Who are you and what have you done with Arsenal?

Lovely day today for Arsenal's Irish

It's still too early to talk about corners being turned or anything like that, but two very solid defensive performances accompanied by goals at the other end has made this in to a good week for Arsenal and their supporters. There have been too many false dawns these past few years to get confident that change has finally arrived, but for the moment I am more than willing to enjoy a pair of 2-0 away wins in four days. Who are these masked men?
If we're honest Arsenal weren't expected to win in Germany or in Wales. To have emerged victorious from both, and in the fashion we did so, gives genuine hope of a strong finish to the season. It's just a shame that we now have to sit on our hands for two weeks while international football (what a standard that is, with England playing San Marino) takes our players away. We have to hope our momentum is not disrupted by this interminable waste of time and energy.
Aside from a couple of early chances for Swansea we were never in trouble yesterday. The first of those was created by good play by the hosts, the second by a mistake from the otherwise excellent Carl Jenkinson. We maybe deserved to get away with that aberration after a strong start had seen Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have a brilliant effort cannon back off the crossbar. The Ox had his best game of the season by far yesterday and was unlucky again later on in the half as he struck the bar again. He was quieter in the second-half and it was no surprise to see him substituted but, if his performances in Munich and Swansea are anything to go by, he is set for a good end to his campaign - his impact could be crucial to our chances of being in the European Cup next season.
I am clearly in a minority but I thought Abou Diaby also played pretty well. I genuinely believe that, as the latest boo-boy for the crowd, he is unable to do anything right for a lot of people. I thought he put himself about in midfield, made a few tackles, passed the ball well, and carried it through midfield on a few occasions to get us on the front foot. One run in the second-half took him half the length of the pitch only for his touch to let him down having passed up the opportunity to shoot. Diaby's ability to beat a player is huge in a team that is still obsessed with the square ball and I just don't get why he is abused by so many. Maybe a few people should try actually watching what's happening in the game rather than just going with the mob. For anyone who wants Rosicky in the side I would suggest they look at his performances since he came back to fitness - I haven't seen him beat a player yet, and his passing has been abysmal. Two goals in three years is hardly the return needed from an attacking midfield player, either.
The other man to stand out yesterday was the excellent Santi Cazorla. Regulars will know that I am quick to criticise Cazorla for the way he goes missing more often than not. Right now I believe he is over rated by a lot of people. However, yesterday he was the main man and Arsenal wouldn't have won the game without him. When he plays like that he drives us forward and makes things happen. He was extremely unlucky not to get a deserved goal yesterday. His form has come and gone from game to game this season, but we need him to become consistent. There's no time like the present to do just that. He's the sort of player that excites the crowd when he plays well. Robert Pires had an in and out first season. I hope Cazorla can go on and thrill in the same way Bobby did.
On the other side of the coin is Theo Walcott. This season has been his best, there is no doubt about that. But since he finally signed his contract he has played like the Theo of years past. There is nothing to his game. He isn't running at people. He isn't getting in to score goals. When he gets the ball he looks lost as to what he should be doing with it. In the past he always looked weak as defenders strolled up to him and walked away with the ball, like the big kids picking on the little ones in the school playground. Until January that had disappeared from Theo's game. Now it is back and as bad as ever. I'm not sure he's worth his starting place at the moment, so perhaps a place on the bench for a week or two might have the desired effect. Vermaelen and Szczesny are taking their medicine so there is no reason why Walcott shouldn't get a dose.
The World is a brighter place when Arsenal win. To go and get two unexpected away wins, without conceding a goal (or even a shot on target yesterday), makes it especially sunny today. With it being St Patrick's Day I think a can or two of Harp (God's own lager) might pass my lips in quiet Irish celebration this evening. I reckon O'Leary and Brady and Rice and Neill (not Stapleton - he's a money grabbing w****r) might just enjoy the day as well. Nice.

Has the Wenger worm turned? Or is it same old, same old?

Has he finally got it? Or not?

I am conflicted this morning. And it's all Arsene Wenger's fault. I read with interest his quotes from yesterday's press conference, and the headline parts made for good reading. However, they weren't quite the full story, were they Arsenal.com?
Arsene told us yesterday that the players need to realise that there is competition for their places and nobody is guaranteed a start. In short, if you don't play well, you don't play at all. Brilliant. At last. The penny has finally dropped. We've sat through a lot of turgid rubbish over the last few years, only to turn up the following week and see the same players producing the same crap. We've wanted things shaken up time and again with a few kicks up the backside dished out, but to no avail. That changed on Wednesday evening with Szczesny and Vermaelen finally being dumped. It's about time. For Arsene Wenger to actually drop his Captain was unprecedented. Nobody could argue that it had an adverse effect on the performance of the team, especially in Vermaelen's area of the pitch. Aside from the win itself, I felt the best thing about the Bayern Munich game was that the Manager finally started doing his job again.
Wenger was then asked about Wojciech Szczesny and what the future holds for him. Obviously he told the press that both Szczesny and Vermaelen are key players. He could say nothing else. But in talking about the way Szczesny has been playing he again cited the mental fatigue that can plague a young player. I don't believe in all that nonsense so I have no qualms with ignoring that as Wenger's way of fobbing off press interest in the way he dropped his goalkeeper. What I didn't like was the next bit from Wenger. He went on to say that maybe he should have "rested" Szczesny from the domestic cups. And in that moment I realised that the penny might not have dropped with Wenger after all. The very fact that he might think he should have put out a potentially weakened team in competitions we had a chance to win brings back the bad vibes. If he thinks he should have left out Szczesny does he think the same about all the other players? Is he of the opinion that had he put out a complete reserve side against Bradford or Blackburn then the first leg against Bayern might have gone differently? If that is his thinking then we can already write off next season.
The proof of the pudding will come against Swansea this afternoon. Kieran Gibbs is suffering still after his return from injury and will not be in the side to play in Wales. That's not too much of an issue, especially with Monreal coming back in. However, if either Vermaelen or Szczesny make a return to the starting XI today then we will know that nothing has really changed. Following the performance the other night it would be a disgrace if Fabianski and Koscielny/Mertesacker are left out. If there is any other change to be made from the starting line-up the other night I would bring in Oxlade-Chamberlain for Rosicky and move Cazorla back in to the centre (though I can see Giroud missing out to injury after the kicking he took on Wednesday night). There is every chance that Fabianski might revert to type and throw one in his own net, but we've been watching Szczesny do that for over a year now. Fabianski has earned his chance, and Szczesny has been playing very badly. It's a no-brainer to me.
Above all today Arsenal must produce the sort of effort they did in Munich. If that sort of defensive discipline can be in evidence today, and for the rest of the season, we will do okay. If we return to the lacklustre, couldn't care less if we make a mistake, kind of display then we will tail off in to obscurity. I hope Wenger can motivate the players like he did on Wednesday. Starting by rewarding good performances, and punishing bad ones, would be a good start for this supporter.

When a win isn't a win - Gunners give us our pride back

I reckon he might be

Before the game last night I wanted to see some pride in the shirt. It’s something that has been sorely lacking in recent times from a lot of our players. By the end of the game they had certainly shown that and it was a mark of the performance that I felt unexpectedly gutted. Like most sane people I gave us no chance of getting through to the next round. I felt that anything that saw us avoid a humiliating thrashing would be decent, and a draw exceptional. To go out and come within touching distance of actually qualifying was just incredible. It was more like the Arsenal we have known in the past, but the glorious failure remains just that.

The back six were truly exceptional last night. For all Bayern Munich’s efforts at goal there was only one occasion where I would concede that they beat our defence and created an opportunity worthy of the name. When they did do that it was met with a storming effort by Carl Jenkinson to get his body in Robben’s path, and an outstanding save from a faultless Lukasz Fabianski. Those two, along with Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs and Arteta were superb. I know Arteta got some stick (and I was certainly screaming at my TV) for what he did in the closing minutes, but he had pretty much run himself to a standstill with his efforts in midfield. I felt at times that he was playing midfield on his own as Ramsey and Rosicky consistently gave the ball away with terrible passing. It is a supreme and tragic irony that it was our possession game, rather than our iffy defending, that was responsible for us not winning by the required margin.

The opposition was not given time on the ball in our half of the pitch. I thought Giroud tried very hard up front and was often the only player sprinting back to defend when Bayern tried to hit us on the counter. However, Cazorla and Walcott gave no protection to their full-backs. Philip Lahm was Bayern’s most effective player because he had the freedom of their right wing to double up on Kieran Gibbs. It was crying out for Rosicky to be taken off and for someone to come on to play properly wide on the left. When Gervinho was introduced we saw Lahm’s influence disappear and we got more on the front foot. How unlucky was the Ivorian after that sublime turn in the penalty area? If Giroud just had that little extra quality and proper goalscoring instinct he might well have been tapping it in to the empty net. I also thought that Oxlade-Chamberlain did well when he came on.

The performance of Carl Jenkinson was the absolute highlight for me. It was no coincidence that Arjen Robben moved to the other wing as he was getting no joy whatsoever out of Jenkinson. The moment in the first-half where he let Robben come on to him before just taking the ball off him was first rate defending. The Corporal also grew in to the attacking side in the second-half, with only Walcott’s wastefulness in possession stopping him being more of a tangible threat. As was the case before Christmas I can see no reason for Bacary Sagna to be recalled at right-back. There may be an argument for him to play alongside Koscielny or Mertesacker in the middle, but certainly not out wide. The youngster also spoke superbly after the game in his interview with the cretinous Geoff Shreeves. The look on Jenkinson’s face during it is really one of a fan as he glares at Sky’s microphone chimp.

Graham Souness is someone I’ve generally enjoyed listening to down the years. Last night he embarrassed himself. I was already sickened by the grinning of that clown Jeff Stelling (is there a bigger mirror watcher in television than this idiot?) who couldn’t even begin to mask his joy at our demise. Then Souness started saying that Arsenal hadn’t been good at all. Apparently our win was entirely due to Bayern Munich’s bad performance. He qualified this by stating that Manuel Neuer “didn’t have a save to make”. Given that Arsenal scored two goals I would say there were at least two occasions where he had a save to make. It comes to something when Jamie Redknapp is the one adding the sensible comments. By any standards it was an unbelievable display. To go and beat the team that many are fancying to challenge Barcelona and Real Madrid this season, the team that has been in two of the last three finals, the team that is running away with the genuinely strongest league in Europe is simply astounding. The only thing last night that was more astounding was Souness making out we were lucky.

When we got the second goal with five minutes to go I really thought we might just do it. The reaction of the players to Neuer’s antics showed a togetherness that has been largely absent. I loved Gary Neville’s “get in there boys” reaction to the scuffle. I hated Neville as a player, but he is the best pundit television has had in many a year. If we see that sort of hunger and effort across the remaining ten games then we will finish this season strongly. The players have now proved to themselves that they can win against top rate opposition. All season we’ve been pretty much swatted aside by good teams who have taken advantage of our timid approach. Last night was so much different. It’s something I hope Arsene Wenger can harness for the next two months. He has kept on and on about the potential in the team. I hope he also realises now that good, committed defending is the platform from which winning teams begin. It was without doubt the best defensive display from a Wenger side in a long time. Had the referee not been so outrageously biased towards the home team we might well have been going through (don’t ever tell me that football is not corrupt).

One final thing is to give mention to the travelling Gooners. In that massive stadium, full of German supporters not famed for their silence, the Arsenal boys were loud and proud. There were flags there from all over Europe, including good friends from Tirol Gooners and Gunners Bergamo. As my Dad pointed out to me there were none from Vietnam or Indonesia or Hong Kong. So let’s hear no more from Gazidis and co about the “thousands of loyal supporters” in those areas, and let’s hear a bit more about those on the doorstep who actually, genuinely, support the team. They make you as proud as the players did last night.

  

Why we won't miss Jack, Why Szczesny had to be dropped - Munich (a) preview

One last chance

Don’t panic my Gooner friends. Jack Wilshere’s latest injury seems to have lead to a massive outpouring of grief, and the seminal writing off of Arsenal’s chances of reaching the top four this season. There is very much the feeling that Jack has been utterly crucial to Arsenal since his return to the side, but I think that might be overstating his contribution. Don’t get me wrong, it is clear that Jack Wilshere is the very heartbeat of this side. However, if he has had an impact since coming back it is simply that things would be even worse had he not been playing. It’s not as though we’ve had a storming run that has coincided with Jack being in the side. Moreover Jack’s stats are not especially impressive. For a player with his obvious skill and passing ability he has precious few assists to his name. His flat refusal to shoot most of the time (I know he’s far from being the only one) has meant that he has scored just the once. So aside from appearing to be the only player at Arsenal hurt by defeat I’m finding it slightly difficult to see what we’re that likely to miss. And to be honest, based on the last two matches, had we been playing well as a team he’d be looking at a place on the bench in any case.
I strongly suspect that this latest injury has been carried for a week or three, which would explain why our boy has turned in a couple of stinkers. What we won’t have without Jack is his perpetual motion and willingness to dish out a bollocking or two to the people around him. I have to say that I think the rest will do him good, while missing the Munich match and a pair of internationals will not harm Arsenal in any way. If we can get a win at Swansea without him and then have him back refreshed in a couple of weeks from now it might be no bad thing all round. Of course, with Arsenal's medical team we probably won't see him again before Christmas 2014.

Elsewhere it looks as though Wojciech Szczesny is finaly being given a long awaited and much needed kick up the backside. Arsene Wenger might call it a “rest” for Szczesny but he acknowledged his awful form by saying that playing many games this season has had an effect on him. I don’t really see why any goalkeeper would be “rested”. They don’t expend energy. David Seaman didn’t get “rested” until he was in his late 30s. Pat Jennings just played and played. Bob Wilson will tell you how he played all 70-odd games in 1970-71. There were no “effects” seen in their performances week after week. Now Lukasz Fabianski is back to stake a claim. Regular readers will know that I advocated such a move as soon as the older Pole returned for the under-21 side a couple of weeks back. Szczesny has been really very poor for over a year. I think Fabianski’s injury has prevented him from being recalled much sooner. If he gets through tomorrow without his customary mistake then Wenger will have a big call to make at Swansea. It’s worth remembering that Fabianski was in the best run of form in his Arsenal career before he damaged himself and allowed Szczesny to get his opportunity. I’m not saying that Fabianski is good enough for Arsenal, as the evidence is obviously to the contrary. But there is no doubt in my mind that he is no worse than Szczesny right now. If Szczesny’s main problem is temperamental rather than a lack of talent (I’m not convinced) then this will be just what he needs. If he’s simply not good enough (which is what I fear) then I hope we are bringing in a plethora of new goalkeepers this summer.

It’s obviously highly unlikely that we will progress to the quarter-final. With our defence we’ll probably have to score about eight times to get past Bayern Munich. Avoiding total humiliation, and maybe nicking a draw or a narrow win, is about the best that can be hoped for. That being the case I have no problem with not playing people who are carrying a knock or who need to be dropped for reasons of form, though it makes the resting of players against Blackburn seem even more stupid. I am concerned that our lack of squad strength leaves us with a very sub-standard shadow team, but that’s the way Wenger has taken us. If we go out tomorrow but win at the weekend I think most Gooners would just about take that right now. Enjoy the game. You never know, in football miracles often happen – just ask Bradford City, or anyone witnessing the recovery time of Gareth Bale.

No sympathy for Red Nose and his boys, Rooney for Arsenal?

Make him the first of many

For twenty years the media juggernaut that has supplemented the success of Manchester United has managed to ensure that little has gone wrong for them where refereeing decisions are concerned. We all know how it works, and any referee who dares to err from the script is destroyed by Ferguson via his acolytes in the press. The end result is that the official in question doesn't visit Old Trafford (or have any involvement in Man Utd matches elsewhere) too many times in the future. If Ferguson says something about an official the FA will usually turn the other way and pretend it hasn't heard or seen anything. All the while every other Club suffers by playing to different rules. Aided and abetted by Murdoch's empire (which still owned a large part of MUTV until last month) there was rarely any adverse publicity to be had.
Compare that to how other Manager's are generally portrayed. Steven Howard makes slagging Arsene Wenger a weekly event in The Sun. Kenny Dalglish, Rafael Benitez, Avram Grant, Andre Villas-Boas, Roberto Mancini and Roberto Di Matteo (even Jose Mourinho) have all suffered from outrageous negative publicity. They all have one thing in common, along with Wenger, and that is that they were in charge of genuine rivals to Manchester United and Alex Ferguson. No journalists have the bottle to write negatively about Ferguson because he bans them from press conferences or just refuses to speak to them. The BBC found that out to their cost. When Arsene Wenger had his pop at journalists a couple of weeks ago it got a huge media reaction. Yet one journalist dared to write that he couldn't understand why, as Ferguson does this on a regular basis at anything he perceives as negative towards anyone at United - he must really scour the papers to find anything like that. Ferguson's regular abuse of journalists gets no publicity, it seems. Any claim that there is no media bias towards Manchester United should be completely blown out of the water by that revelation.
This week we have seen Man Utd get dumped out of the European Cup after a seemingly dubious refereeing decision. Personally I thought it was a scandal. I mean, on what grounds did the referee disallow Real Madrid's goal before half-time? There was no foul and no offside. The goal should have stood. Then there was the penalty Madrid should have had for Rafael's handball on the goal line. Five officials and they all missed it! Of course, the media haven't written or spoken a word on that, have they? It's all been about the travesty of  Nani's red card. Personally, I don't think that it should have been a red card. However, I seem to remember Emmanuel Eboue being sent off at Old Trafford in the FA Cup for something vaguely familiar. Watch the video and you will see that clapper in chief, Rio Ferdinand, is the first man to go chasing the referee demanding the red card that followed for Eboue. I suppose Ferdinand has form for selective memory though. After all, he is the man who "forgot" he was supposed to take a drugs test. I also remember Robin Van Persie getting sent-off in a European Cup game for Arsenal in the exact same circumstances. The media, rather predictably, didn't react in a similar way back then. Nor did they when Van Persie was disgracefully sent-off at Barcelona two years ago.
Ferguson's reaction to the red card, apart from his Harlem Shake down the dugout steps immediately following it, was to refuse to speak to the press. There is an obligation, under UEFA rules, to do so at Champions League ties. When Arsene Wenger takes defeat badly he is chastised by the media as being "petulant" and a "sore loser". When Ferguson does it his reaction is "understandable" apparently. The fact is that Ferguson wasn't "distraught" as Mike Phelan (who spoke superbly, it should be said) put it. He was simply apoplectic with rage. He went in to five-year-old-child tantrum mode and locked himself in the bathroom, refusing to come out. I honestly thought ITV's commentators and presenter (with the notable and bizarre exception of Roy Keane - that man does not forgive and forget!) were going to cry on Tuesday evening. Make no mistake, if it had been Arsenal I would have been fuming. But you can rest assured the media reaction would have been similarly reversed had it been us. No sympathy. What goes around comes around, and it came around for Ferguson and Manchester United the other night. Long may it continue.

Staying with Ferguson and Manchester United I was shocked when Wayne Rooney was left out on Tuesday. When I saw their team I Tweeted that Arsenal should get in there and sign him this Summer. We've seen this before with Ferguson and high profile players. It goes as far back as Paul McGrath. Fall out with Ferguson and you career at Manchester United is dead. David Beckham, Roy Keane, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Jaap Stam, Dimitar Berbatov. The names trip off the tongue. So far Beckham is the only one of those bearing a physical scar from his locking of horns with his Manager, but Rooney is almost certainly on the same trajectory as all those named - the one that heads down to the exit door at the Stretford End. I notice that Ferguson has denied a rift today, and said that Rooney is not going to leave. We've heard it all before. There was no rift with Beckham or Van Nistelrooy but they didn't last long after, did they?
As for the possibility of us signing Rooney, why not? There is an argument that he would rather play elsewhere, but I think he'd be utterly crazy to head to Manchester City. I could see him replacing Torres at Chelsea, but that's why we must get in there and get business done. Last week we had the usual "we have money to spend" stuff from Arsenal. Well I've had enough of the words. We've heard the same thing for years, but not had the signings to prove it. I feel that with the sponsorship deals starting, and the shipping off the wage bill of people like Arshavin and Bendtner and co, there is now nowhere to hide. Arsenal really do have money. That money simply must be spent to avoid us slipping even further behind. What better statement of intent than to go and spend £25-£30m on England's best striker? We've all given Rooney plenty of stick over the years, but I'd take him at Arsenal in a heart-beat. It would make a nice change to have him scoring for us, as he's made a career out of doing it against us. Signing Wayne Rooney would get us on a high. I just hope it can happen because I'm certain he won't be at Manchester United come August.

Effort but no quality against Tottenham

Our best player yesterday

We got plenty of effort from the players yesterday. I've often criticised this group of players for a lack of it. But we certainly didn't get anything even remotely approaching top class at either end of the pitch. In attack we were never truly threatening after the first fifteen minutes, while the defending was again Sunday League standard. The one player to genuinely stand out as having a good game was Carl Jenkinson and I'll write a little more about that below.
The game saw us start on the front foot for a change. We've often seen the mugs dominate early on in the games at their place with a rabid crowd behind them. Once that first half-hour has been negotiated Arsenal get on top. Yesterday we were in to them from the first whistle. Two or three times we worked good openings, but our final ball was either poor or non-existent. We didn't force Lloris to make a save. The ponderous Giroud took so long to shoot when through on goal that even Mertesacker would have caught up with him. Theo Walcott spent a lot of time getting through the middle and made a lot of runs, only for the ball to go square in midfield instead of beyond Tottenham's high back line. I just don't understand it.
When they finally got hold of the ball they played the exact passes Walcott had been looking for at the other end and the monkey-boy was never going to miss. When Monreal and Vermaelen did their Chuckle Brothers impression for the second goal it was similarly easy for Lennon to put the ball in the net. It's not often I feel remotely sorry for Wojciech Szczesny but he had no chance yesterday. It is beyond my comprehension how international defenders can be so badly caught out. When it happens twice in two minutes it is genuinely scary. Gary Neville pointed out over a year ago that Arsenal try to play offside without pressuring the ball in midfield. Instead of dropping off in that situation our defenders come flying forward, but with no idea of communication or a coherent plan. The end result is almost always a goal for our opponents. Mikel Arteta is incapable of protecting the back four (why should he be?) and so it is easy for any team with a bit of quality to get at us. Bale had not been in the game, but our own fragility gave him one of the easiest goals he'll ever score.
In the second-half we got our early goal that we needed. A couple of minutes later Carl Jenkinson got in down the right and provided the perfect pass for Jack Wilshere to equalise. Wilshere didn't even get a boot on the ball. I thought Jack was poor against Villa last week. He was ten times worse yesterday. He undoubtedly tried, as he always does, but I don't remember too many of his passes finding a red shirt. He had an awful game as far as I was concerned. It's all very well people having a pop at Giroud and Walcott and Ramsey and whoever else, but Jack was equally culpable yesterday and should get stick when it's deserved.
Jenkinson, meanwhile, was playing very well. With Theo constantly moving inside Jenkinson's pace was a constant threat down the right. He was providing the width our game was needing and, after our goal, was letting us stretch their defence. So what does our genius Manager do? He takes him off and puts a central midfielder at right-back. What did Arsenal gain from that move? Why not just take off Ramsey or Arteta and leave Jenkinson to get at them? From the moment he went off our threat virtually disappeared. Unfortunately, when Ramsey was provided with the chance to get us the equaliser you just knew he wasn't going to score. That was our last clear opportunity but, again, Lloris didn't have to make a save.
When we got desperate we had the ridiculous sight of Mertesacker up front again. We started to lump high balls forward, which completely negated our midfield players, and left Podolski out wide on the left and out of the game. I don't know why Podolski is suddenly out of the team. I can't understand why we waited until the 77th minute to put him on the pitch. Santi Cazorla really put in a shift yesterday, but when we started playing high balls towards Mertesacker he was also effectively taken out of the game. Tomas Rosicky, meanwhile, may as well have gone and sat in the away end for all the use he was when the ball came to him. We only made two subs but, towards the end, we had a centre-back, a defensive midfield player and Gervinho warming up. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was not asked to have a stretch. All this when we were 2-1 down at Tottenham. It defies belief. And Lloris still didn't have a save to make.

Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal - Spurs' Cup Final preview

Whatever happens, our shadow will be forever cast

So here it is. We've arrived at Tottenham's biggest game of the season. This, finally, is their year. That Gooner scum is about to be dispatched for good and the power shift in North London will have finally arrived. Only its not quite that simple, is it? There is no doubt that sometime, and it could well be this season, Spurs will finally get the better of Arsenal across the course of a season. I said at the start of the campaign that I feared Villas-Boas more than any Tottenham boss of many a year. In recent weeks, with Bale playing superbly, they have put together a fine run. But this is the North London Derby and things are not straightforward. If the game this time last year should teach the Neanderthals of N17 anything then it is that they should get cocky against the better half of North London at their absolute peril. Remember all that "mind the gap" crap? I reckon they do.
It says it all, perhaps, that Arsenal supporters have been in uproar about the way things are going, while the Tiny Totts have been revelling in their recent form, yet a win for Arsenal tomorrow will see only one point separating the two sides. I suppose when you've not won the League in 52 years you try to create success out of something that isn't really there. Us Gooners have higher priorities when it comes down to it. It's an expectation born of success. The sort of success the cretins from White Hart Lane can only dream about - and you can be certain they've been doing nothing but dream of it since 1961.
I've very much enjoyed the way the press has built up our opposition over the past week. The adulation for Gareth Bale (undoubtedly a fine player in good form, but you shouldn't win Footballer Of The Year off the back of one good month) has been nauseating and enjoyable in equal measure. If ever a team has been set up for a fall then it's that lot. I reckon the Spurs loving media will go in to meltdown if Arsenal happen to pull it out of the fire tomorrow. We've done it before. There will be nothing better to see tomorrow than Arsenal celebrating a win, but Bale and a plethora of journalists crying over their predictions of times-a-changing would certainly add to the enjoyment.
The travelling Gooners will be running the annual gauntlet of hate tomorrow. Low profiles will need to be kept, with any semblance of red hidden away until safely inside the away end, or back at Finsbury Park. I suppose the crowd at Tottenham should be congratulated in a way. They may be the most charmless and offensive bunch of knuckle-dragging clowns in the Premier League, but they are also surely London's most popular and successful "Care In The Community" project. I hope the travelling Arsenal fans stay safe, and come away with a win to savour.
Just to finish I'll point out some anniversaries for this weekend. Yesterday marked 26 years since Tottenham announced the ticket details for Wembley at half-time, which merely served to inspire Viv Anderson and Niall Quinn to earn us a replay in the Littlewoods Cup semi-final . Tomorrow it's 22 years since Arsenal swung the Title race in their favour with a 1-0 win at Anfield, through Paul Merson's goal (I can't find video of that one). And, just for good measure, Monday is the anniversary of Ian Allinson and Rocky crushing the Spuds in that 1987 replay . If watching that doesn't get you in the mood for tomorrow then nothing will. Enjoy it Gooners. Let's hope we show the passion necessary and get the result we need.