CLASSLESS SOCIETY

Arsenal v Chelsea on a level playing field

Chelsea, 10 Trophies since 2005.  Arsenal, 0 trophies since 2005. That’s a statistic that has resonance at a time when Chelsea sack another manager.

To many Chelsea are the enemies of football with their condoning of racism, taping up of players and allegations against referees. Arsenal are viewed as doing things the right way due to our financial prudence and the touches of class that we still adhere to as a club.

If one man who demands success and has put millions into that endeavour owns a club he can do what he likes to achieve it. Abramovitch doesn’t give a monkeys what outsiders think.

When you look at the statistic, 10-0, you begin to realise that for some Chelsea fans that’s all that matters. Winning. Winning at any cost? It would appear so.

Modern football, and in particular English football sold its soul ages ago and the sense of shock regarding Di Matteo’s sacking is a naive response.

Ultimately the Arsenal’s reputation is intact yet the trophy cabinet remains empty. We can claim the moral high ground but the Chelsea fan can point to the cold hard logic of 10-0.

I wouldn’t want to see our club behave like Chelsea, that would be terrible, but I think we can learn something from their views on managerial accountability and need to win.

God forbid that we should ever become the sort of club that takes part in the shenanigans that Chelsea do but maybe the best path lies somewhere between the methodologies of both clubs. Demanding success and being prepared to invest alongside development, requiring your manager to achieve but giving consistency to that goal, and staying classy but driven. Unfortunately it seems that you can’t have both.

We point to class, they point to silverware.

So we remain the good guys, and yes there is something to be proud of about that, but we are not perceived as winners where it matters, in its simplest terms, on the pitch and in the trophy department. 

The Abramovitch effect continues to impact on football. Surely nobody envisaged how much one man would taint the beautiful game. Or maybe nobody cared.