03Feb

Fans must get behind Arsenal as they begin crucial phase

by Swaroop

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Stop-start league form, fans planning to protest against the manager or the board or both, and team ambitions which have not been met thus far in the season. What better way for Arsenal to welcome Blackburn Rovers than by being, er, Blackburn Rovers.

After the 8-2 shellacking at the hands of Manchester United, Arsenal did well to reach out and try to cling on to the top echelons but they have had a severe falling out with the champions league due to characteristic Arsenal displays: defensive lapses, poor finishing and players being played out of position.

With a squad so overly reliant on Robin van Persie, one wonders why Arsene Wenger did not dip his heels into the transfer market but if he wants to vindicate himself, he has to start doing it by beating Blackburn tomorrow. Given Arsenal suffered a horrible defeat in the reverse fixture, which bordered on an Anton Chekov comedy rather than a Shakespearian tradegy, they will do well to exorcise the ghosts.

But the game in itself should mean more to Arsenal rather than just three points. They should be ready for a street fight to the finish against the other contenders for fourth spot: Liverpool, Chelsea and Newcastle United.

With the injured players gradually coming back, excluding Abou Diaby and Jack Wilshere, Arsenal have got more than a half-decent contingent to fight for fourth spot, fight to be a feature in the latter rounds of the FA Cup and go up against the might of AC Milan in Europe. The last time Arsenal found itself in a terrible pickle in the league and in danger of not qualifying for the Champions League; they went on a memorable run which saw finish as losing finalists in 2006. A run like that, this time, is more or less out of the question because of two reasons. Europe is stronger and Arsenal is weaker.

No protests please

Far worthier keyboards than mine have speculated on the whole boardroom-Wenger issue at Arsenal but if recent trend is anything to go by, the unspoken, cold hostility tends to percolate down on to the field of play. It happened at Liverpool and it is happening at Blackburn. So the last thing the players want to see is a protest of any kind which could potentially cause much more harm than any good to this football club.

Granted the ones who pay the ticket and fill the stadium, not exactly fill in Arsenal’s case, are right to ask questions but there is a time for everything and tomorrow doesn’t seem a great time to go ahead with it. One, when your team is in need of life supply, you provide it with life support. Not cut the umbilical cord and wait for the coroner to pass his comments. Two, granted Wenger could have moved quicker with signings last summer after the departures of “you know them” but he has assembled a squad. His own squad.

Give it some more time before bringing the negative catharsis all over the stadium and populating it with binbags. Also something curious happened  in the game against Manchester United: When the fans decided to boo Wenger’s introduction of Andrey Arshavin for Alex oxlade-Chamberlain, up till then Arsenal’s form player. In a way, without even knowing, the fans inadvertently showed a thumbs up to the Wenger policy.

Posted by Arsenal fan Swaroop Swaminathan

Follow Swaroop on Twitter @persiesque