Look. I don’t particularly like blowing my own trumpet. It doesn’t give me great pride to be self-congratulatory and say to myself “well done David. You were proven right yet again. You truly are a genius and people need to know this. You’re the hero Gotham needs, but not the one it deserves right now.”
But you know, I was proven right again.
After 9 agonising years of constant reminders, you didn’t really think it was going to be easy, did you? They made all Arsenal fans struggle and squirm, and there’s probably a fair few like me who will have to live like saints to make good on conversations we had with God midway through the game, but at last they’ve done it. Arsenal, and Arsene Wenger finally have a trophy to add to the collection.
Yet still, there seem to be criticisms. “Your season was still bad, you just beat Hull, it’s just the FA Cup.”
OK, you go and win the FA Cup then.
*This was written and posted on givemefootball.com pre-Dortmund, but I suppose it’s even more pertinent now*
**Let’s pretend I haven’t been missing from here for ages, ok?**
The look of disgust was clear. The contempt was palpable. The derision in his voice was as loud as his words. Matter of fact, it was one word. “No”. Alan Hansen on Match of the Day dismissed Arsenal’s title hopes without so much as a second thought. Call me petty, call me trivial, call me any number of things, but I am an unashamed Arsenal fan. And when somebody in a position that he’s in and with the knowledge that he has outright dismisses my team as nothing more than a flash in the pan, I, like many other unashamed Arsenal fans, take issue with this. It rankles with us, and it gets under our skin.
“You’re Arsenal. The Arsenal. You should be challenging for titles, yet here you are, celebrating fourth. That’s nothing to celebrate. 10 years ago, you were celebrating winning the league undefeated. Now you celebrate fourth.”
Yet we celebrated. We celebrated long and hard. Maybe even over celebrated. But we don’t care. Not a single, solitary care in the world.
As host of this little shindig, I shouldn’t abuse my position of power.
But Tottenham….
(This may sound like a nonsensical ramble. There is legitimately no structure to this, it’s just a mashing of keys to be perfectly honest.)
You have an exquisite suit. It’s a suit that has served you well, contributing to you getting lucky quite a few times. The thing is though, it’s getting a bit tattered now. It’s time to replace that suit. You’ve spoken to your bank manager, it appears there is plenty of money in your bank account. Enough to buy yourself, at the least, a suit of the same quality. Instead, you think to yourself “I can save a few bob here if I shop at Primark instead. Nobody will notice the difference.”
You’re out a few days later, pulling some prize faces on the dancefloor and busting a few shapes. But your success rate is dwindling. Girls who usually fawn over you, complimenting your beauty, are looking at you with near pity in their eyes. Others are just flat out laughing at you. “But this is top notch clobber” you say to yourself.
So you go back to your normal suit shop, buy yourself a nice little shirt, perfectly tailored for yourself. It’s snug, it fits like a glove. You paid a bit more than you would have liked, but it was worth every penny really. That shirt gets complimented, but that’s it.
Surely, surely, you would think to yourself “I might start shopping here again. It’s a bit more expensive, but it’s damn effective.”
Things that you can do in 200 minutes include a) cook a 22 pound turkey, b) watch The Godfather II or c) write off the career of Olivier Giroud.
The 25 year-old with a ridiculous body (Google it, its inspirational) is apparently the worst thing in an Arsenal shirt since Piers Morgan according to some pundits and some Arsenal fans who are already calling for the end of Giroud. And it is all completely ridiculous. Continue reading
At the start of the week, Arsenal fans were looking very optimistically to the upcoming season. We’d signed 2 international forwards and quite possibly the best player in Spain outside of the Barcelona/ Real Madrid duopoly. Saturday and the start of the season could not come soon enough in our opinion. OK, van Persie was still hanging around, but if we couldn’t ship him out, he wasn’t the worst player to have around for a year while Giroud and Podolski settle in.
And then Wednesday happened. It was confirmed that we accepted a bid for van Persie.
From Manchester United.
Manchester United.
At the start of the week, things in the Arsenal end of North London seemed alright. As the Premier League was rolling ever nearer, we had a definite point to look forward in anticipation to. And we were looking forward with a degree of optimism; 2 brand new international strikers, a largely settled squad and a few laughs to be had at Tottenham thrown in for good measure.
Then Robin van Persie, our captain, talisman and top scorer metaphorically brought out the fan on Wednesday. And Usmanov started throwing shit at it soon after. In 2 swift strikes, before the season had even started, before pre-season had even started, the ‘Arsenal in crisis’ headlines had been rolled out.
Pretty rough couple of days, huh?
Dennis Bergkamp famously said “Behind every action there must be a thought”. Watch his goal against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup quarter final against Argentina. In a sumptuous seven seconds, thoughts that separate Bergkamp from mere mortals are given a live dénouement. As the Dutch assistant manager David Endt said at the time, “The seconds of the greats last longer than those of normal people.” Continue reading
honestpro 