Layth Yousif
Myths which are believed in tend to become true - George Orwell
What is it about the 8th May? Not only did we beat Liverpool 2-1 in 1971 to win the FA Cup but Sylvan Wiltord scored at Old Trafford in 2002 to win the league for us as well.
I suspect this year’s vintage will be far more remembered in Manchester (and Torquay and Carlisle) than it will in N5. This is not the place to talk about the retirement of a manager who has been arguably our biggest foe over the last 26 years. (At least until we stopped winning things).
No, what 8th May 2013 may be remembered for by Arsenal fans the world over (if it is remembered at all) is the fact that we now know the race to finish in the coveted top four is in our hands again.
As a lifelong Gooner I could never bring myself to cheer for that lot from N17, and being pleased when Chelsea score is not very pleasant. At least the pair’s fabled “game in hand” is no more.
So put away those calculators and newspaper fixture lists, stop freezing the shot of the league table on Sky Sports News, desist from listening to crap pundits and their biased speculation and rejoice: If we beat Wigan Athletic at Ashburton Grove and Newcastle United at St James’s Park (I’m not a big fan of stadium branding as you may be able to tell) then we will finish in the top four.
It sounds so simple and painless.
If only it were.
The last time I uttered “it’s only Wigan” was on 24 January 2006. Never again. We all know what happened that night. I learnt a very bitter lesson that evening - you just never know with bloody Wigan.
That night saw us denied a day out at Cardiff by the Latics’ sheer doggedness and compounded by some fans ole’ing late on when the opposition only needed a goal to get to the League Cup Final. If it wasn’t Schadenfreude it was Scharner. Or was it Roberts? It was certainly Wigan putting a spanner in the works. A common theme began to emerge that night.
Fast forward four months to Wigan at home in May 2006. This time we couldn’t just shrug off a defeat. It was the last ever game at Highbury and we needed 3 points to have even a chance of CL qualification.
The Spuds under Jol were on their way to world domination (again) and were in the driving seat to qualify. We had drawn a fraught derby a couple of weeks earlier thanks to a late Henry goal and in between had qualified for the Champions League Final. (How strange and unfamiliar those last six words sound now when I write them down). Defeat was not an option nor was a draw.
Who remembers Paul Scharner equalising and David Thompson netting to give them the lead at a horrified Highbury? Thank God we came back through an inspired Henry who claimed a hat-trick on that never to be forgotten afternoon.
I remember in December 2006 going up to Wigan just before Xmas and seeing them battle at a half deserted and freezing JJB before one of our subsequent traitors whose name I can’t even bear to write scored a goal for us in the 88th minute.
Incidentally the pies were great, even if when I asked the woman serving them in that curious bar/wedding reception area before you enter the ground for some gravy on them she replied disgusted: “we don’t do grey-veeee round ‘ere - we do mushy peaaaass”, as if that were somehow far more sophisticated. Maybe it was, maybe it was just me. Maybe mushy peas are Wigan’s secret weapon.
Even when we win against Wigan at home they make it difficult. In November 2008 I heard what were probably the loudest boos directed at an Arsenal player since under the days of Terry Neill.
Poor Eboue. It wasn’t his fault he was such a cult.
Even if the abuse also made a lot of people back off from doing it again, certainly at such vociferous levels.
Who can forget April 2010, and our shocking collapse in the North West? 2-0 up with ten minutes to go we somehow contrived to lose 3-2 through Watson, Bramble and N’Zogbia. Those last ten minutes epitomised everything that has gone wrong since 2004. Characterless, leaderless and spineless. I don’t mind losing to Wigan, but not like we did that day. It was unacceptable and I for one will never speak of it again.
Wigan even managed to ruin my daughter’s sixth birthday on 29 December 2010. Or I should say my day on my daughter’s sixth birthday. Two one up through Arshavin and Bendnter – whatever happened to them – they equalised after N’Zogbia got sent off, through a ridiculous Squillaci own goal. (By the way are we still actually paying these three? Someone please tell me we aren’t?)
