NO TIME TO DIE

And lo, there was a great wailing and gnashing of teeth as Arsenal football club lost, deservedly, a game against Bournemouth. It is not just that Bournemouth were better and had just had a three-week rest while Arsenal played a number of games, its the fact that Arsenal were terrible. I am not one for hyperbole, but it has to be said that the performance from the home team was awful. Passes didn't reach their intended targets, balls were run out of play, players were indecisive on the ball and a general feeling if ennui prevailed. The accumulation of points of the last nine months that have put the club at the top of the Premier League table and the superb form in the Champions League cannot, rationally disappear over the course of a week without some scrutiny.

Every team has an off day but the time for poor performances is not now, especially not now that Arsenal are in the thick of a title race. "Cometh the hour" they say, but then again 'they' say a lot of things, but there is no sense or feeling that any one player is looking to grab the title race by the proverbial horns and lead this team to glory 

In a title race you only live once and now is no time to die for this set of players and manager.

The response to three domestic blows in a short space of time has veered from the optimistic to, in the most part, the hysterical. Yet are things comparatively that bad? Tottenham are on the brink of relegation, Chelsea are a shambles on the pitch and financially, Liverpool’s title defence, it would be fair to say, has not been what they would have expected, Manchester City have the 115 verdict hanging over them and crashed out of the Champions League, Man Utd will play the least number of games a club can play, Newcastle & Villa who ‘experts’ predicted would do well, are underachieving.

Yet Arsenal, who are top of the league and 90 minutes away from a Champions League Semi-Final are the club receiving most of the opprobrium, and this is possibly why the doom merchants are out in full force.

The supporters of the other teams who are present on social media know which subject line generates the most clicks, the usual suspects in mainstream sports media long ago gave up on subjective journalism and have adopted the engagement strategy. This has infected the rationality of the support base as many are reactively responding to lazy and reductive content. Toxicity abounds and serves no purpose at the sharp end of a long season where the two ultimate trophies could be up for grabs.

Now before I get accused of having blind faith and being overly optimistic, I can see where the issues are, I can see that the team need to rediscover some form, I can see that all of our squad has to now show that they are first XI worthy. I understand that the team need to be less risk averse, and I can see the importance of the forthcoming fixtures.

Put simply, Arsenal’s fate is in the teams’ own hands. Match Manchester City’s results and the title comes to the Emirates, finish the job on Wednesday and a place in the rarefied atmosphere of the Champion’s league Semi Final awaits where we could meet teams that we have beaten in the group stages over the last two seasons.

Yes, I know that this won’t be easy, but what are the options? Give up hope or be quietly optimistic? I have chosen the latter

The naysayers and content creators believe in “divide Et Impera’ where Arsenal ae concerned, so the Arsenal fan base need to believe in “Victoria Concordia Crescit” now more than ever