History repeats itself…but look at what followed « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

By Walter Broeckx

This was a difficult day to be an Arsenal supporter. Let me start by congratulating the away supporters. For a large part of the second half I heard them support the team.  Even my match commentator said they out sung the home supporters at that time. Despite the difficult game they showed that they are true supporters.

In the darkest hours as a football supporter one can do two things. You could have a go at the whole team, the players, the manager, the board. Or you could say: ‘okay, such things happen in live. Being a football supporter is not always rosy and shiny. This is part of it.”

We could look at some maybe valid excuses. The penalty miss from Van Persie when it was 1-0. The missed chances after that. The unbelievable perfection of almost every shot and free kick from United that for some reason always ended in the top corner of our goal. We could look at the missed chances that could have brought us back to 3-2. We could point at the fatigue that entered the team after one hour when it showed we had been playing a difficult away game at Udinese on Wednesday evening.

But we know such a defeat is sometimes part of the game. Even more because…. well we have seen it before. And I don’t want to add to the pain but this wasn’t the first time Arsenal suffered a hard an heavy defeat at Old Trafford. We can only hope that just like the last time it happened we can avoid such thing for a few years now.

Because it was 10 years ago we suffered a similar thing. It was 25/02/2001. And we lost 6-1. Now we all could say that the players who were out on the pitch are worthless after such a defeat. We could say that we must get rid of them. But if we would have done this in2001 we would have lost a few legendary players. Because the starting line up in that game were:

Goalkeeper: David Seaman

Defenders:  Oleg Luzhny, Ashley Cole, Gilles Grimandi, Igors Stepanovs

Midfielders: Robert Pires, Patrick Vieira, Ray Parlour, Silvinho

Strikers:   Sylvain Wiltord, Thierry Henry

Seaman stayed another few years around and brought us another 2 FA cup victories.

Ashley Cole became a part of the invincible before turning in to the money grabbing person he still is.

Just look at our midfield…. Robert Pires was there. Ray Parlour was there.  And most of all… Patrick Vieira was on the receiving end of this bad loss.

And we had Wiltord in our attack, who one year later took revenge  by scoring the winner when we won  the league at Old Trafford. And we had Thierry Henry in attack. The best goal scorer in our history.

The team that was out there in the field was actually the core of the invincibles. Also Ljunberg came in later in the game. Another future invincible.

The core of that team won us the double just one season later.  Yes there were some changes in that team. Just as I think there will be some changes when all our players are back fit and not suspended.  And I think that even when we play next time we will have some changes. As there always will be changes in a team. When some players are back we already have on our books we will be stronger. And if we can add a few names in the next days we will be stronger.

And if you look at the names I mentioned in the team that lost at Old Trafford in 2001 you see that this team contained half of the invincibles in fact.  I spell their names out once again: Cole, Pires, Parlour,  Wiltord, Vieira, Henry, Wiltord. That is 7 players who formed an integral part of the invincible.  I really don’t know what the supporters said after the defeat at Old Trafford 10 years ago.

I can imagine them blaming Wenger, the players for not having what it takes. Well one season later they proved them all wrong. And a few years later when they were on their peak they brought us the invincible season.

Sometimes history repeats itself. As it did today with our defeat which brought us the painful memory back of that defeat 10 years ago. Well after that defeat we only became better. And had one of the best spells in our history even with going a whole season unbeaten.

So if you want to throw all and everyone away…just as could have happened 10 years ago.. we maybe would never have had a title each year  and an invincible season.

So just like the away supporters who backed the team I will support the team. Yes it is painful. But nobody promised me that there would be no pain when supporting Arsenal. Nobody said that this will not happen to us. Defeat is part of life. And what is important is that we try to learn from our defeat.

Who knows maybe the defeat at Old Trafford 10 years ago was a blessing in disguise. Maybe the pain on that day inspired the core of the invincible to their greatness later on.  So what looks terrible today might just be the start of a new bright tomorrow for our club and for many of the players that were on the field today.  Sometimes shit happens. Sometimes you step in to the shit. It’s painful and embarrassing. But the only thing you can do is clean up your shoe and get on with life.

Come on you Gunners.

PS: Oh and I will be there for the next home game against Swansea. I will be travelling a few hundred miles just to show you that whatever happens I will be there to support you. Come good times, come bad times.  Once a Gooner, always a Gooner.  No defeat can kill my love for the Arsenal. It didn’t kill my love 10 years ago. And even now I am so glad I didn’t turn my back on you when things went against us.