Unfortunately, Arsenal has left it to a last gasp scramble to get over the line for a Champions League qualification place and the first silverware in a long long time. Now, where have we heard that one before? It took a herculean effort, and plenty of nerves, to get over the line this time last year. And yes, the good guys have left it late this year as well.

So, can we do it? Can we make it again? And will we top it up with glory at Wembley? And finally, what does this bode for next year?

Only seven games to go in a season defining final push for Arsenal. First up is Roberto Martinez’s former team Wigan Athletic. The current holders of the FA Cup, Wigan has had recent and remarkable success at Wembley and have defeated Manchester City not once but twice in two consecutive years in the FA Cup. Can we do it? Oh yes, certainly. But will we? Why not? With our talisman Rambo back from injury, and the team hurting after a sensational collapse away to Roberto’s current team Everton, what better time to show your mettle than now? Surely, we back them to show fine spirit and passion and clinch a FA Cup final appearance!

With another appearance in Wembley secure in the bag, what arrives then is the significant matter of securing 4th spot in the League and Champions League qualification. Five games come up in succession:

v West Ham (H) – Tue April 15
v Hull (A) – Sat April 19
v Newcastle (H) – Mon April 28
v West Brom (H) – Sun April 4
v Norwich (A) – Sun 11 May

Winning all five games will not guarantee a CL spot. Unfortunately the outcome is out of our hands now. But there is plenty to play for. And if I were a betting man, I would say we will do it. Everton have a difficult run-in and are expected to drop points. Then, 5 wins will get us through.

Further, all these five games are extremely winnable. It took Liverpool two lucky penalties to defeat Big Sam’s West Ham, but they are at best a mildly competitive mid-table team playing away from home this time round. Koscielny is scheduled to be back for this game.

Hull is another mid-table team and equally uninspiring. But they are competitive and also play in the FA Cup semis. This game could be a dress rehearsal of the FA Cup final in case Hull manage to edge Sheffield United out in the semis. The Wizard of Ozil could be back from injury in this game. This is be another great boost in our final push.

Next up are home games against Newcastle and West Brom. Newcastle are in a run of poor form home and away, and West Brom are just about edging their way away from the drop-zone. That then leaves a final day scramble against Norwich away. A terrible team under a new manager, but a crucial game that could prove immensely important for us. Absolutely no reason why we should not edge it. In short, just the small but not ignorable matter of 5 games that we should win. And we will win, aided not least by the return of Ramsey and Ozil. Oh, how dearly we have missed the duo.

And finally, the FA Cup final against the survivor of the Hull vs Sheffield United tie. Once again, a match that we should win, and thereby clinch our first silverware in 9 long years. A lot of history associated with this game. Our previous silverware was the FA Cup as well, won against Manchester United in penalties. Ah, what a day it was!

And that is not the only Manchester United connection this time round. The Cup game this weekend will be Arsenal’s 27th FA Cup Semi-Final appearance, equalling Manchester United’s record. Our FA Cup win will also see us equal Manchester United’s record of 11 triumphs.

Is that all that the end of the season holds for us? Not quite. The junior Gunners have had a mixed season this year, but will also play the FA Youth Cup semifinals against Chelsea this week. On show are, among others, Chuba Akpom, Leander Siemann, Gedion Zelalem and Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill, all potential names for the future.

So friends, all to play for. A big effort required from all and sundry, the manager and the team, but most importantly the fans. Back the good guys, chums, and revel in their big efforts in the end of the season gambit.

If there was ever the need for passion, big heart and unconditional support for whoever puts the shirt on, now is it. Other things can wait! 7 games left, only, and 7 wins is the target. No more, no less! It is achievable, and let us put our hands together and make it happen.

COYRRG!!!

Written by arnie

There is an old Chinese curse that goes: “May you live in interesting times.”

It is aimed at impatient people; people who are bored; people who want change for the sake of change.

The implication is that although you may hate the status quo, you would be wise to beware of what comes after.

When the third goal went in up at Everton I had a strong feeling that we may be witnessing the end of era.

And not just any era. When the end of the Arsene Wenger era comes it will be the footballing equivalent of the Fall of Rome.

Compared with M. Wenger’s tenure, the reigns of other football managers are mere hillocks in the landscape of history. Wenger’s reign is a mountain – an elegant, ice-capped peak whose stature is rivaled only by the craggy, fractured slopes of Mount Fergie – a once-thunderous volcano now sitting sullenly dormant.

Why did I wonder if we were watching the end of this era?

Because it seemed unfair to ask him to take much more of this punishment: to watch his team (and by extension himself) humiliated again; to know the vitriol and hatred that would inevitably follow; to turn up to work the next day and have to start all over again.

If we fail to beat Wigan this weekend I now feel he will call it quits at the end of the season.

If we get to the Cup Final and lose, ditto.

If we win the Cup and finish fifth… again, ditto.

If we win the Cup and finish fourth… well, that’s a tougher one but I still suspect he will call it a day. He will see out his contract as he famously always does. And then he will bid us all farewell.

Few of us would blame him. Few of us could take the incessant criticism and abuse without it seriously affecting our mental health and our sense of our own worth. The fact that he has stuck it out this long is a testimony to his fortitude and intelligence.

But when he is driven out of the club to which he has contributed so much, we will be entering “interesting times.”

There is a lazy assumption that we will snap up some hotshot young manager who will immediately achieve the success that has eluded M. Wenger. Not so long ago the people who advocated this approach were all for us bringing in Michael Laudrup or Paul Lambert. Or even Andre Villas Boas, heaven help us.

Well, if Arsene Wenger quits we should prepare for a rocky road.

Yes, we could do an Everton. We could find a younger manager who lifts us to another level, but there is a greater likelihood of us doing a Manchester United.

And it will not take too long before people start looking back on the Wenger Era with nostalgia and affection.

This is not a Post about whether or not he should go. For the record I think he should stay because I believe that with a proper transfer budget this summer building on the excellent squad we currently have he can again fashion a team of champions.

If we flattered to deceive at times this season with our table-topping run, the heavy away defeats to big teams are equally an unfair reflection of our capabilities.

However I can understand those who feel his time is up, that the failings have become chronic and beyond his ability to fix. I am happy to accept that he is far from perfect: that he should have bought another striker in January; that he should have got to the bottom of our injury issues by now and much more.

Many decent and respectful Gunners have now reluctantly come to the conclusion that he should go. They tend to be drowned out by the clamour of the ignorant and the abusive who express similar sentiments in unacceptable ways.

And we are fast approaching the time, I fear, when these people will get their way.

I am not looking forward to it.

However, for now I will make a particular point of appreciating our manager whatever the results, whatever we achieve or fail to achieve in the remainder of the season.

These may be his last days and I will give them the respect they and he are due. It’s more important than winning and losing.

After one of our recent heavy defeats a better man than me had this to say:

“Football is only truly a business to those who A, rely on it for their salary or B, own shares in it. For the rest of us it is either a passion, a way of life or in many cases a family tradition.

“For me it has been a distraction and motivation through life that has taken my mind off business and filled the boring hours on uncountable motorways and airports and created opportunities to meet and make friends on many a terrace and in many places when I would have been lonely without it.

“Funny game football, which is why I find it amusing that so many of us who have no first hand experience of the business called AFC feel qualified to pass judgement on the course and direction of an entity for which we have no first hand knowledge. Even the mighty guardians entrenched in the fourth estate pontificate their perceived wisdom based on at best second hand information or at worst self published claptrap. As for living in the past – knowledge is gained through experience and what we see today is often relevant to the history of which we are all part.”

But then dandan always did have a way of finding the right words to encourage the better angels of our nature.

RockyLives

It is a widely held belief that lack of squad depth has attributed to our slide away from the top of the table to a position where some fans are concerned about our ability to hang on to fourth place.

This is a perfectly reasonable stance, but I have a question….did it have to be this way?

During most of the 12/13 season and the one before that and probably the one before the most popular references to out of favour players was deadwood, a fairly unkind term used to describe players who in the blogger’s opinion had become surplus to requirements if Arsenal wanted to achieve things.

At the end of the 12/13 season several of these players left the club:

Gervinho
Mannone
Arshavin
Chamakh
Squillacci
Santos

Also on their way were a whole raft of youth teamers who didn’t make the grade, plus some who just couldn’t quite make it in to the first team squad.

One name on that list leaps out at me…..so here’s the question would our squad look better with Gervinho still in it?

Would we be looking at the left side of midfield thinking “if only we had a pacy winger”.

I know Gervinho was not a world beater, but he gave us options, the level of criticism fired at him meant Arsène felt compelled to sell him for his own benefit.

And this is where as Arsenal fans we probably need to alter our thinking, we seem to judge every player as if they should be a World Class talent or at least as good as the man he could replace in the team. And when we have judged them with that yardstick and decided they don’t measure up we hammer them until we ask “Why doesn’t Gervinho look up for it today?”.

We appear to be heading in a similar direction with Giroud and Podolski, some fans have decided they are not good enough so send them back from whence they come….wouldn’t it be better to find better players but also keep the players we have in the squad too?

Gooner in Exile