There is a lightness of spirit among Arsenal fans, particularly bloggers, at the moment, and the cause of this happy state of affairs is clearly linked to the welcome turn of events in the past few weeks which finds us perched high on the tree in the lofty position of second. Yay!

Cast your minds back, for a moment, to a bleak Thursday, on the 1st January this year to be exact, when we were convincingly larruped 2 : 0 by Southampton as a result of some extremely dodgy goalkeeping, so folklore has it, for which our then No.1 Keeper was roundly abused, and is still paying the price having been deposed as the main man.

Wasn’t it also just a short while ago when Chezzer was being hailed as one of the best keepers in the Premier League? Even Enn Gee said it was a ‘no-brainer’.

But fans are fickle, and such an accolade soon became an orphan with no one prepared to own to it — after all, no one likes lame brain ideas – or confused goalkeepers – do they?

It’s one of life’s little oddities, don’t you find, that when things are going poorly for a football team there is an almost universal chorus of complaints from committed fans, or should that read disgruntled larrikins, as encapsulated in the rather unpleasant game of ‘find the scape goat’, and to enthusiastically hurl abuse at the selected victim, and feeling better by dumping their frustrations and vitriol on the goat curry. [Goat curry – where did that come from – Enn Gee will know as it is probably another no-brainer – mine hurts sometimes – so I must have one, somewhere.]

Anyway, back to matters current – It seems that we just cannot function without finding a target, no matter how innocent – someone upon whom to vent our more base feelings, especially as it can safely be done far from any possible retaliation.

Hours of internet blogging are devoted to dissecting the team, the tactics and the supposed attitude of the club towards spending lots of lovely lolly on acquiring, or not acquiring, the latest fad for a sooper-dooper player

That largesse with splashing the cash is made much easier, of course, when the money in question is not your own.

I would not be surprised if you had heard something along the lines of; “I would not pay him more than £120k per week” says the man earning the average wage of £400 per week, or – “He is worth every penny of that £50m transfer fee” quoth the man who would need to work 2,500 lifetimes to earn the money he has so cavalierly advised the club to lash the cash on just one player, and all at the stroke of a pen. Someone else’s pen – someone else’s cash — as for other players he/they deem be essential, he will have plenty of advice on their salaries and how much they are worth in the transfer market too, no problem.

Then, naturally, when the club buy the player he has been so desperate for them to spend their money on – say – a £42m transfer fee – with the commensurate £40m salary spread over 4 years, on -say – Özil – just for example, you understand – and the acquired player is subsequently deemed not to be as good as expected, or is not trying hard enough, or is showing little interest, or is too lazy, or is just too ……… (fill in the blanks) – despite evidence to the contrary – then the same people will declare that the club has wasted good money on him, which has allegedly come out of their season ticket!! Yee Gods!!

Enough. We are happy – aren’t we? Second, and yet to meet the Chavs – everything is possible isn’t it, so what is to stop us from dreaming of the top spot?

Wait! Hold the ‘phone! What is this I am hearing on the blog vine?

We-have-not-improved-year-on-year.

It-is-only-the-weakness-of-other-teams-which-has-allowed-us-to-go-second.

Sheesh – what I mistook for a lightness of spirit due to our lofty position near the top of the table, is in fact a delight, in some quarters, at being able to trot out some half-assed derogatory assessment of the ‘real worth’ of our recent winning streak.

Apparently. it is not that we are playing well, and Özil and co are showing their true worth – no – it is because the other teams are crap. Seriously?

Apparently this assessment does not apply to the Chavs who are deemed worthy leaders of the league, it seems – presumably because they play different teams to the ones we meet every week?

Well, mock outrage aside, I do not really care about the inexplicable attitudes of others towards my team.

No. For me, I am simply enjoying the return to the joyous style of football that we seemed to have forsaken for a while back there, and the fact that there is a more resolute attitude displayed by our defence in recent times is welcome too, and does not in any way detract from our attacking virtuosity, but adds its own subtle nuances to our overall gameplay.

Fortunately, AA is an oasis of calm and there is a genuinely upbeat attitude towards the club, the team and the manager.

Long may it stay so! [It’s a ‘no-brainer’, innit?]

Arsenal forever. Come on you Gooners!! 🙂

written by Red Arse