Good v Evil, Pride v Prejudice, Pragmatism v Idealism,
History v New Money, there are so many headlines to tag onto Sunday’s fixture
against Chelsea: the club with a corrupt owner (not alone in that), a
despicable albeit successful manager, an offensive but effective captain and a
fan base of racists (well some of them anyway). So in reality Chelsea is a bit of
a Pantomime Villain and a team under Mourinho who have an annoying habit of not
losing against us. To feel an emotion as strong as hatred towards Chelsea is a
bit like hating Katie Hopkins: it’s easy but ultimately a waste of time.
On Sunday Chelsea are the enemy and yes there is much to
dislike and certain demon's to be driven away, but there is only one thing to think about and that’s winning to
tighten out grip on second place. Chelsea will inevitably win the league and
that is by virtue of this season’s Premier League not being of a very good
vintage and the fact that Chelsea strengthened that all important spine in the
summer.
The Mourinho side show will be front and centre with those
sycophants of his in the media and to an extent the presence of Chelsea’s
number four will add to the hoop la. Fabregas used to play for the Arsenal and
now he doesn’t and I for one don’t want our support to be seen as one that is
hung up on ‘returning players’ it can get all a bit unseemly and comes across
as bitterness. I remember when Manu Petit returned to Arsenal in a Chelsea
shirt after his stint at Barcelona: the crowd’s reaction that day? Indifference
towards the player, and that’s something that I would like to see more of.
I believe that we can out gun them on Sunday for the first time in quite a while and if we do, beating Chelsea would be another scalp in a season when we
have had some pretty good results against the so called bigger teams and a
chance to put some breathing space between us and the team in third place. Yes
this is quite a measured post today but to let you into a little secret, in a
football landscape where hero and villain status is designated easily Arsenal
currently wear the white hat and Chelsea the black and I would enjoy seeing
Mourinho’s balloon of pomposity pricked, and the heroes prevail even if only
for one day.
Comments
Post a Comment
so I said...