Tag Archives: FA Cup

Can the FA Cup save our season?

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It has been a horrible season. On and off the pitch.

From finishing below Spurs to plane wars in the skies of Birmingham. Massive defeats to Bayern Munich, to that period from January to April where we won 2 games from 8, including embarrassing defeats at home to Watford, and then on our travels to WBA and Crystal Palace.

It has not been a great season for Arsenal, as we slipped out of the top 4 for the first time this century.

After Manchester United’s victory in the Europa League, we are the only side in the top 6 of the Premier League to not be in the Champions League next year.

The infighting over Arsene Wenger has grown, embarrassing actions by people in the ground, and online, from both sides of the narrative. There was a point this season where going to football was simply not enjoyable anymore.

But then we come to the last weekend of the Bank Holiday Weekend. A Sunny Afternoon.

Tomorrow we will all be getting up ,getting ready, cafe, breakfast, pub, boots for some sun tan lotion for the bald heads, more beer, then Wembley. Wembley. We are the famous Arsenal and we are going to Wembley.

No matter what has happened this season, what we as fans and a football club have been through, we have a trip to Wembley to get up for tomorrow. One last game of the season. A chance for a real trophy. A chance for some success. And a chance to save our season.

Ultimately, when it comes down to it, top 4 does not matter, finishing above your rivals does not matter, having players winning individual awards does not matter. What matters is the team winning trophies.

In 1993, who finished top 4? Who was top scorer? What team scored the most goals? Which side conceded the least? Who was PFA Young Player of the Year? You can not answer any of these. But you know who won the FA Cup.

In fact, I could probably name the side that won the FA Cup every year since 1990. Even with my drinking now giving me short term memory loss, I still remember the FA Cup winners. I could also name the league winners in those years, and could probably name 90% of League Cup winners.

You see, winning trophies at what people remember. That is a true barometer of success. Not finishing top 4. Not finishing above your rivals.

Take Liverpool and Manchester United this season. The media (and Liverpool fans) have pretended that Liverpool have had a great season this year. One outlet described Liverpool has getting tremendous points haul this season – it was just one more point that Arsenal.

Jurgen Klopp has been celebrated as a genius. Taking Liverpool back into the Champions League for the 2nd time in 8 years. But ultimately, Liverpool won nothing. There 5th consecutive year without a trophy. A single League Cup in 11 years of football.

Meanwhile over in Manchester, they have had a crisis season. An awful season. Jose Mourinho has been exposed as a fraud. As inferior to Jurgen Klopp. Yet Manchester United have won 2 trophies this season – the Europa League and League Cup.

2016/17 will not be remember by Liverpool fans, it is just another season of failure. Meanwhile Manchester United, despite finishing 6th and below their Scouse cousins, will remember another successful trip to Wembley, and another European trophy and great trip to Sweden.

Add in the FA Cup, Manchester United, a club on the slide, have won 3 trophies in a 12 month period (I do not include the Community Shield with that). Liverpool, a club on the up, have won nothing.

Arsenal have a similar scenario with their little sisters up the road, Tottenham Hotspur.

Over the last 4 years, Spurs have made gigantic strides forward. Over that time, Arsenal have lunged from crisis to crisis, slipped down the table. Whilst Spurs have put the pressure on in the last two title races, Arsenal have been nowhere to be seen,

Yet despite the two clubs relative differences in performances over the last 4 years, Arsenal have won 2 FA Cups in that time. Spurs are now 9 years into a trophy drought. 2 league cups in 26 years. Not much is written about their lack of real success. Finishing above Arsenal, putting the pressure on and a new stadium has papered over the massive cracks at the under achieving club.

So back to Arsenal. We have a chance to win the FA Cup on Saturday. A chance for a major honour. A chance to lift silverware. A chance to make it 3 FA Cups in 4 years – and a record 13th. And Arsene Wenger, for all the criticism he has rightly deserved, not just this year but over the last 10 years, has a chance to become the most successful FA Cup winning manager of all time. Not bad for a man who some claim “doesn’t take the completion seriously.”

Would winning the FA Cup make 2016/17 a successful season. YES. But Arsene Wenger should still leave.

Keenos

Moaning Manchester City fans and Spurs still in Arsenal’s shadow

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So I have finally sobered after this weekends shenanigans and golly gosh, what a weekend of results it was. And how the fall out has been hilarious.

Arsenal got through. Some will say ‘somehow got through’. Well we outscored Manchester City. We were fitter than Manchester City, and we had better options on our bench. Has Pep Guardiola been found out? Trophyless for the 1st time in his career. He has never had to build a team. Never not been in charge of the best side in the league. He is struggling. But that is a blog for another day.

The response of Manchester City fans to their defeat to Arsenal has made me smile. They have blamed the referee for their defeat. They have blamed Emirates Airlines. If Danny Murphy was commentating, they would have blamed the grass length and death of Ugo Ehiogh for their defeat too.

https://twitter.com/BoothyCraig/status/856633183680557058

Arsenal have won a record 12 FA Cups in their history. NONE of which have been won since Emirates became the headline sponsor. This is just the 2nd season of Emirates sponsoring the FA Cup. In their first season, Manchester United lifted the trophy.

Of course, I do not expect a new club like Manchester City Blues to understand the concept of history, afterall, the majority of their fans have only followed the club for less than a decade. Dry your eyes lads.

Then we move onto Tottenham. The gift that keeps on giving. They are apparently planning to rename themselves WonNothing Hotspurs. Because once again, they are set to win nothing. 7 FA Cup semi final defeats in a row.

Over half a century without a league title. More than quarter of a century without an FA Cup. A decade without a trophy. It is laughable.

Their fans keep going on about a ‘power shift’ from one end of the Seven Sisters Road to the other. The fact is in Arsenal’s worst season in 21 years, they are in an FA Cup Final. Spurs best season in 2 decades will see them trophyless.

What I have found hilarious about Spurs fans is they are basically Arsenal fans of 10 years ago:

  • Constantly talking about project youth highlighting their young talented players, to justify lack of success
  • Blaming the stadium move for their failure
  • Top 4 is their everything
  • Bashing on about net spends and lower wages bills

Arsenal fans made these excuses 10 years ago. We were still making the same excuses 5 years ago. 2 FA Cup wins and another final coming up and Arsenal fans are still unhappy. Still looking bigger. Meanwhile Spurs are delighted with an FA Cup Semi Final and finishing 2nd in the league.

The fact is, Arsene Wenger has won more titles in England than Tottenham. He won one of them on Spurs ground. That was 13 years ago today. There will not even be a sniff of a power shift until Spurs start winning things. Talk of ‘top young English talent’ and ‘a new stadium’ means nothing if your trophy cabinet is empty.

After Dele Alli won PFA Young Player of the year for the 2nd season in the row, Spurs fans boasted about how their players had won 5 of the last 6 awards. But individual awards mean nothing if the team wins nothing. Like Gareth Bale, it will not be too long before the likes of Alli, Harry Kane, et al realise that they will never win anything at Won Nothing Hotspur and look for a move elsewhere.

This weekend we play Spurs away. Spurs are going to finish above Arsenal for the 1st time in 22 years. Arsenal have an FA Cup Final to look forward too.

Moaning Manchester City fans and Spurs still in Arsenal’s shadow.

Keenos

Defending Wenger, Re-arranged Fixtures and Jurgen Klopp

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Defending Wenger

Arsene Wenger’s time at Arsenal is coming to an end. I have felt he should have left a couple of years ago. Back to back FA Cups – a remarkable achievement – gave him a stay of execution; but now is the time for him to hang up the blazer, to call it a day.

The recent march’s have been supported well and highlight fans dissatisfaction with the situation. For the most part, they have been respectful whilst forceful. But then is always a minority that spoil it.

Over the last few days, there have been some despicable comments towards Arsene Wenger and the board.

Wenger has once more been compared to Robert Mugabe – a dictator who calls himself the “Hitler of the time…let me be Hitler tenfold”.

Mugabe has overseen a period of history where hundreds of thousands of his citizens have been slaughtered, and many more displaced. His actions have been sickening.

For fans to compare the likes of Mugabe (Kim Jong Il, Pol Pot and Adolf Hitler) to Arsene Wenger is nothing short of a disgrace.

These men have overseen the slaughter, torture and persecution of millions of innocent men, women and children. Arsene Wenger has led Arsenal to 4th 6 times…

One of the march organisers attempted to condone the Mugabe comments. To justify them. And they wonder why the majority of fans will not stand alongside them when calling for Wenger to go.

At a protest last season at Norwich, arsenal fans were caught on camera holding a banner singing how they wanted “Wenger to die in May”.

Add in the wishes of death board members, and the usual cancer comments by some kid trying to pretend he is the leader and organiser of the Wenger Out march’s, it all leaves a nasty little taste in your mouth.

There are fans out their who dedicate Facebook pages to abusing Arsene Wenger. Spend 24/7 tweeting bile.

These Arsenal fans have shown no class. They have forgotten who they are, who they represent. And it is the vile comments of this minority that lead to the majority of those who want Wenger to leave, like myself, to be unwilling to go on a march, to stand next to someone calling for an Arsenal legend to die of cancer.

Any Wenger Out movement loses its point, it’s relevance, when idiots involved compare Wenger to murderous dictators and wish cancer on people.

Want him out? Fair enough. But stay classy and your voice will be heard.

Re-arranged Fixtures

Arsenal now have 3 fixtures that need to be re-arranged.

Leicester and Sunderland at home, and an away game against Southampton, with once again UEFA interference delaying the process and making it that little bit more awkward.

A national association can not schedule a domestic top tier game on the same day as a European match without firstly gaining the permission of UEFA. A load of bollocks. That means Arsenal and the Premier League can not begin the re-arranging of the above games until the draw for the QF of the Champions League has taken place.

UEFA would not stand for it being Arsenal v Leicester at the same time as Manchester City (if they qualify) are playing in the Champions League. The Arsenal game would get a lot more viewers, leaving UEFA and it’s sponsors very unhappy.

The draw for the Champions League Quarter Finals is this Friday, with the first legs being played on 11 and 12 April, and the second legs will be played on 18 and 19 April 2017.

With the TV company scheduling deciding to give Arsenal back to back Monday night games, 2 weeks in mid-April are already written off as no-go’s.

The first available date for a reschedule will be the 25/26 of April. A game sandwiched between the FA Cup Semi Final and Spurs away. The hope is Arsenal play on the Saturday in the FA Cup, then have a re-arranged fixture on Wednesday 26th, before Spurs away on the Sunday.

The week after the Spurs game is a European week, so if Arsenal and the Premier League wish to schedule a game during that week, they will need the permission of UEFA. The week after is the same.

For Arsenal to fulfil their fixtures in time, UEFA’s hand will have to be forced, as if they deny the scheduling of a fixture the same day as a Champions League tie, it leaves just one more mid-week before Everton on the final day to schedule a game. And if you have been keeping up, Arsenal still need to reschedule 2 more games

This would all be solved if:

a) UEFA were not so greedy and let national associations schedule games when they wish
b) TV companies did not do stupid stuff like have Arsenal playing away to Middlesbrough on a Monday.

As always, the last people on anyone’s mind are the match day going fans.

Jurgen Klopp

Jurgen Klopp. The second coming. The greatest manager since King Kenny. Revitalising Liverpool. Resorting them to their former greatness. Or that is what the media would have you think.

In fact, as we sit here in the middle of March, Liverpool are the only side in the top 6 who have no realistic chance of a trophy.

With 4 of the top 5 in the semi final of the FA Cup (I thought the big sides did not take it seriously anymore?) and Man U still in European – and having already won the League Cup – Liverpool fans have no choice but to look on with jealous glances.

4th in the league, 11 points off top having played a game more, not in Europe and out of the cup, it will be the 5th year on the spin the Scousers have gone potless.

Not only is their season done and dusted in terms of trophies, Liverpool are also the only side in the top 6 who would not have had a trip to Wembley this season. Poor little things.

Of course, the press might decide that “4th place is a trophy” and will continue to point to their “progression” but when it comes down to it, Liverpool’s seasons is over once more before the clocks spring forward, and it is now 5 years without a trophy.

Klopp is doing a great job.

Keenos