Why I support Arsenal

This is a question I’ve been asked pretty often in the last three years, ever since my university journey began. “Why do you support Arsenal?”

Of course, the question is posed by neutrals, not by Arsenal fans or, indeed, any football fans. My replies varied. I felt obliged (most of the time) to say something better than just “I cannot explain it”.

So I went on an adventure every time someone asked me why is it I support Arsenal. I listed the things I liked: Arsene Wenger, the style of football, certain pedigree, great players. Before, quite recently, realising these had little to do with why Arsenal is my club of choice. What triggered this realisation was Dennis Bergkamp’s quote:

"When you start supporting a football club, you don't support it because of the trophies, or a player, or history, you support it because you found yourself somewhere there; found a place where you belong."

The phrase brought the point home for me. But before I start elaborating why, let’s cross every other reason off the list.

Trophies?

I started to support Arsenal in the summer of 2004. So my first season was 2004-2005. Knowing that, you could make a pretty good case that the Invincibles, who have gone the previous season undefeated and won the Golden League trophy, fuelled my desire to start supporting the Club. Were it not for one simple thing: at the time I didn’t know we were reigning champions. I didn’t know we went a whole season undefeated before we lost 2-0 to United. And it took me several years to find out we had, in fact, gone a season unbeaten, becoming the first ever English side to do so. As it stands, the last.

If I were supporting Arsenal because of the trophies I would have had enough at around 2007-2008 and called it quits. But I didn’t. I suffered like every Arsenal fan did, yet I continued supporting the Club.

Player(s)?

You could say that I’ve started ploughing for Arsenal because of the players. Henry, Bergkamp, Pires, Ljungberg, Viera, Toure, Campbell and Lehmann were all present and firing in 2004. This group started to fell apart only in 2005-2006.

You would be wrong yet again. Because even when van Persie, Nasri and Fabregas were our only decent players, amply surrounded by mediocre guys like Denilson, Song, Senderos and Djourou, I stayed. I watched Arsene Wenger suffer on the sidelines. It must have been immensely painful to make caviar out of sausages. To watch his team fight for CL qualification only.

History?

I’m ashamed to say I know next to nothing about Arsenal’s history. I’ve heard names, read Wikipedia articles and watched YouTube videos to try and not look like a lost cause in terms of our history, but you won’t need to dig deep to find out I know very little. Should really get that “Complete Arsenal history” book out of the closet in the summer. God knows I’ve been planning on reading it long enough.

The only bit of history I know is the bit that unfolded right before my eyes, and this period doesn’t even cover Wenger’s reign. Though it’s fair to say my whole life up to this point barely covers Arsene Wenger’s tenure at the Club.

Arsene Wenger?

For quite some time even I was under the illusion I support Arsenal because of Arsene Wenger. The thought of him leaving still sends goosebumps down my spine.

After all, there’s so much to like about the Frenchman. Both as a manager and as a person. He revolutionized English football. He became the first foreign coach in 1996. He introduced new training regimes, new diet. He set(s) his teams to play beautiful football. Arsene adopted three different playstyles during his tenure, gone 49 undefeated, built a new stadium. The man leaves and breathes Arsenal. He was even asked once whether it was coincidental his name started with the same letters as the Club he manages.

There’s also Arsene the person. Always fighting against injustice, always protecting his players. Vigorously articulating on the sidelines. Politely answering all the stupid questions in the press conferences. Ready to take on the blame if needs must.

Majoring in economics. Fluently speaking at least English and German, while also being no stranger to Spanish, Italian, Japanese and some French dialect (forgive me, I forgot which one).

I associated my love for the Club with my respect for the man in charge of it. Until I realised I won’t stop supporting Arsenal even when Arsene inevitably leaves. A recent article, no, two of them (one from fellow writer Clive, another from @7amkickoff) helped me to finally get what Bergkamp meant when he said that “you start supporting a football club...because you found yourself somewhere there, found a place where you belong”. So let’s get to what I’ll call…

The Arsenal way

I’ll start with some recent quotes from Ivan Gazidis:

“Feeling a sense of pride in Arsenal is just as important as European success”

“When we talk about the destination, it’s not winning a Champions League, its making fans proud,”

“It’s about making the people at the football club proud of what we do and how we do it.”

“We get a lot of criticism, but we have people at the club who are very firmly fixed on where we want to get to and won’t get knocked off course by the whims that happen day to day. We are very much on that journey, and we may never reach the destination.”

First of all, it’s nice knowing the current culture, a culture of doing things the right way, one which was instilled by Arsene Wenger, won’t fall apart after the great Frenchman leaves. That there are people who believe in the way things are being done and they will see to it things will continue to get done this way. I experienced a genuine sense of relief upon reading these words.

Arsenal believe there’s something that goes beyond short-term gain. That there may, just may, be something which is ultimately more important than gathering trophies. No one says the two cannot be combined: a period from 1996 till 2006 showed us they very well can be. But no one’s saying trophies should be the ultimate thing in football, the be-all end-all of everything.

I keep returning to one article I’ve recently read (if you haven’t done it, do so here (Guardian) ASAP):

“It’s his (Arsene’s) faith – his belief that there’s a code of rightness other than success; his Catholic claim that virtue, magic, and beauty might be more important than the trophy case.

Judgments on Arsène say far more about the judges than they do about him – about our comfort with the idea that sport, or football, or life itself, can be worth our while even if it doesn’t end in victory. That to be beautiful, or to be decent, to improve ourselves or leave something for the future, might be as or more important than the trophy case.”

That’s the way Arsenal does things. We don’t park our machines and start firing banknotes at rivals. We don’t offer huge wages to mediocre players. We don't end our financial year in debt. We don't spend hundreds upon hundreds of millions on a dozen below-par players to substitute one great. We don't live off of our rich owners. Don't allow players to dictate us terms. Don't fire managers at will and don't appoint them on a whim either.

Whatever we do, some serious thinking process and long-term planning are usually involved. Perhaps that’s why media mostly dislikes us? They want drama. Want stories. Where stability and consistency are involved, there’s little room for stories. That drives journalists up the wall. After all, it’s so much more amusing to write about what a clusterfuck of poor decisions United has become, or how Mourinho said something highly inappropriate during a presser than it is about sustainable growth and quiet development. Such stories won’t give you clicks. How there’s a campaign against Chelsea will.

And so, for what is most likely the first time I can say (with clarity and full realisation of what it truly stands for) that I’m proud to be a Gunner.

Such an elaborate answer to such a seemingly simple question, eh?

How about you? Why did you start supporting Arsenal?

Hull preview: no need to fix what isn't broken

Evening everyone.

I know it’s a bit early for a preview, but I’m going away for a couple of days and will only return on Monday.

Team news

At this point in time there’s not much to dissect in terms of team news. We didn’t sustain any fresh injures against Chelsea. Our only absentee will be Mathieu Debuchy, who has a bit of hamstring problem. Poor fella.

On the upside, Arteta and Oxlade will return for our visit to KC Stadium and this presents Arsene with an interesting problem, namely: who to omit?

I know we had this problem for several games now, however, the scale was not so big. Having 22 fit players, two our defenders didn’t make the bench (understandable, it’s silly to keep more than two at one time). Diaby and Rosicky joined Chambers and Gabriel, though I imagine omitting Thomas was in no way easy.

Should both Arteta and Oxlade make it, Arsene will be forced to omit further two players. Mikel for Flamini is actually an upgrade, but Oxlade is likely to displace Walcott. Simply because it cannot be Welbeck. Also, Theo seems to have lost the manager’s trust completely and as such he’s being used marginally.

Quite a group we have, eh? Think Podolski, Campbell and Jenkinson don’t much fancy their chances looking at how guys like Rosicky and Walcott have become peripheral. For now we don’t have to worry about who to offload (or, indeed, buy) in the summer. We only have to worry about the task at hand: beating Hull, then picking up enough points to secure 2nd and then win the FA Cup.

A bit of Chelsea babble

Because unfortunately, our chances to beat Chelsea to the title are almost gone even mathematically after the Blues came out on top against Leicester yesterday. If they best Palace at Stamford Bridge on the 4th, Liverpool will have to give Chelsea the guard of honour on the 10th.

However, it was enjoyable to watch Chelsea trying to fight against “Boring, boring Chelsea” accusations. So much energy was put into proving the opposite. Tough talk from Mourinho and Zouma, some articles in the newspapers, even leaked video of Chelsea’s players heading the ball into a dustbin in the Club’s canteen. All because of a simple chant at the Emirates. Whoever started it deserves a medal. Wish Chelsea put that much effort into proving they are not racist. Instead, they offered a new deal to their racist captain.

Deep down, everyone at the Club was fighting back against these “boring” allegations simply because they have struck a nerve. Yesterday Chelsea has won the game by more than one goal for the first time in three months. Three months! The Blues demonstrated football of higher quality before Christmas, then they deflated like their rat of playmaker, Cesc Fabregas, did.

But, despite demonstrating nothing even approaching beautiful attacking football, Chelsea (and I hate to admit it) demonstrated efficiency. They ground out results. Arsenal have thus far managed to gain only 3 points on Chelsea since Christmas. So much for 11 wins in 14 league games.

Why Chelsea haven’t tried to realise their attacking potential in the second half of the campaign is another question entirely. For me, because it’s the way Mourinho plays. He doesn’t set up his teams to play beautiful attacking football like Arsene does. The Portuguese prefers to defend deep and strike on the counter. Even yesterday Chelsea scored 3 from only 4 shots on target.

Make no mistake: Chelsea will win the league not because they play the best football. They’ll do so because they were pretty consistent at racking up points. If Arsenal manages to demonstrate such consistency next year, we’ll be celebrating the title come May. And we can be quite sure Arsene won’t sacrifice his philosophy for the BPL crown.

Hull City

We had a full week before the game and will have at least five days for recovery after it, so no worries about exhaustion levels. Debuchy will most likely be replaced with Chambers, Flamini with Arteta and it will be really intriguing to see whom Oxlade will come in for. I expect most of the side to be unchanged, though.

Debuchy’s injury means it will be at least another week till we have the answer to our right-back question. Bellerin should start in Mathieu’s absence. However, there are still some interesting selection choices for Arsene to wrap his head around.

Oxlade or Ramsey?

At this moment in time, I feel like it’s the only change Arsene may be tempted to make. Not only will it preserve the balance, we’ll finally get a real winger to play on our right.

I can’t fault Ramsey for the work he’s done on the flank, though it only really paid off once: against Liverpool. Whether because of the opposition or just the fact there was an element of surprise to this decision, it’s hard to tell.

After that, the Welshman out wide didn’t help our cause much. Sure, he’s worked his socks off, but (and I’m getting tired of repeating this) Aaron is now winger. Not like Oxlade. Rambo played while AW doesn’t put much stock in Walcott right now (for whatever reasons), and Cazorla is in the form of his life in a deeper position. Why Welbeck wasn’t used on the right, we can only guess. I’ll put my money on the boss wanting to have a fresh striker on the bench should we need to sub off Giroud.

The only hindrance might be Oxlade’s fitness. He hasn’t played for two months, after all. That’s why I expect him to start on the bench.

The bench?

Szczesny, Chambers, Gibbs, Arteta, Wilshere and Welbeck are certain. However, Oxlade’s inclusion leaves Arsene with another decision to make, namely: who gets the drop? Only two of Oxlade, Rambo and Walcott will make the 18, so which one of them won’t?

It depends largely on who’ll start. If Ramsey gets the nod, Walcott will surely be dropped. No sense in having two wingers on the bench. But what is the Ox starts the game? Will Arsene still view Ramsey on the bench as Ramsey the winger? Or will Walcott be preferred?

I somehow don’t think AW will be willing to drop his back-up DM (Arteta) or Jack Wilshere. May he go with one defender to accommodate three mids and two attackers?

Hard question. For me, Walcott is staring the drop in the face. Ox will take up his place on the bench and Rambo will start. We’ll see.

The verdict

We have one injury absentee, we are on a run of nine games undefeated, in sixteen games we’ve won 13, drawn 1 and lost only 2. Our last defeat came in early February.

We have a solid keeper, a stable defense, a stellar midfield and Alexis Sanchez with Ollie Giroud. Who may not satisfy Henry’s needs, but the Frenchman is doing his job and he’s doing it brilliantly. Frankly, I’ll be hugely surprised should we not win this one.

So some on you Gunners!

Jack in the box

Hello everyone.

The last couple of days saw an interesting discussion spring: the role of Jack Wilshere in this current team. Does he have any role to play, where does he fit in if so, and what should be done if City comes knocking on our door in the summer? A couple of articles from Gunnerblog, some heated discussions on Twitter and I've made up my mind on the matter.

Does Jack have a role to play?

Or, if we paraphrase it, what can Jack do that others cannot? What are the qualities that make him stand out? What is his edge over Cazorla and/or Ramsey?

I believe Jack has at least two very important qualities: his dribbling ability and his undying love for the Club.

Let's take a closer look at the first. I believe his knack to take on defenders head-on is unparallelled. I think that in this regard, he's the best at Arsenal.

I don't mean to say his close-quarters control is superior to Cazorla's or Ozil's. I solely focus on Jack's ability to carry the ball past defenders and between the lines. Watching the Chelsea game I thought this was precisely what we lacked: we had enough quality passers on the field, but not enough, ahem, dribblers. As a result, we tried to pass it around Chelsea's organised defense. Defense which was set up to counter exactly that.

And don't scream "Cazorla" at me. I have watched the Spaniard all season and know he hasn't got a nickname "little magician" for nothing. Santi is great for getting out of tight spots. Much like Oxlade. But when there's space in front of him, the Spaniard will prefer to play a one-two or make any other pass. He rarely tries to get past a defender with a skill move.

Ozil prefers another option entirely. He tries drawing defenders to himself and then passes the ball to a teammate to both continue the move and cut off several opposition players. If there's a player between the lines, Ozil will find him. If the German is without the ball, but there's space between the lines, he'll attack it. Indeed, much of his work is work in grey zones, work without the ball. That's why his influence is hard to measure. We only know how to measure on-ball actions. Closer to the point, though, and Ozil isn't the type of player to take defenders head-on. He has neither the pace, nor the physique, although Mesut put on some muscle recently.

Rosicky is the only player in the squad to possess Jack's ability, but the Czech is 34 doesn't get playing time and can leave in the summer. I'd even go as far as to say he is likely to leave. Which will break my heart, but it's another story entirely.

Where does Jack fit in?

Having sufficiently answered (I hope) the first question, I'm going to try and answer the second. For whom the bell tolls should Arsene decide to reinstate Jack?

We can safely say it's not Coquelin. Though Hodgson deployed Jack in a deeper position, the national team and Arsenal are very different. In their set-up, game plan, resources, style and, most importantly, opposition and manager. Wilsh may do fine for England, but he won't do as well for us in deeper position. For now, he has neither the discipline, nor the humility to stay away from the action and be content to just tackle and intercept. Besides, we have a ready-made product in Coquelin, who does that job outstandingly. Making him play second fiddle to Wilshere is both stupid and unnecessary. And risky, we may lose some points while Jack will be learning his trade in a new position.

We can also assume it's not Ozil Jack will be looking to displace. Though Arsene shunted Mesut wide to accommodate Jack centrally earlier in the campaign, I'm quite sure the Frenchman won't do it again. His decision was (at the time) dictated by a need to play Ozil into form while also trying to get the Ramsey-Wilshere partnership to gel. The latter part hasn't really worked, though there may be hope for it yet.  Then again, Ozil has been brilliant since his return, bagged a player of the month award and is on course to bag a second.

Besides, Jack is not your typical playmaker. Ozil is. Mesut is always on the lookout for a perfect pass. Remember his Reading pass? Of course you do. He is selfless to the hilt, just think back when he tried to play Walcott in against West Ham instead of shooting himself. Jack is unlikely to do that, though his passing ability is impeccable. Wilshere is just not that type of player, despite spotting number 10 on his back. He'll try to carry the ball himself.

This leads me to the only plausible conclusion: Jack is fighting for a place with Cazorla and Ramsey. Overtaking either will be hard, though not impossible. Cazorla has hit 30 and rumours persist he may leave. Whether it's this summer (no, God, please, no!), next, or in a couple of years, Jack has time to simply wait Santi out. It's not like the Spaniard will play all games anyway.

With Ramsey it gets harder. Jack and Aaron are approximately the same age, however they do the same things in a different way. Ramsey plays more without the ball, Jack with it. Jack's way into the team may be Aaron's patchy form. I think you will agree with me there's not much between Ramsey and Wilshere in terms of quality and so both can edge it.

What if City comes knocking?

It doesn't necessarily have to be them, but you get the idea. I've brought up City cause they have their homegrown quota to worry about. They can with the same success come knocking for Walcott or even Gibbs.

The question in essence remains, however. Do we sell Jack is someone offers a lot of hard cash? I'd say no. We are no longer in a position where we have to sell our players to make a profit. Arsene himself confirmed it.

There may arise another problem. What if Wilshere wants a raise next summer? His contact runs out in two years. Next summer only 12 months will remain. I think next year will be crucial for Jack. If he plays regularly, if he fulfils his enormous potential, if he pins down a regular spot in the team, give him a raise. On the merit of his performances. If he doesn't perform, well...we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

But I won't sell him this summer. Not for all the money in the world. He's our player, he provides depth and genuine quality and he loves the Club. And Arsene loves him. I'm sure he'll give Jack all the chances in the world. If he kept Diaby that long, Jack will stick around till the cows come home. Unless something extraordinary happens, Jack should be here next season at the very least.

Righto, enough said. Voice your opinions in the comment section below.

Cheers

Arseneal 0-0 Chelsea: a decent point

Arsenal's winning streak came to an end yesterday after our attempts to break down Chelsea's defense proved fruitless. And look, it's not the worst way to end our run: we battled a point from the inevitable champions, while dominating the Blues in territory and possession. Yes, the result plays into Mourinho's hands more than into Arsene's, however, our chances of catching up always looked slim, even more so after Chelsea managed to grind out all three points against United. But I maintain yesterday’s draw can prove very valuable to us in the end.

Arsenal are now joint third, two points above United and level with City. But we have a home game against Sunderland in hand. Not a bad place to be in, considering the way our campaign kicked off.

Much like against Burnley, though for different reasons entirely, not much actual football happened during the 90 minutes, so I'll just concentrate on points of interest.

The squad

Arsene named an unchanged side from his previous two PL games. Mertesacker was deemed fit and was reinstated straight away, Bellerin was preferred to Debuchy and Rambo had another outing on the right.

And all these players had a very good game. Mertesacker was solid throughout, dominating the air completely even after Drogba came on.

Ramsey, though by no means a winger, played nicely. Some of his lovely flicks kept our attacks ticking under difficult circumstances and his all-round game was much better than against Burnley.

The Welshman looked better still when moved infield for the remaining ten minutes of the game. I especially enjoyed his ability to run past defenders with the ball, when Cazorla and Ozil struggled to do that all game. Aaron greatly reminded me of Wilshere in that regard.

Finally, Bellerin for Debuchy. While it's not indicative of anything just yet, it was interesting to set the Spaniard get the nod. Does that mean he has become our number 1 or was it just because Debuchy needed a rest after playing 120 minutes against Reading? We'll have our answer next week.

And if the scales are tipped in Bellerin's favour, I won't be worried in the slightest. Hector had a brilliant game. Much like Coquelin, he has proved indispensable since the turn of the year. Both demonstrated consistency and ability to cope with whatever opposition, so I won't lose any sleep should Bellerin win the race for that right-back spot. When a man keeps the player of the year in his pocket for the entire game, then he's ready to play week in, week out.

Mesut Ozil

While not MoM for me (Bellerin stole the show), the German is definitely my pick for player of the month. Even yesterday, when space was scarce and goalscoring opportunities hard to come by, Mesut created three chances, made 107 touches (most any on-pitch player mastered) and completed 71 out of 76 passes. Instrumental.

Yes, he missed that late chance. I have to see the replays again, but I think shooting was never on Ozil's mind. He tried a dummy in the hopes of Welbeck ticking it away, so I'd sooner blame Welbeck than Ozil.

Henry's remarks

"I think Giroud is doing extremely well. But can you win the league with him? I wouldn't think so".

"He does a job, and he does it ever so well, but you can't win the league.

"Arsenal were at the top of the league last season, but everyone was saying they are not going win the league.

"I think they need to buy four players - they need that spine. They need a goalkeeper, they still need a centre back, they still need a holding midfielder and, I'm afraid, they need a top, top quality striker to win this league again.

"He [Arsene Wenger] has to do it. You need to have this competitive thing within the group - to win the league, that has to happen."

"Players need to perform, also. I will single out Mesut Ozil. Against a top-four team, that was his eighth game today - zero goals and two assists," he added.

"That is not enough. Overall, since he has been at Arsenal, he has 14 assists. You look at Cesc Fabregas, he has 16 assists in one season. Players at one point need to perform."

What a load of bollocks. Forgive me, but it's true. And it makes me very sad to see Henry a) jumping on the bandwagon b) expressing common opinion without giving it much thought or analysis. Let me dissect this steaming pile of, erm, dung.

First up, Giroud. Only a week ago Henry was hailing the Frenchman, one game later, a game, in which Giroud was denied space, marked by two to three defenders at a time and basically devoid of service and wham! Suddenly Giroud had become not good enough for Henry. Let's just ignore the fact he played against one of the most organised defenses in the world and forget about 18 goals in 28 games, shall we?

I won't dwell on Mesut Ozil. His contribution goes far beyond goals and assists, yesterday he was among the best performers anyway and if Henry fails to see it, then I guess he should reconsider being a pundit. Or Sky should ask themselves a question why this man is being paid millions when he struggles to see the obvious.

Finally, "the spine of the team".

Goalkeeper

Let me make myself perfectly clear: if an opportunity to snatch up someone like Lloris comes along, then I'd sell Szczesny in a heartbeat. But the newcomer will have to earn his place, in my opinion. Ospina has done nothing wrong. If Szczesny stays, then no, we don't need a new keeper.

Centre-back

The acquisitions of Gabriel and Chambers combined with Mertesacker's top performance yesterday should have flown under Thierry's radar, otherwise he wouldn't have said we need another defender.

We'll only need one if Mert leaves. And the new guy should be behind at least Gabriel in the pecking order, maybe even Chambers. So even if BFG departs, the need won't be very pressing.

Screening midfielder

As back-up to Coquelin, we probably need one. As long as Arteta leaves. Otherwise, we don't. Haven't Henry been paying attention to how well Coq played? That he is, indeed, statistically superior to ANY screener in the BPL? Or does Henry only bring up the numbers when they confirm what he says?

Striker

Just read my article.  We don't (and we most likely won't) buy a striker. It will signal an end to either Akpom's or Sanogo's career, greatly diminish Welbeck's chances, consign a brilliant Giroud to the bench and may even affect Sanchez.

Oh, about Sanchez. Thierry remembers we still have the Chilean? Maybe he also remembers Sanchez was bought AS A CENTRE FORWARD?

Regarding what Wenger should or shouldn't do. Thierry has been under the Frenchman's guidance long enough to know better than advising Arsene. Wenger always does things his way, he never buys for the sake of buying and he rarely listens to anyone else's opinion. For better or for worse, that's just how he is.

Thierry's comments deeply sadden me. Mostly because I love the man for everything he's done at, and for, Arsenal. From what I've seen and heard so far, he's been pretty average at punditry. Just the other day I said that, while he may turn out to be an average pundit, at least he's on our side. That he'll shield Arsene and his players from (often unjust) criticism on TV. And here we are. Henry criticizing the players, the manager and just basically jumping on the bandwagon. Without looking at a broader picture, without saying anything new or exciting. What a shame.

Final thoughts

I've seen a healthy portion of criticism aimed at how we weren't good enough to win the game and I find it strange. You can't realistically expect the team to win every game, and it's not like we've suffered a humiliating loss yesterday. We got a point against soon-to-be-champions by demonstrating some maturity and determination. The way Chelsea celebrated the draw tells you who was closer to winning the game.

As I said, it can turn out to be a valuable point indeed, so I see no need to chastise the team for the performance or, indeed, the result. Leave it to the TV pundits.

Have yourselves a good week

Follow me on Twitter (@AlexBaguzin)

Chelsea preview: not for the title

This review will contain very little it terms of actual team news and possible line-ups for Sunday. These have been brilliantly covered by Andrea and Tim  already, so I decided to focus on something else entirely. Bear with me.

This year I've witnessed a rather unusual and, therefore, interesting phenomenon. I'm not even talking about 2014-2015 season, I'm only taking the 2015 calendar year into consideration.

And this phenomenon is the first of such kind in my memory of supporting Arsenal (the period which stretches over a decade). Namely: I've witnessed a change in narrative. For almost ten years the media hailed City, United and Chelsea in varying degrees. City's successes have been rather peripheral over the said period. I'd even go as far as so say they have hugely underachieved given their resources.

United did a much better job of staying media's darlings: for 7-8 years which saw us decline and before Ferguson retired United were dominant in the Premier League. Arsenal has last been in the mix for the Premier League crown in 2004-2005. After that we have (until last season) been forced to put up with financial restraints and our primary goal was to just stay in the top 4.

In 2006 Mourinho quit (or was fired from, depending on who you believe) Chelsea and the two-year stint of Chelsea's domination drew to a close. United, led by Sir Alex Ferguson made their grand entrance and from 2006 till 2013 have won 5 (!) titles, only losing to Chelsea in 2010 and going out to City on goal difference in 2012. In 2013 Ferguson retired on a high, leading United to their 20th title, 13 of which happened to be under Sir Alex's guidance.

In the summer of 2013 Mourinho returned to Chelsea and it was the lowlight of that summer. Words cannot describe how I hate the man. Whilst acknowledging his achievements, I reserve my right to hate him on a purely basic level as a disgusting person and human being.

The media, however, were drooling over the return of the Portuguese. I can see two reasons for this: 1) he was (and still is) regarded by many as a great tactician and a successful manager 2) his persona and personality were much needed to fill the void left by Sir Alex's retirement. And so the media embraced Mourinho.

Fast-forward one-and-a-half year and the landscape has changed. Despite the Portuguese being on course to win his first title after coming back, media's wankfest (forgive me) has dwindled down significantly. The reason? But of course, the Portuguese himself.

Or rather, his nasty temper coupled with a thoroughly unattractive style of football. The first seeds of media's growing tired of Mourinho's antics can be tracked as far back as October. I can pinpoint the exact date, if you like - October 5th. It was the day Arsenal lost to Chelsea at Stamford. For me this will be remembered as the day we stood up to Chelsea on the pitch. Despite playing without several key players like Giroud, Arteta and Debuchy (and with a half-dead Ozil), it took Chelsea a penalty and a late goal when we opened up to snatch up the points, the points, dare I say, they didn't deserve. We were the better team on the day and, were it not for two moments of brilliance from Hazard and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named respectively, we would have at least got a point.

But we didn't and it was easy to see how the media could have continued with their usual tune of "Mourinho's a tactical genius, Wenger is still to win against Jose etc. etc.". To my immense surprise, the media took our side (if we exclude rags like Daily Fail). At the very least, their cries weren't as loud and pronounced as before. Mourinho's despicable behaviour prior to that game definitely played a part. He carried on in his usual fashion after that and by February articles like this began to surface. Then, a week before Chelsea hosted United, Jeremy Wilson came out with an article on how Arsenal can overtake Chelsea. Whilst acknowledging the possibility of that was slim to say the least, I noticed something that I liked: the media was ready to cheer for Arsenal, unlikely as it seemed we could win the title. Because cheering for Chelsea became unbearable even for them.

These wounds are self-inflicted. Mourinho's constant dissatisfaction, name-calling and throwing toys out of the pram is finally turning the public opinion against him. Even a section of Chelsea's fans is discontent to see "Zouma and Terry head the ball away for 90 minutes, given the wealth of attacking talent at Mourinho's disposal). They say you cannot force change, that it should come naturally. That people will embrace it when the time is right. And the time looks to have come. The stage is set for us to beat Chelsea on Sunday and reap the rewards. Here's why else we should do it.

It will boost our chances to finish second immensely

The most obvious reason. Seeing as United didn't get anything out of their match against Chelsea, the Red Devils still trail us by a point having played a game more. That means if we beat Chelsea and then win our game in hand, we'll be at least 4 points ahead of United, meaning even a loss away at Old Trafford will keep us above them. There's a small problem, however, as our game in hand actually comes AFTER we face United, but we'll burn that bridge when we get there.

It will complete our personal "big teams' scalps" collection

This season saw us turn a decisive point in our development as a team: we've learnt to adapt to our opponent. We now have several plans going into the game, can fall back on several formations and have enough quality players to carry out any plan Wenger is willing to utilise. This has led to us approaching games against City, United and Liverpool in three completely different fashions and come out on top in all three. Beating Chelsea will put to bed any remaining doubts about our ability to beat big teams.

Chelsea are a bunch of frauds waiting to be exposed

In three months Chelsea haven't won a single game by more than a one-goal margin. They still have 6 wins in 9 games, but I think you quite clearly remember the manner in which they've beaten Hull, Stoke and QPR. United game is another story entirely. The Red Devils had 70% possession and took 15 shots to Chelsea's 7. And look, given Chelsea's long track record of parking a double decker in away games against big teams, this would have been perfectly understandable. I am myself the advocate of such measures when they bring about the desired effect. When we had under 40% possession against Liverpool and City away I didn't complain. We took 4 points out of two tough fixtures and could have taken all 6. Didn't work against Tottenham, but again there was no reason to complain. We had a plan, sometimes these doesn't work. It's football.

But there's one small niggle regarding that Chelsea-United game: Chelsea played at home. At Stamford Bridge, in front of their fans. Sure, they were devoid of Costa and Remy, however, they still had Oscar, Willian, Quadrado (ahem), Hazard and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. And they got men behind the ball, were totally dominated in terms of territory and possession and it was mostly down to luck that they got the points.

No doubt they'll play the 7-3-0 at the Emirates even if Costa or Remy make it. I want us to beat them comprehensively not the least because of that. I have a feeling we would beat them in a fair end-to-end fight, except that they won't play fair, therefore we'll have to exercise caution and not throw men forward. I'll even be content if Arsene decides to give Jose some of his own medicine by parking the bus and inviting Chelsea. Only we all know it's not the Wenger way and I'm happy it isn't.

That's it for now. Keeping fingers crossed we'll do what needs to be done on Sunday.

Come on you Gunners.