History Lessens
Perspective
A hundred years ago this season, we finished 18th in the first division. Villa were champions that year. Now plainly, I don’t remember that season. But it’s worth remembering that we weren’t
always the dominant force we’ve come to take for granted. Dominant? Yes. Let’s look at our finishing position in the top flight over the last 13 years:
From last years result to the result in 96/97 = 4-3-4-4-2-1-2-1-2-2-2-1-3 (total 31)
Contrasting with Chelsea’s results in the same time = 3-2-2-1-1-2-4-6-6-5-3-4-6 (total 45)
and Man Utd’s results =1-1-1-2-2-3-1-3-1-1-1-2-1 (total 20)
No other team comes close to those scores over the last 13 years, and to be fair Chelsea’s only picked up in the last 7 years.
Context
I know current results are not heavily influenced by historic results, but it gives a perspective that many football fans seem to lack, especially when there has been a big loss, or a there’s a
big game coming up.
Much as I hate Man Utd and Sralex, his teams are usually geniune footballing sides (unlike, say, Bolton, Stoke or Hull), and you only have to look at the record to see they’re way ahead of
anyone else in terms of success. Wenger is building the kind of foundation at Arsenal that will see us achieve that kind of dominance in the future. Or at least he believes he is.
The margin of winning and losing can be so narrow, it’s hard to separate!
Wenger sees the youth as the future. He hasn’t quite got the balance of experience and youth right yet perhaps, but it’s going in the right direction. If (and I realise it’s a very big if) the
current youth stick together and come through the next few years together, I think we have the makings of a team who can be literally history-making.
It’s all Relative
The game we just lost was a display in our inexperience and naivety, and included a fair dollop of mistakes. Man Utd did not “teach us a footballing lesson” as they’d have it in some parts of
the biased English media. The only lessons we could (and should) take from that display are:
- Make your chances count
- Don’t make mistakes
In American Football (sorry to go off into analogy land), possession of the ball is key. Much more so than in soccer. To the point that a mistake when somebody loses the ball to the opposite
team, it’s called a turnover, and it literally turns control of the game over to your opponent. If you turn over the ball, there’s always a good chance you’re going to concede a score.
Arsenal would do well to remember that when passing the ball aimlessly (Denilson), or kicking straight to the opposition (Almunia).
Landscape
The game on Sunday (and I must confess I’m getting nervous already), is a big one. More massive than the Man Utd one now, because if we lose this one, then our title shout is over. Probably.
Of course anything could happen, we could lose and still go on to win the title, but let’s be fair, that’s looking unlikely.
The most important thing, win, lose or draw, is that we learn the lessons of our game against Man Utd. That we don’t go missing from defense. That we take our chances. At the moment Chelsea are
looking very very strong, but they go into the game with a captain who might just be vulnerable or lack concentration.
We go into the game with one recognised striker, in Bendtner – and he’s far from his top form at the moment. But at least we have a striker (assuming he starts).
Frame of Reference
In the last few days I’ve been putting together a frame of reference, a context if you like, around this series of games we have at the moment. A series of very tough games against strong
opponents. I’ve been showing you that this series of games will not necessarily influence our season, and certainly are the most minor of blips in the history of Arsenal.
Nobody likes to lose. Nobody. And Arsenal fans are no exception. But if you can put your loss into the proper perspective and learn lessons from it, then you (the Arsenal team in this case)
will truly be men, not boys.
Proportion
Let’s look ahead with anticipation instead of trepidation. Let’s hope for a win. Let’s hope most of all for a performance that shows men who have learned their lessons well and are growing into
a team we’ll love for many years to come – men who are proud to pull on the Arsenal shirt and represent the Arsenal club and fans.
And I’ll leave you with a happy picture, one we all hope to see repeated again and again.
