ARSENALISM©

A winning habit? The calendar year girdles two seasons the first of which saw us leading the field for what seemed an age and ended with an FA cup victory after going two goals down at Wembley. Victory was also achieved in the Charity Shield/Community Shield or whatever it's called these days to start this season on a positive note. The acquisition of Alexis Sanchez gave Arsenal supporters optimism and after seeing Campbell in the flesh at the World Cup it seemed that we had a decent striker on our hands, and at that same world Cup we saw three of our own lift the big one. It was noticeable that we had a summer without speculation regarding the departure of our better players: could this be because no one wants them? Although Vermaelan's form had been patchy his departure along with the loss of Sagna made it clear that we needed to purchase some defensive reinforcements to add to the promising Callum Chambers and Mathieu Debussy-clear it seems, to all but the manage...

There’s been a lot of talk about respect recently, most of it self righteous and judgemental, but it’s a word that we associate with the principals of fair play that sport should stand for. Richard Keys and others described Santi Cazorla’s deliciously confident penalty in the 4-1 win against Newcastle United as disrespectful: the irony of Keys making a judgement on matters of respect was probably lost on him. Balderdash I say. Football should be entertaining and moments of skill and daring excite and enamour supporters. Santi’s Pen was a moment to savour and it’s certainly not the first time we have seen such hutzpah from the spot at the Arsenal. Then there's the issue of respect towards Arsene Wenger. some say criticism of him is disrespectful full stop. I don't agree. I think criticism is part of the remit of supporting and loving your club but certainly effing and blinding is not acceptable and absolutely diminishes ones argument. I have ...

A house divided it seems. The reason would most probably be attributable to the man at the helm. There are those that support the club and have faith in the current manager and those that support the club and have no faith in the manager. Isn't that how civil wars generally start? a question of faith: t he believers and the non believers. One group believes that water can be turned into wine and the other can find no evidence to support that belief and what then happens is unrest which leads to conflict. At the moment its hardly Victoria Concordia Crescit and I sense that the conflicting views currently being expressed are merely forays that will escalate until we, as a body of supporters, are at Defcon 1. While we debate the pros and cons of our manager we need to retain that most old fashioned of values: civility. Heated debate is fine, strident discussion is okay and bombastic badinage is healthy but once we go beyond that we may lose sight of the main issue: the fact t...