Dejected Arsenal, Delighted Spurs

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As the final whistle went yesterday and we trudged out of the stadium, dejected, annoyed, frustrated, I heard a racket behind me, some sort of mass celebration. I looked over my should and spotted Spurs fans in their corner of our stadium going mental, limbs everywhere. They were celebrating a 1-1 draw like they had just clinched the title at our ground.

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But they hadn’t.

The response from both sets of fans to what was a fair result, a bore draw, shows the difference in expectations between the two sides. Arsenal were frustrated with a draw when a win would have seen them go top. Spurs were delighted with a draw that saw them remain 5th

The celebratory Spurs fans will point to the fact that they went 1-0 down, that they are still the only unbeaten team in the Premier League, that they are still in the title race, as reasons for their excitement. But the reality is very different.

Spurs have now not won a game in any competition since the 2-0 victory against Manchester City On October 2nd. That is over a month ago. 7 games without a win represents poor form, not a top side. As for the title race, they now sit 5th, 5 points off top. Whilst it would be too early to write them off – as we have seen with Chelsea – they are starting to be cut adrift due to their inability to win games.

In those 7 games, Spurs have scored just 4 goals. 3 of which have been penalties. So 1 goal from open play and no wins in 7. You can understand why I was confused when they were celebrating so vigorously.

Whilst on reflection, a 1-1 draw was the right result in which neither team created too much, it was only Arsenal who looked like they were trying to win.

Spurs’ 3 at the back very quickly turned to 5 at the back, and their game plan was to disrupt the play, hoof long balls forward and time waste at every opportunity. Signs that Spurs have not moved forward in 2 decades of Arsene Wenger, no matter what their fans might say.

Wenger rolled the dice bringing on Aaron Ramsey for Francis Coquelin in an attacking move. Olivir Giroud and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were also both bought on in double quick time.

Meanwhile, Spurs subbed laboured off. Harry Kane got a little confused when being subbed off and went for a wander. Every chance they could get to time waste they did. At one point with 10 minutes to go Spurs tried to take it to the corner flag.

As Arsenal fans, we had every right to feel disappointed. A chance to go top lost against a poor Spurs side riddled with injuries. Spurs had no right to celebrate. And the fact that their fans did celebrate shows just how different both sides expectations are this season.

Keenos

What do moaning Arsenal fans and Spurs have in common?

All is bright in the Arsenal world. The sun is out, the sky is blue, and Santa Clause is dusting down his sleigh. Yet some people still feel the need to moan.

We won away from home in Europe, on a cold night in Bulgaria, against a bunch of chicken farmers, after going 2-0 down, yet still some people moan.

After 4 games in the Champions League, we are guaranteed progression into the last 16. Still two games to play, a chance to rest and rotate before other big games, yet still some people moan.

Mesut Ozil scored a cracking goal, a moment of genius, an 88th minute winner, and yet still some people moan.

DWWDWWWWWWWDWWW, and yet still some people moan.

How can people be so unhappy with Arsenal at the moment. We are 2nd on goal difference in the Premier League, in the last 16 of the Champions League, and through to the quarter final of the League Cup.

I do wonder about our fan base at times, the moaning, the constant moaning, with some it never stops. Ozil scores a brilliant goal, yet people still do not rate him, people still moan that he did not perform against Chelsea 3 years ago. How are people this unhappy. ALL THE TIME.

Sometimes I do not understand why some people are “into” football. All they do is moan. They don’t go to games – pretending to boycott when the reality is they have never gone – they do not celebrate victories, they moan that it is just The FA Cup and they are usually sitting there, in front of Sky, on their own, moaning about modern football, whilst watching Sky. The irony of it.

Seriously though, why do they bother with football? Their incessant moaning about the game becomes depressing. It gets to a point where you have to question if they actually like football, or if they are rugby or cricket fans just trying to slander the Great British game.

Maybe, and just maybe, there hatred for football is down to a deep down insecurity within themselves. A belief that they are not good enough, that they have failed in life, they trying to deflect their negativity onto others. I guess at least moaning about football every weekend stops them going home and beating their wife.

And that is the saddest part, many of these moaners have wives, they have kids. They would rather spend their time in the company of a domestic abuser like Justin Lee-Collins then spend time supporting their team, loving their family. Oh well. Let them be them. It is them who will die unhappy, alone, probably of diabetes after eating too much due to their depression.

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Talking of unhappiness, this weekend we play that lot up the road. The great unbeatable Spurs team of 2016, who, as it stands, are a massive 10 games unbeaten. They are on the road to glory. Their eyes have seen the glory. At this rate they are on course to destroy Arsenal’s unbeaten season. Destroy the top flight record of 49 undefeated. And yet they are 5th.

Imagine that, the best start to a season this millennium, 10 games without defeat, and your are 5th. Still below The Arsenal.

All of Spurs fans are pretty much like that moaning Arsenal fan we described earlier. Lonely, insignificant, hoping their pal does not pull on a night out again as it will mean going into Yasar’s again on their own. Ordering meat and chips, before throwing half of it on Forest Road in a fit of anger.

So insecure are Spurs that they have planned to build their stadium with a dozen more seats than Arsenal’s. It is the equivalent of your enemy buying a slightly bigger house than you, even though they can not afford their repayments.

Spurs are the club who are currently attempting to buy the naming rights to a station near their ground. £12million it is reportedly going to cost them. All because in 1932, 84 years ago, TFL renamed Gillespie Road Arsenal Station. Imagine being that bitter, that twisted. Only an Arsenal fan who still hates Ozil can know how that feels.

Spurs could build a new stadium twice the size of Arsenal’s, they could rename the North Circular “The Tottenham Way”, and yet we still would have won 13 league titles, them only 2.

Spurs are your ugly mate. Currently every night he is pulling a bird. But he never takes her home. Always home alone. Meanwhile Arsenal are efficient. We struck out 3 months ago, but pretty much every weekend since then, we have got our end away. Yet our pal will still mention that one time they pulled, and we did nothing. It doesn’t matter that we were under the whether, it doesn’t matter that he has been in our shadow since we were kids, he will just keep reminding us of that one time in August we did not pull, and he stuck his tongue down the throat of slaggy-Tracey from Waltham Abbey. Everyone else has already been there…

There really are a joke of a club. There greatest player of recent years, Harry Kane, is an Arsenal fan, and everything about them stinks of desperation. Of wanting to be Arsenal.

I bet if you went up to Kane tomorrow and said “Oh, H, come play for Arsenal for nothing” he would jump at the chance and his Arsenal family, and Arsenal brother, would be so proud of him. He could then sit on the bench with Carl Jenkinson discussing who had the most Arsenal memorabilia in their bedroom growing up.

So what do moaning Arsenal fans and Spurs have in common? They are both insignificant specks in the footballing universe who think they are more relevant then they are.

Not too many sleeps till they get a pasting.

Keenos

Arsenal’s Mensis Horribilis

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Welcome to Arsenal’s Mensis Horribilis.

Under Arsene Wenger, no month has yielded a lower points per game ratio than November. Many a season we have been cut adrift in the title race in the 1st month of winter.

And it is not even close between November and our next worst month, August…

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The story of many a season under the Frenchman. A poor start, regain ground in the Autumn, throw it away in November, lose further ground over the winter, put a run together in spring, before ultimately missing out in May.

There is nothing to explain our poor form in November. Going through the games we played, it is often no harder than other months. The only explanation can be a few injuries piling up. November is just a shocker for Arsenal fans.

This season, November will once more make or break our title race. With games against Man U and Spurs, Arsene Wenger himself admits that the month will show us where Arsenal are;

“We now have difficult games coming up, with a difficult November, so by the end of November we will know more about ourselves,” Wenger said.

“The desire is there and the mentality is great, though. There is great togetherness, we have quality as well, so they are good ingredients.

“But we have to show that we can do it week in and week out.”

Alongside Spurs and Man U, we also host Bournemouth and a League Cup tie against Southampton. Making up the fixtures list is an away game against PSG.

An unbeaten November could see Arsenal top of the league, topping their Champions League group, and into the Semi Final of the League Cup. A disaster could see us needing finishing 2nd again in the Champions League, out of the title race and out of the League Cup.

Let’s get some positivity in the month and start it with victory over that lot up the road.

Keenos