I often get accused of being a bit blaise when we lose a game. Whilst I am more than happy to analyse the defeat and criticise where needed, my ultimate view is “that’s football”.
When we lose to West Ham and Fulham, I was disappointed. But I refused to join the pile on. I have always said that football is a game of incredible highs and incredible lows, and being an Arsenal fan I have experienced a lot more highs than low.
The very nature of football means you will get those get those disappointing results against the likes of West Ham and Fulham, but in turn you will be rewarded with the last two brilliant weekends of football we have had.
Liverpool at the Emirates last Sunday was a fantastic day at the football. One of the best atmospheres I have experienced and celebrations continued way into the night.
7-days later we took the short trip to the London Olympic Stadium to face West Ham, a team we had lost to twice this season. We left the ground about 20 minutes after most West Ham fans, off to celebrate a 6-0 win in Hackney Wick.
Those last two results are why we go football. Why we stick with the team through supposed bad times. And those poor results make weeks like the one we have just had even sweeter.
Yes, I get some will say “but why can we not demand to beat Fulham and West Ham over Christmas, and also demand we win against Liverpool and West Ham away”. And I do get this. But that also creates an unreasonable bar of expectation. No team wins every game they should. And when you lose against a West Ham, a Wolves or Brentford, it is just football.
What always makes our game great in comparison to other sports is football is a lot less predictable. You get more “upsets” than you do in NBA, in NFL or in cricket or rugby. It is why even just winning a 4-fold accumulator is so tough in football (whereas you could win a 3-fold every weekend during the 6 Nations!).
I would never want football to become dull where teams win every game they should, and suffer a defeat in every game that they should lose. It would make the sport very boring, very quickly (see Euro or World Cup qualifying as the example).
There really is no need to analyse how we performed Sunday. We turned up. Scored 6 goals, then took over Hackney Wick. What a day.
I am still in pain today after my celebrations on Sunday. I can take those defeats against Fulham and West Ham to have the cloud 9 feeling over the last week. On to Burnley next!
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 