I got to thinking during Sunday’s match... when Chelsea scored, the commentator said something like "once again, Arsenal play the football and Chelsea score the goals." I turned off the commentary in the second half. W***er.

But then I got to thinking about this...

Why do I support this club? Because I want them to win things? Because I want them to play beautiful football? Because it's in my family?

No, no and no... though I wish I could claim heredity on this... it'd make it simpler to explain. I love them... because I do. Should the unthinkable happen and we got relegated... would I still support them? Absolutely. If we had a "shortest season" as Spuds did a couple of years ago... would I still be a Gooner? 1000 times yes.

I came into this in the late 70s, sort of... when our public television station briefly showed some English First Division matches... and I liked the team with red shirts and white sleeves. It was that simple. Cheers to Herbert Chapman for deciding on that particular look... I was hooked. They played pretty well too... I was watching the Brady-Stapleton era team... and they didn't win a whole lot either... the 1979 FA Cup was it. So when I started listening on shortwave radio in the early 80s... it was all-Liverpool all the time... and a lot of "nil" associated with Arsenal.

Yet I supported them then and have never stopped. At that time, we were about to lose our national soccer league, and one of the things I've enjoyed in the years since adopting this team is that it won't go out of business. It's a small thing, I guess, and not something fans of the big clubs in Europe have to worry about much (Leeds managed to stay in business after all... so did Luton). But I can't support the team I first saw live... in 1977... they don't exist any more. We have a new team now... and I support them and go to games... but it'll never be quite the same. In 1981, Chicago's soccer team won the NASL title. I took the bus home from college three times to watch playoff matches... spent far too much money to see them play. And it tore my heart out three years later when they disappeared.

Do I want to see us win things? Was I chuffed beyond belief when the GG teams won some pot or another year after year for a decade? Or was I over the moon when we won the double twice... and had an unbeaten season... and made the Champions League Final? Absolutely.

But I never signed on because of the winning part of things. I wanted a club. It happened I found one that got very good. I could have chosen West Ham... and where would that have left me? Spuds were the better team at that time in London... what if I'd chosen them? (For one, I wouldn't be typing this particular piece!!)

So there's a bit of chance... and there are many instances like that, I am sure. Certainly there are cities like Portsmouth, which are one-team towns for the most part. But in London... I have met many people who support a different team than their parents... or who switched on adulthood. And then there are people who grew up with the team and will pass it to their kids.

Does the style matter? Why was I so p***ed when the commentator mentioned how we'd played football and Chelsea had scored goals? Maybe because he was wrong. Playing football involves scoring goals. Arsenal are Hungary in 1954, Holland in 1974 and Brazil in 1982 and 1986. We are the artistes. We win hearts... if not games. Every now and again, it all comes together perfectly and we do both. But not all the time. Chelsea ground this one out... like we might have done under Graham. We may never do that under Wenger. And the risk is that... if we were to live life without Arsene... that we'd do neither... we could play to grind out results and still fail to do so. Then we'd be Blackburn... and who'd want that?... though I'd still support the team through it all.

I've tried to articulate this before. I wanted us to win today. I didn't think we'd do it, and we didn't. Yet I will be supporting the team midweek against City and next weekend against Stoke. And so on...