When you are proven wrong you can apologise, shut up or talk about something else « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager

By Tony Attwood

There is, I think, a feeling about games, and I got the same feeling no less than four times before saturday’s match even started.

…Talking in the car on the way down with Drew, a lecturer in history at my local university whose period of interest almost overlaps with my knockabout approach to the past in “Making the Arsenal”.

…Walking from the pub to the ground with Lakshit, a dedicated fan from India for whom this was just his second match (having only recently come to the UK) but whose knowledge of everything Arsenal is extraordinary.

…Being stopped on the way round to Entrance D by a gent who recognised me and so warmly shook me by the hand and thanked me for Untold.  (It’s not all me you know, but I took the thanks on behalf of everyone who contributes).

…Sitting as always next to Stefan from Germany who always gives me his prediction before the game (“3-0″ he said this time – how does he do that?)

Everyone had this relaxed feeling that said, we are getting this right, we are on the right track.  This is working.  This new team.  This is us.  This is the Arsenal.

The point is that there is a feel about Arsenal as we emerge from the darkness and enter Wenger 3.0 which I have not experienced since the days of Wenger 2.0, the days when you just knew it would all be ok.  The days when we could and did beat anyone.

To get this feeling you need a goalkeeper you believe in absolutely, you need a centre back pairing who can run and do an intercept before the opposing forward even kicks the ball, you need a midfield sweeper who is always there, and whose movement out of defence and whose forward passing is assured at all times.  And you need a midfield link man and passer.  Oh, and a forward or two who can do the business.

The names come back, Henry, Pires, Vieira, Lehmann, Campbell, Toure, Gilberto, Bergkamp…  Names now written so tall that it seems lunatic to compare anyone to that group.

But apart from one season, they were not infallible.  And let us not forget that in the unbeaten season we included Cygan for 18 games, Reyes for 13, Aliadiere for 10…  Not everyone was a powerhouse footballing genius.

My point is that in thinking of the past the images we have are of the moments replayed eternally on DVDs.  But we can get a better perspective if we try to remember the feeling of the games rather than the detail.   That feeling that even if we drew 0-0 at home to Fulham, we were basically ok.  Even if we were 1-0 down to Leicester at half time we could still come back and keep the whole season as one long unbeaten season.

And I am suggesting here that all through last saturday that sort of feeling was creeping back.  Not a feeling that we could win the league, but a feeling of confidence.  A feeling that this team can do things.

Of course 9 wins 1 defeat and 1 draw in the last 11 games is quite a good record and that helps.   (So does the fact that we are finally back into the plus side of things with goal difference).  But it is more than that.  It is the feeling that if Cesc were still with us and coming back from injury I would nevertheless want Ramsey to play.   Maybe Cesc could be better than Ramsey for a few games, but there is something growing inside Ramsey and I don’t want it stopped.

And as for Van Persie…  He can’t be compared as a player to Henry, but we can say that with him on the pitch there is a feeling that a goal could come from anywhere any time.   Will Robin ever invent things like the freekick taken without the whistle (perfectly within the rules until the refs stopped it by their silly whistle pointing antics)?   Will Robin try a 1-2 penalty as Henry did with Pires (and cocked it up big time!!!)?   Maybe not.   But the goalscoring is there, and how.

But what of all those who told us that the transfer dealings were a disaster?  They were telling us we would be relegated after the 8-2, just as they called for Wenger to be sacked after Manchester United 6 Arsenal 1 in February 2001 (played incidentally with many of the players who contributed so much to 2003/4).

No one apologised then for calling for the outing of the man who could deliver the unbeaten season, and no one is apologising now for their early comments.  Instead  they are simply changing their tune.

Look at this line from the Observer this weekend…

“Believe the hype or not, there is more to this team than Robin van Persie.”

So, newspaper ravings about Arsenal’s decline and fall are now just called “hype”.  Odd that.

Of course feelings can be deceptive, but as I watched the fragments of the game that appeared on Match of the Day on saturday night what I saw was Ramsey do a staggering pass to Theo for the shot that led to the first goal.   I saw Vermaelen get one and almost a second.  I saw Koscielny keep going as a magnificent defender, and started to feel that injury willing we have another pairing to remember for a long time to come: Koscielny and Vermaelen.  Vermaelen and Koscielny.  Ver Kos.  Kos Ver.  KV?  VK?  There must be a way of saying it.

And to my surprise (yes I admit it, I have been slightly worried) I saw what others have seen long before me in  Carl Jenkinson.  Another extraordinary discovery.

We all know about Alex (“not fit to wear the shirt”) Song (no apologies there from anyone who called for him to be removed from the club, I note), but there is also a growing admiration for Arteta (only £10m – that looks a snip).

So on to Match of the Day – and no apologies there for their earlier comments and predictions either.  In fact, unless somehow I missed it all, no commentary – couple of interviews and straight onto the next game, in the desperate hope perhaps that no one would notice 9 wins, 1 draw, 1 defeat.  Did they actually show Vermaelen’s interception of Tchoyi’s ball?  Maybe I was nodding off by then as I had made the mistake of leaving the sound on.

As I say, it is all about feeling.  But what struck me was that we have had this feeling before – and the outcome was rather good.  I am not saying this team is as good as the 2003/4 team.  No team is that good.   But there are moments when I could almost be back then.