Two good footballing teams

Here is my usual in-depth analysis of the game.

Two good footballing teams played a good game of football.  The team with the best players won.

It really was as simple as that.

It almost looks like the lads are so full of self-belief that they can easily contain teams, safe in the knowledge that a shift through the gears can be found at any time.  Eight Premier League away wins on the bounce.  Twelve consecutive away wins.

I mean come on!

We have to be impressed by that? Don’t we?  We have won five consecutive Premier League games. The only loss was to a referee.  Santi, Podolski ,Tomas and Theo will be back soon.

Imagine that?

If we can get to the international break with another two wins then I think we can really start to get excited.

Oh and I don’t know if anyone noticed, but the team our reserves beat in the C.O.C. this week went to the home of the Champions, and beat them yesterday.

Anyway, that’s it from me.  You all will have seen it, lets chat about it and enjoy it in the comments section.

I don’t usually watch Arsène’s duels with the press. Not that I don’t like hearing his dulcet tones and seeing that flash of a smile as he claps a stopper over some impudent line of questioning. Of course I derive a certain satisfaction from seeing him spear the occasional journalist, who doesn’t? Generally though I simply can’t bear to watch him wheeled out to face these reptiles every week. Those self styled voices of the people who in fact do not speak for you and I any more than Tim Payton speaks for the majority or even a tiny minority of Arsenal fans. I cannot stomach seeing such a cerebral, dignified man wasting his time deflecting leading questions and smiling in the teeth of such monumental disrespect as that with which the British media treat him. It puts one in  mind of a room full of deaf men throwing faeces at Johan Sebastian Bach. Brilliance gnawed at by vermin.

Yesterday I made an exception and I found a way around the problem. The trick is to mute the sound as Arsène gazes off to the left or right with that faint hint of amused tolerance playing around the corners of his lips and increase the volume as he gives the little shrug which usually precedes a response to some inane question or other. He was so relaxed and eloquent yesterday. Modest to a fault as he hinted that signing a new contract wouldn’t take much persuasion and at the same time suggesting that his further employment wasn’t a top priority right now. This is the single most important man at the club bar none and yet we never see a scintilla of arrogance, not a shred of hubris. He frightened us a little with talk of Theo being as much as five weeks away and by revealing that Aaron and the Flaminator needed fitness tests, but it wasn’t what he said so much as his air that grabbed my attention. He has such vast and supreme experience in the world of football that he knows all too well how swiftly events can turn around and just how shifting and insubstantial a run of good results can sometimes prove to be. Yet he looked like a man on top of the world right now. Like a Mafia boss who has just received word that the heads of the other four families have been wiped out, and until their lieutenants can reorganise he is the supreme authority in the city. Of course first can swiftly become fifth, we know that and he knows it better than anyone but he is a man who was born to be top. Made to lead. Destined for greatness. All I’m saying is the frown was gone the smile was back and it was like basking in unseasonably warm Autumn sunshine. I nearly took my shirt off.

Arsène mentioned his opposite number in this afternoon’s clash. He liked Laudrup as a player and singled out his Scandinavian and Dutch football education as important. The man has essentially learned to play the game as it should be played. I’ve only seen his Swansea side once this season and I have to say I remain an admirer of the way they try to go about their business. They are as shy of hoofing the thing out of defence as are we and that is to their credit. Unfortunately the game I watched was on this year’s Jonjo Shelvey Day and was such a crazy affair that I couldn’t form any coherent sense of their strengths and weaknesses. I do remember thinking that Michu seemed a shoe in for this season’s Dimitar Berbatov award. He strolled languidly about the place as if on a sightseeing tour of South Wales whilst somehow contriving to maintain an air of suppressed menace suggesting he could at any given moment produce a devastating blow seemingly from nothing. Overall though on the rare moments when one could focus on anything but Jonjo’s Flying Circus the match showed us that the Swans can be intricate, inventive and incisive up front but will give the opposition a lot of space to work with at the back. Naturally if I can see that, then their coaching staff can too and there’s no guarantee that they will make similar mistakes against us.

Unlike last week when we had to break down Mark Hughes and his merry men, the games against Swansea are among those to which I most look forward. You can take it as read that I’m happy to see us play regardless of the opposition but it is so much more enjoyable when the match is between two teams dedicated to passing football. I know I’m out of step with the prevailing blogging mantra of The Only Thing That Matters Is The Three Points but seriously, come on, if that were true then no one would watch the game at all. We’d all just tune into Sports Report and listen intently as James Alexander Gordon does his thing. I want to enjoy the football. I want a spectacle. Win lose or draw I want an hour and a half of entertainment. You could of course argue that we got that in our midweek fixture. Nail biting end to end, sliding tackling, blood and thunder entertainment, and you’d be quite correct. But the great man has spoiled us with season after season of Wengerball and now we’ve become habituated to champagne let’s be honest, Vimto doesn’t quite deliver any more.

So to this afternoon, or if you prefer this evening. The only question I have is whether or not Arsène will start with Serge in lieu of Theo. He hinted that he might not, three games in a week being quite an ask for one so young. If the boy has recovered from his exertions against West Brom, I suspect he will start. If the kid is to be our temporary replacement on the right wing then the more he plays and the better those around him get to know and grow confident in him, the happier things must be for the team. Having said that I bet I’m not alone on relishing another glimpse of Chuba Akpom running at an opposition defence. His cameo on Wednesday was blistering; brimming with confidence speed and strength and the boy is surely not far away from the first team. Don’t panic though I’m no armchair strategist, God knows we don’t need any more of those. In any event Arsène is entirely capable of surprising us all and playing both Arteta and the Flaminizer together, pushing Jack left and The Wonder That Is Aaron Ramsay out to the right with Mesut Özil behind Goal A Game in a sort of 4 2 1 3, or 4 2 2 1 1. Honestly? I don’t have a clue but that’s fine because no one does with the possible exception of Steve Bould and even then only if Arsène has thought to tell him. As I’ve said many times, if you want predictions visit a fortune teller.

All I do know is that we are in an extremely ebullient mood on our travels these days. We may not have turned the Emirates into a fortress but we have made of ourselves extremely unwelcome house guests to whose visits no one looks forward with any relish. And it isn’t only Arsenal fans who are aware of our away form. A quick skim through the Swansea blogs reveals they are all talking about our phenomenal record away from London. We can pontificate on the reasons for this, we can fear that the bubble must one day burst, or we can just sit back and relish the fact that slowly but surely we are starting matches with the opposition already wondering how they might get anything from the game. It’s a place we’ve been once before in our recent past. All of course thanks to the man with the warm smile and the confident air. I don’t say we’re back to that amazing period in our history where we just never believed anyone would beat us, but the signs are at the very least promising. The confidence is returning both in the stands and on the pitch. For now all we can do is to keep the pressure on and hope the runners in the pack start to falter.

“Arsene, no pressure, but have you got time to sign your new contract now?  How about now?  Or now …?”

Although few seem keen on Kroenke I’ve long been of the view that the stability he has brought to AFC has been integral to the ability of the club to have remained on track in the very recent past.

For the club to truly reap the rewards of the relative sacrifice made since the move to the Emirates, it’s my belief that our ability to retain Arsene Wenger at the helm has been crucial.  It’s hard to imagine many owners/majority shareholders who could have provided the space for AW to regrow his squad and to play his way out of the various setbacks we’ve all seen with our own eyes over the years, whilst permitting, in parallel,  the Commercial Team to leverage value out of the Arsenal Brand.

Often much maligned by observers of the club, there is plenty of evidence to my eye that Kroenke’s passion towards Arsenal is unquestioned and remains undiminished.  His appreciation of Arsene is expressed at least in part by the following quote taken from the article Fungunner linked to earlier today:

“We were standing out in the rain watching. It rained like hell. This was going on for several hours. I was getting worried about players getting hit by lightning and Arsène was out in the middle of it. He’s out there coaching every day. You’ve got to love that or you can’t do it. That’s a passion.”

These are not the activities of someone winding down from the club.  It’s not the commitment of one looking to take supporters and shareholders for a ride or to ‘asset-strip’ the club, another favoured accusation until recently very much in vogue in certain quarters.

So Stanley understands and appreciates Arsene.

As the club becomes ever-more successful, I think more observers will understand and appreciate Kroenke’s role in all of this.

And it’s still my belief that, on balance, both will most likely be around for the long-term.

 On no account suggest another blog.

At the last Blog Census there were found to be fractionally under an infinite number of footballing blogs, the majority of them about Arsenal.  Indeed, the problem was so acute that mainstream news aggregators such as NewsNow had all but shut the virtual door to the addition of any new blogs to their much vaunted and hugely popular news feeds.

At around Xmas 2013, George (aka Pedantic George/Blackburn George/Positively George-from-Japan) got in touch to sound me and others out about the possibility of starting a brand new blog.

Great!

About Arsenal.

Oh.

But this one would be different from all the other blogs, more Arsenal – more pro-Arsenal – and according to George at least, that was something that was sadly lacking.

My less than sage-like advice to George at this time was to give the idea more thought as I felt it was unlikely to be a resounding success. The odds of a successful launch of a blog of this nature at this time seemed to me to be absolutely stacked against us.

George though was adamant that through the miracle of Twitter and NewNow we could spread the word and the word was Positive.

Obviously, I said “No.”

Not only that but I further suggested that NewsNow were most unlikely to ever take us on.  Their current stringent admissions process, itself lasting more than six months, seemed drafted to keep the likes of us firmly out.

But I was prepared to promote the site to my army of almost 50 followers on Twitter, if he was prepared to do the same.

The genesis and much of the readership of Positively Arsenal came from A Cultured Left Foot, one of the first footballing blogs of its kind and, for many, largely unrivaled.

George wanted a new home for us.

This followed that Blog’s owner’s decision to express doubts in respect of the direction the club was going in.

The now famous ‘End Of Era’ post opened up ACLF to a more critical slant of the club – one that would have seemed utterly unimaginable even 18 months earlier.  Although deep down I didn’t personally actually believe it was the end of an era, another disappointing autumn, which had followed the loss of Van Persie to Man U, meant that it really did feel like there could be some kind of sea-change taking place in the club’s fortunes.

I could understand the sentiment but I just felt it was a tad premature.

I certainly felt it was worth arguing the toss and believed there were still just enough of us pro-Wengerites around to make the case.  So this was my response to George’s initial idea – that we should stay with ACLF and fight for what we believed in and yes, argue our case, even if we did take a hammering.

A few days later George was banned from commenting on ACLF and could no longer stay and fight for what we believed.  George’s ban  followed yet another fracas in the comments section which, by now, Yogi was weary of policing any further.  So now with George gone and literally a handful of us left to fight our embattled corner, it was hard to argue against setting up a new site.  It simply felt there really wasn’t that much left to lose – many of my personal favourite commentators had all but disappeared and Yogi had clearly lost his patience with some of those still prepared to put their neck above the parapet.

I’d always admired ACLF for the quality of Yogi’s writing, his insight and knowledge of the club and it’s wider environs.  He also had the occasional guest posters and the best of these, for me, was the alarmingly youthful and generally just brilliant Birdkamp.  I chipped in with a couple of posts of my own and these were kindly received.   But the ‘mood’ of the blog became progressively darker and gloomier and morale seemed to track the club’s wavering fortunes.  There were very, very few commentators I actively disliked (and that’s remained the case to this day) but I found myself in disagreement with the majority of those whose patience with the club was all but exhausted.

With something of a heavy heart I agreed to take a backseat, low-key role (sweeping the floors and cleaning windows, mostly) with Positively Arsenal and promptly found myself writing the opening post.   I think by late January (the blog launched on 28^th January), the ‘founders’ of PA were themselves somewhat exhausted by the negativity threatening to envelope the club – not just on ACLF but on Twitter as well as the wider blogosphere, the media and pretty much anywhere where more than one was gathered to comment on our beloved and by this stage somewhat beleagured club.

It was on this basis that George insisted that all commentators to the blog would be effectively by invitation only.  I insisted that the first letter of each word in the title of each day’s blog should be capitalized.

With these two fundamentals firmly set in stone and with Steww, Frank and Adi alongside, we set off on Our Great Blogging Adventure.  I didn’t expect all that much, to be honest; I thought the writing would be fine but I felt the furrow we were attempting to plough was such an isolated one that we were as likely to be marginalized and ignored as we were anything else.

How would anyone find us?  And would they care if they did?

But a very wonderful thing happened.

Many of our old friends and former ‘allies’ from ACLF – some of whom had gone missing in action over many months and even years – pitched up having somehow found us.  And, amazingly, from the earliest days, the site’s viewing stats (as provided by WordPress) were always substantial with ‘hits’ being recorded in volume from literally all around the globe.

It was all hugely encouraging.

For sure, many of those readers recorded by WordPress would not have been in agreement with much of the sentiments of what we felt the blog stood for but the sustained interest in the blog over days, weeks and now months – almost 9 months of them – suggests to both me and George that the site is chiming with a good number of our visitors.

It’s funny now to look back and think that our biggest fear was that we wouldn’t be able to replicate the comments section we once frequented on ACLF.  Indeed, the biggest problem for most blogs is the absence of comment and there are some first class bloggers out there for whom solving this is still no nearer to happening than when they first started out.

Positively Arsenal is not without its critics of course and chief amongst the criticisms is the idea that we see ourselves as somehow superior to most other fans, that our determination to see the positives in the club we love somehow, in our own eyes at least, elevates us above all others.

Well, for this writer, PA is not about being a ‘better’ fan but it IS about being a different kind of fan.  The Arsenal ‘family’ is a big one and it’s a diverse one.  There is room for many different ‘styles’ of supporting.  There are plenty of blogs out there to cater for all the other different ways of showing support.

This is ours.

And for me personally, it’s a hugely enjoyable way to experience the game, in the company of like-minded souls knowing that good or bad or indifferent, our players’ performances will be supported and encouraged – and above all else, understood, as best we can.  I rest easy knowing that my faith in the club and its employees at all levels from Doris the Tea Lady all the way down to the directors and manager will be largely shared by my fellow readers and contributors.

And even when part of my beliefs are not universally shared (ie, I get things wrong), the howler is unlikely to be met with cynical aggression but more likely  discussed and reasoned based on the facts available to us rather than a process of random, unsupported speculation.

If that makes us the ‘sunshine bus’ then that’s fine with me though I understand it doesn’t suit everyone.

But it suits me and a good number of those contributing to the site.

On Wednesday, to my surprise, PA was, against all the odds, added to the feeds of NewsNow.

This despite their virtual ban on adding new Arsenal blogs to their roster.  It prompted this article to be put together as George and I wondered the best way to mark this welcome development.

This brief retrospective seemed the right thing to do.

It just leaves me to end on an acknowledgement of every single poster and commentator we’ve had the privilege to have ‘join’ us.

PA is very much a collective effort and the diversity of its contributors – main posters and commentators alike – is one of its key strengths. In the course of this blog’s brief life, we have made many new friends both near and far, from India to Alabama and beyond and our lives and perspectives have certainly been enriched by this.

As we finally reach the autumn, Arsenal Football Club appears to have left much of the negativity behind.  Whilst there will doubtless be ups and downs still to come, the good times do finally appear to be back with us.

It is a source of undented and undiminishing pride that PA was set up during what may end up being seen as the club’s darkest hour.

That we went through this awful phase together won’t be readily forgotten.

Long may Positively Arsenal – and all of us – continue.

A game every few days for our boys at the moment and with injuries coming as thick and fast as actors on the set of a grumble flick it has been a testing time. Has been and looks set to continue to be. Just when you think it’s safe to contemplate the future the dreaded international blight looms on the horizon and prepares to sink it’s teeth into whatever unspoiled flesh is left in our ravaged squad. How to cope with the situation? My approach to this and indeed to life in general is to adopt a kind of dark optimism. The thought process runs along these lines –  ‘life will always serve up more than it’s fair share of shit sandwiches for us and so we had just as well celebrate every small mercy that actually does, or may possibly, come our way’. So it is in that spirit I’m going to celebrate the news that Theo’s gut wrench will not keep him out for long but will at least keep him out long enough to escape Roy’s clutches. The other sliver of silver I’m squinting to focus on is that if we somehow manage to continue to field an eleven of sufficient strength to keep our noses in front or at least on the shoulder of the leaders then the return of the wounded could come at precisely the right moment. I’m going out onto a pretty narrow and less than robust limb here but just stay with me.

Imagine the scenario where in a couple of months time our depleted but doughty first eleven are still in contention but by now are carrying  minor niggles, getting seriously tired and starting to flag; battling to see out their games. Then picture the necessary shot in the arm of their wounded comrades returning to the fray, like the cavalry coming over the hill just in time to inject the needed energy back into our title challenge. Thin? Hopeful? Even myopically optimistic? Well, perhaps a little. It’s akin to a blindfolded tightrope walker walking a succession of ropes and not knowing if his support team have finished putting the next one up. If everything comes together just right it’ll be a stroll, a walk in the park albeit a highly skilled superbly trained walk in a park full of hungry predators. If not he’ll fall off the end.

Oh by the by, before I stray into the dense forest of metaphor overload, or at least before I wander farther into it, I ought to mention that so impressed were you with last week and my attempt to write a blog whilst simultaneously watching Arsenal’s calm demolition of Olympic Marseilles that I’m having another stab at it this evening. As we speak our brave lads are striding out onto the pitch at one of the country’s great historic football grounds. Unlike us, Albion have been at their home for well over a century and although much reduced since sixty thousand watched them take on Arsenal in the FA Cup back in the thirties the Hawthorns is still one of those grounds that provides a link in the chain of nostalgia joining this evening’s game with my childhood football memories. The soil in which the seed of footy mania was so deeply planted was well watered with the names of Jeff Astle,  Brendan Batson, Willie Johnston, Brian Robson and Laurie Cunningham.  I’ve never wished the Baggies any harm, but I hope they fail tonight. They’ve started brightly enough but a typical Arsenal diddly-cup line up blending youth with experienced players returning from the crock shop ought to have enough to dampen their enthusiasm.

Returning if I may to my earlier theme and looking at the back six tonight I can’t help but wonder if our improved ability to cope with this latest injury crisis might not be down to one simple break with history. In the past we have been hit with a concatenation of injuries to players skilled in similar positional rôles. Remember when there were no healthy fullbacks in the entire club? When all the centre backs were out at once? This time around the defence has remained pretty well in one piece or at least with sufficient healthy cover to cope with the odd setback.  This is so important. A bedrock on which the midfield and attack can flourish, no matter how raggedy assed they may sometimes appear, with the occasional youth team player thrust in to plug a sudden unexpected gap. Not, you understand, that I disparage last weekend’s performance of the jugendlich Herr Gnabry. I thought the lad grew into his first team shirt against Stoke with a strength and maturity that belied his tender years. It just isn’t ideal to be so reduced as to have to depend on such inexperience, but then we’ve always been cursed with ill luck where injuries are concerned and must strive to overcome regardless.

Fifteen minutes have elapsed and the game is pretty evenly balanced. Both sides looking to attack and our youngsters not overawed at all at their elevation  to the first eleven. Hayden is particularly cool on the ball and strong in the tackle and with Per and Mikel out there they have more than enough experience around them to weather the Albion’s early pressure and get their passing game going. I’m very excited to see Ryo motoring down the wing and Eisfeld is a fantastic prospect. Also I like the way Jenks hugs the touchline. He is so disciplined and really stretches the opposition but when it comes to forward players all eyes are of course on Big Nic.

This is a subject out of which I have stayed ever since provoking some truly silly reactions on twitter a while back. When it became obvious that Arsene’s attempts to sign an understudy for Olivier Goal A Game Giroud were likely to be frustrated, Nic had to forgoe his own move, dust off the red and white and give of his best for the team. Given that he would therefore remain an Arsenal player all I dared to suggest was that we as supporters must drop the feeble name calling that had become sadly fashionable and support him as we ought any player who pulls on the shirt. The most popular reaction was that people might grudgingly consider being oh so kind as to grant him some semblance of non committal approval if and only if he earned it. If in some way he was able to prove to these super important ultra fans that he was in fact worthy of the enormous honour of their backing then they might not boo him. What a bunch of sanctimonious self important half baked non supporters they really are. The idea that they might simply get behind all of our players without any reservation because, whatever their private thoughts, that would be for the benefit of the team they purport to follow seemed a thought too far for them.

Needless to say here at PA we support Arsenal players because we support Arsenal. Life is so simple when you remove your own pathetic fragile ego from the equation isn’t it? Thirty four minutes gone and Isaac and Nacho have both been booked, the tackles starting to fly in. As might be expected West Brom are giving it their all. At home, in the only competition they have a realistic hope of winning against a somewhat disjointed Arsenal side who as yet have shown in flashes but failed to gel. I need to stop writing and watch this, sorry. It’s getting too tense, too difficult to look two ways at once. Marseilles was a doddle compared to this one. This has the look and feel of one of those old cup ties from the seventies. Lots of huff puff and heavy sliding tackles but little cohesive skill. I shall come back to you a little later.

Well it’s more than a little later. In fact it’s bloody hours later. Kelly will be waking up soon at this rate. It went to penalties in the end. You probably know the outcome. I don’t like penalties. I don’t think they add anything to the spectacle, and would actually prefer a coin toss. It would have a certain neat symmetrical bookend effect with the coin toss with which the match began. Also the damage it can do to a young player’s confidence should he fail to score is out of all proportion to his error. Not only that but it’s extremely unfair as missing a penalty isn’t really a mistake. It is such an entirely different skill that if we must have them there should be specialists wheeled out to take them. Like in biblical times where armies would send out individual champions to duke it out in lieu of a major battle thus sparing a lot of unnecessary bloodshed.  As far as tonight’s entertainment is concerned I was glad to see returning players getting the game time they desperately needed, especially Big Nic who is obviously lacking match fitness, sorry to see Mikel Arteta limp out of the match and happy to see the kids get valuable experience. That’s all you can say really. Apart that is from how utterly delicious it was to hear the devastated disappointment in the voice of the Sky apparatchik when the final result was, at long long last, achieved.

Top of the league and top of the world.

I used to love cars.  Spent a fortune on them over the years.

The one I loved the most was a 1966 MGB Roadster. I bought it in 1990, it had been restored lovingly to concourse condition by an enthusiast who came on hard times during that particular recession.

I saw the pictures of it before the chap had worked his magic.  Even then it looked nice and he said it had always been reliable.  But afterwards?  Oh, it was a thing of beauty.  Stainless steel wire wheels, leather upholstery – the whole nine yards.

Of course he might have not bothered and simply sold it and bought a nice new Golf GTi.  Thankfully he didn’t. He worked with what he had and in the end he produced a work of art.  Can you see where this is going?

Yes?  Thought so.

Well our wonderful set of players are quickly turning into a thing of beauty.  Just as my MGB was.

Even when, like yesterday, it’s just cruising around in second gear.

I thought yesterday was a very professional job.  We started off totally dominant although never getting into top gear.  After the Welsh Wizard scored the opener, we dropped back into second.  And paid the price. Not that an equalizer had looked on the cards, but we had stopped dominating.

But what happened next?

Well we moved up into third again and wrested control back. And it looked like we could , if need be, move through the gears further if it became necessary.  It looked to me that the many games  this eleven has played recently meant they were happy to conserve energy and win with as little physical exertion as possible.  That’s what we did.

Three points and top of the league.

I don’t want to go over the top in praise of the team, because it could come back to bite me on the bum.

However, I am as happy with this team and squad as I have been since 2004.

I love this bunch of lads and I love what I am seeing.

Happy days.

Stoke. What can you say about Stoke? Seriously. Apart from Owd Grandad Piggott, May un Mar Lady and the 1842 Pottery Riots the place seems not to have an awful lot going for it. Oh sorry, I forgot there’s the football team. We need to mention the football team. Now. I am well aware of the protocol here. I know I’m expected to litter this piece with Tolkienesque allusions and rugby references, but I am going to try to break out of that particular clichéd straight jacket. I want to see if I can make it to the end without one mention of Orcs, seven points, Mordor, The Barad-dûr or Twickenham. You don’t think I can? Just watch me.

With players closely resembling the uglier members of The Dothraki tribe and a playing style closer to American rather than British Football Stoke City have won few friends in their most recent sojourn in the top flight of the English leagues. They have been in the premier division on occasions before, but each time their stay has descended into an attritional battle where survival becomes the supreme goal. To be fair they haven’t always stirred such feelings of animus, such hostile revulsion from their peers as that which they earned during the Pulis years. We can’t tell if the Hughes era will usher in a new playing style or whether the unkind comparisons to more heavily contact based sports will endure. You have to be honest and say that his record with such Wendigo filled cloggers as Blackburn doesn’t bode well. Off the pitch a handful of Stoke supporters have done little to reverse the awful reputation that the team have earned upon it. I know there are folk, long suffering Potters fans, who have had to put up with some pretty strong stuff, not least of all from us, but sadly for them, as long as a section of their support thinks it right and proper to boo Aaron Ramsey then I fear they may as well accustom themselves to their pariah status. That reaction to the events of the twenty seventh of February twenty ten surely ranks among the most reprehensible of any group of modern football fans.
Today however I don’t really want to waste too much breath on the opposition. Today I want to focus on us. I don’t want to write a piece about Morlocks and their attempt to import Murderball tactics into the Prem, it’s all a bit tired now and we are in such a fine run of results right at this moment that it seems silly not to look at our own side and let the visitors worry about themselves. One of the positives about our recent mini run since the opening day setback is that we’ve put it together with a severely depleted squad. I think most people now accept that the bunkum bandied about us being weak, lacking strength in depth or having insufficient back up to first team players has been categorically disproved and was in all honesty little more than a Sky Sports editorial flogging horse which Murdoch’s minions had been ordered to repeat until the brainwashed hordes assumed it to be based on some sort of empirical evidence. We have sauntered on, apparently uninhibited by shedding players of the calibre of Santi Cazorla, Lukas Podolski, Alex Oxelaide Chamberlain, Tomas Rosicky and the best midfielder in the league Mikel Arteta. That we haven’t broken stride despite this luminous list joining AD2 in the infirmary having the old embrocation rubbed in by beefy men in roll necked sweaters of course speaks volumes for our squad depth. Less tangible however is this creeping feeling that we are a considerably more to be reckoned with force than we have been in recent seasons. I can’t speak for you obviously but I know that I have been a little taken aback by how fast our injured players are returning to us. This could of course be no more than the effects of the passage of time. An old man like me will naturally watch the few remaining grains in the top half of the hour glass appear to drop ever more quickly the less of them there are, that is merely human nature. In this instance, however, I think something else is at work.
Normally when important players are missing you, well, you miss them. You study Arsène’s elastic forecasts of their projected return dates with mounting anxiety and you know that we desperately need them patched up and wheeled out in as little time as possible. It has sometimes been a fretful misery watching our second string hanging on in there as we wonder how many more months our wounded stars must be injected with the old horse tranquillisers and fed the cod liver oil. Well I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not but Thomas Vermaelen’s name slipped back into the match day programme recently. And now I’m hearing that Mikel Arteta our other captain is back to full training and may even feature in today’s line up. So soon. They haven’t recovered particularly quickly. That isn’t it at all. Nature has run it’s course as it always has and ever will. No, I maintain that what’s happening here is because our squad is so strong, so resilient even in times of crisis that we haven’t really been worrying about the wounded in the way we once would. The spotlight is on the guys who are winning for us on the pitch and not for once on the ones we desperately need back to careen a stricken ship. Even a year ago we’d have really struggled without Arteta in the team. Now I begin to wonder who could we drop to make way for him. Aaron? Don’t make me laugh. Jack? Just when his burgeoning understanding with Mesut Özil is growing minute by minute before our eyes into a thing of rare beauty? I don’t think so. The new boy himself? Seems a little unlikely. Seems to me he needs games under his belt; as many and as soon as possible to help him settle and learn the ways of the Wengerball. Can’t see MA rampaging down either wing nor displacing Olivier Goal A Game Giroud and so maybe, just maybe I have a point.

I know we have a lot of games and people need to rest and injuries will happen. I get all that, but it isn’t really what I’m driving at here. I’m more interested in the way things feel calmer, even in a so called crisis, the way the club seems to sit a little deeper in the water and not heel over so badly in a sudden squall. I can’t put my finger on it but there’s a settled, purposeful strength to our progress right now and I like it a lot. None of this should hoodwink you into thinking that I’m not a gibbering wreck in the ten minutes before kick off – the thing wouldn’t be any fun otherwise would it? But if you take recent events into account I can’t see why anyone would be anything other than serenely calm right now. I certainly couldn’t grasp why folk spat out their pacifiers (for my English readers that’s ‘dummies’) when we conceded against Paulo the Fascist’s north eastern division last weekend. There was a sense of inevitability about our matching and going at least two better than anything they could throw at us that day and that typifies the aura the club is wearing right now.
OK, enough of me and my hypothetical rambling, I know what you want. You want final score predictions and team lists don’t you? That is after all the only reason to read a blog. Unless it’s to be told what to think. So here goes. Bendtner will start in a four four three with Akpom playing off him in the channel holes, Giroud to start on the left drifting into the right half central wide  position when defending. Peter Story will be at holding midsweeper and with Theo in goal we’ll defeat the ravening Mongol hordes of Batu Khan Hughes by six to two with one impaling and two yellow perils to one red army faction. There will be a white Christmas, it might as well rain until September and the lotto numbers for Wednesday will precisely correspond to the page numbers in which Mr Gradgrind is mentioned in the first half of Hard Times by Charles Dickens.

I find myself in a state of conflict.

I am ecstatically happy about results and the general development of the team and club, yet angry at the treatment they were receiving until very recently.

People who have spent years running down the board, manager and players, a situation that reached new heights during the summer, are guilty of obscene levels of revisionism.

The manager was said to be unable to “do” defence.  This team has conceded 3 goals from open play in the last 18 games. It had the second best defence in the league last year, whilst still playing attacking football.  It contains players of the calibre of Sagna ,Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs and Monreal.  Not bad picks for a guy that doesn’t know a defender from his elbow.  Are these experts on football holding up their collective hands and saying: “Oops, I was talking utter crap.sorry” ?

Where are the agitators who claimed we would never buy a world class player or ever spend over £20 million on one now? What about those who claimed that big names being linked were just a ploy by the money -grabbing board to sell season tickets?  Why are they not admitting to being malcontent idiots?

Here are some extract from a post by ZimPaul that puts some great questions:

“One thing is the frustrated fan hurling cheap insults against any target, including Emmanuel, Aaron, Abou, Theo, Denilson, so many others, and always Wenger by default, to vent their infantile anger at not being at the “top table” of trophies for a rather short spell, without thought of incredible ambitions the club had already achieved, was in the process of achieving, and had set its sights on, and the calm, decent manner it was going about all this. Despicable and stupid.

Then what does one call the informed and erudite fan, who knowingly, willfully set out to manipulate malleable, weak minds with outright lies, selective lies, omission of facts, outrageous claims (often dressed up as modest, humble appeals for change and “end of an era”), manipulating and flinging about all manner of base emotions, with the objective to erode team and club morale, it’s achievements, and get Wenger out?

And then what does one call more influential individuals and journalists, pundits, ex-players, football establishment types, who conjured up and fabricated an entire anti-Wengerball culture, week in week out, appealing to Arsenal’s time-honoured (British) traditions and glories, and so set out and all but conspired to use their influence to destroy Arsenal’s achievements during a vulnerable period of building for the long term?”

That’s at least three categories of idiots who should be scoffing humble pie like there is no tomorrow.  But are they ?

The relentless moaning and whinging by fans with an over-inflated sense of entitlement has morphed into “We were only asking legitimate questions.” 

Where they? Or were they chatting shit?

All last year some of us were suggesting that when the new arrivals settled in and the young players followed their natural progression, that we would see a very good team.

This was deemed delusional.  When we said Ramsey, Giroud, Chamberlian, Podolski, Gibbs and others would be much better, we were told that we were mad. Some of these players were classed “not of Arsenal standard” by expert fans and pundits alike.

Were they wrong? Are they sorry?

People claim their moaning was because they were frustrated.  Ignoring that it was them and their fellow halfwits that were speculating about nonsense and that was what was fueling their frustrations.

They claim they were right to question.  Well it’s the tone and content of the questions that separate a reasonable fan from a spoiled child.

What about those who insisted that Jack would be sold and we were content to be fourth and not challengers?

Are they contrite?

We bought Ozil and still have huge funds for future purchases. Of course the moaners will say we should have spent more and sooner. Because they would make a better fist of running the club? Right?

Anyone with even half a brain could have seen that 2014 was penciled in as the point where we moved through the gears. It was obvious. But despite the evidence some expert fans won’t accept this.

You can question the club and still be behind the team.  That’s true.  But you must accept that if the questions you are asking are ridiculous and being asked because you have little understanding of almost anything, then its a hindrance rather than a help.

If you are claiming that our injury crisis is a result of poor management and planning consider this.  A fit squad would see, by my calculations, ten full and first choice Internationals not in the starting eleven. So swivel.

Things are going rather well at present, but there will come a point when we suffer some reverses.  The wheels might not fall off, but one might come loose, or it might just be a flat tyre.  At this point all the good that has gone before us up until now, will be forgotten.  Blackburn and Bradford will be rolled out and past perceived failings will be regurgitated by those that are temporarily quiet (and asking for amnesty) and used to back up their wild and ridiculous claims of incompetence by some poor sod or other.  Be it Aaron, Arsene, Ivan or Stan.

These stupid know-it-all fans haven’t gone away, they are just lurking and waiting for their next chance to express their football know-how.

So don’t ask me to just enjoy the football.

Did they want to allow me to just enjoy the football?

Bollocks to them and any appeaser.

Now I will be accused of not being positive, and for creating more divides with this post. Well I am sorry, but these people make me sick.

Does that make me a flawed individual?

Probably.

As Arsenal are weathering the early home pressure and I search for ways to cope with the rising anger at the hapless biased negativity of the truly horrible commentary team, my thoughts drift to The Plan. Some people have called it Project Youth some have seen it as a series of decisions based entirely upon financial straight jackets while a frankly silly minority have attempted (unconvincingly) to propagate the belief that there is no plan. Personally I’ve never thought that The Plan was particularly complex, elliptical nor difficult to grasp. Arsène has always been up front and honest when it comes to explaining The Plan. Put simply, he has striven to build a squad of exciting young talent either bought in or home grown and to blend it with experienced players of international renown. He then adds a dash of stardust seasoning in the shape of one or two truly world class footballers. The over riding criteria being that whether callow or seasoned these players should be inventive, intelligent, clean living and good looking and able to adapt themselves to the wonder that is Wengerball. See? Simple isn’t it? Of course high profile defections in search of money and a sickening spate of injuries have often robbed him of both the older and younger players forcing him to promote, buy and borrow in successive rebuilding operations which have disrupted the personnel but never derailed The Plan.

I feel that the current squad may be the most perfect realisation of The Plan that we have seen. Others would disagree but yar boo sucks to them. This is my turn and I’ll paint the blog whatever shade of red and white that I like. If you take the defensive side of our team for example it really is the perfect encapsulation of The Plan in microcosm. I think of our defensive unit as comprising Szczęsny, Bac, Gibbs, Per, Kos and Mikel Arteta. I include Mikel although the Flaminator could just as easily fit the bill. Either way the midfielder most likely to be found protecting the back four is an integral part of our rearguard. So that’s three young players either bought from obscurity or groomed from a very young age in-house and three massively experienced hugely knowledgeable footballers the whole shebang combining grace, speed, enthusiasm, maturity, skill, anticipation, acceleration, pace and power into a big gumbo of footy loveliness. As I say an encapsulation of The Plan.

One element of The Plan has undoubtedly been Project Youth. I don’t deny the existence of The Project. However this has never been, is not and hereafter never shall be the whole plan. Never ever ever no matter what you may have heard or thought, so clear your muddled head of such zany baloney.  Any sensible well run responsible club will have a decent youth set up and will give very many young sportsman the best possible start in their sporting life and at Arsenal that’s precisely what happens. Some of those youngsters will gain first team experience and some will go on to become first choice. Not many of course but more than you’d expect to see in most top teams. But Project Youth is only a part of The Plan. The reason I highlight it here and the reason I believe our current squad to be such a fine example and realisation of The Plan is this. Project Youth takes time. Buying a player takes a bit of scouting, negotiating and cheque writing it’s true but this is peanuts to planting and growing your own young players. What age were Jack or Kieron? They were still in red and white nappies when they first started for us and it has taken a very long time to get to where we are today. Similarly Theo and Aaron. They were bought in for sure but before they’d done their GCSE’s. Or thereabouts. My point is it took time for them to bridge that boy to man gap. And now we are here. The vast wealth of experience possessed by the likes of Per, Mikel, Podolski, Tomas, Bacary, Santi, is now combined with youngsters who are now actually no longer boys but professional footballers just entering their best years. Look at Aaron. He is merely a junior member of the team. And he’s the best player in the country right now. By a country mile.  And that’s my point. The youth/experience balance is still there but now the young players have enormous experience. Still learning of course but not kids. Not in footballing terms. Not any more.

57.27 seconds. Aaron Ramsay pulls off a tackle on the edge of our area that Bobby Moore would have boggled at. And then he instigates a counter attack that ends with their keeper making  a good save at the near post from a Jack Wilshere volley. It just happened. At the moment that I finished writing the last paragraph. Kind of proving my point. There’s really only one ingredient missing as far as The Plan is concerned. The players need to know how it feels to win. Not just matches. They know how to win big and important matches. They need to know how it feels to win competitions. To know that together they can see the job through to the end. I see no reason to suppose they can’t do it and that their time is now. And as I typed that Theo banged it into the net. Like we all knew he could. And he also kind of proved my point. He is ready now, no longer a kid. His misfortune in hitting a keeper in fine form on Saturday counted for nothing when his chance came this evening. He is young, quick and a menace to defenders but he is also sufficiently experienced to have patience and perspective. Those precious commodities so transparently lacking in so many supporters and yet so absolutely essential in the psyche of a top professional sportsman.

Well it’s 71 minutes in and I’ve stopped typing so I can enjoy the last 20 minutes of the game. I wonder when Giroud will score. I wonder what will happen if he doesn’t? Will the ravens flee the tower? I wonder if Sky’s commentary apparatchiks ever lock themselves in a cubicle in the gents with their faces in their hands sobbing quietly at having to repeat such Orwellian doublespeak as “Arsenal have always drawn easy groups” and “Arsenal’s squad is looking thin”. I know they need the money, we all have bills to pay, but I’d like to think that if I was called upon to do something so blatantly immoral and clearly wrong in the course of my working day that I’d have the courage to say no.

I suppose if I told you I was wondering just when Aaron would score as the clock approached 83 minutes you wouldn’t believe me would you?

Still sat here concerned about the ravens though.

George and Ronan discuss the victory at Sunderland. Daniel Cowan talks all things Arsenal.