Happy days are here again

Sunday’s match against Manchester City was a great relief to Arsenal fans, who have of late become accustomed to seeing the Gunners lose all too frequently to top flight sides. The 2 -0 winning margin was even sweeter.

Manager Arsene Wenger maintains that his faith in the side paid off. I so despise that word, faith. They just put in a great performance, and they have demonstrated that they are capable of beating the best. Sunday’s feat gives me confidence that they will once again capture their familiar place in the top four; perhaps even do better than the fourth place finish of last season.

Go Gunners!

In Wenger we trust… no more

I know it’s a cheap shot blaming just Arsene Wenger for Arsenal’s woes. There’s probably more to their decline than just him.

However, as the coach he is responsible for their on-field competence. The board and other sinister behind-the-scenes goings-on can’t be held responsible for their shoddy defence and inability to put the ball in the back of the net.

Calling their defence shoddy is actually a kindness. It is in reality non-existent. The 2-1 defeat to Tottenham is a glaring example. Their situational awareness in front of their own goal is unbelievably pathetic. But that’s not all – their situational awareness in the opposition goal area is just as bad.

I’m sick to death of hearing about how the team has heart, and mental fortitude… when they manage to scrape the odd win. If they had real heart, they would be winning more games, not by the skin of their teeth, but by impressive margins. Sadly the impressive margins come far too seldom; the shattering losses far too often.

This team is on its way to becoming just another mid-team side. The fans, so used to the high quality and standards will not tolerate this slide for long. It’s time for Wenger to acquire players with real heart, with real mental and physical toughness. These nancy boys who are just interested in picking up a paycheck will simply not do.

The alternative off course is for the Arsenal Football Club to withdraw from the EPL and concentrate on being a training academy. Because that’s what they do best at present. The fans want to see winners, not profitable stars-in-the-making.

Did divine intervention gun down Liverpool?

Fifty minutes into the EPL (English Premier League) match between Liverpool and Arsenal yesterday, right-back Glen Johnson must have been a pretty happy chappy with his side leading 1-0. Then came that fateful moment when he scored an own goal while trying to clear a cross from Arsenal into the goal area.

His expression immediately afterwards as he looked questioningly towards the sky, was almost exactly what I have witnessed countless number of times on players faces (religiously inclined, at any rate) when they are the cause of things going wrong in sports contests. One could translate that skyward search into many phrases, but the simplest would be “why me, what did I do to deserve this?” It could also be used as an attempt by the player to seek absolution; a gesture to the crowd as if to say “hey it’s not my fault, the big guy up there does not like us today for some reason.”

Why do even, professional sportsmen and women in the modern world, still believe that their performance is either guided or influenced by a supernatural or divine entity? Bewilderingly, common superstition also seems to have a hand in sportspeople’s on and off-field behaviour. It’s kind of hard to not notice some of the antics of the players as they get onto the field, or on the field itself. Most popular seems to be to cross oneself (signum Crucis). Picking up and throwing some grass into the air is also popular, but so is fingering some charm worn around the neck, usually cross-shaped. How about just touching the grass on the field of play? Gathering in a circle and praying openly is always charming, especially when both teams are doing it at the same time. The cynical are left wondering if they came to witness some sports action or which team can impress the big guy the most with some spectacular grovelling in a circle.

Superstitious sports persons tend to favor a certain piece of sporting equipment. It provides great fodder for the commentators who revel in telling us how lovingly that piece of equipment has been looked after. The strapping and worn-off tape keeping it together is always quite evident. These guys and gals also seem to favor items of clothing and stinky shoes which they believe brings them luck or that added edge. Or how about standing on one leg when the score gets to a certain unlucky figure? Is all of this sport? Or a comedy festival?

Has it ever occurred to sportspeople that if a divine presence were actually in existence somewhere, he or she would be too busy drumming up a tsunami somewhere else in the world, or causing a volcano to erupt violently, or derailing a train somewhere or even creating that fog that leads to a 50-car pile-up?  Do these guys think that the Divine Demolisher would have time to indulge in some insignificant sporting activity while he or she has his or her hands full trying to keep Mercury, Venus and the Earth from crashing into the sun, while at the same time hanging onto Pluto so that it doesn’t drift off into space? Where would this entity find the time to intervene in a sports match while it is busy ensuring that the vines catch the sunlight and the bees eat pollen rather than moss? Really, the arrogance of these sports types!!!

Perhaps it’s all just an elaborate ruse to get us to think that someone else is at fault when teams perform badly; someone the manager can’t readily sack from the team. Maybe they just want to draw attention away from their own piss-poor performance by making us think that the result of a game of sport is really determined by some supernatural guy-in-the-sky who has great fun making a team invincible one week and crappy another.  And that’s why the praying-in-a-circle comes in handy after a loss. Makes one want to join in with some flailing rather than wailing.

You know, as a fan of Arsenal, I’m really glad that they eventually went on to win 2-1. But I’ll be dammed if I’m told that it was because of a hand-out from the guy-in-the-sky, because the truth is they won through putting in a good peformance. The only way for a team to lose is either through a bad performance by themselves or the referee or both.