WE CAN BE HEROES

Good v Evil, Pride v Prejudice, Pragmatism v Idealism, History v New Money, there are so many headlines to tag onto Sunday’s fixture against Chelsea: the club with a corrupt owner (not alone in that), a despicable albeit successful manager, an offensive but effective captain and a fan base of racists (well some of them anyway). So in reality Chelsea is a bit of a Pantomime Villain and a team under Mourinho who have an annoying habit of not losing against us. To feel an emotion as strong as hatred towards Chelsea is a bit like hating Katie Hopkins: it’s easy but ultimately a waste of time.

On Sunday Chelsea are the enemy and yes there is much to dislike and certain demon's to be driven away, but there is only one thing to think about and that’s winning to tighten out grip on second place. Chelsea will inevitably win the league and that is by virtue of this season’s Premier League not being of a very good vintage and the fact that Chelsea strengthened that all important spine in the summer.

The Mourinho side show will be front and centre with those sycophants of his in the media and to an extent the presence of Chelsea’s number four will add to the hoop la. Fabregas used to play for the Arsenal and now he doesn’t and I for one don’t want our support to be seen as one that is hung up on ‘returning players’ it can get all a bit unseemly and comes across as bitterness. I remember when Manu Petit returned to Arsenal in a Chelsea shirt after his stint at Barcelona: the crowd’s reaction that day? Indifference towards the player, and that’s something that I would like to see more of.

I believe that we can out gun them on Sunday for the first time in quite a while and if we do, beating Chelsea would be another scalp in a season when we have had some pretty good results against the so called bigger teams and a chance to put some breathing space between us and the team in third place. Yes this is quite a measured post today but to let you into a little secret, in a football landscape where hero and villain status is designated easily Arsenal currently wear the white hat and Chelsea the black and I would enjoy seeing Mourinho’s balloon of pomposity pricked, and the heroes prevail even if only for one day.