april 4th
Having had time to think about yesterday’s game, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s quite possibly the worst thing that’s ever happened to the football club I love so well. Despite not having lost an FA Cup game since the 2001 final, the 1-0 loss to Manchester United is prove positive that the players have no motivation for the FA Cup whatsoever. The manager doesn’t care a jot about this competition, neither does any single member of his staff, and quite frankly they shamed all the fans yesterday with their insipid display. They were a disgrace to the good name of Arsenal Football Club.
Let’s face it, the FA Cup is ours by right. It shouldn’t be allowed that another team can beat us, especially when they only score one goal more than us.
Ok, I can’t keep it up, but judging by some of the OTT reaction yesterday you would swear it was the end of the world. Of course losing an FA Cup semi-final hurts, of course it hurts when defeat comes against our biggest rivals, but as much as winning runs and scoring lots of pretty goals are part of football, so is losing matches. It seems some of our fans have forgotten that. A couple of seasons ago the manager was quoted as saying “When you eat caviar it is hard to go back to sausage.”
Well, maybe yesterday was a taste of sausage for some fans who have only known caviar. What those people need to realise is that we’ve got 3 more huge games coming up in the next week. The Champions League 1/4 final against Chelsea at Highbury, Liverpool at Highbury and Newcastle at St.James’ Park. Three games that will go a long way to determining how successful our season is going to be. With Chelsea cutting the gap in the league to 4 points it’s likely the players are going to be feeling a bit of pressure. What they need now though is the 100% support and backing of the fans. They need to be encouraged, cajoled, praised and most of all supported. They certainly don’t need a silent Highbury when we haven’t scored twice in the first 10 minutes. They need the fans behind them, they need to hear that the fans are behind them, they need to hear the songs and the chants. They need to hear the fans saying “Come on Gilberto” or “Come on Wiltord” (because believe me, we need both those players whether you like it or not, especially as Reyes is out for 3 weeks after Scholes’ hatchet job on him, and Freddie is out with a broken hand), and not “For fucks sake Wiltord you useless cunt.”
This Arsenal team has given us a lot over the last 8 months. They’ve gone through the whole of the league season unbeaten, we got to the semi-finals of the Carling Cup with kids, we got to the semi-finals of the FA Cup, we have a chance to go through to the semi-finals of the Champions League for the first time after pulling off a quite miraculous sequence of results to get out of the group stages (5-1 in the San Siro anyone?), yet people still moan and whine and bitch. It’s time for the fans to give something back to the team now.
This is the final push. They need us, all of us. Stand up and be counted. Make some noise. Get behind the lads.
Support your team.
