Quote Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie View Post
On one hand i have not at any point had any expectation of this season being any different thus why i find the histrionics so bizarre, it seems that people seem to become so angry because they've convinced themselves that it's going to be different.

The way i look at it, I haven't seen any evidence in how we play that we can handle the pressure of expectation or that we have the guile to put teams like Spurs or Mourinho managed sides to bed.

You can take the game individually or you can take the game as an ominous portent of what's to come, if we lose to United and to PSG which I happen to suspect we will than the atmosphere becomes mutinous again, and if the familiar collapse happens again in February/March (that often coincides with the Champions League knock-out phases) than i think what we saw in March and April will happen again only i suspect more intensely.

I think whatever the club's hierarchy say, I don't think they will want this kind of situation dragging on constantly as it looks bad and I do believe that Wenger is managing for his Arsenal future - and that top 4 won't be good enough....only a sustained title challenge and improvement in the Champions League will especially as he has spent a lot in the summer.
Perhaps. Or perhaps there will still be enough acolytes that can be rallied to reset the loop. I don't think the board or the manager are the main problems now, although obviously they are highly significant problems. Their aims will be to finish in that top 4 spot again, bank as much as they can possibly bank and continue to focus on the main goal of expanding marketing opportunities across the globe. And without a doubt the board sees Wenger as the best man for that job because he has delivered season after season without fail. I can even understand their point of view. They are in it for the money, the couldn't give a fuck about the football beyond keeping the team inflated just enough to bob around that all important top 4 spot and the marketing vehicle it drives. Why would they want to introduce uncertainty into that situation? And Wenger is on the most comfortable ride in world sport. No expectations of sporting achievement whatsoever, float along on past glories, take the money and somehow still be considered a major player in the game.

I blame the decreasing but yet significant body of (I don't even know what to call them) "fans" who seem to be in this more to preserve the status quo than use their energies to drive the team to the sporting achievement that is supposedly the whole point of Arsenal Football Club. How intolerable is it that we are the only top(?) club that for a decade hasn't been able to even compete to the last day in a major competition? Even Liverpool have surpassed us in this respect. And yet this manager strolls on making his same old stupid excuses season after season. These are the same fans who assured us last season that the draw against Liverpool was a good result. Well anyone who has followed this club for any amount of time knew well that was a fucking catastrophic result and a harbinger of the same old inevitable doom. Now we have the draw against our traditional rivals on our own ground and on the back of a shit performance cast by this same lot as yet another good result. Acceptable they say. Yes, I suppose it is. Just like this tragic mediocrity has been acceptable to so many for so long. I don't know why these fans are in it any longer. If you aren't in sport to compete to the very best of your ability using everything you have at your disposal whether you come first, second or last then get the fuck out of sport. Sport is not for you. And definitely don't be causing a drag on the genuine sports fans who appreciate what the purpose of the sport is all about, don't be fucking getting in the faces of people who stand up and say, Wait a moment, this shit can't stand for one moment longer! For those weirdos who couldn't give a shit about sport and are just here seemingly to worship Arsene Wenger, then fine, take up the seat of a real fan if you must but at least shut the fuck up with your stupid arse opinions because if you don't even understand what sport is then what could you possibly have to say that would be remotely interesting to a sport's fan?

Anyway, we've seen enough now to understand how this all pans out. I guess we just sit back and wait for the run of results that will happen in the new year and hope there are a few god performances in there that can be watched with enthusiasm. Because that's the very best of offer from Wenger, he has other priorities.