch.
Perhaps the current lack of form or confidence (is that another key ingredient) of our team, is that there is one (or perhaps two) players who previously played to their personal maximum ‘form’ and is not doing so at the moment, or perhaps is not available for selection because of injury, or has just returned and is not yet back to his top form.
Complicated things human beings, and with a whole bunch of them making up a team there are an awful lot of ‘moving parts’ for the manager to adjust from game to game.
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Henry – I think we are thinking along very similar lines. I would say though that form isn’t necessarily relative to a teams general perceived standing in the game. A side battling successfully against relegation can often be in better form by any measure than the team winning the league. I would argue that at times Palace were in definitively better form than Man City last year, but only for very brief periods of the season.
As to individuals I think any title winning team has one or two individuals playing out of their skin and doing it for the whole season. And yet paradoxically I think the form of the team overall is what counts. Bloody bewildering isn’t it.
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Steww, it is more then tragic.
But I have to admire the sense of humour shown by the volunteers at these clubs.
The effort from the people who keep grass roots sport going here in the UK given the relative lack of investment compared to Germany, Spain etc. is admirable.
This underlines what the hacks who work with the AAAA like Ashton show through their ignorance of Keown’s research on grass roots football – as he admitted to Keown on 5Live. tpThe idiot even refused to believe that the FA ignored the valuable Keown’s* offer of work for free. Don’t worry, MK put him in his place! You don’t argue with Keown. They are not really interested in the Football, most of these 24/7 football writers. They don’t know much about the football. But they can troll gullible fools.
*Imagine working in football and dismissing someone who was essentially a player-coach for the Invincibles when they’ve offered to work for you for free? That is the FA!
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That’s a great comment HenryB, thanks.
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George, I read that latest piece by Timmy Stillman. I don’t think he could understand when he came here previously when he tried to be “rational and balanced” that many of us had crossed the line he mentions, the rubicon, a long long time ago. During Fizman’s era for me! I ain’t buying a season ticket and I don’t need to stick a bin bag on my head or a strange orange plastic ball attached to weird leather straps into my gob in order to prove it!
Any football fan who can’t appreciate other football fans appreciating a football man running a football team on the pitch for a traditional football club, as opposed to a specialist in signing players signed to special agents, they need to think again. Coffee. It can smell nice in the morning…
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Good Gawd there is some good writing on here. I shall remind myself to ensure I set aside more time to do the quality contributions justice.
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A bit like with my children so goes my support for Arsenal football club
When they’ve had a setback, when life has dealt them the fuzzy end of the lollipop, that is when they require encouragement and support.
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Haha! I’m watching the West Ham game and the commenter is talking all kinds of crap about Alex Song not being able to pass the ball. Two minutes after this comment, he puts a ball in for Valencia which leaves the City defence tied up in knots and the Hammers score a beauty.
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Damn, Anicolll, why would you give your kids a fuzzy lolly?
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I read Tim Stillman’s piece yesterday Fins and like most or perhaps all he writes it is worth reading.
For once however I did not really ‘get’ it. It seemed to me that Tim, like many Arsenal fans, embarked on a quest to try to involve themselves in the business of Arsenal Football Club, in the actual corporate strategy, values, ownership and distribution of value in the enterprise.
And when they are ignored, because in the real world they have no role to play, they sulk and say how “evil” the face of
Stan is and how upset they are that the bloke who owns the club should run it as he sees fit.
Like you Fins I do not delude myself that I have anything in common with Stan any more than I did with Fizman, or Roman or Sheikh Mansour for that matter.
I am amazed that anyone sees it any different.
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Manc city’s weakness at away games is apparent again.
But let’s not talk about it- only Arsenal aren’t allowed do well at tricky away games.
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I’m still absorbing Fins piece, Steww.
I might need to start eating a second breakfast now.
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If never found those leather straps weird, fins.
Must me just me.
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Second breakfast can’t be bad. Go for it!
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Laughable listening to this semi coherant chumps trying to explain Alex Song’s contribution to the team. Well done BT Sports.
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DC, Fins – I meant to pay tribute to the fine post previous to this one. I felt it was the perfect pre match write up which is why I went for a more general theme instead of trying to duplicate Fins’ excellent piece.
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Anicoll
Not forgetting the salt of the earth Hill-Wood dynasty! Propa pukka geezers.
Who can forget Frank’s favourite old nag, Lady Neenah?
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Fat Sam really has those Irons going for it this season.
I’m going to love seeing them have a right go at Fulham Gazprom Inc.
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Arsenal team v Sunderland: Szczesny, Chambers, Mertesacker, Monreal, Gibbs, Arteta, Flamini, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Cazorla, Alexis, Welbeck
Surprised (a little) not to see Lukas and / or Campbell start. Given the tiredness after the midweek exertions and how well Campbell in particular has done when coming on as a sub.
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firstly sorry fins i missed your piece ill go back and read it soon. The form thing is strange, can you lose it in the middle of a game? take the hull game ARSENAL roaring hull on the floor game looking like 5-0 written all over it, then theres a disgusting refs decision hull have something to defend regroup and we look like a team thats not got its head on like I say strange. However Stew like your Li you know when you choose style over reliability you can end up at the side of the road with a boring vespa going past you at any moment.
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A Vespa? Passing me on my LI?? Never AorB, never!
As far as Hull goes there was a third twist which was the incredible charge at the end and constant pressure we put on them to get the deserved equaliser and let’s face it when we should have won it.
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You talented boy, you Steww
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Georgaki – you should have read the proper piece, the one that WordPress lost all trace of last night.
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See Arsene’s gone for the more stable ART-FLAM axis with Aaron and Theo on a strong looking bench. COYG
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Away from home, after a tough European night, a slightly less flamboyant midfield makes perfect sense. Lots of goals in those on the bench if the first 11 can’t do it.
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Imagine our bench when everyone is fit….
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A goal following a run half the length of the pitch! Pace! I’m in heaven! Come on Arsenal!
He’s going to be better then Suarez!
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Sanchez has been superb today, best I’ve seen him. It’s his constant harassment and closing down of defenders that caused the error and led to his goal. Reminds me of Rosický. And that is the greatest of compliments.
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Away at the moment but stuck my head around the door to read Fins & Stews brilliant posts,how lucky are we to have these 2 on our firm?
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We are the lucky ones Mel. Without you it wouldn’t be worth writing.
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2-0 *coughs*
This squad’s favourite score!
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People on twitter already saying technically that was nil nil because the goals came from defensive mistakes. Pricks.
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That was a bit tighter than I expected after half time but three points gratefully received. Sanchez a great performance. Hopefully he can get some rest over the next few days as he has played a lot of football.
The clean sheet I was looking for duly delivered. Very disappointing to see Gibbs go off injured (again).
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Agreed anicoll5 – the injury to Gibbs is a massive blow. But at least it gives the moaners a reason to moan at Arsene. Why doesn’t he have four top class left backs instead of just two?
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Steww!
The complaint was that we can’t win ugly. Well, that was an ugly win, so no one should be complaining. To be expected after such an emotional mid week CL match.
The champagne is not flowing just yet but I am so proud of the never give up attitude of this squad. We will soon see Wengerball from this team, no to worry.
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you take your goals however they come o.g. denfensive mistakes or in thiery’s case hitting you on the arse to say anything else just makes you bitter. Stew I agree Alexis work rate and finishing were excellent today but again he slowed alot down. Our breakaways are so slow and full of indecision Harry Redknapps mother could do better. It something thats really frustrating at the moment. To go to sunderland on a saturday after a hard wednesday night away in the champions league and come away with three points is excellent especially when you consider injuries and suspensions so any criticism is nit picking to be honest and im chuffed to bits. Hope keirans ok but Hector done really well after coming on at a difficult time. It was also nice to see deadwood Nacho have a good game in both positions.
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An exceptional piece, Steww.
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AorB – we created two very straightforward goals for Santi which when he gets his mojo back would have sealed a four nil win and I thought we played some nice passing football at times. I’m completely happy.
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Was that a modern day reducer from The Nacho Man on Fletcher in the first half? Heh.
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yeah overall perfomance was very good in difficult circumstances. im frustrated because i think we are so close to being totally fluent were not far away, however you cant fail to be Happy after that result.
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Good piece Steww… and Fins yesterday. My only critique fins, a few seperate paragraphs would have made it easier reading.
On todays game…. GRIT and Vito, the way I look at it, City, Pool and us just had hard midweek games in Europe. City lose at Upton Park, Pool just about get a draw at home to Hull and we grind out a win away to Sunderland. That’s good enough for me. It can only get better when the team start to know what each other are supposed to be doing.
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Thanks NB
A proof read and a spellcheck would’ve been useful. Next time I’ll try not to rush and write on the phone, and to co-ordinate better with the others haha!
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Two fantastic articles from Fins and Stew. Thanks chaps.
Who wants to do the write up?
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If we can put a little run together in November, we’ll be in good shape. We have two wins on the trot and the injured are coming back.
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PG, I would never, ever, do a review of a game, that I have seen on TV! Never, ever!
Fine article by Steww. Nice to have you back. I am still continuing the forensic examination of a certain archive of 2 years ago!
Every player, in a season, has 10 outstanding games, where the ball behaves itself, 10 stinkers, where the ball never, ever arrives as it should, and the rest of the games are average overall.
HOW can NB and Henry B, bother with the spoilt brats on that site?
Fins, I have still to read your article.
This is a site to be admired.
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Excellent stuff Stew… Hereafter thought of as The Mod from The MOD
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