One of the barbed suggestions bandied about wherever Arsenal fans are scoring points off one another (and as I write this I must confess to the warm blush of shame because I seem to remember employing it myself on more than one occasion) is “If that’s how you feel then you are following the wrong sport”. The longer my dalliance with internet based support lasts the more I wonder if that pithy phrase isn’t one I ought more appropriately to have levelled at myself.
I never seem to quite be able to judge the tone, am never quite in step with my peers. Take Saturday morning’s little bit of fluff, dashed off before breakfast it was intended as a light rebuke to myself, a reminder to enjoy the game for its own sake and not allow the peripheral flim flam to obfuscate the simple pleasures which are the foundation of a supporter’s obsession. And yet several people told me they took it as a rebuke, a ‘smack on the wrist’, as if I were handing out poor marks in Arsenal class.
I misjudge, my darts fly awry.
Similarly after the dastardly Mr Moss provided us all with a suitable villain to gather around and bash like a verbal piñata I rolled up with my big stick ready to start swinging. But what did I find? Nearly everyone had erected a statue to the sainted whistle and card merchant and were genuflecting before their poor misunderstood and wrongly maligned hero.
I miss the beat, come in on the wrong note.
This latest reminder of my inability to properly bond with the gang is a mere synecdoche to the larger script of my life and I didn’t ought to be surprised when it applies to a hobby such as football. My favourite politicians are hounded, lambasted and hated by their own side as much as by their enemies, my favourite football manager is treated with revulsion by the majority of the football world and my favourite team never seems to receive recognition for its achievements, is damned with the faintest of praise and overlooked unless there is a negative tale to tell.
So what to do? I can’t alter my allegiances. Not when they arise from somewhere so deep and visceral. I can’t pretend to love the divisive politics of hate and contempt just so that the mainstream media will reflect my views. I can’t pretend that referees are just ‘failing every now and then because they have such a difficult job’ when their incompetence or poisoned hearts are on naked display week in week out, and I can’t start wearing a Liverpool scarf or Tottenham shirt just to experience the approval of sports journalists and pundits everywhere.
Now it seems I can’t even write an Arsenal blog without making it all about me when it’s supposed to be about the team and written for everyone. Or can I? I’ll tell you what, just for a minor diversion, for a ‘giggle’ as Londoners are so fond of saying, let’s see if I can get in step with the rest of world and not feel so horribly isolated and adrift. I’m going to write a proper football blog for a change.
Here goes.
Tonight the Emirates stadium will be packed with dozens of empty seats for the visit of Bulgarian no hopers Ludogorets. With the price of seats and the match live on BT Sports not to mention the shaky home form since the first half against Chelsea I can’t blame fans for staying at home. Even after struggling to convince against relegation fodder such as Burnley and league strugglers Swansea I can’t imagine even Wenger can pick a team unable to win and win easy tonight and not struggle against Euro group strugglers Ludogrets. Honestly scraping a lucky draw against PSG and then failing to build on a good opening against Basel when their defence was holey like a holey Swiss cheese isn’t good enough and unless something changes and changes tonight we will be lucky to scrape second place YET AGAIN in our group. The experiment with Sanchez down the middle has failed. Yes he has scored a few but he has played so far out of position for most of the games that even Theo Walcott found himself further forward twice and scored where a centre forward ought to of been. For that reason I cannot see why Wenger won’t start Lucas Perez tonight. I mean to say, why sign a centre forward then play a winger down the middle? We needed a replacement for Giroud who is slow and simply NOT GOOD ENOUGH. We did not need to move Sanchez around he was doing just fine where he was. It is like Arshavin and Podolski all over again. Monreal had an absolute nightmare on Saturday against a complete unknown and it was only bringing on Gibbs that saved us from further embarrassment down that side. For this reason I believe it is time for Gibbs to get his chance. The boy has done nothing wrong and MUST start tonight. I saw the Ox on Sky and it is obvious he is not happy. Why spend so much money on a player and not play him? It is Perez all over again. He must be given his chance. I would play him on the wing instead of Theo who missed three sitters on Saturday. Don’t let a couple of tap in goals fool you he is not Arsenal quality and never has been it is like Aliadiare all over again so for that reason Ox MUST start tonight. Xhaka has scored a couple of good goals but on Saturday showed his true colours and is not to be trusted in our midfield. Because Wenger failed to strengthen in that area again we have no choice but to start Elneny even though it is obvious Wenger doesn’t trust him or if he did he would of picked him more and anyway he will go the the cup of Africa Nationals soon anyway. My team would be Cech Bellerin Gibbs Mustafi Kos Elneny Santi Ozil Sanchez Perez Ox but I know Wenger will play the midget Colombian in goals no matter what the fans want but I cannot see how there can be any other changes from my line up there. This is a MUST WIN game. We deserve a better performance than which we have lately been seeing but honestly three points will do no matter how we get them. In fact three points is all that matters. I can’t see us losing to a bunch of Balkan part timers who no one has ever heard of but this is Arsenal and we only do things the hard way don’t we?
Positively Arsenal 
That’s more like it Stew, I knew you had it in you.
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steww I thought you were going to write an original piece, but you go and steal an article word for word from le grove. shame on you.
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Stew-personally I love your polemics and see them as a rallying call of the positivist in case any doom slips in,which of course is natural being stuck in our system of duality.
I think its Ok to have an opinion,and to write about those things-after all its a relative system we live in.You bring a lot to the party and thats damned important,
I look forward when I wake up to your post on match day, as ,much as I do to A5*s round up of the game,or Shotts statto patrol, or AAs pieces etc.
Keep on keeping on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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You almost fooled me, but gave yourself away through proper spelling and grammar. An A for effort though, with it all being one paragraph. You could alternatively have gone for single sentence paragraphs like the majority of football media, but I think this was the correct aesthetic choice.
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oh well looks like i was fooled! I’ll be tempted by the man with the bag of sweets next? Mou? GG? Rosemary the f*cking telephone operator?
COYS!
Off to watch Arsenal Fan tv now then later catch up the Kashadian on twatter.
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Exactly! ur spot on. I agree with everything u say. I would of not gone tonight if I didn’t not have to put a black bag on my seat. The club will get there just deserts when we lose.
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Steww. Please stay as the original, and, most definitely not as a better worded, more literate imitation of Le Grove. God forbid.
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Great stuff Steww, if only you had only mentioned the film about the weather predicting rodent, and made reference to the Einstein quote about definitions of insanity…that the great man never actually uttered, then you would be seen universally as a proper Arsenal fan, a bit like Piers
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Ever thought of doing a podcast Steww.
You can invite the great and the good. Plundits and hacks. Rub shoulders with the important people & feel “professional”.
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Other than your inexplicable omission of the word ‘deadwood’ from the piece – well researched, cogent, an all round good effort, Stew. A-/B+
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In spite of Stew’s commendable efforts to whip us into a frenzied, chanting Black Scarf twirling mob, I am not quite sure what to expect tonight from our Bulgarian visitors.
On paper (yes yes I know) this is a one way tie and if we do not emerge with three points and at least a 2-3 boost to our goals scored/goal difference then there will be a feeling of a chance missed in what still seems to be a contest with PSG for top spot.
For their part though Ludogorets have nothing to lose and in both neither of their group stage CL games have they been thumped. Their point in Basle was actually pretty good, better that Manyoo and Chelsea in recent seasons anyway.
I trust therefore we are not in line for another ‘Zagreb” sort of night (?)
And what do our opponents say;
Svetoslav Dyakov, Ludogorets captain: “Arsenal are one of the few teams in Europe that play with a unique style. Our game is a bit like theirs but on a different scale. It will be a genuine pleasure to play against Arsenal. There are no worries from our side but there is a lot of respect. Every player dreams about playing in games like this. Teams like Arsenal have no weak points. If we give our best, keep our concentration as high as possible throughout the whole game and have some luck, then there could be some chance for us.”
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Very funny Steww; as Andrew says, just totally let down by a failure to reference deadwood, an endearingly mispelt Whegnar (or two) and correct grammar and speling.
I love match days, me.
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As Derek and/or Clive said: “****ing provocative, provocative ****er”.
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Just over 2 years since we lost Zim Paul. Its important that we remember people when they have gone. Its how they remain with us . It becomes all we are in the end.
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When we started this blog there was some ill feeling with other blogs, Paul told me “You should fight for your beliefs and a cause, not for revenge. Look forward , not back, let it go George”
He really was quite a man.
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Almost perfect except you didn’t moan about the AGM being moved from Thursday to Monday.
COYG
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Steww, even Donald Trump?
All Bristol fashion, I am sure!
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Come on Arsenal
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Arsenal: Ospina, Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Gibbs, Coquelin, Cazorla, Walcott, Ozil, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alexis
Arsenal substitutes: Cech, Gabriel, Monreal, Elneny, Xhaka, Iwobi, Lucas
Copyright 2016 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20161019/team-news-coquelin-starts-in-europe#ebzjYXDr3Xxf0u63.99
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looks like steww picked the team.
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how did our youth team fare?
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our u19’s beat ludogorets u19s 3-0 today
http://www.arsenal.com/match/report/1617/post/under-19/u19s-arsenal-3-0-ludogorets-report
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eduardo792
October 19, 2016 at 7:33 pm
looks like steww picked the team.
Yep. From now on I’m doing team selection blogs.
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oh what a goal alexissssssssssssssssssss
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See. It’s when Sanchez does that we can forgive him not passing.
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Arsenal looking good so far And now Alexis! Tally ho!
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Able to rest Monreal, Cech, Iwobi and Xhaka and still field absolute quality. Arsene has built something here hasn’t he?
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I hope Lucas can get a run out tonight, would be good to see if he can grab some more goals.
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barca 1-0 man city
messi
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Glad Theo*s have a good season so far.Long may it last.
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Just thinking how good the Ox looked and then he injures his boot
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Mills – Lucas MUST start
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Soon it will be a phone in to see who should start,Big Brother football…? Sponsored by the Daily Fail.
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Ospina sharp again
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Nice from Ospina.
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ospina having a bit too much to do for my liking, he has made 3 great saves so far, and they have just hit the post too.
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Ludosweats making a game of it for sure.
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Tricksy players these Ludogoertians.
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Just heard Gary Sprake has died. Another thread connecting me to my childhood parts and spins away into the void.
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Thats a name thats been off my radar for a long time.RIP G Sprake.
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oh what a goal theoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
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Beauty. Is that two assists for Ox?
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Oh no – was Mesut.
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Nice,nice very nice oooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
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Mills – he was Leeds keeper when I first supported Arsenal and when the rivalry between the two clubs was intense.
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a very open game so far, we have scored two great goals, had good chances to get two or three more, but our Barzilian opponents can play a bit too, and opsina has had to be very alert on three occasions too.
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Was just before my time Stew, but know him from scanning the history books for as a kid.
Anyway, I cant see the second half which means Im only a plastic fan-but enjoy the rest lads, read you tomorra!
Cheers.
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Gary Sprake was inclined to make major bloopers, many leeds fans blame him for them not winning the title a few times in the early 70’s. Did he once actually throw the ball into his own net.
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fine finish by ox to make it 3-0
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kos with a world class tackle to stop a goal scoring chance, and we break down the other side and ozil makes it 4-0 with a fine finish
now get the subs on arsene
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