ARSENALISM©

  In my last post, dear reader, I said- "Every team has an off day but the time for poor performances is not now, especially not now that Arsenal are in the thick of a title race. "Cometh the hour" they say, but then again 'they' say a lot of things, but there is no sense or feeling that any one player is looking to grab the title race by the proverbial horns and lead this team to glory" I know thing it's fair to consider Eberechi Eze as possibly being that man.  Injuries and fixture pile ups have contributed to a drop in form. Possibly away teams arriving at the Emirates being more proactive has also had an impact, but the logical conclusion for the down turn is fatigue and loss of form. But Eze, here is a player who has looked to get on the front foot, has tried to actively affect the oppositions defence and has been able to add a dash of unpredictability. Yes, his challenge against The Oil Club was poor but he remains a bright spot for a nervous fanba...

And lo, there was a great wailing and gnashing of teeth as Arsenal football club lost, deservedly, a game against Bournemouth. It is not just that Bournemouth were better and had just had a three-week rest while Arsenal played a number of games, its the fact that Arsenal were terrible. I am not one for hyperbole, but it has to be said that the performance from the home team was awful. Passes didn't reach their intended targets, balls were run out of play, players were indecisive on the ball and a general feeling if ennui prevailed. The accumulation of points of the last nine months that have put the club at the top of the Premier League table and the superb form in the Champions League cannot, rationally disappear over the course of a week without some scrutiny. Every team has an off day but the time for poor performances is not now, especially not now that Arsenal are in the thick of a title race. "Cometh the hour" they say, but then again 'they' say a lot of thi...

"The future has not been written. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves. I wish I could believe that."-John Connor To overcome Skynet was not easy, it involved time, belief and an indomitable human spirit. To beat a machine equipped with superior weaponry and a ruthless access to resources to increase its arsenal took ingenuity and a "never say die" attitude. Abu Dhabi is the ground zero of Skynet and Manchester CXV are the Terminators. The thing about Skynet is that there are no qualms about what their aim is, there are no notions of fairness.  "Listen, and understand! Manchester CX are out there! They can't be bargained with. They can't be reasoned with. They doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop... ever, until someone stops them flagrantly breaking rules"-Kyle Reese In a landscape where one team dominates it is up to a resistance to topple them, this is made hard when using resources that were ga...

  Liverpool and Manchester CXV are the ones to beat in this season's chase for the Premier League title. One, a club grown organically, the other created in an Oil State laboratory. Having taken 4 points from Liverpool and 3 points from Manchester CXV so far, you would think that our status in the challenge would be reasonably good. But there is an underdog mentality among many and a defeatist attitude from some. A lot of this is directly influenced by those voices of wisdom, the media pundits. The likes of Chris (Heaven knows I'm miserable now) Sutton, Gary (Man of the people) Neville, Jamie (Sour grapes) Carragher and Robbie (I'm a character I am) Savage set the agenda for many a football fan. The reality that it's all about creating content often gets lost on people, but it shouldn't. It's important to view comments, analysis, think pieces and the like in that context. Can the Arsenal win the league? Yes. Will the Arsenal win the league? I don't know. It...

Football is barricaded inside a shopping centre with dwindling supplies but lots of product, and is surrounded by zombies hammering at the shuttered shop fronts with malicious intent. The zombies are intent on feeding on the vertebrate organs that have developed axially from the midline dorsal nerve cord as a vesicular enlargement at the rostral end of the neural tube, with centralised control over all body segments. Yes, they want to eat football's brains! The Zombies are sub divided. There are the VAR zombies, shambling with inevitability towards their intended target, then there are the media content creators looking for perceived structural weaknesses to exploit. The Sky/TNT/Amazon zombies fight amongst themselves for supremacy, to see who will get the first juicy mouthful, while the Oil money zombies have gained the upper hand over the oligarch zombies. The FA zombies are reliant on the Premier League zombies for their leftovers but all of these parts of a whole bow to the alp...

Man City are being positioned as the greatest  Premier league team of all time.  Obviously any sane person knows that there was life before the premier league but let’s look at teams that have won it. Man United and Arsenal had a joie de vivre and intense rivalry that has not been equaled. Blackburn was a rags to riches story. Chelsea at least, were great villains. Liverpool were electric. Leicester was a fairy tale. Even City’s Aguero moment when reflected upon wasn’t a big deal; at home against a struggling 10 man QPR was hardly Anfield 89. Pepe Guardiola is clearly a great thinker in footballing terms, an innovator to be sure, but he’s ultimately the architect of sterility. His end product is that of a cold winning machine rather than a team clothed in endeavour.  It’s the intangible that his product struggles with; the glory, and that ultimately defines sporting achievement. I always say the best team wins the league and that’s fair enough but context is important. Ri...

The return of Knee-Jerkism. Here we go again, Arsenal have lost a European game, yet still stay on top of our Europa League Group, and the hysterical (over) reactions have started. A bit like they did when Arsenal Drew a league game, yet still stayed on top of the League table. Some are only happy when they are unhappy, only take joy in negativity, thrive with the glass half empty. Social media does provide the soil for perversity to grow in, and some of the comments I've seen about the 2-1 loss to PSV can only be viewed in that context. Losing is as much about context as winning. If the team plays poorly and loses that provides an explanation but the opposition's performance has to be factored in at all times. PSV deserved the win, Arsenal didn't. It's as simple as that and all the hand wringing in the world won't change that. If we lose another two or three games in a row then it's only reasonable to be critical, but right now it seems fanciful to suggest that...

  It's all go in mid table! Big week this. First we take on a  team that many so called experts are billing as a cross between The Harlem Globetrotters and Brazil '71. Now don't get me wrong, Manchester City are currently an excellent team on a roll, but if the 20/21 season has taught us anything, it's that nothing is a certainty. A positive result would do wonders as would a positive performance. I strongly believe that the days of the Wenger away humiliations is well and truly over so let's see what happens in todays 4:30 Kick Off. Then we have Benfica in our home fixture that takes place away. A positive outcome and we are in the last 16 where, frankly, lord knows what awaits. Benfica are one of world footballs recognised names but they are pretty much a 'not what they once were' team, however they still pose a threat with the away goals rule. I feel that should we get past them we stand as good a chance as any of doing well in the Europa League. After th...

  As Bob Dylan so eloquently put it “The times they are a-changing” and at Arsenal Football Club they are a-changing for what seems the a-better. This change is exemplified with the succession of departures from the bloated squad of Özil, Mustaphi, Kolasinac and Sokratis. These four players say a lot about how we arrived, as a club, into the minor leagues from the majors. The arrival of an elite player in Özil, in our case, was all about telling the world that we were still big boys in the playground. The salary handed out initially was commensurate with the profile of the player but what was irksome was the fact that he, seemingly, could pick and choose which games he deigned to play in. The latitude that he was given is reminiscent of that given to Derek Rodman by the Chicago Bulls, but guess what? Rodman delivered.  Özil was perhaps at his best when playing with Alexis Sanchez (for my money the last real elite player to play for us) and when Sanchez angled for a get out the...

A fair bit of what youngsters call "Banter" flying around about the merits of that club on the Seven Sisters Road. Earlier in the season when they were going to win the league, the perception was that they need not concern themselves with the trials and tribulations of Arsenal Football Club, but now that they have slowly slid down the league table they have lazily gone to their default happy place of making comparisons. As we all know, they are perennial victims of premature elation, and when that bubble inevitably bursts they revert to type. With that in mind I thought rather than getting into pointless debate I would just present some facts: Since winning the league Spurs 60 years (2) Arsenal 17 years (13) Since winning the FA Cup Spurs 23 years (8) Arsenal 6 months (14) Since winning a European Trophy Spurs 37 years (3) Arsenal 27 years (2) Since winning a trophy of any kind Spurs 13 years (League Cup) Arsenal 6 months (FA Cup) Head to head Spurs won 60 Arsenal won 77 Comb...

The death of hope is what does the damage. The realisation that there is a metaphorical treadmill and that we are all on it hits hard. A treadmill of underachievement: I should say now that rather than repeating myself all references to underachievement are in the context of achievement being commensurate with resources, revenue, location, opportunity, ambition, tradition and reassurance from the people that run Arsenal Football club (there that’s saved me having to place caveats all over the place) We were sold a dream, a dream of seeing the best players playing at the Emirates stadium and elbowing into the European elite, we were told to show patience and we were asked to dig deep into our pockets but that dream died some time ago  and for some time now I have stated that I believe that there is something rotten in the state of Arsenal and it is my view that rot stems from two sources: The Board of Directors and, more to the point, the current Arsenal Manager. “How ...

All in all its been a jolly satisfying week.  Beating Manchester United at Old Trafford to progress in the FA Cup and destroy their chances of silverware, Chelsea suffering an embarrassing night against PSG and dropping points to Southampton, Man City losing allowing us to narrow the gap between us to a solitary point have all made this a week of pleasure and no small amount of Schadenfreude, obviously it's always nice to see spurs lose but the three points United gained is not good, but as I say: spurs lost...oh and there was also the small matter of our victory against West Ham United and Sam Allardyce: three unanswered goals that help our Goal Difference and possibly give us a boost for Tuesday night. Yes its been a good week and often its easy to forget the good times and appreciate them. The worst of times are not the apocalypse and the best of times are not an epiphany with chocolate cake, Caviar and free flowing Champagne. This week has been, to put it simply, a lo...