Quote Originally Posted by Letters View Post
It's a competitive sport so our success or failure is directly related to other team's successes or failures.
So yes, it's relevant.

NQ's call for the desire we showed last night in every game is commendable but anyone who has ever watched sport knows that isn't possible, physically, emotionally, whatever. No team ever plays with the same intensity every game.

So when you say why do we do what we did on Saturday, my answer is because that's how sport is and every team does it in every season. Maybe we do it too often, but we haven't so far this season, if we had we wouldn't be competing. Whether we'll do it too often remains to be seen.
2 points. Firstly regarding other teams' performances - you can't have it both ways. You are fond of citing the financial muscle of the likes of Citeh and Manure as a reason why we have an uphill battle to win the league. If you want to point out that we are currently doing OK in relation to our competitors, then you need also to concede that the bar is unusually low this season in terms of the relative strengths of most of the top teams. Citeh have had injury problems, and are punching below their weight after a strong start; Manure are scraping wins while playing shite football that does not justify the enormous investment they have made. We all know what has happened hilariously to last year's champions, and Liverpool seem to be recovering after a piss poor start to the season.

What most Gooners are frustrated by is that instead of exploiting this situation, our inconsistency has seen us sink to the level of the competition. Implosions against West Ham; the Chavs and West Brom have seen us drop avoidable points, and flat performances against Liverpool and Spurs - 2 games that you would have expected our players to be very motivated for - have caused disappointment.

Of course teams will drop unexpected points, and we will not always reach the levels of Wednesday, or Manure at home. But when you see what our players are capable of when focussed and motivated, it is completely fair to ask why such performances still seem the exception rather than the norm.

Unlike recent seasons, we have 3 world class players in key areas of the pitch who have remained fit for pretty the whole season to date. We have a more settled squad than most, and clearly have the ability to turn it on - against different types of team - when we want to. I think it is fair enough to expect more from Arsenal than we have seen so far.