There is a cry-baby culture developing in the wider society that seems to have pervaded the supporters of our great football club, at least among those who frequent Arsenal-twitter.

On a societal level, very recently we have had the pathetic,  hilarious spectacle of colleges and universities in my country (the good old USA) setting up cry-rooms, healing spaces, petting zones, handing out Play-Doh, postponing exams,  because young adults (our future leaders in government, industry and commerce) were upset by election results.  See this, and then here and there.

Note there was no coup, no burning of the Reichstag (Congress), no night of the long knives, no assassination of opponents of the new regime, no turfing-out of academics from the universities, no purging of the Judiciary; (not yet Ed.) it was a plain old election, as has been the wont of the US republic for over 200 years.

There is nothing wrong with getting upset when results go against us as individuals in an election, referendum or football match. It is our indivisible right as human beings. But as adults, it is a dangerously narcissistic to expect our needs and desires to be always satisfied, to not expect disappointments, to not  expect other individuals and groups to have diametrically opposing objectives and to actively work to frustrate ours. In life you win and you lose. To have university and college administrators and their academics encouraging the millennial generation to believe that being like cry-babies will change reality and that Mummy and Daddy will make things right is doing them a terrible disservice.

A similar mentality is evident in many supporters of our football club.  Take Saturday’s game against United for example. Apparently it is not good enough to struggle against a club whose squad is valued by transfermarkt.com at £578 million vs £323 million for Arsenal’s. Even worse is to fall behind and then to successfully struggle and fightback to earn a draw. Apparently Jose Mourinho with his four (4 )Premier League titles is simply a fraud who doesn’t have a successful history of setting-up his team to frustrate and throttle the Gunners in midfield and to eventually sneak a goal on the counter-attack or take advantage of a mistake by a beleaguered defender.

Again, let me stress, every supporter has the right to be disappointed that the team was not at its best and was unable to outplay United. But it is delusional to not give the opposing team any credit or to not give your own club credit for their achievements, limited as they may be.

To conclude that Arsenal was simply lucky to earn a point is simply being in denial. Unlike actual reality on the field of play, the players earn no credit for responding to the challenge of falling behind and never giving up. Similarly the manager is seen by some as literally being asleep at the wheel and out of touch with the ebb and flow of the game when he made his substitutions; Giroud on the 73rd minute mark and Oxlade-Chamberlain after 83 minutes, i.e. the duo who directly assisted and scored the goal. The narcissist inside us is cursing Daddy Wenger because he was unable to give us the victory we felt entitled, a draw is not good enough. Predictably it is cause for more squawking by the little babies.

This nicely segues to the data which is at the core of today’s blog. It is a fact the club has had a long history of poor results during the month of November. I wonder how our cry-babies and tender snowflakes would/will cope with this continuing trend.

So far, this November, the club has had two points from two games or .67 points per game (ppg). With two more matches in November this could be improved.  Last year was brutal, as the club was ranked 16^th in points accrued during the month of November at 0.67 ppg. The raw data is presented in the table below.

From the data I wish to emphasize the following :

• Over the last 20 years the club averaged 1.62 ppg in November, compared to 2.24 ppg per season, a 38% difference.
• In the Highbury era the club did slightly better at 1.74 ppg compared to an average season of 2.21 ppg, a 27% difference.
• During the Emirates era, the November average hit a low of 1.51 ppg, but the season average of 2.28 ppg is higher than at Highbury.

Fortunately for the club the November points haul has little correlation with the club’s final league position.  In fact, there was the remarkable situation in 1997-98 when the club was 19^th rank in points that November and finished the league in 2^nd place.

• Over the past 20 years the club averaged 9^th in the league in terms points accrued in November, compared to an average end-of-season league position of 3^rd , a 6 places difference.
• In the Highbury era the club average league ranking for points in November was 8^th but averaged a season-ending position of 2^nd in the league, also an improvement of 6 places.
• Since moving to the Emirates, the club’s average ranking for points accrued in November was 8^th place but averaged 3^rd at season-end, in the league, an improvement of only 5 places, i.e. less than at Highbury.

I am fully aware that data has little persuasive influence on the majority of our fan base. Sigmund Freud long discovered that behaviors are changed by triggering deep primal emotions in the unconscious particularly instincts like fear and greed. Let me remind you that the elites of our countries, those who control the economy and power structures, have well developed systems and institutions, primarily the media, to manipulate and influence us as a group to adopt behaviors that are counter to our interest. Along those lines I fully expect a run of poor results in November will no doubt bring all the fear-mongers and WOBs to the fore. Expect those who hate the self-sufficient model and Arsene’s artistic, aesthetic approach to the game to whip our little cry-babies into a frenzy, doubting our title potential. The data is clear; points in November have little bearing on our final league position. Hoping my research will give you the tools to stop them dead in their tracks.

No club for cry babies. Up the Arsenal!

PS: For a greater understanding of how our behaviors are manipulated by the powers that be check out this piece: We’re Being Played. The youtube video is a must watch.