DRAMA IN THE ECL

The Champions League, the Holy Grail of club football, a tournament that the Arsenal probably should have won in 2004 given the qualities of the team and the clubs that made the last four. A Trophy that the Arsenal were close to winning in 2006 had the game been XI v XI: but them’s the breaks.

Since those halcyon days of the early 2000s our club has failed to get anywhere near to winning the trophy and to be fair it has been pretty much monopolised by a small group of clubs, but both Liverpool and Chelsea have defied the odds and taken the trophy home in this fallow period for us. In fact it has been a long time since an English club won the Champions League/European Cup by comprehensively outplaying their opponent (Probably Liverpool back in the day) in a final, all the victories have had a slice of drama about them: late winners, late equalisers, missed penalties and glorious comebacks, and maybe that’s what it takes for an English team to triumph again.

The Arsenal have had great moments of drama to clinch domestic honours yet in the big one we have missed that little bit of good fortune/fate.

They say that you make your own luck but sometimes, just sometimes it’s about the stars aligning if you will and that is something no one has control over: or do they. Soljskar, Gerrard, Drogba all stepped up and quite possibly the managers to grab the trophy that was slipping out of their grasps. Do we have players and a manager that can repeat this sort of event?

Fact is that this season’s Champions League is probably going to be contested by Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich so a moment of drama may be what it takes for any one else to win it. Maybe it’s our turn? Let’s get out of the group stage and roll the dice.