So it’s evident that I haven’t been too busy with my blog recently. No particular reason. Work’s been hectic and I guess you can get out of a routine and all your discipline can go out of the window in respect to updating your blog. But if there is a reason I can point towards explaining my lack of activity, it’s down to my growing apathy with all things connected to supporting Arsenal.
It’s been a frustrating, up-and-down start to the season. The Leicester game was a fun evening but then we had the poor performances at Stoke and Liverpool. We then had brief, encouraging unbeaten run but you always sensed we were a game away from a crisis. And predictably (and painfully), along came Watford and Troy Deeny to put some measured perspective to our decent form during September.
It made for tough viewing last night. We were flattered to go into half-time 1-0 up and I feared for the worse. No shame losing to Watford. They are having a decent season and they’ll take points of many big clubs but the manner in which we lost was so familiar. So ‘Arsenal’. No spirit, no fight, no capacity for defending a slender lead during such an indifferent performance. Our inability to grind out a result is killing us.
There seems to be so many reasons for such a troubling state. Sanchez and Ozil seem to have their mind elsewhere, our injury crisis has come even sooner than usual in the season and key players are simply not performing. The whole balance of the team is often plain wrong and squad players such as Wilshire, Giroud, Walcott and Chambers haven’t really made an impact in the PL. The fan divide hasn’t gone away and you can sense the infighting at our next home game will be as bad as ever. Kronke, Gazidis and Wenger are seen as obstacles to our club progressing and I expect they’ll be fan protests against Swansea. The media are enjoying our difficulties and there’s generally a feeling the club remains a little rudderless.
Nevertheless, I still continue going to the games. Yet increasingly the game itself is hardly the highlight of the day. The few beers before the game – we enjoyed the City rout of Liverpool before the bournemouth game – if often far more enjoyable than the following 90 minutes. The 3-0 was welcome but instantly forgettable. I was actually happy to leave the ground and then meet family/friends for a post-match beer. Revealingly, we barely mentioned the game. I think we just were happy to come away with a win and we could discuss all subjects away from the lifeless performance. I guess watching Utd drop points at Stoke helped but we all agreed the match day experience was a world away from watching Arsenal in the 80s.
So I’ll still look forward to the Swansea game in two weeks. The lunchtime Utd v Spurs game will be a nice distraction and it will be good to catch up with some old friends. But increasingly, that’s what our home games now mean to me. An opportunity to enjoy a few beers with friends and a yearning hope that our team will return to some real form to make us credible top four challengers. I have a ticket for the upcoming Spurs game. I can only hope that Kane does his hamstring in the week to come…..