By Tony Attwood
It wasn’t just that we threw away a game we had sorted. It wasn’t the fact that we could have won it with the last kick of the match. It was just that that special factor that gets you to win unwinnable matches wasn’t there.
We have had it for so many years, and now, it isn’t there. I remember a series of 0-0 draws a few years ago (about four in a row I recall) and that was fairly dire, but if you studied what was going on you could see how it was working and where it was going. (We played Cardiff in the cup that year, if you want to place it – and I think it was the year we caught Villa and got 4th that way). I can’t bear to go and look anything up today.
But this was just … nothing.
We scored three, but there was no joy somehow – ok there was joy at the scoring but nothing more.
And I am the guy who endlessly supports Wenger, the board, the club.
I haven’t read any newspaper reports or anything – after the game I went with Walter, Erik and the guys from the Benelux club back to their coach. They didn’t get back home until 4 in the morning, or something like that. That is support. Everyone who wants to complain about the club – just remember what those guys did. Devoted almost 24 hours solid to getting too and from the game. That is support.
I chose not to go home, but drove to Chiswick (which took as long as if I had driven back to the East Midlands), and went to a Ceroc dance. (Ceroc is a form of modern jive – there are clubs all over the country).
Met a charming lady from Solvenia who seemed moderately impressed that I had been to her country, and knew about its history and cultural traditions, but so impressed as to want my phone number. Such is life.
And at the end of the evening I still had the 2 hours to drive back to the Midlands. At least I had the story of Marcus Tullius Cicero to listen to on the audio and keep me awake. My god what a man – and utterly forgotten except by those of us who realise just what the Roman Republic did for us all. (We wouldn’t be here if it were not for what they did).
I got to bed a couple of hours before the Benelux guys I reckon.
So what do we do? (Apart from overthrow this state we live in of the rich by the rich for the rich?)
Blaming the board and the manager and the guy who designed the clock, the person from Deleware North who do the catering and who took the positive decision never to train anyone who works there; that is all ok. But what do we do now?
Say, ok Jack is back soon. And Arteta is just not doing it right at the moment but will come good again. And wasn’t it good when we had Diaby back. And maybe Rosicky can produce one more season of driving genius. And …
Maybe.
Going back over past mistakes is no good because all it does is throw mud. To build a new side, and new club, or maybe more simply to build a side that actually gets the results is what is needed now. And I am honest enough to admit it. This season, at least so far, it is not working. Even Cazorla is not longer the genius we thought he was.
Trouble is the fan base is now so angry that I doubt most other managers wouldn’t want to touch the club. A bit like Blackburn really. What manager of utter genius would want to touch this?
At the end there was some booing, but the majority applauded the guys.
I don’t know. If you do, great. All I can do is go dancing, and play the new Joe Walsh album which is utterly superb. Not as superb as an unbeaten season, but still superb. Thank you Joe, you’re a good guy.
But as Marvin said, “Life? Don’t talk to me about life.”
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The books…
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- “The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal”: crowd behaviour at the early matches
The sites…
- Referee Decisions - just what are the refs up to this season?
- The weight loss programme: The only guaranteed wayto stay fit
- Looking for a terraced house in Northamptonshire?
- For all your football betting try these Bookmakers with free bets.
rupert
No. It does not have to involve every ref on the take. And no one said every ref does it. Why else would Mike Rikey appoint Dean to us 6 times last season, while some other refs who might have less of a bias agains us don’t get appointed at all. Or why did Atkinson not get a ManU match for 11 months since he was blamed for their loss to Chelsea. Or Clattenburg since the 6-1 loss to ManCity? Ref appointments are as much a part of it.
As for why Arsenal? I obviously cannot provide you an answer. But I know it is happening (or at least has been happening), and I am then forced to speculate why it would be Arsenal. The only reason I can think of is because we represent a risk to the buy buy buy model.
A little off topic here, well actually quite off topic since this is in advance of the NLD preview…But Lennon, Walker and Defoe now look to be added to Spurs’ injury list that includes Kaboul, BAE, Dembele and some others…If we fail to win that throws the “injuries” excuse out of the window as they are arguably in worse shape.
Liking our chances if Dembele doesn’t make it…if he does, I’m not sure we have anyone in midfield that can contend with him in both phases of the game.
Shard, one question I keep asking myself is: if there’s a conspiracy against the Arsenal, why did Phil Dowd award us that ridiculously soft penalty in the last minute against Fulham?
Fred as you haven’t read it I think:
in a way this penalty was the result of a penalty from last week given against Arsenal. For once the appointments from the PGMOL backfired in our favour.
Remember last week Dean giving a penalty for a handball when Cazorla had his hands in front of his face and body. And at the sideline you had Wenger asking the 4th ref an explanation. And that 4th ref was Dowd. So I can imagine Dowd defending the decision from Dean. So he knew all too well that when now a Fulham player committed a handball he could only give it to Arsenal because otherwise he would look like a complete fool.
Well, I have to agree to disagree with all this ref nonsense. It’s not the refs that go out and buy average players and it’s not the refs that force Arsenal to perform indifferently.
The issue is Wenger. And also Gazidis who seems to delight in selling our best players to our rivals.
rupert,
You never seem to lose an opportunity to blast the management, the team and us people who enjoy themselves. You seem insensitive to any sort of logical argument, and have the skin so deep that an atomic bomb couldn’t make a peephole in it. This is no longer about mutual respect, as yours seems to have never been (at least since I’ve seen you posting on this site), and ours has drained out. What’s the point of disagreeing every f*ing single time with the majority of people here? What kind of pathologically dirty mean s*bag are you? Now you’ve got me mad. I tell you one last time, stop being so narrow minded, accept that you don’t know everything and you don’t hold the secret to the absolute truth by which the World revolves, and get a life.
A.Stewart
Want a bet a majority of those players make a miraculous recovery for the NLD? Lots of players drop like flies when the internationals come around.
@ Florian I nearly fell into a coma through laughing at that post. “Insensitive to any logical argument”. Classic. Every argument I have is based on what I’ve witnessed at Arsenal for the last six years. The facts point to stagnation. There’s logic for you.
But my apologies, I’ll agree to everything you say.
Regarding the refs debate. Now I’ve been priced out of the Emirates my wife and I sometimes watch Oxford play. She’s an Oxford supporter and drags me to a few games.
At the Kassam where they play you can be as close as twenty feet to the action. Every game I watch the home crowd criticize every ref’s decision that goes against them. It’s called emotion and is far from objective. If I were an Oxford fan I’d be convinced the refs were biased against Oxford.
Why doesn’t one of you watch every Stoke or Everton or any other league team’s games throughout the season and see how decisions balance out against them? You might even be impartial, or more prone to impartiality, and find that Arsenal are not the most hard done by team or victims of some opaque conspiracy.
rupert
The match that made me convinced there was a ref ‘conspiracy’ (I prefer the term agenda) was ManU-Wigan, in a match I wanted ManU to win (so that Chelsea didn’t win the title) way back in 2008.
We’d already been bumped out of a chance for the league title following the mental impact of Eduardo’s injury, AND some fucking horrible decisions, but I put that down to luck. I don’t care about winning the title so much that I’d want bad decisionfor my team (Though I admit that has reduced- not cos we’re not winning- but cos we’ve been affected by too many bad decisions ourselves)
Anyway. I watched a game, wanting ManU to win, and what followed in the course of that match left me with such a bad taste in my mouth, despite getting the result I wanted. Since then, I pay close attention to referees, and it goes further than ‘oh every team’s fans are deluded and emotive and can’t see straight’ That is complete BULL. Fans are biased, but so are referees. Only one of them are openly so.
Rupert,
I don’t know why I still bother to answer but this is exactly what we have done (40% of the games) last season and are doing now (aiming at 100% of the games)
But we might as well stop doing it as you already know the answers in advance.
Fine, tell me the results at the end of the season.
I refer you to a most enlightening read I posted on another thread.
And do you really think our reviewers are biased when reviewing WBA-Reading?
We will rupert, we will.
But I can imagine right now you will come up with a reason to throw it away whatever the results are
Walter there may well be bias. What I can’t see is why it would be directed at Arsenal and not say Chelsea. As I said before there’d have to be an agreed bias against us with every ref involved. It seems too bonkers and logistically virtually impossible.
rupert,
You should.
But I’m already wasting my time. Going to bed now.
I love bringing the inner tyrant out in people.
If you would have followed us in detail you should have noticed how the bias is swinging at times. Depending on what is needed, who comes close, who has been a naughty boy, …
I really think by the end of this season and with the numbers of last season we will have a great picture on each ref and on how he behaves against all the teams.
We will know exactly who is biased against Arsenal and who is fair. And there are a few fair refs when Arsenal plays. For some reason we don’t get to see them doing our games a lot but that will be just a coincidence
Don’t ask me to name them. The enemy is reading this you know….They will even get fewer Arsenal games.
rupert
That’s just another way of saying you like annoying people to the point of exasperation.
No Shard, I debate with people who have different opinions. Some of them are frightened because Wenger is being mauled by the fans and some sections of the press. They are scared of change. They also see glimpses of truth in those who dispute the sense of the direction the club is taking but hate to admit it and are fearful of what may happen if Wenger leaves.
Some think Wenger will still deliver success. They maybe right but it seems unlikely. The results on the pitch prove that.
Some people resort to insults and name-calling because they don’t like the status quo being challenged. So be it.
And many, like yourself, patiently argue your point and do it very well.
Who is right? What happens between now and May will tell us.
rupert
Actually May has nothing to do with it. If it did, so many folks would just let it go till then and not constantly rip on the team. And equally, even if come May, we still haven’t ‘won anything’, I doubt many on here would join with the cries to kick Wenger out.
Unfortunately, everything about Arsenal has become a battle, with lines already drawn. It’s annoying to say the least. All I want is to watch the football. I don’t want the refs ruining a good game, and I don’t wan’t any bad performance to be less of a reason to be upset than the reaction to it online. Everybody acts like an expert on finances, on tactics, and on every aspect of running a football club. It’s gotten me down enough to reduce my time blogging about my favourite subject.
As regards Wenger. Firing him might have some upside, but there will also be downsides to it. It is a risk basically. I really don’t believe firing him is worth the risk. We’ll end up worse off. Trouble is, a lot of people have already made up their minds that ANY change is better. Even if it means dropping out of the top 4. Even if it means we lose money as a club. Just anything to change the ‘stagnation’ that being in the CL every year.
No Atmosphere?
Don’t blame the supporters the players or the manager.Blame the Stadium.(Board)
A few months ago i wrote to Tony, who i have imense respect for, asking if he had any idea why the TV screens in the Emirates unlike other clubs never show the game live. Apparently it may be contractual.
The Ems. is an amazing auditorium but when you are there ,it’s lacking intimacy and that illusive sole.
The lower tiers especially the goal ends are far back from the pitch, not quite a running track but not far off so that when the game is at the far end you have no view and although the upper tiers have an over view and you can follow the game you still feel far away.
So if i am half making sence what’s the solution?
Does anybody remember the last world cup?
Not the just the vuvazulas, the four TV screens high above the center circle showing the game live.
Everybody in the stadia were involved all the time no mater where the play was.
So chanting was co’ordinated and the atmosphere vibrant.
We have TV screens but don’t make use of them and i for one strongly believe the conscquent lack of fan atmosphere effects the team moral negatively.
So mount them over the center circle involve all us fans all the time and watch the players improve.
While we are at it ,what about a charismatit stadium anouncer.
Think back to the Shalke away game.
The Germans know how to create an atmosphere.
Come on Arsenal
@Shard, it may well be that even if we win nothing by May Wenger will still have the support of many fans. I think it depends on the league position. If we make the Europa League then AW will probably keep his job.
But if we finish mid-table I think Wenger’s position will be untenable.
We don’t know if we’ll end up worse if he’s sacked. It’s the fear of the unknown but sooner or later change will happen. I don’t see Wenger managing Arsenal in five years time especially if FFP has not been the saviour of the club.