This season is not the best season we had in the recent history. A few very hard defeats to take on the chin. Losing one of the best players in the world. So compared to the last 6 seasons we have had a hard time at moments. And this is why I think all those people who have been shouting and moaning in the past 4 or 5 years have been so utterly wrong. Yes we didnât win anything in those years. But we came close on a few occasions and still the moaning was around. This season at some moments I could understand some of the moaning. Yes it was not fun to lose at Old Trafford, yes it was not fun to lose at Milan this week. So if you are hurt by that fine. I also felt hurt after that. But why on earth did some of us moan during the years before when we were in contention for many prices at times. Okay we didnât win them but at the end of the season/competition/cup only one team can win it. It would have been great if we would have been the winner but itâs not always that simple to achieve and one small detail can ruin a great run of games. I donât like to bring it up but the way we lost the Carling cup final in the way we did is just an example on how one mistake cost us the game. So we have been near at times but it just didnât work. I know people refer to the Invincibles and in a way that exceptional achievement is something that some of us started to take for granted. History has shown the exceptional nature of that season or that run. But still some fans want us to reproduce it. For those who have witnessed it I can only say: keep the good memory and treasure it as maybe no other football supporter of any other team in the EPL will ever live to see it again. People say this is the worst season for a long time. And in a way it looks like that. But then again let me remind you of the season 2005-2006. A lot of the Invincibles were still at Arsenal. And yet at the end of February 2006 we found ourselves in 7th place. Yes that is a 7 my dear readers. And if it hadnât been for a better goal difference we could have been in 8th place. We had the same points as West Ham United on that day in February and had played one more game than them. And in 5th and 6th place in front of us we had⦠Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers who had played two games less than us. And in 4th place we had Tottenham. Who had 5 points more than us. We were 5 points away from 4th place. And yet we had Henry, Gilberto, Lehman, Campbell, Cesc, Pires, â¦well if you are a true Gooner you should know the players we had in those days. And if we compare this to the situation we find ourselves now we can see that we are in 4th position for the moment. This is 3 places better than in the 2005-2006 season around this time. And we then had 5 points to make up on that 4th placed team. Am I saying this is a great season? No, because it is not. But we have been in a far worse position and this with even all those world class players I named. Of course I would have loved us to have more points in the PL so far. But now we have 43 points with 25 games played. In the 2005-2006 season we had 41 points after 27 games played. So we should not be happy with the way the season has gone but maybe a little bit of perspective can be good to have a times. Oh and if you donât believe me because some kind of short memory. The fact that after each defeat some fans act as if the world has come to an end is something that makes me wonder when they started to become a supporter of Arsenal. Was it after we won a title? Or a cup? And was it because of that win that you thought : O this is a team that wins, so I have to support them? Iâm not going to condemn you if this is the case but I think it is something that you have to consider when we lose a game. How bad and painful the defeat might be, there will always be a next game to play. Unless we go broke and have nothing to play for. God forbid it. But maybe I am a bit privileged about the moment I became an Arsenal supporter. Maybe because of the first game I have seen live from Arsenal with my own eyes was a defeat. In 1979 I was at Highbury at the old North Bank standing between all those Gooners watching how we lost 0-1 to Wolverhampton Wanderers. Wolves scored early on in the game and Arsenal did all they could to turn it around. But it wasnât their day. Balls hitting the woodwork, chances being missed inexplicable. I remember a shot rebounding of the post and ending in the arms of the Wolves keeper who just stood there. At the end of the game the Gooners went home in disgust. I stood there thinking : how on earth did Arsenal not win this game? And the injustice of this defeat made me love the Arsenal. I felt that this was a team worth to support for the fight they had shown even when it didnât work out at the end of the game. I just felt that this was team that deserved my support. So I became a supporter of what now would be called a team of losers. If there would have been an internet like it exists today the moaners would want the manager to be sacked, and half the team should have been sold the very same day. And I just thought by myself: this was the most exciting experience of my life. Despite the loss. The boys tried but it didnât happen. But they won my respect and my support for the rest of my life. So yes some defeats have hurt me this season. Sometimes it was terrible after a game. But because I started supporting a team of losers all those years ago I know that things can turn around. For some fans Arsenal is as good or as bad as their last game. Well for me Arsenal never is as bad as their last game. Because when we lose a game I always think back at that day in February 1979 when I was in London for the first time and saw Arsenal lose my first ever game I saw them play. Arsenal is more to me than just our last game. Arsenal is the sum of all those games that I have seen since then. Some great games, some miserable games. But I will not write off my team just because we lost our last game. And maybe if all of us could do this we wouldnât act like angry children after even a terrible and painful defeat. Just remember there are more games we have played in the past and more game we will play in the future. And try to take them all in account when you think of the club we love. Arsenal is so much more than just the last game we played. So much more⦠http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/archives/18843
Understand all that - but can we get back to what needs to be done to make our side more successful and enjoyable to watch? I don't accept sitting on hands and waiting until Wenger goes, and then having the nerve to chant 'there was only one Wenger' as if he could do no wrong.
I don't see anyone saying there's only one Wenger and he can do no wrong, but then I expected you or one of the crew to turn this into something negative once again.
Even if Arsenal finish 4th, it won't be just another average season. It'll forever be remembered as the year Arsenal shipped EIGHT at Old Trafford. I wish Arsenal would improve.
negative? So your positive is saying nothing, doing nothing - everything is just dandy......... why do you come on this forum?
Good post Mr W-Pole Actually I have scant recollection of our 7th place at this stage in 05-06 but I do recall that game against Wolves. It was the year before that when I saw Arsenal for the very first time when they beat Wolves with a Malcolm MacDonald strike in the final minute of the game at home in the 4th round of the FA Cup. Unlike what you may think I didn't hold our defeat against Birmingham in the Carling Final on the boys. Certainly not on Kos or Chesser. It was just one of those things and like your Wolves game, unfair on us. Sometimes whatever you do, it just doesn't happen. Like you too I expect, I was then looking forward to the next game and indeed the rest of the season because there were three months left and we could still take the EPL. As I recall we were still in the hunt then. However we didn't and it was the way by which our season crumbled that hurt. I could accept losing games but I couldn't understand the form we had slumped to. It was as though the team could not rise to the occasion. I had until then always supported Arsene through thick and thin. When in the previous years he didn't buy big I understood the reasons and held up his record, championed his encouragement of the players from the sidelines. Like you I could see too that there were occasions when the man was hurt. When he got into spats with other managers, I took Arsene's side and especially at the end of that match with Liverpool when Dalglish conducted himself in a manner unsuitable for a king. For the most part I believe Arsene maintains a level of dignity if at times a little demonstrative with water bottles on the touchline. I do wonder at the occasional disagreement with an opposition manager such as when he came at loggerheads with MON or even Pardew. Still, these things are heat of the moment and shows his passion for the club and team. I certainly get very defensive when some jerk like the self-proclaimed special one belittles him. What made me wonder about Arsene was the manner by which he was unable to influence the team in those final 3 months of the last season. Perhaps I don't recall 05-06 much, but I remember we came back to finish 4th. I also recall we had a bad loss to Liverpool who incidentally I view as our arch enemy because when I first came into football, they were the ones we had to beat. They were the ones who gave us a hard time in the 1980 FA Cup semi finals and the ones we broke on that Friday evening in May 1989. That was sweet. Sorry to digress. I believe that overall Arsene has a wonderful record and one almost any manager in the EPL bar SAF and perhaps the special one would like. Like many fans though when we flitter away leads in the EPL as we did in 08 and two years later, I wonder why it is we let ourselves down. To do it once is forgivable. Twice hurts more. And then a year later to have a meltdown which has continued into this season and I began to wonder if somethings need to be fixed. It is after all the club that like you, I love. If my cat was injured I would take her to the vet. In a similar fashion, I would like to see our woes mended. To date I don't see much of that but I could be wrong. I don't see our majority shareholder doing much. In fact he has done nothing to lift the club. He has not invested a penny in us, only in himself which is why I ask what is the point of having him. I ask because I believe a benevolent owner should be doing what he can for the club. Anyway I hope you get my drift. We're on the same side. It's just that we see a different set of solutions to our problems.
I think the reason people didn't complain during the season 05/06 was because we had good players, had recently won trophies and hadn't sold our best players. You can't compare then to now, the 2 are so dissimilar its impossible to see any resemblence. I agree that there were far too many complaints before now though, I mean I know people who wanted Wenger out from the 2006 season This is my first season of complaints
the second season for me - on Wenger. I couldn't bring myself to say that previously. Now it is just one long slide downhill.
I certainly don't come on here to continually spread lies about other posters as you and 'the crew' do. Hotty - I fully accept your position. Let's hope we have less reasons to moan next year.
I knew you'd like that one lol Now get on the 'stop the moaners' thread and join in the wumpole bashing
definition: supporter - a support for the genitals worn by men engaging in strenuous exercise. You certainly do exercise your views.
I have always been certain that you had no idea what the true meaning of the word 'supporter' meant when used in footballing terms
where did I say 'in footballing terms'? I thought you were going - don't let us delay you any longer.
