I hope they unfurl the banner again actually. It would send out the message: "we won't be intimidated by violence". I don't agree with their banner, but they'd get my respect for doing it again. I don't think it affects the team. If the players see it, it might fire them up a bit. If the manager see's it, he's mature enough to not let it affect him.
None of the stories I've read has actually confirmed who started the fight. All we've been told by the media is: banner unfurled -> objections by fans -> punches thrown -> owner of banner ejected. It could just as easily have been the guys with the banner who got rowdy at the reception to their statement.
It's a lot of bluster and guff to be honest. Personally I don't agree with their sentiment, but they are free to express themselves. But as I said, they should also expect a response too. That was the problem with this board last year. Some of those with Wenger out views were claiming they were being censored and abused. When in reality, they were just being met with an equally passionate response. It was that they didn't like, not that they weren't allowed to have those views. What is good about this forum now, is that there are a range of views and people are free to express themselves, without having to pussy foot around the issues, and still at the end of the day we can have a laugh with each other without every thread descending into a bitch fest.
What is all this with 'false' optimism v realism ? The 'realists' have been saying we've been going to drop out of the top 4 since we sold Henry and every year since they've been proved wrong.
Not me. I also predicted we'd be 3rd this season. That seems very unlikely now. I'm going on the evidence of this season, our league position, and the form of our rivals. I'm still calling it 50/50 though. I'm not happy with those odds, and no-one should be. Ask non-Arsenal fans what they think. They'd probably give worse odds than my estimate.
As posted in another thread and we can compare last season to this: After 23 games last season we had 37 points. Exactly the same as now. Our goal difference was +6 as opposed to +19. We had scored 39 and conceded 33 as opposed to now 46 scored 29 conceded. We were 7th in the league 1pt behind Liverpool, 2 behind Newcastle, 5 Chelsea, 12 Spuds. Now we are 6th 1pt behind Everton, 4 spuds and 8 Chelsea. So based on that. Compared to last season after 23 games, we have the same points, higher league position, scored more goals, conceded less and are less points behind Spuds and less points to 3rd place. What a drop in standards without RVP and with less 'tough' games to go. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/...r-league/table http://www.statto.com/football/stats...ble/2012-02-01 Not good enough, but better than last year at this stage and we finished 3rd last year.
My response would be what Bonstar said: In addition, I remember us really kicking into form at this stage last season. There is no guarantee it will happen this time, but even if it does, we'll probably find it tough.
We are doing better than last season in aiming to get 3rd, but yes a league challenge ended the minute we sold RVP to utd. Actually, it ended when citeh bought every player around and gave them ridiculous wages.
And I'm sure if the Portugal manager gets sacked, and Villas Boas talks about how he'd love to manage them, we'll get 3rd just like last season. While we're at it, lets make sure he is dragged into court for tax dodging, and Chelsea re-enter the Champions League to divert their attention away from the Premier League. Of course, we can also rely on finishing the season as strongly as last time can't we? Villas Boas and Benitez will get worse at managing their teams as time goes on, afterall, that's how it works doesn't it? Yea, we'll be fine. We're doing better at this stage than last season, but last season everything went for us in the second half of it. Of course, now people are going to say "You want Arsenal to fail so you can say I told you so" or some bullshit like that. I want Arsenal to succeed, I don't even think our chances of 4th are that terrible. They're 50/50 in my opinion. It's better to look at the bigger picture rather than the self-validating bullcrap that tells you what you want to hear.
Actually, with all due respect I'm not sure anyone really cares what you say. But your 2nd point is all that matters. & the bigger picture is that the club is secure and set-up for probably the rest of my life to compete at the highest level.
To be fair mate, nobody is saying that at all. Also, what do you mean by 'Self validating bullcrap' ? Last season was last season, and the events were particular to how it unfolded, the same as this season will be different again. We don't 'need' a carbon copy scenario to ensure that we finish in the top 4, we need to make sure that we do all that we can as a club to ensure that we're in there at the end. We can't account for the others, so the 'requirements' for them to conspire to hand it to us are all a bit speculative really.
Are you old enough to remember when Arsenal were giving out free season tickets to anyone who would help paint Highbury as the club was too skint to pay for a proper painting firm to do it ?
