There is a game that some people who call themselves Arsenal fans, like to play.
In this game there are no rules other than the ones that you make up as you go along. And in doing so, these so-called supporters are ably aided and abetted by certain ladies and gentlemen of the press.
Here’s how it goes…
When Arsenal won the league in 2004 – the Unbeaten Season – there were a number of journalists around who pedantically pointed out that this wasn’t really an Unbeaten Season because Arsenal had lost games in the FA Cup, League Cup and Champions League.
The call thus went out – this couldn’t be see as a truly great Arsenal team, unless Arsenal now went on to win the Champions League – preferably with another Championship as a side dish.
Then when this didn’t happen, and indeed Arsenal stopped winning trophies just about every season, they made it clear that finishing in a Champions League position year after year after year was not success, not by any measure, even if only Real Madrid had done it for this long. Only trophies counted.
Trophies, trophies, trophies. That’s all that mattered. Except that when Arsenal finally did win a trophy, they countered that the FA Cup didn’t actually count as a trophy at all.
When Arsenal won the FA Cup two seasons running and in so doing became the most successful FA Cup side of all time, they still maintained that only the League was good enough.
When it is pointed out that Arsene Wenger’s record in the League is not only better than any other Arsenal manager in terms of trophies, it is also better in terms of win percentage (57% and still rising) the answer was “you can prove anything with statistics.”
And thus the story evolves and changes month by month. The latest I’ve heard is that the whole story about Arsenal not winning anything for a while after moving to the Emirates Stadium is a complete myth – there was plenty of money, it is just that Wenger refused to spend it.
So we can be sure that when matches against Barcelona come around, as they seem to with a certain regularity, they will be defined as matches that Arsenal must win in order to prove they are making progress. If they don’t then Mr Wenger should go, and someone new should come in.
And should Arsenal win then you can be sure that won’t count unless they win the return leg too. And if Arsenal do that, that won’t count unless… well, you see where I am going.
The fact that Barcelona play in a league that is at best a three horse race, and is mostly a two horse race, is ignored. The fact that their income is about 100m Euros a year more than Arsenal’s, that they have a much laxer tax regime, that (as recent events have shown) they allow their star players to engage in personal tax arrangements that even the liberal Spanish tax system finds offensive, that they play in a league where the 5th placed team is often closer to relegation than to winning the league, and where even Fifa, that most liberal and freewheeling of organisations, finds their dealing with children to be beyond the pale…. this is all ignored. Arsenal should beat Barcelona. And if not, then there’s only one solution. Wenger out.
Indeed such is the state of mind of journalists and anti-Wenger fans that a poor performance by any player in the match will mean that he should at once be dropped. Remember Giroud after the home game with Monaco? Useless, awful, terrible. Should never play again. But what about his performance in the last qualifying match? Well, we ought not to have been in that position anyway.
In short, nothing other than a resounding Arsenal victory will be seen as enough, and indeed even at 3-0 there will be comments published to the effect that “Arsenal will never be this lucky again,” and that there will be a backlash in the return match.
At the same time as all this there is a story that does the rounds that the problem with Wenger is he is so predictable. He always plays his team the same way.
This of course is nonsense. A quick look at the film of Man U 1 Arsenal 2 on 9 March last year will show just how wide of the mark this story is. Go back further and watch the way Arsenal beat Real Madrid in 2006, and you’ll see it. Arsenal often adjust how they play.
The back five is of course easy to select, and even if Gabriel were fit I am not sure he would play. But I suspect that Bellerin and Monreal will be told to hold back more.
In defensive midfield again it is obvious: Ramsey and Coquelin, with young Francis having been told to calm down, after his boisterousness against Leicester which could have easily got him sent off.
In front of those two of course we have the man who was nicking a living, the man on whom the “jury is still out” (oh Mr Moyes, please do your homework before becoming a pundit), Mesut Ozil. In front of him Giroud, with Danny Welbeck on the bench in case Giroud is left for dead by an obliging ref.
On Ozil’s left must be Alexis Sanchez who will be as keen as ever to show his ex-employers what they are missing. But on the right – who?
If I am right and Bellerin is being told to hold back against Barcelona, then I’d go with Theo Walcott. If however Bellerin is not being restrained I’d opt for the Ox, with Theo maybe coming on later.
Will that work to hold Barcelona at bay? I am not sure, but actually I am not worried. I think we are still another season or two away from Arsenal winning the Champions League, so I’d sooner we focus on the League.
Indeed I would settle for another FA Cup – just because no one has done three in a row since Arsenal were formed in December 1886.
Of course I’d also like the Cup and League double again – but Champions League? No, we’re not quite there yet. I’ll be in my seat of course, but I won’t be weeping tears if we lose.