By Boris Mellor
December 3 2004

The press and TV pundit’s are now in fine form, a pack of hyenas feel they have a wounded prey on the run. Thus Hansen on MOTD showed a series of video clips that prove that Henry had a poor game.

 Evidence a few miss hit passes, and for balance no showing of the key role Henry played in creating Vieira’s goal. You don’t want nasty old facts ruining a good case.

Now Hansen might not be aware of the fact that Henry is a striker, and he didn’t get a lot of service on Sunday. Of course he can’t be compared with the wonderful Ruud who has scored one goal in open play in the Premiership since March.

Now Wenger is under criticism for saying that the Mellor goal was not outstanding, what a spoilsport, but what was his point? His point was that it was a farce – a ball that had icicles on it landed between Toure and Campbell both who missed it. Harry Kewell who played rubbish all game went for the ball missed, and it hit him on the nose falling for Mellor.

Now if we include the build up in what makes a goal then the build up was a farce. All credit to Mellor he hit it well and true, but outstanding, perhaps, depends on your criteria. Wenger’s criteria is that his defence, and Vieira, reacted like schoolboys, who were beaten not by an outstanding goal, but incompetence. It’s Arsene’s way of refusing to let his defence off the hook. Wenger works for Arsenal not the Mellor fan club.

Failure

Another press favourite is that Arsenal failed to go 50 games unbeaten – an interesting idea that. Yes it’s true, if not obvious, but if Arsenal failed to go 50 games unbeaten so did Manure, Chelski, and by the way the whole of the Premiership. Arsenal succeeded in going 49 games unbeaten, but that causes them to choke, it’s important not to give credit where it’s due. Now a crisis is in full flow because Arsenal has lost two games out of 55 and has only 31 points.

Diving

Vieira is the only player ever who has dived in the Premiership. He will become the patron saint of diving. Diving was never heard of until Vieira dived at Liverpool. Why he dived is beyond me, it made no sense in the position he was in. But the feeding frenzy it produces is amazing -–he should be hung drawn and quartered. Of course no English player has ever dived, no not ever.

Lager Cup on Wednesday

More mischief from the press pretending it’s really a big match – ignoring fact that nobody from the league game, least ways from Arsenal, will play in the game. If we lose the defeat will be counted as historic, and proof of further demise, if we win it was just the kids beating reserves.

It’s all over by the 12 of December

If Chelsea win on December 12^th it will allegedly all be over. But no one has ever won the league in December. Of course if Arsenal win it will only be delaying the inevitable. It’s all nonsense and hype.

Time to get things into proportion

Is everything against Arsenal? Of course not – but there are times when you do not get the rub of the green – not every hoof leads to a goal, not every week do you concede in the last 30 seconds.

Is it the case that a great team, has become rubbish overnight? Yes they have hit a rough patch, the squad is depleted, true we played a best eleven on Sunday, but several of them had only just recovered from injury. The midfield is stale; Paddy had a very poor pre-season, and is not on best form. Cesc is wonderful but playing too many games. Edu and Gilberto are injured; it’s the engine that’s suffering. Arsenal Times argued that Cygan should not be made a scapegoat – that the problem went beyond the defence. The defence was not that bad on Sunday, but it was not effectively shielded, and the midfield put it under more pressure by giving the ball away.

Wenger will not be panicked, he is not fickle and he will not drop off form players he will stay loyal to his squad. He may try and freshen it up a bit, and at Christmas he might buy one or two players to keep complacency at bay. I should think the team is hurting by now and will try to turn things around quickly. A team used to not losing for so long might find it hard to readjust, it’s important that Arsenal fans don’t encourage the vitriolic hype that the Rat Pack are brewing.

None of the press or pundits expected Arsenal to win the league last season, the noveaux rich of Chelski were going to do that, and if not,  the old money of Manure would do it. Both teams spent and spent, Arsenal spent very little. Nobody rated Arsenal, perhaps that’s why some of the press are so gleeful that they have drawn 3 games and lost 2 in the Premiership. That’s one more defeat and one more draw than Chelski.

So lets get a sense of proportion and not forget how much Arsenal has achieved on so little. And if it takes longer than we would like for the team to get back to form let's be patient, give support and show some respect. Lets celebrate our achievements even if nobody else will.