John Evans
No surprises on Sunday for me. We have been ruthlessly exposed time and time again over the past six seasons as having nothing to offer when the going gets tough and so it proved again yesterday. I am no longer surprised by anything that goes on at our club. The 4-4 at Newcastle, the 2-0 up 3-2 down defeat against Spurs, the almighty Manual cock-ups home and away to WBA, the dire ending in the Carling Cup Final, the woeful home performances against Sunderland, Blackburn and now Liverpool. So many times in just one season have we fell well short of the required level and yet still people seem surprised when such things happen as they did again on Sunday afternoon.
What did we learn that we already didn’t know? The answer is nothing. We already knew Eboue was a liability. We already knew under any kind of pressure we are prone to collapse and we already knew if something could go wrong it would. The sad fact of the matter is the only way you can be an Arsenal fan these days is to hope for a result rather than expect one. If you go into any match expecting a win rather than hoping for one the chances are you will be left feeling disappointed to say the least after the 90 minutes are up. We do not deliver on anything like a regular basis, to be honest when do we ever? When was the last time we dominated a league game and won with something to spare? The answer is Wolves at home all the way back when results meant less and we weren’t under the same kind of pressure as we have been in the run-in over the past month or so.
Put simply this current Arsenal squad is the biggest collection of losers and bottlers I have ever seen. There is not one player that I would have any real faith in when the going gets tougher than good. The only real surprise for me against Liverpool was the fact the RVP managed to convert the penalty to put us 1-0 up. That is my true interpretation of our current plight. I have no faith at all in the side that I support. I thought Cesc was his usual poor self in a big game yesterday, he was virtually non-existent in my opinion. Samir has not played well at all for the past two months, I cannot remember the last time he scored and he even managed to miss two sitters in ten seconds in the game up at Blackpool. Let’s face facts if you can’t score against that lot who are you going to score against? Wigan disposed of Blackpool with far more efficiency than what we managed and in every other game in recent memory we have been dire to say the least.
I knew we wouldn’t be winning the title as I walked out of the ground after the Sunderland game. Champions do not play like we did that day when results really matter. We have since then performed horribly at WBA and in the home matches against Blackburn and yesterday against Liverpool. Make no mistake about it Liverpool were there for the taking yesterday. They had many key players missing through injury and had a minimum of five youth team players on show who most people would not have heard of before the game had started. How many saves did Reina have to make? I can only remember one of any real note. That is not good enough at the top level. It is a rather sad state of affairs when true fans are happy year after year when the season ends. I personally have found the last couple of months of every season too frustrating for words over recent years. Who can truly say that they enjoy watching the games that Arsenal serve up come this time of the season? I can just about remember the last time I enjoyed a game, Barcelona at home and in the league it would have been Wolves at home. Both of those matches were a long time ago now and were before the real pressure started to build up.
I personally do not blame Eboue for the two dropped points yesterday. I blame the boss, as he is the one that has continued to pick him for years even though he is clearly not good enough. That in any other line of work would be deemed as negligence and deemed to be a sackable offence, but not at our club. I simply do not understand the mentality of anyone who chooses to renew their season ticket year after year to see the same old thing happening all over again in another twelve months. Going to matches is a choice and it should be a choice made from personal preference not from some kind of brainwashed state where you are almost part of some weird cult. I personally choose to go or not on a seasonal basis and if that means that I don’t get a season ticket for a while then so be it.
Anyone signing up for next season and expecting to still see our current captain plying in his trade at the club should not be holding on to any hope to that dream as he will be sold this summer. Of that you can officially be 100% certain. His property has been put up for sale and he is not buying a new one in this country so read into that what you will. I used to work in the very office where his property is being marketed and I have it on very good authority that he will be leaving the country for good come the summer. This news is of no real surprise value I guess but will we be re-investing the £40m we will probably get for his services? I very much doubt it. We will buy a young winger and try and move Samir into the middle to replace Cesc on the cheap. Is that worth another £1200 for next season? Not in my opinion it isn’t.
To all the oddballs who reply to this article ‘good riddance’ etc I can confirm that I will still be supporting the club I love. I just won’t be in attendance as often as I have no faith in the current regime to bring the kind of team spirit I crave. No ambition and f**k all balls is not my idea of an amazing football team.
Let us hope the rumours of Pat Rice retiring are true and that we get some new faces on the coaching staff that give AW much more of a run for his money where decisions are concerned. Who knows if that does happen we could still yet make the necessary changes to become successful again. I certainly will not be holding my breath but we can but hope.
