Blinded by the lights

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
29 Oct	8:00 PM	P	Tottenham Hotspur (H)	4	4	Draw

Epiphany. Watershed. Damascene conversion.

Call it what you want, the scales have fallen from my eyes. Arsène Wenger may be the greatest spin doctor alive, in which case it's natural I wouldn't have seen through it in the years since 2005 as I can't see through spin.

A 60,000 thousand seat stadium more or less sold out on a match-by-match basis predicated on the empty promises of a manager who refuses to accept the need to change what he is doing. And to be clear here, I am not one of those rejecting out of hand Wenger's philosophy and belief in youth, but for God's sake, we've seen before some of the best attacking football we've ever seen grounded by a mean defence. We've seen youngsters like Patrick Vieira learn about leadership from Tony Adams, Thierry Henry learning how to be a striker from Dennis Bergkamp, what is wrong with backing these kids up a little? There is no way Wednesday night would have happened with any of those 4 on the pitch. I might even take 42-year-old Tony Adams over what we have now!

Perhaps, that's going a bit far, but I see now there is a leadership chasm on the pitch, there are players on the pitch earning massive money and so thinking they are better than they are. The Baby Bentley effect, I believe it's called. Anyway, I have no idea where this season will take us, there will be highs and there will be lows. But is any of it going to be worth getting excited about? The Carling Cup maybe, if Wigan don't spoil the party first. I wonder what Nicklas Bendtner and Carlos Vela made of Wednesday night, I'm sure they would have loved twenty minutes against a reeling Tottenham, instead we get Eboue, Song and chaos. The new issue of the Gooner was out on Wednesday, the cover bearing the words "Jekyll and Hyde Arsenal", what an apt summation of Wednesday night. As was one of the highlighted paragraphs in an article by Mark Halfpenny: "The tendency to self-destruct and the continual failure to produce an end product is becoming a standing joke in football".

Haha indeed for the Tottenham fans. But I guess such temperament issues are natural when so much of the team is founded in youth. We were all young once, and I know that I, for one, was a right moody so and so!

Apparently, William Gallas and Emmanuel Eboue won't be available this weekend. If Gallas is being "rested", then I think that's harsh treatment of a man who didn't do much wrong on Wednesday and was brilliant last Sunday. But if it's a precursor to a captaincy decision, perhaps it's for the best. Not that I think it will be. And the way I feel now, I'm not sure it matters much.

Pulling my head out of my arse for a minute, I guess there were some positives to take from Wednesday night. The atmosphere in the ground was truly something to behold pretty much from the moment I took my seat. The joy that exploded in the stadium when Silvestre equalised; the fact that thousands of people to whom spending £7 on bullshit food is more important than supporting the team missed Gallas' goal and the fact that most of the very same fans deriding us for our lack of support in February had left the ground by the time Spurs got their Lazarus impersonation going.

No surprise to see this become available, I think I predicted it yesterday! I don't think I've ever bought a DVD celebrating an Arsenal draw, but then that's because the club would never release one.

User Comments

True Gooner

Posted on 1 Nov, 2008 at 05:24 PM - Reply

Damn it!!! I just saw us loose... again! Man, im really pissed off right now! Why did Le Boss start with V.Persie and Walcott on the bench? What the hell was he thinking? He took them off the field againrt Rottenham and we were punished, the same players were not on the starting line up and we were punished again but this time we lost! What is happening to my dear Arsenal, ill be having a sleepless night tonight!!

arsenal sad fan

Posted on 1 Nov, 2008 at 04:58 PM - Reply

for the first time in my life, i closed the t.v on an arsenal game. just couldnt take it anymore...the players didnt want to play today and it start to look like there is a black cat beetween them and the manager. hope we can get out of it before we totaly crash.

sam

Posted on 1 Nov, 2008 at 04:41 PM - Reply

its time we get a new manager im sorry but if u look at the team how many players were known befor they came to arsenal in my eyes 1 gallas.Its just not good anothe if you want to win get star players.

snowsplash

Posted on 1 Nov, 2008 at 12:38 PM - Reply

spot on! I cannot see anything improving until a natural leader arrives at the club - Galas is not!His face after the 8th goal spoke volumes - he was gutted but having no influence over the team meant he could do nothing about it!

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