Peace comes when you finally realise you just weren't good enough, and perhaps just not good enough. Period. While the home capitulation to West Brom might have been at that time, incomprehensible, unacceptable, irretrievable, today's game and its lesssons were mind-numbingly simple. Yes, we might have made a better meal of it if we had Cesc, RVP, Walcott and Vermaelen, but hell, winning the big games - or at least making a meal of it - is as much an exercise in testing your best 11 as it is the competencies of your second stringers.
True to Wenger's philosophy, we had a great start, put together better moves than Chelski, and seemed for most of the first half, as much of a contender for the top as the team in blue. But as I sat there, I told Arsewiper Jr to just watch. They need just one chance, and they'll take it. Unlike us - missing an open goal header in the first minute. So it was the Frogba. Hats off, he's one shit good helluva of a striker. What can you do? Chances mean shit, efficiency and taking your chances are the stuff of champions.
Second half, and the same. We're pretty good, actually. Put together a few good things, but always betraying that offensive and defensive naivete. As the minutes ticked, I told Arsewiper Jr to watch again. They'll score a second. And they did.
All in all, a rather comfortable day out for Chelski, and our cluelessness and total lack of ideas and options showed when Wenger put on Vela at 2-0 down, with 2 minutes to go. Moment of genius that.
I suppose it's the brilliant irony of football that in the lead up to the game, much had been made of Fabianski and how he'd hold up. Well, he held up pretty up in the end. Shame the team as a whole did not.
If football had a scoring system like in boxing, we might have done ourselves and our chances some justice. But in the real world, in the world of real champions, this is it. Chances. Goals. Done.
As it stands, we're seven off the pace after seven. Season over? Probably. But let's just ask ourselves, hands on hearts, just how many of us thought we were real contenders for the title. We weren't. We aren't. Let's just hope for a good run in the Champions League, more Champions League next season, and look to finish above Manciti and Spurs. We'll see what happens when everyone comes back from injury. If they come back.
Shall I do a little player rating? Well, let's see...without the actual scores:
Fabianski - Pretty decent. Nothing more anyone could ask of him.
Sagna - Okay too, I suppose. Seemed one of the very few people who would at least not get blown over by Frogba's drift.
Squid/Koscielny - Pretty good, if you're Aston Villa. Not if you're pretending to challenge Chelski.
Clichy - Ditto.
Song - Ah Song. Just what has happened? Provided absolutely no cover. None. Provided nothing offensively, and left Squid and Koscielny exposed too often.
Wilshere - The one bright spark. Wonder when the rumours of a Wilshere move are going to start.
Diaby - At least seemed to care a little bit more, but on the day, looked way out of his league, an unware that this was Chelski, not training.
Nasri - Placed for some reason on the wings. I blame Wenger. The source of all promising things, but was always out of position.
Arshavin - Out of position? Being on the pitch would've been out of position. Don't know if it was me, but what was he doing? Playing in Song's place? Bewildering. But for one shot on goal, you might be forgiven if you didn't realise he was on the pitch. The damn munchkin fell asleep (as usual) for Alex's goal too, I'd say.
Chamakh - Started like he meant business with a great header, and after that, simply suffered from the lack of service. Missed a couple of good chances with his head too, which was odd.
I wish I could've said the entire team sucked. But they didn't. It's just a case of not being nearly good enough, and we'll have two weeks to stew on that.
As we sat at the dinner table, Arsewiper Jr #2 asked how I'd react if she changed teams. This is what happened.
What?? You can't do that!
Why?
Well, you can't just change teams. Like, if you behaved badly one day, would I change daughters? If mum made me angry, would I change wives? Yes, sometimes, it's nice, sometimes it's not. You can't just change teams.
OK...
That's what it's about. It's called loyalty.
OK Dad. But, let's say I didn't support Arsenal from the start. What if I supported Wigan? What would you do?
I'd try to make you change.
But you said you're not supposed to change!!!
Oh yeah. OK.
So what?
Well, then, we'd just laugh at you all the time. But that's just it. We're a family. That's why it's fun, that's why we support the same team. We feel happy together, we feel sad together. But at least we do it together, right?
And remember. No matter how bad you thing we're doing, there's always someone else worse. Well, not always, but more or less...
Silence.
I suppose she believed some of it.
I do. Things are shite now. Really shite. But hey, we went through some good times, we've been through some really bad, and in time, we'll see some good.
I'm sure of it. It's a matter of time. Even if it's a long time.
I'll take the next two weeks, and just be fucking glad I'm not a Liverpool supporter.
Good night. This, at least, is how I make myself feel better.
No comments:
Post a Comment