Mick Appleton
No wants to see their heroes fall, but if they do fall we want it to be swift, not slow and painful. But that's what I'm enduring at the moment. I have loved and revered Arsene Wenger virtually since the first day he arrived at our club. He lifted the gloom of the post George Graham years and complete erased Bruce Rioch from our memories. He brought silverware and a brand of football unseen in this country that made us most people’s favourite team to watch and other teams’ most feared opponent.
We struck with lightning precision and many games were finished before they'd really got going. We had steel to match our silk, it was a thing of beauty and I loved it. Arsene would have been my hero just for wiping the smug grin off of Ferguson's face but he gave us so much more, which is what makes what is happening so harrowing.
All of the layers of vanish he so painstaking applied to our club are being stripped back one by one and it's almost to hard to bear. Gone is our invincibility, our free flowing incisive football, trophies and once again the Cheshire Cat has returned to Old Trafford. We have become laboured and predictable, so much so that even Leeds and Ipswich have worked out that if you let us have the ball we'll produce little and will offer you chances at the other end.
The early goals we were renowned for are a distant memory and we often have to wait until the final minutes of games before we score a winner. Either that or we have a one goal lead where you feel an equaliser could come at any moment. This keeps every game on a knife edge and is torture to watch. Under AW we had never lost a domestic cup game to a club from outside the top flight until we lost with a much weakened team at Burnley in 2008 but Wednesday night really felt like the first time as we lost with something resembling our first team. This could also be followed by the same fate in the FA Cup at Elland Road next week if a dramatic upturn is not achieved.
We cannot continue to start games with 10 men but with Arshavin's total lack of interest at the moment that's how it feels. We can also not afford to play a central striker who spends the whole game out on the wing or coming back into our own half to collect the ball. Thierry Henry could pull it off but Bendtner is not Thierry Henry. Walcott could be the best crosser in the world (he's definitely not) but what use would that be with no one to cross to. Chamakh was playing right up against the last defender earlier in the season but even he has abandoned that ship recently.
We must wake up to the fact that possession alone does not win football matches, passing for the sake of passing just isn't productive. We need to up the pace and when we can't go through the middle we must use plan B and go around the sides. This was illustrated perfectly on Saturday, once Theo came on we began to get behind Leeds, and chances and our penalty came this way. An occasional shot from outside the box would also be welcome. We had 63% possession at Portman Road but Ipswich had three times as many goal attempts, I think that tells it's own story.
I told anyone who would listen that drawing Ipswich with either West Ham or Birmingham to follow could be a poisoned chalice for Arsene as he would be in a no win situation. The least our fans will expect is to win the trophy and if we come up short it could be the last straw for them and the club where Arsene is concerned. If he values his job I'm sure he will have to play the first team in the return leg as if he doesn't it could spell the end for him as any excuse will fall on deaf ears.
As much as it saddens me my hero is very slowly becoming a zero and he's taking my beloved club with him and it's breaking my heart. One of my favourite comedians once said "someone should have gone up to Elvis Presley in 1958 and shot him in the head so that we would remember him at his peak, singing Heartbreak Hotel in his gold lame suit rather than dying on the toilet, a bloated, wash up shadow of his former self". Maybe the same fate should have befallen Arsene in 2005 while he was still an invincible lion, love and admired by all instead of fading away as the stubborn, deluded ass he has become.
