Monday, February 28th, 2011 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

By Walter Broeckx

I wonder what is the hardest thing to take?  Losing a final to Birmingham City is hard. Certainly when we could have won it. More possession, more shots on target, more shots of target, more corners. The last half hour Szczesny was almost a spectator if you compare it with the things Foster had to do. And then suddenly a black out between our keeper and a central defender. And the final was over.  So that itself is hard to take. I think the way it happened was a very big blow.

And I can understand people are frustrated about that. I think I can say that even I am frustrated. But I feel more frustrated about the fact that we are playing too many games recently. And most of all that this high rhythm of games is costing us in terms of injuries. We lost Cesc and Walcott in midweek and those would be starting if they would have been fit. In the game we also lost Van Persie who had hurt his knee when scoring and couldn’t play any further and had to be replaced.  So that is 3 of our top performers this season going down in a few days.  And I am not looking for an excuse but I don’t think you can say it helped our chances of a good performance.

But when I see some people coming over to proclaim that we are doomed forever and bring in the nationality of some people involved I think they are going a bit out of order. Or people who based on this game (which we would have won if it wouldn’t have been for that dreadful mistake) can say that we are worthless are totally forgetting what this team has achieved so far.

And yes we haven’t won anything this season. In fact the only team to have won something this season is…. Birmingham. Chelsea, United,City and all the others have all won nothing since the first day of the league so far. They even didn’t make it to Wembley. What a poor team they are if I should believe some people.

Yes we lost a chance of winning a trophy this season. But we came close. Much closer than the other top teams.

In the league we are 4 points behind MU. And even SAF said it was a two horse race between United and Arsenal. Now I don’t like SAF but I do know that he knows a bit more about football than all those “supporters” proclaiming based on one defeat that we are a bunch of shit players with a manager of the wrong nationality.

As far as I know we are still in the FA cup as we play our next game on Wednesday against Leyton Orient. And as far as I know we are still in the Champions League and after our win against Barcelona I think you cannot say that this team is a bunch of shit.

In fact we have played 18 games now in 63 days since the fixture congestion started at the end of December. That is an average of one game each 3 days. And of those 18 games we have lost 2 games.  We got a draw on 5 occasions and the other 11 games we have won.  And yes it is very unfortunate that one of those games was the actual final. But please spare me the “we are shit” comments. Because no shit team would even win that many games when they have to play that many games.

And our last defeat in a league game was on 13 December last year when we lost at Old Trafford. Since then we have played 10 games without losing. So once gain spare me the ‘we are shit and useless’.

On a cup final (any cup final) history doesn’t count. It is 11 against 11 and not always the best team wins. Most of the time the team that made the least mistakes wins. We made one really big mistake and it cost us the game. Making mistakes is human. And as our players are human I can forgive them their mistakes.  I feel sad about them but I will not kick them out of the place they have in my heart.

So feeling down because we lost is very normal. But throwing all the toys out of the pram is a bit, well, you know what I mean.  The same players that have brought us to Wembley now have lost this game. Those things happen at Wembley and they will happen even if all of us will be dead. It’s part of football. It’s part of life.

The doomsayers will have finally their day in the sun after having to wait for such a long time with Arsenal not willing to lose any games.  So I can understand the way they have jumped on the bait to finally be able to say that Arsenal are useless.

Sorry I will not agree with this even if we have lost a final. Maybe we could have done like in the previous years and play our real second string in the Carling cup. Then we wouldn’t have got that far and it would have saved us the feelings we are having now.  But then the same people would have blamed Wenger for doing this and missing the chance to go to Wembley.

We went to Wembley. We had to play many games to get there and in doing this we lost some of our best players.  So talking with hindsight we could have just lost at WHL in the first round. That would have been an option in avoiding today’s heartbreak.

And I am down right now but as I have gained some experience in live I know that this just is a bad day, or two or three.  Tomorrow will be a definite bad day. Tuesday will be the day of coming back above the surface and looking forward to our next game.  And on Wednesday the lost league cup final will be a memory. A bad memory but just one of those bad days you have in a season.

Football is like life. Ups and downs. And if you cannot stand the downs I suggest you stop watching football. All teams lose. All teams have bad days. All teams will have moments of sadness.

My only worry right now is how the injured players are. As this will be more important for the rest of our season than losing this final. Just look at Tottenham.  After they won the Carling cup a few season ago after that they could hardly win any game. And after going losing the ½ final of the FA cup people expected them to collapse. And after that they went on an amazing run and qualified for the CL for the first time.

So saying this will happen because you think it will happen I can only tell you that I don’t know what will happen but I am not the one going to predict the future. I cannot tell you the future. The future will be visible for all of us in the next days, weeks or months. But not today.

Oh and I will be coming over next Saturday to support my beloved Gunners. And when they come out I will be clapping my hands for them till my hands are hurting. I will be singing for the Arsenal till my throat feels soar.  Really looking forward to it already.

Just get behind your Gunners, that is what I will do and what all supporters should do.