ARSENALISM©

So we hit the home stretch and there are a lot of undecided things in this mediocre Premier League season. ON THE BRIGHT SIDE... Will Everton usurp Liverpool as Merseyside's top club? Will Villa clinch a Champions League spot with a late run? Will Chelsea implode? Will Man Utd do 4 in a row and beat Liverpool's 18 titles record? Will Arsenal have a longer pre- season than last year? And of course will Sp*rs have the rug of optimism pulled out from under their hob nail booted feet at the eleventh hour yet again? 80 points Chelsea Maximum 86 Points 79 points Man Utd Maximum 85 Points 72 points Arsenal Maximum 78 points 64 points Sp*rs Maximum 73 Points 64 points Aston Villa Maximum 70 points 63 points Man City Maximum 72 points 62 points Liverpool Maximum 71 points 57 points Everton Maximum 63 points ON THE OTHER HAND... Of course it could all go horribly wrong with Chelsea winning the league,Man City achieving Champions League status thus enabling them to buy more players fo...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQDULgLXwBs Last night at the Camp Nou bought to mind another outstanding defensive display against the odds.

So the amazing Barcelona, conquerors of Arsenal face their Waterloo against Jose’s Inter Milan. Set up nicely for the Italians through defensive strength and lack of marvelling at how incredible Barca are. As I said previously on my post of 7th April: 'This morning’s analysis has been equally as hysterical; ‘Messi is the best player of all time’ ‘Barca are unbeatable’ etc with a dearth of exceptional European clubs it is the easy option to focus on the exception to the rule.I hope that inter beat them, not through sour grapes but to prove a point that there's more to football than hyperbole and exaggeration and that you can win ugly as well as winning with a whipped cream cherry coated topping. ' I am no great admirer of Mourinho the man but he is able to produce effective teams that win things. This may go against the grain of some but I think that the worse thing that can happen is that Barcelona over turn Inter Milan and the whole ‘other planet’ hype starts again. A C...

October, 1996. Blackburn Rovers 0-2 Arsenal Arsene Wenger's first Game as Arsenal Manager. Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Keown, Bould, Adams, Winterburn, Platt, Vieira, Merson, Wright, Hartson Subs: Parlour (Hartson 85), Shaw, Linighan, Rose, Lukic Blackburn: Flowers, Kenna, Sherwood, Bohinen, Wilcox, Marker, Sutton, Berg, Donis, Beattie, Croft Subs: Ripley (Donis 64), Gudmundsson (Wilcox 75), Given, Flitcroft, Broomes Result : Blackburn (0) 0 Arsenal (1) 2 Scorers: Wright 3,51 Of the matchday squad Wenger inherited and kept hold of Seaman, Dixon, Keown, Bould, Adams, Winterburn , along with Parlour and Wright (and a decent second goalkeeper in Lukic ) not a bad backbone to start with! May, 2010. Blackburn Rovers ?-? Arsenal This is the next game. How many of Monday's matchday squad would a new manager retain?

A voice of reason "I always ask people who have played that position before making a judgement. If its goalkeeping I’ll ask David Seaman and Bob Wilson; they both said about Jens Lehmann that he was a good goalkeeper, neither of them when I asked, have said they think Almunia or Fabianski is good enough. I would suggest that they are right." -Lee Dixon

VIDEOS: van Persie’s ‘revenge’ on Adebayor + Song v Bellamy

As Season ticket renewal time approaches we all look into our souls (and pockets) and ponder on signing on the dotted. I have seriously been thinking about not renewing for reasons well documented by me in arsenalism, from Wenger’s ethos to the thin plastic glasses at the bars. But of course I will renew. Why, I hear you ask? Because “What if? What if this season we see a change of tack from Arsene and the glory years of the Invincibles return? What if we hammer ManUtd and Chelsea at The emirates? What if we play Barcelona in the Champions League semi final and win 4-1? What if RVP plays a whole season and does a Ronaldo/Rooney/Drogba for us, week in week out ? What if we clinch the title on the last day of the season at the emirates beating Sp*rs 1-0 in the 90th minute resigning them to relegation? Yes it’s all fanciful stuff but; What if Arsenal play good football with some resilience and heart and we see some proven players join the club and we compete week in week out and don’t ca...

The sun is shinning and ManUtd have just beaten sp *rs. Obviously this takes Fergie's men further away from arsenal, but, to paraphrase Nessa; Truth be told third place for us is about right. Now of course we need to beat the team from Middle Eastlands to ensure a happy St Totteringham's day and confirm automatic qualification for the Champions League. Vieira will be be sauntering around the pitch as he recuperates from years of being an all action midfield presence and Adebayor will be sauntering around the pitch as he used to do at The Emirates week in week out. Let's not forget what an absolute top man for us Patrick was and happily give him a warm welcome (not at the detriment to supporting our own team though). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaTx1EarjUk Tourre , Silvinho and Stuart Taylor are also part of Citeh's set up and they all deserve some credit. Emmanuel should, rightly, be given the Ashley treatment. Yes I know it's not big and it's not cl...

I have decided that this will be my final word on Wenger this season. I want to enjoy the closing moments of what has been a frustrating season. Avoiding hysteria it is easier to present some tangible evidence of the problems at hand. Poor decisions, we all make them from time to time; however a Football manager needs to ensure he doesn’t make a string of poor decisions. Away from the opinion and conjecture there are facts that point to an unprecedented number of poor decisions made by Wenger in recent years. Decisions that were all undeniably poor. For example Selling Pires and other players too soon due to a ridiculous age related policy yet then buying Silvestre. Selling Gilberto too soon and letting Flamini and Diarra go at the same time Not buying Shay Given. Not playing Arshavin & Song in the 2009 FA cup semi Final. Loaning out Philip Senderos this season A plethora of incomprehensible substitutions; for example bringing on Eboue at Left Midfield (with the resultant impact o...

HAPPY St GEORGE'S DAY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr7JsvWgYkQ

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/sol/newsid_5390000/newsid_5394900/5394912.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&news=1&bbcws=1 Arsene Wengers first ten years at Arsenal broken down really goes to show the extent of Arsenal's success, but stats alone don't tell the whole story of the beautiful football, the swagger and the guts. The danger is that for all Wenger's success he may end up tainting his achievements through hubris. Now that would be madness!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1rTzTB-wG8 You know there was a time when Arsenal played the beautiful game but with attitude! Remember the Red cards, Pizza gate,Keown takes on Ruud,Freddie flicks the Vs at Sp*rs, Thierry reminds them who's boss, Jens gets involved, Thierry mugs off Danny Mills, Patrick sticks up for his boys, Gilberto offers out Ibrahimovitch "come on boys let's have it!" Remember Arsene You can mix panache and trophies with cojones! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjsASf5z9ac

Now it all makes sense. Wenger is Tyler Durden the architect of Project Mayhem, Pat Rice is the narrator and Fight Club is Youth Club. David Fincher turned Chuck Palahniuk’s Novel into a prediction of Wenger’s philosophical doctrine. Just look at some of the quotes; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbMa4MGFCOg Fincher's take on a wenger press conference “Youth club was the beginning, now it's moved out of the basement, it's called Project Mayhem.” “On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for goalkeepers drops to zero.” “Tell him the manager who destroyed our prospects has realigned my perception.” “We have front row seats for this theater of mass destruction. The demolition committee of Project Mayhem wrapped the foundation columns of the club with metaphorical blasting gelatin. In two minutes, primary charges will blow base charges and the future of arsenal will be reduced to smoldering rubble. I know this... because Wenger knows this.” “Only after disaster can we be r...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2nK_qmvJ7A Don't go to the Emirates if you have Coulrophobia "Your Honour, Much as I do not like singling out individuals I feel I must present the following evidence and ask that a guilty verdict be reached" In 2007 Jens Lehman made a couple of errors at the start of the season. In the first league game of the season, against Fulham (a game Arsenal won 2–1) and in the second match against Blackburn in a game that finished 1–1. This led to Wenger replacing him with Manuel Almunia as first choice goalkeeper; he even selected Fabianski in a cup game ahead of Lehman and made him captain. Wenger, in effect terminated Jens’ Arsenal career. Jens was voted UEFA Club Goalkeeper of the Year for the 1996-97 and 2005–06 seasons, and at the time of leaving Arsenal, had been selected for three World cup squads. He was a key factor in Arsenal’s first-ever accession to the Champions League final; during their run Arsenal broke the record for the most cons...

Time to end quiet reflection I'm angry! Howard Beale at the Clock End "I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad...I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" -Howard Beale http://www.entertonement.com/clips/dwpzdzbpsc--speech-sample-track-Howard-Beale-Peter-Finch-Network-Greatest-Movie-Monologues-KDK-Clips-for-Living We need this played at The emirates on Saturday! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll-bxodxjts

I spent today having afternoon Tea at The Wolseley ('ooh, very lah dee da' I hear you say) prior to going I watched the first half hour of today's game and Sky+d the rest. I successfully managed to maintain a communication blackout as I sipped my Darjeeling.On my return, full up on Scones, Battenburg and Cucumber sandwiches I sat and watched the denouement of the fixture. This is no time for knee jerk reactions (although I know who I would like to kick, and that would involve jerking my knee) or suicide, it's more a question of frustration at the short comings that we all know about and that the Manager ignores and chooses to carry on regardless with. Let's not talk about the penalty that should have been or a Wigan wonder goal or 'these things happen' or Arsenal being out of the title race with just three games to go or indeed about the injury list. Let's talk about something I mentioned at the start of the year; Squad poverty. The Arsenal squad should...

Thank you For On A Lighter Note.   Despite the fact the club's not the same stuffy institution I supported as a child, that's it's turned into a brand rather than a club... a tiny sparkle remains, and sparks turn into flames... like the song says, I'll be around. Mick M

11th January 1936: Arsenal football supporters cheer from the train carriage as they leave Paddington Station, London, on their way to Bristol for their team's FA Cup tie against Bristol City. The gnashing of teeth, weeping and wailing has quietened down (unlike the extended carnival in N17) so let’s look at the last knockings of a frustrating season; Wigan-Northern pallid and irritating Man Citeh-Big mouths and big pockets with a retired international in their ranks and an opportunity to give our ex Captain some much deserved applause. Blackburn-Allardyce is a horrible person and would prefer to see his mate Alex finish second, Nuff said Fulham-good manager, good club, fair play and we’ll have Hangeland if that’s okay Roy. And that will be that. Should finish in automatic Champions League spot, if not second, and who knows we may be in the Charity Shield come August. Which brings me to the ‘on a lighter note’ bit? We are not Liverpool. I find it absolutely hysterical that they ar...

THE SEASON; A TWELVE STEPS PLAN 1. Hope 2. Expectation 3. Optimism 4. Elation 5. Irritation 6. Frustration 7. Anger 8. Pessimism 9. Disappointment 10. Realisation 11. Acceptance 12. Love Then you start it all over again in September!