Watching Arsenal the last few weeks (only saw a little of the Man U game) has driven me half insane. A team of whiners, led by the whiner in chief, and a crowd which knows just the right aggrieved, screaming tone has turned the usual crap assortment of refs into jelly and gotten them undeserved decision after undeserved decision. I understand their goal today was offside. I watched the ref handing out yellow cards to Man U like confetti. I watched an Arsenal player whine long and hard after a routine foul, which resulted in a long talking to to the Fulham player. Arsenal, of course, prompty scored on the free kick. Sagna today really took the cake. Watch fifty PL games and you won't see a purer, more 100% pen in a more dangerous position than Sagna's. Watch his foot miss the ball completely. Watch it whack against van Persie (?)s ankle hard. Watch him topple, clearly due to Sagna's foot. All while he has the ball five feet in front of the goal. Watch Sagna beg, whine and shake his head, as if he's just suffered the greatest injustice in the history of the world. It makes me sick.
As to us: well, we're a bunch of choke artists. Give us a chance to seal the deal and we blow it like clockwork. How many times in a row has this happened? I have trouble blaming AVB for this because he's won things, while we have a long history of blowing it.
It's got to change, but it's hard to say how you create a winning mentality. Also, I disagree about Dembele. He's been our key player in the sense that we've won more often when he's played than any other player, including Bale. I think he exerts a lot of influence, some kind of strength of will, which has been key in us beating big teams this year, which we never used to do. Dembele, at any rate, has two wins and a draw in his last three games against Man U (though the same is true of Dempsey). Vertonghen has been superb and Lloris very good.
