NevEr MiNd ThE BoLLoCkS HeRe'S ThE FA Cup

Success is the best revenge

Criticism is nothing new, we used to be criticised for getting too many red cards, criticised for being arrogant, criticised for being bad losers, criticised for being too French and our answer? Shut it! Here’s the Double! Naff Off! Here’s an unbeaten season! Button it! Here’s some scintillating football! Do one! Here’s some of the best players in the world!

What’s frustrating about the here and now is that we have no answer to the critics circa 2014, in fact we have had no answer for a while. All the clichés about our perennial collapse, underperforming when it matters and not winning anything have no retort that carries any meaning: “yes but we’ve qualified for The Champions League X amount of times in a row” is an answer but it’s not THE answer. Success is the answer.

Arsenal have always been put upon: George Graham countered accusations of dull football with Cups, Herbert Chapman silenced the Northern centric press by winning big.

It is hypocrisy and spite of the highest order when the voluble anti Arsenal brigade cite the FA Cup: that trophy that has been prized since 1871 and is the oldest association football competition in the world, as merely a bauble. Let’s be clear there are four trophies up for grabs each season and it is astonishing that reaching the final having beaten Liverpool, Everton and Spurs is viewed as no big deal. Some want it both ways: criticise for having not won a trophy in nine years and criticise for celebrating reaching a final that may give the opportunity to end that drought.

The media are busy drooling over all things Liverpool (and good luck to them if they win the title by being better than the other teams) but they are still finding ample time to denigrate the Arsenal.

Naturally the name of Talksport crops up time and again when it comes to anti Arsenal bias. I often wonder why Arsenal supporters would listen to the station as their agenda is all about ‘hits’ and traffic to encourage advertisers and nothing sells better than controversy, Many delight in prodding away at the Arsenal, the reason they keep prodding is because they keep getting a reaction from fans but no answer from the club in the trophy cabinet. Adrian Durham is good at provoking a reaction: then again so was Bernard Matthews.

Winning games of football is literally the name of the game and we need to be winning  as we have done against West Ham when we play Hull, Newcastle, WBA and Norwich, that is not about anything other than being the Arsenal and winning games: by doing so we give ourselves the chance to finish as high as we can in a League that we will not be winning. If you can’t finish first finish second if you can’t finish second finish third etc.

Thoughts of next season are already flitting around and I know what I want to see happen in the summer but right now we have created an opportunity for success.

Winning the FA Cup does not make everything right, as I believe there are problems at our club which I have banged on about in the past, but winning the FA Cup is the answer for now: Never Mind The Bollocks Here’s The FA Cup!