I Can Handle Defeat – It’s The Patronising Dismissals That are Hard to Take
I asked yesterday how many people really thought we had a chance against Chelsea and was pretty sure that it was the most optimistic of Gooners or the pure fantasists. It’s really hard as a fan
to ever admit your team isn’t good enough and, in our case, it’s not quite good enough as we are third in the league and in the last 16 of the Champions League (just as we pretty much have been
ad nauseam). There are millions of fans around the world who would love to be in our “terrible” position but the real problem I have is twofold.
Firstly, as many bloggers have been saying, it’s the sheer predictability of the result yesterday and against United. We know we will pass the ball reasonably well, make a couple of chances we
won’t take and then concede a soft goal through our defensive failings. Then we will attack even more, pass even more and maybe make a chance or two before being caught on the break. Now
against 95% of the teams we play we can normally manage since we create enough opportunities and the teams may not have enough to take advantage of our defensive frailties. At the very
top end, though, it’s a different story as we have repeatedly seen. Let’s face it there hasn’t been a blog over the last 18 months that hasn’t been discussing our defensive problems
(goalkeepers, centre half and, now, even our full backs look wobbly), the need for a stronger midfield (physically) and a back up centre forward. We’ve all been at it..BUT
What I really can’t take is when one arrogant German player from one of our
supposed rivals (we really can’t be taken as such these days) says pretty much the same thing in a dismissive or patronising manner. We know you’re right but we don’t want or require to hear
such statements from you! Maybe this will stir the players but I doubt it and actually that’s not what’s needed at the moment.
The team and management need to take a long, hard, serious look at themselves and focus on why we keep making the same mistakes – week in, week out. Liverpool has become a must win game not so
much for the title but for the club to feel positive till the end of the season.A lot has been said/written about our “easy” run in but with our current form and confidence games such as
Birmingham (A), Spurs (A), Hull (A) etc are no gimmes and we need to be mentally and physically up for such matches. Let’s not even forget that we have Porto a week after the Liverpool game
too.
As for other matters such as transfers, we can’t buy anyone now so we leave the recriminations about who we should or should not have bought in January until the end of the season. Then the
board and Arsene need to be honest with themselves and us about the failures and successes of the current strategy (it’s not all bad you know).