What a soul crushing end to the season.
I’m just so exhausted from the events of the last few weeks, I really am. As a dedicated Arsenal fan I feel the highs and the lows after victory and defeat, but for some reason I just feel like I’ve almost had enough.
Have we ever experienced a rough period like we’ve seen over the last couple of months?
It’s not because of the performances of the team. You see Arsenal give absolutely everything in the games against Chelsea and Liverpool and get nothing but a kick in the teeth in return.
I tried to be balanced in writing the match report after the Liverpool game but the fact is I’m still gutted now. I just couldn’t believe it. Arsenal did fantastically well to score the equaliser with 7 minutes left and then another dodgy decision stole victory from us.
It’s not as if we would have won anything from last nights game, since there’s still a long way to go in the competition but the manner of the defeat is just depressing. I haven’t felt this down since the 1999 FA Cup Semi-Final when Ryan Giggs scored that wonder goal at Villa Park. It took me weeks to get over that one, and isn’t it strange that it involved a Dutchman and a penalty?
You see Arsene Wenger impose his vision for beautiful football and can’t help respect it. Wenger wants to play football in the right way, which is the correct attitude to have.
Football is entertainment and people pay good money to watch it. It should be aspiration of any top side to play beautiful football rather than just win matches. Of course, winning is important but will we end up with teams of robots who just play functional football?
But it seems like everyone hates us for it and people like nothing more than Arsenal to lose football matches. Kick Arsenal about to stop them playing is the attitude here. It’s a massive accomplishment if you can somehow stop Arsenal. Whereas in Spain it’s all about technical ability and playing football. No wonder the English National team is a complete shambles.
Then you have the referees.
They say decisions balance themselves out over the season but where is our luck? Ever since the Eduardo incident I haven’t seen anything go in our favour.
Clichy’s tackle at the end of the Birmingham game was a valid one and he won the ball, Liverpool seem to have some sort of penalty kick hoodoo and other bad decisions have really gone against us in an unreal fashion. If anything I thought the ‘bigger’ sides got preferential treatment when it came to the major incidents. The problem is the damage is done, and we might get 10 dodgy penalty decisions in our favour before the season ends but at this stage they woudn’t mean anything!
And Arsene has always been an advocate of helping referees.
He says that technology should be used to help officials who can make mistakes. That’s not a criticism, but a fact of human nature. Referees will make mistakes. Surely a guy behind a TV screen who has a benefit of a replay can instantly tell the referee on the pitch if it’s a right or wrong call.
And if this was implemented and players knew that every decision was based on replay evidence then they would stop cheating and diving, because they would know they wouldn’t get away with it.
Then you have the media.
How many times does Wenger get slated for not playing Englishmen? Every time the England National side is in the press all the attention focuses on Arsene Wenger. Why is he responsible for the state of the National team?
There does seem to be this anti-Arsenal bias in the media based mainly on things like the England team. Then that spreads to other criticisms.
And then there is the media and the referees.
Football is almost a 24 hour sport now and you need these kind of things to keep people interested. The Newspapers love it, the Sports Channels love it – it’s all part of the game they say. It’s pretty obvious officials won’t get the help needed to make football a fairer game because it would ruin the whole theatre that is football. What would Sky Sports News report about on their 24 hour news channel? What would the experts on Match of the Day talk about? The media have so much power that the use of replays and technology will never happen.
It’s all “part of the game”.
And the really annoying part of all this is all these bad decisions are just brushed under the carpet. The media will paint Wenger as a moaner, which sells newspapers. There’s nothing like a bit of controversy to sell right?
Wengers belief and motivation in his whole philosophy of how the game should be played is probably being tested like it never has been before.
He revolutionised training methods in this country and helped the Premier League reach another level as a whole. When he won the double in his first full season at the club it forced Fergie to improve his team and then he won the treble 12 months later.
Then there’s also the ex-Arsenal players.
Arsenal must have more ex-players in the Premier League than any other side. There’s Kanu, Campbell, Lauren, Diarra, Volz, Aliadiere, Larsson, Muamba, Ljungberg, Ashley Cole, Pennant, Bentley and Stuart Taylor. I’m sure there’s more but I can’t remember right now.
It’s like we’re a feeder club and making other sides stronger.
And what do we get in return? Players like Bentley, Cole and Pennant slagging off Arsene Wenger!
You would probably find it hard to find a man who has contributed more to football in this country and this is how he gets treated.
So is it too much to ask to get a fair whack at things?
And look at this weekend’s game with Manchester United. In any other circumstances, people would want the underdog to win so that it would setup an exciting finish as the title race comes to a close. But you get the feeling that everyone would love Arsenal to continue their poor run and get beaten once again rather than the league leaders lose.
People would just love it if we got tanked on Sunday.
I’ve almost had enough of it all. I’m not actually sure if anything I’ve written actually makes sense. I’m just down right now and you’ll have to excuse me. Thanks for reading anyway.