FAITH HOPE AND PARITY

Enjoying the moment

As football supporters we often find it hard to live in the moment; always thinking ahead and looking back, pondering ‘what if?’ and ‘if only’. I would imagine that every supporter of every club has this problem (with the possible exception of a Barca fan at the moment) Therefore I am trying really hard to enjoy last night’s victory; Just enjoy the moment, the feeling of winning a game. Remember that? As I said before negativity is draining and to paraphrase AA ‘accept the things you cannot change’ is a good mantra. As a supporter we show faith in our clubs. Even when we lose faith in those at the top we can put some faith in those wearing the red and white, support those that have shown loyalty, are not greedy mercenaries and have not systematically failed over the last half decade. There are, among the squad, players that deserve our faith, our support.

yes I am better than whatshisname

On Sunday we will be in a position of having to play the cards we have been dealt and, should United line up against us as they often do at Old Trafford, it will be a tough game. Realistically, as opposed to pessimistically, a point taken away with us will be a good result. Should any additions be made to the squad, it is doubtful that they would figure on Sunday. If indeed any players do arrive, will they be of quality and experience? I doubt it, but that brings us back to playing the cards that are dealt.

The killer blow

I learnt very little from last night’s victory about our long term future, but what last night did do was confirm some things that I believe and that for some time should have been acknowledged by the manager; that Szczesny is clearly our best keeper since Lehman, that Walcott is best played through the middle, that a winger that can get to the by-line effectively can give a different dimension, that Frimpong is better than Denilson, and that some young players, given their chance, can have an impact, especially when it is clear that they should have replaced the dross long before this moment.

taking his chance

So Arsenal reach parity with the rest of the top 4; safely into the Champions League, a big game on Sunday and some potential new signings (?). Not a bad time to be an Arsenal supporter, when one strips away all the frustrations that have been caused by the 'decision makers'. Especially as we are in the midst of an Anti Arsenal open season. When we are being praised I get an uneasy feeling. I like it when our backs are against the wall and you never know, our players, our boys, may just bring some belief back to the club a belief that our Manager and board seem unable to engender.

Our Captain

And so we await the Champions League draw and just take one team from each pot mix 'em up, give Man Utd and Barca favourable groups and away we go:

POT 1

Manchester United
Barcelona
Chelsea
Bayern Munich
Arsenal
Real Madrid
Porto
Inter Milan

POT 2

AC Milan
Lyon
Shakhtar Donetsk

Valencia

Benfica
Villarreal
CSKA Moscow
Marseille

POT 3

St Petersburg
Ajax
Bayer Leverkusen
Olympiakos
Manchester City
Lille
Basel
BATE Borisov

POT 4

Borussia Dortmund
Napoli
Dynamo Zagreb
APOEL Nicosia
Genk
FC Viktoria Plzen
Otelul Galati
Trabzonspor

Reasons to be cheerful?

So November arrives with cold weather and grey skies. Arsenal sit in 2 nd place with a great chance to make progress in the Carling Cup with a home draw against wigan Athletic. Poised to win our Champions league group and with six months of the season left have 3 of our five tougher away fixtures out of the way, having taken a respectable 4 from 9. I say respectable as, the Man City away trip aside the draw at Anfield on the occasion of Hodgson’s first game was a good result and the Chelsea game I don’t think anyone can really speak of any injustice. That leaves away games at Old Trafford and Sp*rs (who as we know raise their game for this fixture). With injured players gradually returning and the Polish goalkeepers showing signs of optimism, we’re in relatively good shape. Or so you’d think. Yesterday at the Emirates West Ham were put to the sword late on after some stout defending, a good performance from Robert Green and a couple of missed opportunities. The level of indign...

There's something rotten in the state of Denmark

A number of blogs are pointing out what was evident to me yesterday; as a season ticket holder and Silver member i like thousands of others made plans to purchase an additional ticket for the Barcelona game using the frustrating and irritating online service, but guess what? no joy, just lots of waiting finger tapping and watching the dreaded 'loading' bar (to make matters worse I had asked my missus to do this as I was doing training). But no one got these additional tickets, that is no supporters judging by the general feedback! It seems to me that the additional seats will have probably gone to customers of a corporate nature. Ultimately for such a marquee (to use an American commercialism term) game I suspect that the club where never going to sell to supporters of the club, there is clearly a undercurrent at the Emirates that the club wants to have the stadium full of customers ie; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ognvWIwjKTQ The Emirates of the future? It will be interesti...

PERSONALITY TEST

Played 23, 10 defeats, 4 draws and 9 victories; that's the factual bit out of the way. What does that tell us? I guess it is a set of statistics that reasonably reflect a mid table team. How we got here is something that countless column inches and hours of debate have gone into. How we move forward is the bigger question. Naturally, learning from past mistakes is a key element to moving forward but have Arsenal Football Club done that? Have Arsenal Football Club realised that a clear vision and plan is needed? When you look at the current squad its relatively easy to see where the strenghts are, and the weaknesses. The manager too, has strengths and weaknesses but one thing that is intangible is the personality of the club. Not so much "where are we" as "what are we?" To know what the club is is to know what the upper echelons think, what their plan and philosophy is and how the manager processes that information. We can assume that the club decision makers wa...

ARSENALISM©

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