Fighting the fight « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

The Christmas gift for the fan with (almost) everything

By Walter Broeckx

How the season will end? Nobody knows. I think not even Wenger knows. Well he might have a pretty good idea on how it could end but for us mortal souls we just have no idea.

The season started in a real mess. Two of our best players went away. A third one got a bad injury. We had to play qualifiers for the CL which cost a lot of energy. You remember we had to play Udinese. Once we won against them both games the media and some part of the fans said that it was only Udinese. A team of nobodies. Well incidentally this Udinese team is standing second in the Serie A for the moment only 1 point behind leader Juventus. So beating them twice was in fact a great achievement.

But this achievement cost a lot. It was the prelude for some injured players and so we suffered a heavy defeat at Old Trafford. The fact that we had to dig deep to win at Udinese was easily forgotten as the cry for Wenger out was the flavour of the day by some part of the fans. So we lost 3 points and a bit of pride on the day. We will have lost some fans maybe that day. The sort we should be glad to lose. Supporting a football team is in the good days, but even more in the bad days.

But since then things have gradually gone better. We bought a few players at the end of the transfer window. Wenger has been very careful with the players who came from another country to not burn them from the first minute. Much to the annoyance of some part of the fans who were saying that Park, not to name him, probable was going to be the worst Arsenal player ever.

Meanwhile Wenger was working with Park on the training field. Helping him to adjust to a new country, a new club, new team mates, another league and trying to speak with him so they could understand each other. And the first game Park played in he was still adjusting to this new world. But in our game against Bolton he showed what he can bring to this team. He played very high up the field and was caught a few times being offside. But it were always very close calls from the assistants and waiting a split second to start his run could have been the difference between going one on one with the keeper some 5 or 6 times and not just the one time now.

And that one time was… well a great finish. We mustn’t get carried away immediately but how many times did we see Thierry Henry in such a position and scoring like that? Park also coming from Monaco (as did Henry at first) so will he also follow him in his footsteps for the rest. Was it any coincidence that Wenger in his pre match interview referred to Pires and Henry when pointing at having patience with Park?

I think Wenger knew all too well what Park when fully adapted can bring to Arsenal. He surely is not afraid to shoot on goal, he can head a ball and win some battles in the air. And he works hard. Always trying to close the defenders down when he could. So a very high work rate also. So after all maybe we have found another Wenger buy who will deliver when he is completely ready and integrated in the Arsenal team.

7 wins in our last 8 games. Apart from Manchester City and United maybe no other team can say they did it. And what pleased me most in those wins was not the beautiful game we played. Because losing Cesc, Nasri and Wilshere (who will be back later this season)  is still visible in the way we play. But what pleased me more was the fact that the team has shown a lot of determination. When things didn’t go to plan they dug deeper in their resources. Even Arshavin has been seen fighting and making tackles when playing. Not that all the players played great but most of the players fought for the cause when on the pitch. Each with their own way of fighting but they showed us that when the beautiful game is absent for obvious reasons the Gunners know that they have to run faster, jump higher, fight harder to win a game. And that is exactly what they did in those last 7 games.

With more players coming back like Vermaelen and Diaby the squad gets even bigger. More rotation will be possible. More players will get some rest when needed. Who knows what will happen in the next months? I don’t know but I feel that if we keep on fighting like we do we will get even better results.

In fact the only thing that I really am sure of is the fact that I enjoy what my Gunners are doing. Not as pretty as last seasons for the moment but that will come back. But my God we do have a bunch of players willing to fight and work for each others. And as football is a team sport this is the basic foundation for any successful team.   And remember: the stronger the foundation, the stronger the fort.

PS: For those who have seen the speech Wenger gave at the AGM: this article was written the day before the AGM

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