“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night
We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
― Martin Luther King, Jr.
Positive anything is better than negative nothing.
― Elbert Hubbard
One of the biggest thrills in the life of a footy fan is riding the great spin cycle of renewal. We wake up on the morning after a disappointing result and even as the bitterness of memory steals over us spoiling the taste of our Honey Nut Loops there is already a tiny kernel of hope germinating somewhere deep beneath the scorched, blackened soil of our desires. By day two only the armchair experts, masochists and the terminally depressed are still picking over the corpse of their shattered dreams and by day three we are nearly restored to health. How does this happen? It’s a simple but wonderful alchemy. I am already unable to remember how I felt as I watched us unravel against Man City and Liverpool last season and yet I cannot hear more than four bars of Pharrell Williams singing Happy without being instantly transported back to those wonderful days in May. Every emotion from the final itself to the players and fans united outside the Emirates on that Sunday of celebration is imprinted in my emotional scrapbook and ready for me to access any time that I please.
Women apparently report a similar phenomenon in relation to the pain of childbirth. I’ve heard them say that the extraordinary discomfort is immediately forgotten while the joy remains with them forever. Now I’m not suggesting that losing or winning an important football match can be compared to the moment a mother brings new life into the world. Admittedly I have only been a spectator at either event and both look messy and hard work. I know for a fact the human race would have died out a long time ago if it was left to me and the rest of the men to do any of the real work. As my friend Jon said to me when asked if women should take pain medication during labour “I needed gas and air to get through the conception so it seems only fair”. Well quite.
I wouldn’t be without the misery of Wednesday night. Not for all the tea in Whittards. Don’t get me wrong I derive no perverse pleasure from spending weeks counting down to such a big night only to be left feeling sick, angry and bitterly disappointed but I do recognise the importance of that pain. It is the certain knowledge of how rancorous is the taste of defeat that makes our victories so much sweeter. It is, in short, much more exciting walking a tightrope over a hundred foot deep canyon filled with pointy sticks than walking one six inches from the surface of a child’s paddling pool. Experience tells us what is at stake prior to kick off and that is what makes the weaker among our support go to pieces before a shot is even fired. You only need look at the gibbering reaction to the announcement of the team line up before each and every match to see this phenomenon in full swing. But to those of us fortunate enough to have achieved a great and unlikely age that same experience tells us that the next game or indeed the next season is just around the corner and we can once again tie our happiness back onto the rail tracks of fortune. Sometimes we get rescued before the train comes. Sometimes not.
I think that’s more than enough from my big book of vaguely football related metaphors. How about we do a bit of what I’ve been talking about and actually look forward to today’s game. Firstly, don’t forget this is an old fashioned traditional five past two Sunday afternoon kick off so if you’d planned to be home from your trip to B&Q by four you need to start back-pedalling sharpish. There will be lots of tedious predictable tripe about wanting to see a response or a reaction to what happened on Wednesday night. Plenty of people will be trotting out the usual clichés ignoring the fact that players are conditioned to put the last game behind them and focus on the match in front of them regardless of recent results. It is an essential tenet of their training. Arsène may throw such bones to the walking brain dead in the press corps but when fans repeat the baloney they’re usually just projecting their own emotions onto the players. That is what makes them assume we’ll go into battle against Everton with our knees knocking in fear of a repeat disaster. What tosh. Olivier Giroud knows he isn’t suddenly a poor striker just because he had one bad day at the office. Per knows that if we’re chasing the game then pushing up and closing down the opposition before they can instigate a counter has worked too many times to mention. Just because it failed once on Wednesday night won’t affect the way he plays the game.
Everton come to the Emirates languishing in fourteenth place in the current form table with Liverpool top and us second. A glance at the
ir last six results shows they almost always draw at home and usually lose away from Goodison. However their most recent away win was one nil at Selhurst Park and we know all too well what sort of mental and physical strength that kind of result demands so they will be no pushovers. We know Martinez likes his teams to play proper football, retain possession and move it intelligently. We also know they aren’t afraid to stick the boot in when things aren’t going their way. Having said that my exclusive sources tell me that Tony Hibbert may be missing for the game this afternoon so they might not be as brutal as in previous matches. In conclusion, while we can expect a decent footballing contest and while Arsenal are without a scintilla of doubt the better team we cannot assume this will be a walk over.
Before I go, let me explain the flurry of quotations at the beginning of this article. Football, it seems to me, is all about choices and that goes for us as well as the manager and players. We can’t choose the visceral reaction we experience in defeat nor the explosion of joy when Aaron scores the winner in a cup final but we all choose how we respond to those emotions. Anyone who goes into the rest of the season assuming we will lose in Monaco, fail to hold onto third place or progress past Man United in the FA cup is choosing to make those assumptions. No one knows the future. If I choose to believe we can succeed then that is my right so to do and if you choose not to then that is your right, but don’t pretend it isn’t a conscious choice you are making. None of the harbingers of doom have any divine prerogative to claim to live in the real world nor should they paint positive supporters as fantasists. They are making a choice, they are choosing despair and choosing to wallow in it. If I were one of them I’d have to ask myself why? Why assume the worst when you can just as easily assume the best? Why look at a game like the one we just endured and ignore anything the players did well and only focus on what the opposition did better or on where we tried but failed? Why get angry and sarcastic with fellow fans who continue to hope and support the team no matter what? Why send triumphant messages to me on Twitter when the opposition scores? Choice. Behave like that by all means but don’t pretend you are not choosing to do so. Once you accept that then you must accept that you can choose not to behave in such a craven, weak and despicable way.
Bob Wilson told us what makes a proper football fan. The people I think of when I listen to Pharrell Williams are the ones who have shared the laughter, smiles and tears with me over the years and never wavered. The ones who chose courage, who chose to stay firm, above all the ones who chose to support.
Positively Arsenal 
not at our best but a win is a win is a win. 3rd with an away game at QPR coming up midweek
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Very decent result and a solid performance – the defence was very organised and concentration never wavered.
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Haha My 3.59 took half-an-hour to get posted.
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Good result. Settles the nerves a bit.
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I imagine getting the ball in the face when you already have a broken nose is quite uncomfortable
The big question is will Le Coq’s beak be ready for Loftus Road on Wednesday ??
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Three points!
Clean sheets!
Whoop Whoop!
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Anicoll are you doing the report?
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Hey, we won. where the fuck are the happy campers?
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I’m watching the Capital One Cup final.
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I’d be pleased to George – up in the morning though
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We didn’t play at our best, but did enough to get the 3 points. That’s the most important box that got ticked. Also good to see that 2 of the players to got most of the flack was key to our victory – Özil and Giroud. Not that many will notice it. Would love seeing Theo get a run on Wednesday to try and stake a claim against the Mancs next Monday.
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I was watching England – now like Gains I can’t help myself – drawn like a moth to tne flame !!
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Gabriel – yet another good buy by Wenger (rather than the goodbye which many seem to want). Apart from that moment of hesitation near the beginning, he was impressive, I thought – some well-timed tackles and a willingness to attack the ball when crosses come in. It will be interesting to see who turns out in mid-week and even more so in the Cup game.
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Imagine getting to a Wembley final and discovering that it’s being refereed by Anthony Taylor. They must think someone’s taking the piss.
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To be honest Steww’s post was more attractive than the manner of our win, but three points the prettiest of all. Good work from Ozil and well played Giroud too, but how great to see TR7 scampering around at the end. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was more influential in our run in than the man he replaced.
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Watching the Invincibles on NBC, US tv channel. They just disreapected the Spuds cup final on another channel.
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dkg, did anthony taylor actually get the league cup final, amazing how the pgmol reward their inept/corrupt refs, maybe these refs are only doing what their bosses tell them to do
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Kurt Vonnegut?
It must be Steww.
So it goes.
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I’m as happy as Larry , George!
A composed 2-0 home win, plus the Paddies won the egg ball and I’m drinking Guinness in Dublin.
Even Jose being a complete tool after winning the League Cup can’t knock me down.
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Wenger’s after game comments – Coquelin has broken nose
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20150301/wenger-on-victory-giroud-and-coquelin
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Yes, edu – in all his shiny-skulled glory – not that I can talk, in that respect.
Don’t know what sort of game he had as I only watched snatches in the beginning and then thought better of it.
Positives from today:
3 points
Clean sheet
Gabriel
Bellerin
Ox back for 60 minutes – he’s so positive in his running
Larry’s goal
Santi running into the box with the ball and trying to dribble it around 4 players.
Tomas’s grin
There are more of course but they were the highlights for me.
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ox might be positive in his running, but my God his final ball is woeful most of the time
as for Ozil, since he came back from injury he has been shit, that is if you ignore the 3 goals and 5 assists he’s got since Useless player.’
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I was just about to add 2 assists for Mesut, but you beat me to it edu.
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And also ignore him being MOTM in half of the games he’s played.
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Doug Nichols @TheTXI · 3h 3 hours ago
5 chances
2 assists
91% pass accuracy
5 successful crosses
But Ozil was anonymous
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says all you need to know about le grove
Doug Nichols @TheTXI · 3h 3 hours ago
Le Grove called Ozil the most productive passenger in world football. Absurd insult.
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I like this nickname I’ve seen a Gooner use for Gabriel — Ugly Kos
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just been told that Ozil’s two assist today should not really be called assists, as the first one was just a ball he threw in there from a corner, and the second one was all down to Rosicky, ah the need for a scapegoat that so many Arsenal fans have
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Eddy
Özil is a ghost, a player who is never seen, until it is too, too late.
Thanks to Steww, for avoiding “writer’s block”.
It would seem that Per Mer’s jock strap, is still out of place?
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Ozil the stealth bomber. I like that.
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Unless broken noses are broken in a way that they impair breathing they shouldn’t need too much (if any) time out.
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https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B_Bo6EAVAAAcMfp.jpg:large
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maybe Coquelin will become the player in the mask
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poor from podolski
http://metro.co.uk/2015/03/01/arsenal-loanee-lukas-podolski-takes-most-pathetic-corner-ever-for-inter-milan-5084653/?
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“Shaqiri played on Thursday, so I thought he should rest, but he did well when coming on. Lukas needs to do more. This is clearly not enough. We know he can give a lot more and we hope he will,” added Mancini.
“Considering the way Shaqiri played when he came on, yes I do regret not starting him, but we couldn’t have known that beforehand.”
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After Wednesday 3 points was the priority and it was truly delivered. Rode our luck abit at times but overall a professional performance. Hopefully this will give the team the confidence to get back in full flow again, roll on the next.
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Good professional performance from the lads, which was just what was required. The clean sheet and the fact that 3 of the main scapegoats contributed goals, assists and saves to get us the result was even better.
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Monaco are taking on PSG tonight, I’ll post if anything of Arsenal interest occurs.
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Do you have shares in some sort of fund that is trying to make Poldi look a total cunt eddy ?
He scored goals for us, including the last minute winner in Brussels a couple of months back which smoothed our progress to the next CL stage. Any recollection of any goals hr might have scored in Munich ?
He didn’t whine, he didn’t moan, he got on with his job – and when it became clear his chances for first team football would be limited he took the Inter option.
Is there some reason therefore for your abuse of Poldi spit it out mate
If not why not stfu and commend the player for the good things he did in a red shirt
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2 decent scoring chances from Paris in the first 15m, still 0-0.
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Next thing you’ll be putting up Dortmund results when they lose.
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Monaco pressing very high up the pitch, big gaps in behind.
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It’s a community service, Andrew.
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Sideshow Bob is playing some sort of makie-uppy libero role,
I shit you not.
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0-0 in Monaco at half time.
PSG should be doing better than this,
If they had a bit of speed or nous in their attack they would be well ahead.
Monaco can easily control a game played at a slow pace.
No Zlatan or Berbatov tonight.
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anicoll the only person making pod look a cunt is pod, he is the one who kicked the corner flag, but hey lets pretend he did not lets ignore his manager saying it was proved a mistake to play him today, lets instead blame me for mentioning it, cop yourself on anicoll
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Wonderful stuff Steww, full of wisdom and eloquence…..thanks
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I see eddy
You do have some weird reason you do not wish to reveal why you hate Poldi and want to bring any perceived shortcoming in his performances since his move to Inter to my attention.
Fair enough, everyone should have a hobby.
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I don’t hate podolski, and there is nothing perceived in the shortcoming of his performance today, kicking the corner flag as he took a corner happened, and his managers comments are actual quotes. But hey if having a go at me makes you happy, go ahead, as you say everyone needs a hobby, just never thought having a go at me would be yours.
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But why eddy
For what purpose ?
Why do you think that the difficulties that Poldi may, or may not, be having in Milan are important ?
I am trying to find the root of your interest.
Why do you think it is important to post the dirt on Poldi since he left Arsenal on loan ?
In a sense you are right – it is a hobby – the pursuit of clarity
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