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Arsenal fans – and some positivity – can be the club’s secret weapon this season

Arsenal fans – and some positivity – can be the club’s secret weapon this season

I am more than happy to be proven wrong, and I am especially happy when I am proven wrong with a performance like that one on Sunday.

Arsenal absolutely blew Manchester United away at the Emirates, and even though all of the goals came within the first twenty minutes, the entire ninety was played with such confidence and verve that it (deservedly) reignited some discrete murmurings that the Gunners could really have a crack at the league this season.

Now I’m going to be boring and say that I still have my reservations personally (I’ve spoken about them in depth in recent weeks), but going into an international break off the back of such a performance, there really isn’t a need to be anything other than positive and excited.

Maybe I can learn something from the inconsistent start to the season that we’ve had, and the fact that I’ve been so frustrated recently despite the fact that (aside from the problems in Europe), the club has managed to keep itself in a pretty good position. Though there is no point in raising expectations to an astronomical level, maybe there’s been more to enjoy in this season so far than I’ve let myself believe, and maybe it’s time to do just that, enjoy it.

I’m a young, and therefore incredibly spoilt, Arsenal fan, and this means that I’m only personally familiar with Wenger’s near two decades with the club. Throughout that time, I’ve been treated to some unbelievable scenes, some of which I genuinely don’t think I fully comprehended at the time, and for that I am incredibly grateful. The decade following 2005 was undoubtedly tough, but we are firmly out of the slump now, and it seems crazy to think that failure to us was finishing in the European spots every season whilst occasionally challenging for the odd competition along the way.

My really early days were spent watching Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Sol Campbell, Robert Pires, and my personal favourite, Freddie Ljungberg, and so what was tough for me during the more difficult times was seeing some phenomenal players leave for pastures new, because they didn’t have faith in the club. Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and Robin van Persie immediately spring to mind, but players like Alex Song, Alexander Hleb, Mathieu Flamini, Gael Clichy and Emmanuel Adebayor all left before fully realising their potential at the club. Despite all of these great players putting on the Arsenal shirt at some point, the peak of their careers never corresponded to the point where the club had a title-winning team on its hands.

Now though, we have two genuinely world class (whatever that phrase means) players in our ranks, in Alexis and Mesut Ozil (and you could argue that Petr Cech makes it three). The squad, when everyone is fit (which is admittedly never) is one of the deepest in the league. We arguably play the best football in the country when we really get going. With all that in mind, why shouldn’t this be a season to enjoy and see how far we can take it?

I remember vividly just after we signed Ozil two years ago, we played Borussia Dortmund at home in the Champions League, and I was fortunate enough to have a ticket that day. Before the game, there was a tangible sense of excitement around the stadium, both inside and out, and it was amazing to go into such a high profile match not nervous, but almost, dare I say it, confident.

Of course, egg on our faces, Arsenal proceeded to lose that game 2-1, but thanks to the fact that they had already beaten Marseille and Napoli in the previous two fixtures, stole a 1-0 win against Dortmund in Germany, and then didn’t screw up too badly from there, we had qualified from the so-called ‘group of death’.

Why am I reminding you of all this? You know all this, you were there, and frankly, we were knocked out in the next round anyway and this is all just a painful reminder of how wrong things are going in Europe this season.

Well, there is a point, and it’s that this kind of confidence amongst the fan base might actually turn into a secret weapon for Arsenal this season. Looking at the table, looking at the squads, looking at what has happened in these first few months, there is no legitimate reason why Arsenal shouldn’t be challenging for the title. Sure, you’ve got the old ‘but it’s Arsenal’ line, and I know that deep down I have my doubts, but maybe it’s time to think ‘why not us?’

When Chelsea won the league last season (sorry for the reminder), they won fifteen at home, drew four and lost none, they won eleven away, drew five and lost three. The season before, Manchester City won seventeen at home, drew one and lost one, whilst winning ten away, drawing four and losing five. A year before that, Manchester United actually lost three at home, but won sixteen and drew none, whilst winning twelve away, drawing five and losing two.

In that period, Arsenal won twelve, thirteen, and eleven games at home respectively. Now that isn’t purely down to our fans, but when necessary, I’ve seen us rally behind the team and propel them on through the final few games to ensure that we reach that respectable finish within the European places. Now I’m not asking everyone to suddenly decide that they love Arsene Wenger or agree on Twitter all of the time about the state of the team, that’s not the point, but we should all be able to get behind the team.

Before last season, we hadn’t beaten Manchester City at the Etihad in four years. Before Sunday, we had beaten Manchester United once in the league in thirteen attempts, and that was also four years ago. Before the Community Shield (and yes, it was just the Community Shield) Arsene Wenger had never beaten Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea. We haven’t looked great so far this season, but labouring to wins is often seen as the ‘mark of champions’ if the right result is ultimately achieved at the end of the season.

I’ve been actively mocked for thinking that the league was (and is) in our grasp this season. Maybe that is a crazy thing to believe. I mean, talk about bi-polar; two weeks ago I assumed it was pretty much all over, and if we come back from the international break and lose to Watford then questions will rightly be asked again.

Sometimes though, we’ve all just got to be a bit stupid, and believe. At the very least, let’s take a step back, appreciate what we’ve got and how far we’ve come, and enjoy what is going to be one of the most unpredictable seasons in recent memory. Hey, it might just turn out alright.