On this website, I have found that there are pessimists and optimists, particularly looking at the way things are going at the moment. I am afraid when it comes to Arsenal I am a pessimist. I wish I wasn’t, but I am. Supporting Arsenal often hurts.

So what has made me a pessimistic Arsenal supporter? Probably the fact that during the forty years I have supported them we have lost out in finals, semi-finals and championship run-ins 19 times. (It may be more than this, but these were ones I remembered just off the top of my head.)

This has been down to various reasons: playing poorly, bad defensive errors, bad luck, bad refereeing decisions, or just generally f***ing it up. 19 times are a lot of moments to feel absolutely devastated. It takes a lot of time and effort to pull yourself together afterwards. But “Hey. It’s only a game!” your non-football supporting friends say. “There’s always next year.” Not a great help in your time of need. So I suppose I’m a pessimist because I’m more used to us messing it up at the vital moment than winning stuff. You can’t celebrate too early with Arsenal. You have to wait until it’s mathematically impossible/the final whistle goes/the fat lady sings etc until you really know you’ve won.

Mind you, the bad times make all the good times even sweeter. 17 trophies in all. Fantastic moments. Particularly if we’ve won the league. Something Spurs supporters can only dream about.

So how does a pessimist’s view of the coming season compare to an optimist’s?

OPTIMIST- We have the best stadium in the football league and we make £3 million a match.
PESSIMIST - We have the best stadium in the football league and we make £3 million a match, but the atmosphere could be much better and people leave 10-15 minutes early. (I really really, really miss the old North Bank pre-1992) plus we can’t spend the £3 million because we owe so much interest.

OPTIMIST - We play the most attractive football in the league and it is a joy to watch.
PESSIMIST - We play the most attractive football in the league and it is a joy to watch, but often there is no end product and so we drop points, which ultimately cost us the league title.

OPTIMIST- Arsene Wenger is one of the best managers in the world and he has an uncanny knack of finding hidden talent.
PESSIMIST - Arsene Wenger is one of the best managers in the world and he has an uncanny knack of finding hidden talent, but there is a need at times to buy quality players to improve the team. We don’t seem to have any money/won’t spend any money and we need the minimum of a goalkeeper, a central defender and a replacement for Flamini (who was arguably the second player to put on the team list last season after Cesc). We also still have that clown who thinks he’s as good as Henry and should be shipped out ASAP and replaced with a quality striker.

OPTIMIST - Arsene knows.
PESSIMIST - Eboue.

So, to all you optimists out there, please spare a thought for us pessimists… and please, please, please… don’t tell us if we don’t like it, then go and watch Chelsea!