This is part one of two articles from ArsenalAndrew

There has been some talk in recent days amongst fans and in the wider media of the need for an Arsenal backlash.

For the side to ‘finally’ stand up and be counted, ideally in the most spectacular of fashions.

Preferably, against Spurs, if at all possible.

Well, it equally has to be said – because it is there for all to see – that even in the games that haven’t ended well for us recently, as a general rule, there has always been signs of a beautiful machine about to click into place.  Only by the narrowest of margins have passes been cut out and moves broken down. This much has been evident all season long.

And it is this single, simple observation, that goes to the heart of my personal frustration and anger at those who persist with the negative nonsense.

If those same critics were as willing to get behind the team as they are to ignore the progress being achieved by a group of players still getting to know one another, let alone their opponents and the wider demands of the EPL, then I’ve no doubt Arsenal World would be a much, much better place.

We are told in all seriousness by The Ones Who Doubt, that the Arsenal players should know each other’s game inside out by now.

But this fundamentally fails to grasp the finer points of Arsene’s Quantum Football Mechanics which relies on a near telepathic understanding of where one’s team mates will be found at any stage of the play.  The absolute killer attacks are not founded on a leisurely survey of the pitch before a pass is played.  Players like Emanuel Petit have said they always knew where their colleagues were, pretty much to within a few inches – in Petit’s case he was referring specifically to his playing relationship with Patrick Viera.

These relationships do not gel overnight.

At Man U, Ferguson has had the great good fortune to be in a position to largely manage player exits so that ‘fallow’ periods have been relatively few and far between.  It’s not to attack Arsenal to give United credit for this.  And it’s equally telling that the loss of a star player – in their case Ronaldo – was just as problematic for them to deal with as it has been for Arsenal to make adjustments in the wake of the Fabregas and Persie departures.

That Ferguson was able to retain the services of the formerly ‘want away’ Wayne, at vast cost to the Mancunian coffers, at a stroke provides as succinct and near perfect illustration of the impact made by the difference in the circumstances between the two clubs in recent years.

With the benefit of hindsight it’s perfectly possible to suggest Arsenal entered that period (as defined by the club’s new stadium project) financially ‘undercooked’ and in doing so, left themselves vulnerable to player movement on a scale not seen further north.

Or indeed anywhere not involving a club crushed by relegation.

But to condemn Arsenal FC for this is to willfully ignore the impact of two game-changing events that no-one – least of all the club’s harshest critics – predicted.

In some ways one might assume there should be no real need to spell out the effects on Arsenal and it’s wider operating environment when these two developments came to pass.

And yet there appears now to be a widespread failure on the part of many observers – including amongst them, many of the club’s own fans – to properly understand that no conventionally funded club in the world would have been able to withstand with impunity an equivalent double-whammy of the kind that befell our club and its carefully laid plans.  To cope with the sudden appearance of two over-funded, under-regulated mega-rivals – a development which crucially coincided with the global Credit Crunch responsible for strangling the club’s access to vital funds at the most critical stage of its post-stadium development.  As fluidity within the vital property market all but dried up, so too did our ability to acquire – and retain – the top, top quality players we had only recently grown used to having around.

The arrival of such competitors, their unlimited funds and their propensity towards player ‘theft’ all hit Arsenal at exactly the point our projected funding stream slowed to a trickle.

With our supporters now being asked to pay some of the world’s highest prices to watch home games, the club’s ability to truly compete – and win competitions outright – at the highest levels commensurate to those ticket prices, had been compromised.

And almost fatally so.

How close Arsenal FC itself came, if at all, to some sort of collapse has yet to be fully revealed.

How the club somehow absorbed the attendant pressures will one day form the most remarkable of stories.  Certainly, not one you could make up.

From Fever Pitch to Boiling Point, it’ll be another best seller, some day.

Part 2 of this article will appear on Positive Arsenal in the next few days and takes a look at what happened next …

Hello and welcome to this week’s round-up.

We’ll start with the visit of Bayern and their ridiculously good players. The crafty Bavarians went 2-0 up in the first half and all seemed lost until our very own German, Lukas Podolski, gave us a glimmer of hope by heading home from close range. Then Theo set Giroud up with a great chance but his effort was hit straight at Neuer. Bayern grabbed a third and the first leg ended in anguish for the Gunners. Arsenal have been doing their best work in the second half games so I’m predicting a 5-1 win and a comfortable route through to the next round. It hasn’t happened yet so don’t you dare take away my dream!

Amidst what was a calm, measured response from the media, the news broke that some old guy shagged one of our strikers. We all have our theories of who it might be but for me it’s clear. That Van Persie always looked a right slut.

Arsene faced the press ahead of the Villa game and was in much better spirits than when he called out the filthbags who had been printing lies about him. This week he challenged a writer to a game of 1v1 football. Personally, I don’t see how it could work. How can you play Wengerball alone? How can you play 500 passes without shooting if you have no teammates? Only Arsene knows.

Wenger also spoke about the club’s desire to get Bacary Sagna to sign a new contract but reports are saying that he’s been bragging about the wages he will receive when he leaves the club. If you believe that story, you’ll believe the one I’m about to tell you;

I am the Arsenal striker who shagged that old guy.

So the Astons of Villa came and Arsenal disposed of them a lot more comfortably than the 2-1 scoreline would suggest. Arsenal defended with all the resistance and virtue of Jodi Marsh but, on the ball, we played some exceptional stuff. Obviously, every Arsenal fan acknowledged this and was extremely happy with the result. And if you believe that story…

I did not shag that old man! (Bill Clinton voice)

Santi has been receiving great praise from his teammates for his display and brace at the weekend. Mertesacker reckons that Santi is ‘The PERfect footballer’. Can he take a long throw like Rory Delap? Bloody doubt it, so…

Now we march on in the race for third which could see us finish second if everything went our way. We will make it difficult, we will cry, bitch and moan and we will get there. We are the Arsenal!

Last up is the announcement of the financial results for last year. Last year! Typical bloody Arsenal! What about this year? The money-men are as bad as the medical team, if you ask me. David Dein would give us the figures for the next ten years, if he were still at the club. The whole thing is a shambles.

That is all from me for this week. Thank you for reading.

Up the Arsenal!

A continuation of the 3 part ownership series by @Gooner_optimist. Some of you might already be well versed in the knowledge of what transpired to bring us to the current situation, and if you do, feel free to skip this piece.

Continuing on from my first post about Arsenal’s Ownership, let’s jump straight into what were the reasons for David Dein’s fallout with the rest of the board? There are several theories but as I understand it, it is down to two main differences. First, it is well known that he preferred that the club move to the Wembley and lease it out instead of building a new stadium, something that was opposed by the rest of the board, especially Danny Fiszman. Second, he saw Abramovich changing the equation at Chelsea and sought to adopt a similar external investor approach by introducing Stan Kroenke to the board.  However the board at the time refused this move due to their wariness at the time toward American investors after seeing the goings on at United and Liverpool with the same (“We don’t need his sort”).

These differences and more led to his ousting and while there are many positives and a few criticisms of David Dein we will not get into them here lest this debate turn into a “bring Dein back” one that features frequently in Arsenal discussions these days. His mention in this blog ends with his ousting from the board in 2007, when he sold his shares in Arsenal to Alisher Usmanov for a nice little sum of £75 million. Interestingly  you could conclude that this current tussle between two owners that we see right now is partly down to Dein himself creating it.

While the fallout between Dein and the rest of the board was continuing, Kroenke was picking up a few shares of his own by purchasing the 9.9% holding that was with ITV subsidiary, Granada, and slowly building up his shareholding. Fast forward in history again to 2011, a time when Danny Fiszman, a man who was Arsenal through and through, was suffering from throat cancer and his failing health meant that his shares in Arsenal needed to be sold. By this time, both Kroenke and Usmanov had managed to pick up shares over time to get very close to the 30% mark, the achievement of which would mean they were obliged make a takeover bid for all shares.

The decision of who to sell shares to, in my opinion, was partly down to the board warming up to Kroenke in time. I believe he was the one who most convinced the board that he would let the club continue in line with its historical principles, especially that of being self sustaining. These defined the long term plan of the club as well at the time as the goal was to achieve success the hard way, using our own resources instead of relying on an external benefactor. On the other hand, there is also a chance that the sale might have been governed to an extent by the aftermath of the fallout with Dein and to keep the one he sold to (and had strong links with) at arm’s length.

Thus it came to pass that Fiszman sold his 16% of shares in Arsenal to Kroenke, 2 days before his death, and Kroenke launched his takeover bid as he was required to upon crossing the 30% threshold. Usmanov, as the other largest shareholder was entitled to provide a counter offer to Kroenke’s and allegedly placed an offer that was higher than Stan’s. For a board that often gets accused of chasing profits, an important question needs to be asked here, why didn’t they go for the bigger money offer? Why did absolutely NO ONE sell to Usmanov? Why instead did Stan become the majority owner with over 60% stake in the club by adding shares from Fiszman, Lady Nina Bracewell and Peter Hill-Wood etc?

Another thing is that the board is questioned about is how much (or how little) they care for the club and its long term future. On one hand, this is rather odd when you consider that the likes of Peter Hill-Wood and Ken Friar have been on the board for many years, whether it’s the successful Graham years or the even more successful Wenger ones. They were also the deciding factor in giving us our amazing stadium, the revenue from which, helps keep us competitive. To accuse them of suddenly not caring or not having the club’s best interests at heart after all these years might be a bit harsh.

This leads me to the last point regarding why they might not have sold to Usmanov, and that’s a simple one, that someone like him shouldn’t be anywhere near our club which prides itself on its integrity and class. Why you ask? I’ll save that for the next and final post in this series that will form my main argument about why we need to keep Usmanov far away from our club.

Another dodgy ‘stream’ at the Emirates yesterday.

Blackburn’s Pedantic George grapples with the ‘internot’ and ‘iffy’ commentators as Villa fail to make themselves at home at the Emirates

Well, that was like getting teeth pulled.

I was watching on a very dodgy stream that kept freezing.

We started sharply and scored early.  We thought the flood gates would open and all the frustrations of the last week would come gushing out; we were going to smash them.

However, as I was watching a never-ending series of freeze frames on my screen, I had to rely on the unbroken commentary from what sounded like a Brummie abroad.  That was a mistake.

From the little I could see – but mainly from what I heard – Aston Villa were killing us on the break.  Our defence was dire and our midfield had failed to migrate from the dressing room.  Jack kept losing the ball.  Diaby was slow and Mikel was playing for line-outs by constantly passing straight into touch.

Brilliant, I thought.

The second half, apparently, was us pressing but creating nothing.  Then they scored.  A fantastic breakaway goal – and they were more than good value for it.  We made some changes, and got a bit of a break when Nacho cut a hopeful ball back into the path of Cazorla who drilled it home.  Robbing the visitors of a well-deserved point, apparently.

Meanwhile, nothing I was seeing on Twitter led me to think all was not as described above; people there were saying we were clinging on against one of the worst teams in the league.

The thing is, I have now had the chance to actually see the game and I don’t recognise ANY of the above.

Without ever reaching our free flowing best, we were pretty bloody good.  There was loads of one touch football.  Players overlapping, neat triangles and plenty of threatening possession.

Giroud worked his socks off.

Santi was magnificent.

Jack dynamic.

Mikel safe and solid.

Nacho super efficient.

Diaby was elegant and treasured the ball.

I felt Theo had a poor game – not his best, but not a stinker either.

We played some really good stuff and easily deserved to take the points.  Was the handbrake on?  Yes, it was a bit.  But after the last week that was always likely to be the case.

Aaron Ramsey replaced Diaby and was excellent in midfield.  When Lukas came on for Jenkinson, Aaron dropped into the left-back spot and was faultless.  When Theo left the field late on Ramsey then moved seamlessly to the forward-right position.   The boy is the ultimate ‘utility’ player.

Three points won and a good display.  Everton drop points and Positively Arsenal remains unbeaten in the League.  Excellent stuff.

So all in all, a good day.

The run in should be great fun.

Backlash.

That’s what we need today. A backlash against the boo boys and bad luck and a disappointing first half of the Bayern tie. We need a victim, a sacrificial offering to the football Gods. We need them gagged and bound and prostrate on the alter of The Emirates. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the programme Dexter, but the hero is a deranged serial killer for whom you can’t help feeling a certain bizarre sympathy. His favourite thing is anaesthetising a bad guy (or gal – he’s an equal opportunities sociopath) then fixing him (or her) to a table with acres of clingfilm. When the victim regains consciousness Dexter selects one from a glittering array of surgically sharp bladed weapons and despatches him (or her) with care, brutal precision and evident relish. That’s how I want Arsenal and Villa to look this afternoon.
Anaesthetise them with the kind of scintillating attacking play we saw against, say West Ham, or in the second half against Liverpool, literally have them punch drunk, reeling and chasing shadows and then when they are reduced to prone, helpless prey deliver a series of viscous and yet beautifully crafted killer blows.
We all know the team have it in them. We know it because we’ve seen it, plenty of times. I’m watching highlights of some of our matches from this season and we have played some seriously joyous football, we really have. Even before the season started we saw some breathtaking stuff against FC Cologne. At just after 23 and a half minutes into the game a good interception by Gibbs led to a counter of such sure footed, quick passing that it was a travesty when Giroud’s curling shot was saved at the end of it. Personally I’d have given the keeper a yellow at the very least for Deliberate Ruination Of A Lovely Move. If it isn’t actually in the rule book then it bloody well ought to be.
Then when Southampton visited in September they ended up looking like one of those trailer parks after a tropical storm has landed. The quick thinking and freedom with which we moved the ball around, the intricate passes in and about their goal area and the merciless way we finished left their defence in tatters. They weren’t the only side to end up being designated a state of emergency after a visit from Hurricane Arsenal this season. Coventry, West Ham, Spurs, Reading and Newcastle have all been declared a disaster area after meeting our boys on the wrong day and in the wrong mood. When it’s worked for us this season it has worked to devastating effect.
Now I know and you know that there have been moments where things have gone less well. Sometimes we’ve been the architect of our own undoing, and even in the games where the opposition have been shrink wrapped on the table staring in wide eyed astonished terror at the shining blade they’ve somehow managed to sneak a goal or three. Doesn’t matter when you bag six or seven but as Liverpool proved it matters when you only match their two. But what is the point in dwelling on the negatives? It won’t cheer us up, it won’t send us into the match filled with optimism and hope and so what possible good would it do anyone beyond a criminally deranged masochistic depressive who has deliberately stopped taking his meds? Frankly, fuck that for a game of soldiers. I’d much rather watch and rewatch the opening one minute and thirty one seconds of the second half of the West Ham game at the Emirates:
Whistle.
Jack to Santi back to Tommy V. Tommy V wide to Bac who slips it first time down the line to Theo. He wriggles and squirms, takes three or four feather light flickering touches then passes to Giroud who plays the most sublime pass across his body, one touch, infield to Santi as Jack and Theo take off like greyhounds one inside the other out wide. Santi needs no touch to control Giroud’s perfectly weighted ball but rather sweeps it forward down the inside right channel for Theo to race onto. Twenty five seconds have elapsed when Theo sends the perfect cross into Jack’s flight path and only an heroic intervention from Tomkins who very nearly scores an own goal prevents us from taking the lead.
From the corner, taken short, Jack loops a high cross over their area and they head it clear. Gibbs picks up the knock-down and at this moment we still have eight players in and around their area. Gibbs plays a one two with his Captain then puts over a cross which is headed clear, Ramsay on the edge of the area, performs some ball juggling acrobatics off his chest and then delivers what looks like a contortionists pass with the outside of his right boot. It loops perfectly into Santi’s path and he Lukas and Gibbs tie a cats cradle through and around the visitor’s defence who just manage to hack it clear for another corner. One minute seventeen seconds gone.
Theo’s corner, from our left this time is driven to the near post where Per is waiting for his trademark flick on. Except he isn’t there. For some reason he abandoned his position peeling away back towards the penalty spot. And as we looked on bewildered Olivier Giroud appears from nowhere to redirect the ball inside the near post with a touch so exquisite, so skilful that the extraordinary difficulty of playing such a shot is not immediately apparent. One minute and thirty seconds gone and West Ham who had managed only four desperate touches of the ball were looking into the eyes of a remorseless killing machine, and could barely twitch in response.

That is what I’m hoping to see against Villa. When all the countless hours of work that Arsene and his coaching staff put in with the players pays off, when the beautiful engine he has assembled from so many diverse components of world football purrs into life then growls and then roars. That ninety seconds of play is what I see in my mind’s eye when someone tells me this team are past it, not good enough, didn’t cost enough, that Steve Bould can’t coach and Arsene can’t manage. Because believe me that wasn’t a fluke, that was what they work towards every day and that is what they can deliver. With confidence and consistency those special passages of play will become too numerous to separate in our memories. The deft touches, the assurance that a pass into space or made fast under pressure will find a team mate ready to nudge it around his marker or already be running onto the expected return, these things are all there, sometimes bubbling frustratingly close to and yet under the surface but ready to be unleashed in a venomous backlash.
Let it be today, please Arsene, let it be today.

Today’s quick post is the first of a three part series by Akash (@gooner_optimist)

Alright, so I finally get the honour to write for Positively Arsenal. As my first series of posts here, I felt it would be rather insightful, if I could discuss something that has troubled me lately.

There has been a huge divide within the Arsenal fan base, regarding who should run the club. There is one group (albeit a small one) that is ok with Silent Stan Kroenke (begrudgingly so), and there is the other group (one that is fast growing) that swears by the name of Alisher Usmanov. I would like to clarify that those of us who are “ OK” with Stan are not Pro Stan but would rather have the lesser of the two evils (Stan) at the helm. You’ll see what I mean by this as this series of posts goes along. For this post however, I would like to get people thinking first.

I have always wondered, if those who are pro Usmanov actually have a clue about who they are vouching for? What is his background? What is his motive? I just feel that many don’t this might be the right time and place for me to just share what I have read and researched about him over the past year or two.

To start with, why is one section of the support vouching for Usmanov? Is it because of his alleged claims offering massive investment into the club?  His alleged love for the club?  Or is it the lack of patience and desire for instant gratification? Or is it down to the well-timed PR statements that echo the words that fans want to hear but come around only when the chips are down?

My question is have people ever wondered why is it that the board is not willing to accept him into the executive committee of the club? Or if Usmanov is indeed passionate about the club and willing to be a generous benefactor, as he claims, why can’t he just invest in the club as he is, rather than demanding a place on the board and access to confidential financial details of the club?

To answer this, I would like to dig deep into the Arsenal history, back to the day, when Sir Henry Norris the then chairman of the club, placed an ad in the Athletic News, seeking a suitable candidate for the Arsenal top job in 1925. What is interesting is the content of the ad placed, which read like this.

“Arsenal Football Club is open to receive applications for the position of TEAM MANAGER. He must be experienced and possess the highest qualifications for the post, both as to ability and personal character. Gentlemen whose sole ability to build up a good side depends on the payment of heavy and exorbitant transfer fees need not apply “

If you take a closer look at this ad, you can see the similarities in which the club is run today, just like it was back in 1925.  Then and now, the club has never encouraged the idea of over spending and wanted a team to be built within its own resources and developed to be successful instead of bought.

Does that answer the question of why even Silent Stan is preferable to Usmanov? No. If anything that doesn’t even tell you how either one got to be aligned with our great club. For that I would like to fast forward history and side track to David Dein, a man who did a lot for us and for many years was Arsene’s right hand man, but in the end was ousted due to massive differences with the board. This however, will continue in my next post as there is a lot that can be said on that topic.

So, the first half is done and dusted and in a couple of weeks time our brave lads will look to beard the enemy in his lair. I for one fully expect a repeat of some of our most inspiring and courageous second leg performances. It was Bayern’s great good fortune to play us during a lull in our confidence and form, and also when we were without a left back. Congratulations to everyone who helped hound out Andre Santos. I have no doubt that a run of good results in the Premiership will help heal the pain of falling behind in the Champion’s League and not having to play in front of a mass of hate filled booing and groaning will obviously make it easier for our players to perform with the freedom and élan we have come to expect.

There is nothing we can do against the barrage of abuse and the systematic undermining of our manager however. Any result this team achieves will be done against far greater odds than those faced by any other British side. This was brought home to me by a couple of comments I heard yesterday from non football fans. When I say non football fans I mean to the level where they didn’t even know Arsene’s name. What interested me was when, upon discovering I supported Arsenal, both people independently of one another, dredged up the only things they knew about the club. This was that we have a failing manager who is hanging on by the skin of his teeth and about to be replaced due to a decade of abject failure. It seems the media, aided and abetted by twitter twats, bannerwankers and anti Arsenal non support everywhere has done it’s job. It’s the reason we have pulled up the drawbridge and barricaded ourselves here into the PA citadel, it simply isn’t safe out there and in any event there is no point in trying to engage in intelligent civilised conversation on the subject of The Arsenal because the tide of misinformation has already drowned the gullible and there’s hardly anyone left without its polluted water in their ears.

If this is how we feel then how must Arsene and his players be affected by the torrent of unfair criticism and abuse? It doesn’t bear thinking about. Bob Wilson, that fine elder statesman of the game has recently been quoted as saying

“he (Arsene) puts his heart & soul into this club. It may come a time where he doesn’t put up with, frankly, this disrespect”

and frankly who could blame him? I hear lots of talk suggesting the current maelstrom of revolting lies and undeserved opprobrium being heaped upon our great club, its leader and his players may serve to foster a bunker mentality. The theory being that this could be the silver lining which bonds them and helps them find the angry determination to succeed . I’m not too happy with the idea of a bunker mentality. It conjures images of The Führerbunker of the Reich Chancellery. The scenes of debauched excess and suicidal despair of those trapped with their crazed leaders is actually the fallacy being foisted on us by the press and their craven agents in the negative Arsenal blogosphere. I’d much prefer it if the team could adopt a siege mentality.

Surrounded, without hope of outside relief, the besieged members of Castle Arsenal must rally around their brave and visionary leader and look deep inside themselves and to their comrades and find their strength and mutual support they need to see them through. The barbarians gathered around the Arsenal island think that by infiltrating the minds of the most feeble elements of our support that they have successfully installed a fifth column inside the Emirates. But these people aren’t traitors they are merely weak and fickle. We all know that a run of good results (regardless of the performances) and maybe a bauble or two will have them singing the great man’s praises once again. As much I am galled at the thought of sharing our inevitable success with those who have booed our players for the crime of being unlucky (eg versus Blackburn) or daring to return from injury (Eboue, Santos, Ramsay) I’d rather have them cheering than moaning. They don’t deserve Arsenal and Arsene doesn’t deserve them but they are a fact that we must accept.

In any case, buck up and remember not all sieges end in disaster, starvation, surrender and defeat. In 1944 India was saved from falling to the Japanese advance thanks largely to the heroics of an outnumbered group of British and Indian troops. Surrounded and cut off from the outside world by a massive Japanese army, they held out until their besiegers were forced to withdraw and the words of one historian bear uncanny resemblance to our similarly beleaguered troops today

“The British, Indian and Ghurkha soldiers stood up to the heavy and incessant strain, largely due to the high standards of leadership, the mutual confidence and friendship between all races and creeds in the Indian divisions, the magnificent work of the medical authorities – and by no means least, to their innate sense of humour in the most adverse circumstances.”

So get your heads up people, if the team can lift themselves after falling behind I’m damn sure we can, after all; we’re not the ones in the firing line.

The Queen on possibly the proudest day of her life.

The regular weekly look at the Arsenal news, from Bradesque7

Hello and welcome to this week’s round up.

First up this week is the Andre Santos’ From the Basement video.  Andre wasn’t making sweet indie music, he was more likely under his parents’ house playing with his new phone.  For those who opt to ignore the human side of players, Santos will never be anything more than a dodgy full-back who nabbed a couple of important goals.  Almost like the second coming of Eboue.  To the rest of us, Andre was like some kind of happy man-baby, frolicking and meandering with an infectious, if not delirious, smile on his face.  Almost like the second coming of Eboue.  I like him and I like the gesture.

The Queen met Pat Rice this week.  For his remarkable contribution to the club, and to football in general, the Arsenal legend received an MBE in what may have been the proudest moment of her life.

Then came Lukas Podolski and his sightseeing tour of London, which he shared on Twitter.   The fans and the player really seem to have taken to each other.  This is infinitely better than the last time we were given a detailed description of a player’s movements around London.  Andre could have taken that tour in around forty minutes.  Podolski was ‘Learning London’, people  were happy and having fun about something Arsenal, what could possibly go right?

Everything was ticking over, having beaten Sunderland, and we were seemingly making progress until Blackburn came to visit and the sky fell in.  Arsenal dominated the game but ultimately lacked the guile to win it.  Then, of course, Blackburn scored with their one real chance. 1-0 and we’re out of the FA cup to minnows.   Bloody typical Arsenal!  Everything’s been said in the post-mortem and much of it has been crazy.  We dust ourselves off and we move on.

We move on to a battle of epic proportions.

It’s London and Munich sending their finest men to go head-to-head in 180 + minutes of intense combat.  It’s bigger than big.  It’s the Champions’ League and it’s tonight.  Wilshere and Schweinsteiger will lock horns tonight!  TONIGHT!!

As always the pre-game press conference comes first and this one was more like a dressing down from a headmaster.  First came the video and then the full transcript in which Arsene Wenger took the handbrake off.  He accused the journalists of what is clearly true but would never be confirmed. He believes that false stories were circulated with the intention to manipulate and cause damage. They all do it, it’s what they’re paid to do.  It’s probably all that some of them can do.

There’s bound to be a great atmosphere in the stadium, similar to that of Milan last season when something magical happened.   It was a thing of beauty and great power.  The crowd at The Grove always seem to take these Champions’ League games very seriously and very rarely fail to perform on the biggest stage.

That’s it for this week, thank you for reading.

Come on The Arsenal!

Guest post by Varun Shukla (@WengerArmy)

“I want more blood” says Arsene Wenger in the papers.  No, he hasn’t turned into a vampire overnight.  He’s definitely not asking the team to go into challenges studs up to inflict flesh wounds.  Asked about his opinion on match fixing in football – specifically on the allegations of Real Sociedad players having used performance enhancing substances, he said “I would support regular blood tests as they are quicker in showing results.”

While that line in itself shows his intellectual capabilities – in the sense that no other manager would have a half-decent opinion on this topic (Martin Jol, Fergie and the rest – can’t imagine them even being asked their opinions on such matters) here’s another extract which shows why he is called The Professor:

“Look at psychological tests that have been done on people who are at the top in all sports.  Ask them if they would take a product that would guarantee them a gold medal or a world championship but mean that they died in the next five years, and 50 per cent people of say they would take it.  That is quite scary.  That is absolutely massive, that is how far people are ready to go to win, in all sports, not just football.  If you go to amateur level and do that test, only two per cent say they would take it.”

What’s really impressive about this interview is the fact that he cares about the sport enough to look beyond short term objectives.  Ask any other manager in the modern era and he’ll say being a manager is all about winning stuff and being comfortable with the board – the usual sporting chatter.  And that’s about it.  Most managers are excellent within the domain of the football pitch and clueless outside of it.

Wenger is equally comfortable discussing the world economy as he is with football.  From talking about the nuances of various cultures around the globe to helping trainers figure out fitness and dietary regimes, he knows it all.  He even had inputs on the new stadium and training centre.  Ask him about the Obama presidency and he’s sure to come up with valid opinions.

His parents owned a bistro, which he admitted was the best thing to happen to him at that age because he picked up pointers in footballing tactics and “a practical, psychological education”.  This would help him later on as a player, where his role on the pitch was ‘the eyes of the coach ’- implementing the manager’s wishes through coordination with his team.  Many, such as Max Hild (his mentor) have said that he was more interested in discussing tactics than playing the game itself!  He had a ‘complete vision of the pitch’ even at that young age.

A large part of this ‘intelligence’ comes down to the human he is.  Of course he has a Masters in microeconomics among other qualifications, but the way he imbibed the positives in the environment around him is what set him apart from the start – be it tactics from the pub, discipline from the Army or the cultural influences that came from living on the Franco-German border; he has always been analytical and methodical in his approach.

How many managers can claim to have a vision of how they want the game to be played?  Sure, they might claim that they ‘like’ a particular style but they change it often.  Wenger wants his teams to play fluid, attacking football with a focus on perfect synergy and understanding.  That is the underlying principle in any of his strategies or tactical changes.  The times that we see an ‘un-Arsenal’ -like performance is more often due to confidence issues with the players and their familiarity with each other than any major tactical errors.

The stadium move is another example of his foresight.  At that time, Manchester United were the only real contenders (along with us) for the league.  He and the club realized that a move to a bigger stadium would increase revenue and eventually result in us becoming a more potent force than ever, able to compete with the very best in Europe.  What no one could foresee was the way this would coincide with massive amounts of money poured into the game by Chelsea and Man City which effectively changed the whole landscape of the league.

The move, which imposed financial restrictions on us, coupled with the oil money, created a huge gulf in terms of resources. He was criticized for Project Youth – buying and promoting young talent from within the Academy when in reality, it was the only logical course. To spend more at that time would have meant ever-increasing debt and a tightening of the banker’s noose around our throats.  He almost won the league in 07/08 and then again in 10/11, for heaven’s sake!  It didn’t help that certain players did not share his vision and belief – they chose to leave at the most inopportune times.
Self sustainability was, and is still the best way to run a football club.  It is the Arsenal Way.

He was criticized again for playing certain players – Ramsey on the wings for example.  That criticism stems from one thing only.  People appreciate the immediate short term results and fail to see what Arsene’s getting at.  Playing on the wings has definitely improved Ramsey’s decision making – we can see that now when he plays in the ‘Arteta role’.  Other recent examples include Mertesacker – who was expected as a ‘defender’ to do the last ditch tackle and clearance routine but in reality his positioning makes up for any lack of speed.  Similarly Giroud – he was widely regarded as van Persie’s ‘replacement’.  He’s not.  He’s a totally different player with a different set of attributes.  His strength lies in hold up play, his physicality and instinct in the penalty area.

Another of Arsene’s noteworthy qualities lies in the way he interacts with the squad.  He allows the players to develop their own opinions about the way they should play the game as long as that does not interfere with the overall philosophy of the team’s playing style.  A positive, friendly environment is created amongst the players through the trust and belief the manager has in them.  He allows the players their freedom as long as they train and play professionally.

Trademark also the fact that he values footballers for the people that they are as well.  One needs only to look at the way Diaby has been trusted time and again and these words:

“He leads a very simple life – doesn’t drink or smoke.  It is unfortunate that he has had these injuries, through no fault of his.  He deserves a chance.”

Almost every time the media manipulate his words and attack him mercilessly, he retorts with a witty comment.  On the other hand, we have Ferguson who belittles referees, teams and journos, Holloway who recently ranted at reporters when asked about Zaha.  Yet Wenger is considered ‘senile’ and Ferguson ‘the greatest ever’.

All this is beside the fact that he has bought into the history and values of the Club with a passion not seen ever before in a manager. On the 125^th anniversary last year, he said:

“ My dream is to see a  manager 1000 years from now addressing Arsenal supporters in much the same way (as now when we are consistent)”.

The man’s whole LIFE is geared to making our club the greatest for generations to come, not winning a tinsel pot to salvage his reputation.  How many times has he taken stick from all corners for his policies, just to defend his vision for the Club?

Just for that he deserves all accolades he can get.  The so called ‘Wenger Out’ brigade can take a hike.  To the Himalayas.  And then fall from the edge of Everest.

For me, Arsene Wenger is the greatest manager of Arsenal Football Club, quite possibly  of all time.