So Arsenal are still top of the Premiership and playing football on Saturday the Invincibles themselves would have been proud. Albeit against Norwich, Arsenal played the best football I can remember since moving into the Emirates Stadium! The best stadium in the Premiership is now being graced with the football it was built for us to see, and Wilshire’s goal alone was worth the price of this year’s season ticket. You may never see a better team goal than that one – EVER!
Don’t worry, I’m not getting carried away – the next 6 weeks starting tonight against Borussia Dortmund will provide the evidence as to just how far Arsenal have come since last season.
Wenger’s apparent inspirational signing of Mesut Ozil has been the catalyst for the rebirth of ‘ The Arsenal ‘, however I truly believe that Olivier Giroud is fast becoming the major cog in the Arsenal mechanism, and should he get injured the whole balance of the team would be massively effected – knock on wood! His strength forward and backwards has been a massive bonus to his goal scoring prowess, and his interlink play is in a word, ‘sublime’ – as Wilshire’s goal on Saturday will attest! The quality of Giroud’s cross for Ozil’s first goal is another dimension of the Frenchman’s quality and I honestly believe that, should Giroud manage to stay injury free, which is some thing most Arsenal players seem incapable of, than I predict a trophy of some sort this season should arrive at the Emirates!
Ramsey is another now obvious first pick. The lad has been a sensational revelation, which dare I admit it, only Arsene Wenger could see, because few others on the planet did! So maybe sometimes it does help to be a skinflint stubborn narcissist.
I am very nervous about tonight’s game with Dortmund as our current form suddenly feels like a dream you don’t want to wake from. Dortmund is a yardstick for any team in Europe to be measured against, and should we beat them, not only will it consolidate our position at the top off the group of death, but it will also enforce Arsenal’s belief and confidence against the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool, two more games that will reveal or expose our real progress.
Once again, for all the people that accuse me of being so wrong about Wenger: I was not wrong then and I am not wrong now. For the first time in 7 years we have not sold our best players during the summer. Instead we got rid of players that Wenger had signed who were not fit to wear the Arsenal shirt, yet were being stubbornly been held on to, and then finally we signed one of the best players in the world. All of these things many fans like myself had been begging Wenger to do, and for whatever reason he eventually did. And bless him for that. So we were right to air our grievances, because just look at the difference it’s made to the team!
Our defence tonight without Flamini to help organise and protect it against, Lewandowski might prove to be our Achilles’ heal, as I still believe Arsenal need to strengthen at the back, but it is great to go to big games again with a new found optimism, instead of the sick feeling of trepidation I felt on the way to the Bayern Munich game last year. How far we have come since that fateful night of despair tonight will tell. I remember the gloom around the Emirates that night as we entered the stadium seemingly all knowing our Bayern fate.
Tonight will be different I feel, and whatever the result, maybe Arsenal might take the opportunity to get Scene to tap up Lewandowski to come and join us.
The current paper talk is that Wenger has a new 8m a year, three-year contract on the table waiting for him to sign, but he is apparently waiting until the new year to sign it.
I think we should wait at least until the end of the season and see what he wins with this talented team. What other manager would get one of the biggest contracts in world football after 9 years of not winning anything? If this team is as good as we all think it is, than win some thing with them and win a new contract. Otherwise get Laudrop for 4m instead – at least Wenger could then leave Arsenal with the legacy of a team that could win some thing and a young successful manager who’s potential is boundless.
Whatever Wenger does, at the moment its great to be a Gooner again, and he must at least take some credit for that feeling! And what a buzz for tonight’s match. I’m on my way up there now!
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