GoonerGirl (BB)
If there is one consensus that we Gooners can agree on, it’s that we like lording it over Spurs. It works, it’s right, and after all our problems at the start of this season and the restructuring that needs to take place when the summer comes, it is high time we got back to the natural order of things, and thanks to another exhilarating, heart-stopping win, we are just one point behind our neighbours. Not bad considering they were going to win everything and we were going to finish mid-table a couple of months ago (ok, I exaggerate a little).
Finally this season our team are in perfect harmony with the fans; they want something out of this campaign as much as we do (yes I know, it’s taken a while), and since all conventional avenues of glory are now closed to us you’ve got to find the silver linings and consolation prizes where you can, and on Monday night we continued on the trail of hunting down our local nemesis who have got way too far above themselves.
How delicious was that last minute winner that made all of Newcastle’s time wasting tactics completely irrelevant, gave us our fifth straight league win, and left us breathing down the necks of Tottenham? Yes we want fourth, but we’d really, really, really like third because it would remove the lottery of Champions League qualification in August, and even sweeter than that, it would put us very neatly above our neighbours, and I’ve really missed looking down on them this season.
Since for so many years there has been a perfect order in relation to our respective league positions (even if some dodgy lasagne once gave us a helping hand), this season’s shake up has been, at times, very un-nerving. Of course our neighbours were deluding themselves if they ever really thought they could win the league (and I’m not sure even in their la la land they really did believe they would break the Mancunian stranglehold), but up until ‘Arry won his court case and ol’ Fabio decided that being a mock Englishman wasn’t doing his image any good, our nearest and dastardliest were remaining stubbornly consistent.
I never expected the FA, of all organisations, to do us any kind of favour, but thanks to them offending Capello and him getting all Latin and moody about it, and the press hailing ‘Arry as his natural replacement (aided and abetted by plenty of players and pundits who were equally keen), suddenly the realisation has dawned on Spurs that their hero manager is most likely going to jump ship for the most poisoned chalice in English football (yes, an even rarer form of arsenic than the one that sits on the Chelsea manager’s desk), and it has triggered something of a panic. Oh bless.
But as much as ‘Arry’s departure looks inevitable, so the Arsenal juggernaut is hopefully becoming unstoppable. Suddenly our players want this, they really want this, in a way that a few months ago most Gooners wanted quite a few of those players removed from our team sheet forthwith. Finally we have a bit of momentum, some much needed belief, and even if this style of winning in stoppage time is extremely bad for the coronary health of most of us, it makes victory so much more galvanising for the team. On Monday night our dressing room would have felt like we had just won the league, and even though there is no silverware left to play for the team has found a renewed positivity to haul ourselves as high up the league as possible.
And it is a massive haul, because we haven’t constructed a season covered with glory, filled with promise and with even the faintest hope of ending the trophy drought. Nor have we miraculously solved every problem in March that we had in August. During the course of this season I’ve had my fair share of grumbles about the transfer policy, management, team selections, the defence (or lack of it), and so on, the list is pretty extensive. In fact at times it has been far easier to find what is wrong with our team than what is right with it, but thankfully the players have fashioned a better response than many fans (myself included) had to our “crisis”; they’ve actually come out fighting, not just for themselves and their reputations but also for their manager, and they are proving surprisingly good at it.
It is no co-incidence that this has happened as some of our injury ravaged squad are finding their feet again; for a start off we have actually have full-backs in our team again, Sagna most notably, adding some much needed balance and stability. As much as the injuries depleted us to such an extent we were on the verge of needing season ticket holders to bring their boots with them, now we are starting to get some of these players back, and their energy levels and desire to make something out of what is left of the season is giving us an advantage over the tired legs and minds of our opponents.
Hell, even Rosicky has earned himself a new contract; something that I thought would be right up there with Marilyn Monroe doing a comeback tour with Michael Jackson. Fair play to Rosicky, he’s done what I thought was utterly impossible – playing himself into a position where we need him, as opposed to one where we are just counting down the days until we no longer have to service his substantial wages. A fit Rosicky, playing with this confidence and vision will give opponents as much to think about as all the medics who’ve been baffled by his fragile body for the last few years.
With even Rosicky resurgent, we can but hope that the end of our season will be a similarly impressive minor miracle, particularly in the negotiations over RVP’s new contract. The victory parade may remain on ice, but at least after the abysmal start we have some crazy wins to smile about, some amazing goals to put on repeat and the prospect of toppling Tottenham, and if they gave out a trophy for that I’m sure we’d all like to get our hands on it.
