I Said Please!!!

To quote Wheatus, "man I feel like mould". 

From quadruple chatter (yes I know it was ridiculous), to a good chance of another trophyless season. 

The Liverpool fan at work has barely spoken to me all season. Today he won't stop messaging me. 

Even some Sp*rs fans I met up with on the weekend were laughing at me - SP*RS.

To demand so much of the fans, asking us to 'bring our dinner' when we all know nobody wants to smell the reheated leftover salmon I had for an easy meal. To build up that game with the motivational videos and clips of our players watching TikTok edits as they turned the training ground into an outdoor cinema. Only to turn up and perform like that? Embarrassing. Pathetic. 

Our performance was a disgrace to be honest. The same issues occurring as we have seen so many times this season. The attack? Ineffective. The defence? Shattered and making mistakes. Creativity? None. We make it seem so so difficult to score a goal. Bournemouth were decent but nothing spectacular. A lucky deflection helped for their first but our defending up to that point wasn't good enough. As for the second goal, shocking defending and again making it so easy to bop the ball around our players and cut through us down the middle like a hot knife through butter. What more motivation do the players need to be up for this game? The chance to go 12 points clear ahead of City playing Chelsea provides no greater incentive. I think that Chelsea vs City game plays out differently if we had done our job the day before. City might've still won but it wouldn't have been in the manner that it was. 

Players being shattered, like I think is the case for whatever this Zubimendi shadow is doing at the moment in midfield, is not an excuse. Why buy Nørgaard only to barely use him to give Zubimendi rest throughout the season? Why keep Ben White on the bench mid season if he wasn't fit to play? Or if he was fit, why not rotate him with Timber to prevent our first choice right back from being run into the ground and not available for crunch time in April?

Yes we have some injuries but the players on the pitch should have had enough to win the game. I said the same about the cup final and the Southampton game. What was worrying here is that Bournemouth seemed to beat us using similar tactics to Southampton and City in the cup final. This tells me teams have worked us out and there is now a blueprint to beating Arsenal. 

We deserve every bit of stick we get, every criticism from rivals and the media, every bottle thrown our way, if we do what we seem to be trying our best to do, which is crash out of all competitions within a month. 

I understand we have some significant injuries, I understand we haven't won it in a long time and that creates a different kind of pressure. But we have waited 22 years, including this 6.5 year process under this manager. We have been more than patient and supportive as fans. We have batted away all the criticism about our style of play this season with stats, results and blind faith in this project. We pay a lot of money to watch this team and have been willing to sacrifice a nice style of play this season for trophies and success. But if it doesn't happen, after the commanding position we got ourselves into in the league, after the favourable draws across, let's face it, all the cups this season...after the huge transfer activity in the summer to build a squad that was ready to get over the line...there is no excuse. 

There is nowhere to run, nothing to hide behind. This is at risk of becoming an almighty choke, bottle job (yes I said it) and a failure of a season if we carry on as we are. That poses serious questions for the manager, a chunk of our players, the club overall. 

The way I see it, if we lose to City on the weekend then it is over. There will be no more goal difference advantage and they will likely win their game in hand to go level on points with us. This is after we have been top for 147 nights (since September) and have had multiple chances to go 12 or 15 points clear at times this season. Do I think we can do it? Not at the moment when you look at the way we are playing. I hate to be so negative but it's hard not to be when you are absolutely on the floor after being let down again by the club you love and invest so much into. 

Let's not even think about the possibility of throwing it away vs Sporting on Wednesday. I'm at that game so I will see the toxicity in the stadium brewing if that game starts going wrong. If Arsenal want to restore some confidence, they need to go out and convincingly dispatch of Sporting. Also, we need some of our top players back from injury. Then we might have some hope going to the Etihad. Otherwise, this blog might last about as long as our title charge during April. I joke about that last part but lord knows this will be tough to write if things turn sour. 

Happy Monday everyone! 😁