A wise man once told me that the blogosphere waits for no man. I have seen that this is true. In recent weeks I have had to put this blog on hold as the real world has intervened. Deadlines and work have all got in the way of what some have described as my true calling in life- writing occasional musings on a team of men paid to kick a ball into a net. The wise man’s prophecy came true. As soon as I stopped writing regularly, ratings went on a downward curve steeper than the profits of Pukka Pies when Frank Lampard instigated his New Year’s resolution. Luckily, with deadlines met and Christmas approaching, I’m back and better than ever. Or at least, no more ill-informed and misguided than previously.
Since I last posted here, we have played two matches, losing to Olympiacos and beating Everton. Certainly, both matches deserve posts of their own but I won’t bother as they were both some time ago now. I’m a forward-thinking kind of guy. Suffice to say that the Olympiacos game was sort of embarrassing, and the Everton game was sort of brilliant. I love 1-0 wins: the sensation when the final whistle goes makes the previous however-many minutes of agony almost worthwhile. I think it is fair to say that a hard-fought, ‘ugly’ win like Saturday’s can sometimes be more enjoyable than delivering a thrashing. Hmm, unless that thrashing is delivered at the home of your foulest rivals, and involves scoring 5 goals, a heroic hat-trick, and your rival’s beloved captain plunging to the floor in despair as the world’s deadliest goal-scorer glides away effortlessly, carrying both the ball and his foe’s dignity. In cases like that, thrashings are more fun.
The purpose of this post is not to comment on what I have missed, though, but on our current position and what we can expect over the festive period. Firstly, there is the matter of Manchester City at the weekend. Whilst I always want Chelsea to lose, I did at least see the benefit of their beating City on Monday, namely that the Invincibles will not be matched for another year. I’m not sure if that feat gets enough coverage. If it had been a Ferguson side, members of the press and public would be queuing up to get commemorations of the feat tattooed on various parts of the body. As it is, the anti-Wenger media like to wash over the fact that the man achieved arguably the greatest accomplishment possible in football. Did you know it’s been 6 years since we last won a trophy? Where was I, my paranoia has sidetracked me?
Ah yes, the Manchester City match. Abramovich’s deprived paupers showed in ‘El Cashico’ that City can be beaten. I won’t be all that nervous on Sunday morning. We’re the underdogs, after all. If we lose, it’s more or less to be expected. It’s not like we ever get beaten that badly in Manchester anyway, ahem. If we win, it will be something of a coup and we would start to be seen as a team that can actually do something this year. The media (back to them) might start treating us as a team that has taken 22 of the last 24 points available to us. Did you know we had quite a poor start to the season? My paranoia pills seem to be wearing off. The reality is that the media have already woken up to the fact that this Arsenal team that they wrote off is actually beginning to look decent. Luckily, our star player is involved in some contract wrangling, so the hacks have got their Christmas present.
After the Manchester City match, and I hate to write it, our next few matches look winnable. Villa away, QPR and Wolves at home, Fulham away. I won’t put a number on it but if we take a certain amount of points from those games, and you know roughly what number that is, we will be in good shape going into the new year. Look at the table. We are only 2 points behind Chelsea, who are in third. I don’t think that a push for third is out of the question. Neither Spurs nor Chelsea fully convince me (as football teams, not as individuals, the nature of whom I am fully convinced.) Spurs are Spurs, and Chelsea have reverted to the tactic of giving it to Drogba and allowing him to plough his way through defences. When he goes to the ACN in January (has he retired from international football or was that a bizarrely-specific dream?) they will perhaps have to return to the method that saw John Terry exposed for the lumbering playground defender that he is. Maybe I’m clutching at straws, but I feel that their position is far from secure. As for Spurs, they look good now (Stoke hilarity aside) but soon their manager will be doing time and their current goal-threat, GreedyBarnDoor, will soon do his usual, and simply stop being good for a while. What then? Having Donkey Kong racing up the left wing is no good if his crosses are being met by Roman Pavlyuchenko.
So, all in all, Sunday aside, I’m pretty confident. Of course, there’s every opportunity for things to go wrong, but that’s football.
I’ll be back tomorrow with a bit of analysis of other recent results. For example, Stoke-Tottenham, a game that had me wishing there was a way both teams could lose a football match.
Until then,
Joe
Follow me on Twitter @joeblogsarsenal
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