The Feeling is rightfully good...but we Must make this WIN a Tradition again

 

And so last weekend the Nightmare came to an end on the plush green grass of Wembley stadium London..At last Arsenal FC brought their long wait for a trophy to an end. The 2014 FA cup was won in probably the most arsenal fashion possible.. Coming from behind very early after 2 cases of shocking defending saw the London side go 2-0 down against underdogs Hull City....But showing the sort of resilience that you've come to sometimes expect from Wenger's men, they fought back. And by the Time Santi Cazorla's freekick flew in to the net for the equalizer, it was clear the 2014 Finals many had tipped us to win comfortably was going to be anything but comfortable...

 In this team lies steely characters like Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertasacker and Aaron Ramsey..these guys are reasons you look at Arsenal and say that the team has a future of more success to come..Koscielny hauled us back in the game with yet more crucial goal scoring like he has quickly made a habit of in recent years. The game then went into extra time and Ramsey stepped up and did his thing. In one swing of his mercurial right boot, 9 barren trophy-less years were quickly forgotten. The cup was ours and cue the massive celebrations still being savoured till now.

If by wining this trophy we have succeeded in shutting the mouths of critics who had made our collective lives a living hell over the past years of barrenness, what we can't afford to do is allow the past repeat itself by restingon our oars. Ivan Gazidis (Arsenal CEO) may have been all smiles in the dressing room after the Finals, but even he would be under no illusions regarding what needs to be done in the years ahead. Arsenal are a global club with followership the world over..We cannot be a club struggling to win things and only content in showing the world how financial rectitude is a noble thing in football. Watching the celebrations of our players on the pitch after the game, two individuals stood out. One was Rosicky and the other was Sagna, two veterans of the team who joined us years ago when we were a force in Europe but who also have nothing to show for their hardwork and dedication to the club. Sagna is leaving  us now having at least won a trophy and his relief was clear to see. Rosicky couldn't hide his excitement also..you know why? cos winning trophys and celebrating success with your team mates is just what the game is all about. We seemed to have forgotten a little about that in the course of trying to justify our conservative policy in running a football club. Look, the truth remains if you are not winning things in football, why are you in the game?why bother? whats the use in charging fans increasingly exorbitant ticket prices only for them to get more of the same failure and disappointment year in year out. Makes no sense to me..So while its good we celebrate this win..after all some of us had feared we would never see another day we might hold a trophy aloft in our hands. it remains imperative that the powers who run this great club re-strategize their approach to really ensure we are competing  for honours by standing a chance to win trophies at the end of every season. Is it forking out the cash to buy better players, or improving our scouting network for more young  talent etc..which ever it is, we have a lot of work to do...The tradition of this club must return to winning trophies once again. Our history is laden with them, hence the Future must follow suit accordingly...

The 2013/14 season is done and dusted now..And we have the summer ahead of us with its accompanying hassles viz-a-viz transfers rumors...The blog will be open throughout to analyze any new development regarding  new signings or major departures. So stay tuned for that..Congratulations every Gunner one and all who reads this blog..and here's to a future of Trophies..

Arsenal vs Hull City: A trophy beckons on saturday...

At last, The Cup Final is here..!!!!!!  If at the start of this season you had said to me that Arsenal would go on a league run where they'd lead the table for close to half of the season but then fall away in the run up to the ultimate prize.. yet still have a chance to win the FA CUP, I'd have been a happy man..Its not because i value the FA CUP more than the league trophy, but ever since that  night in 2011 when Obafemi Martins sank a dagger in our collective hearts, iv been like the equivalent of a trophy fiend..fidgeting and bleeding from the nose whilst  seeking where my next trophy ''fix'' would come from. Ironically we have not been any where close to landing any silverware ever since. Prior to our qualification for this final via that nerve wracking semi  final against Wigan, its been tales of woe in the FA CUP for us down the years..our cumulative score card since 1986 reads thus:

Venue        Played     Won           Drawn        Lost      For   Agst. Home 57 35 15     7        103 43 Away 50 29 12      9         92 54 Neutral 18 10 3      5          21 13 Total 125 74 30       21            216   110
(culled from arsenal-world.co.uk)
In all we have an overall win percentage of  59.2%  on home,away and on neutral grounds..I felt at first that this statistic was rather poor given our record behind United as the 2nd most successful side in the competition..but my impression changed when i considered all the losses that may have come from replays  that used to occur very frequently those days.. sometimes up until the finals on some occasions. It was common to have replays occur in nearly every round back in those days when almost every team was at par squad-wise..all these contributed to our reduced wins per game ratio. We enjoyed significant success in the late nineties and early noughties in this tourney under Wenger. Back then it was common to see us always challenging until the latter stages of the competition, something which was no small feat at all to attain. Yes, there's been some good moments like Freddie Llunbergs Goal in the 2002 final.. or Viera's penalty to clinch the 2005 final against United...but bad ones also exist, those Flashes of that 1999 semi-final still remain fresh, as i recall how Ryan Giggs eliminated us within the closing minutes of a game we really had no business Losing. Or who can forget the calamity that was Mikael Silvestre floundering on the Wembley turf as Drogba powered past him to bury our cup hopes in 2008. As painful as those games were, no one will deny it didn't add to the overall spectacle of this epic competition.

We have a chance to add yet another historical  footnote on this great tournament on Saturday ( for all the right reasons hopefully) and also end our trophy-less curse at the same time. I cant tell you how much i want this jinx ended. Its like the only thing i hear everywhere i go...London, Lagos, Southafrica its always the same old shit....''Arsenal are trophyless for 9 years bla bla bla...'' Then there's that stupid meme from twitter that shows Mofasa from Lion king talking to his son who asked '' Dad what's a Trophy? and the Dad responds : "Son, we are Arsenal fans we do not know what  a trophy looks like" All that must END come saturday. Every one in the squad bar Vermaelen is available for selection judging from the training photos available on the official website. Diaby, Chamberlain, Ramsey are back and rearing to go and its a no-brainer to say we are in a far better place psychologically and personnel wise than we were in that Semi final versus Wigan. At that time, Back to back disappointing results had seen us go into the game Low on confidence and lucky to emerge victorious against a very good Wigan side. No such worries this time. We look back to our best...Hull will be without dangerous outlets like Long and Jelavic (Cup tied) but they still boast of Matty Fryat and George Boyd..We aren't strangers to disappointment on the big stage and i'd like to see the lads ensure they remain Confident, switched on,and patient against a possible defensive tactic from Steve Bruce's men right to the very end. Come final whistle, there is no greater sight every Arsenal fan the world over would want to see other than the boys climbing those glorious stairs to the dignitaries on the  path to being handed a Trophy a real life shiny Trophy! c'mon Arsenal..

A season that promised so much

 

 Hey folks, YES i know....its been ages. and yes it wasn't fair to just leave this forum without a word on just what the hell was going on...My apologies. I went through a very difficult period, but suffice it to say the worst is behind me now...ARSENAL and Writing are two passions i hold dear, thus you'd understand my pain these past few weeks when i was unable to partake in either of those two pastimes. After our Chelsea defeat and subsequent slump in form, i pretty much switched off in utter disappointment from every Arsenal game. In addition to the issues i faced on the personal front i just felt totally weak watching our team struggle to find their game against Swansea, Everton and Wigan....Life, felt at that point tiresome and just plain miserable.

Fast forward to today, and we have somehow managed to Houdini our way into a UCL slot (surprise surprise) after Everton's challenge wilted under pressure. Its been confirmed that we never had the depth in quality to challenge for the title this season,seeing how certain injuries to key men in JAN-FEB brought us to our knees. Yet we still have a chance to end the campaign with a trophy and boy do we need to win it!!!  .. Back in October it looked like we had what was required to take this title. We looked the part, but in spectacular and under the most unfortunate circumstances ( which can only happen to Arsenal )we fell apart..

I hope we do end up winning the FA cup. If for anything,just to get that trophyless monkey off our back...And of course to also have the license to call Mourinho a Tropyless failure (at least for this season). Its already apparent i won't be talking much about tomorrow's game because i see at as a dead rubber. 4th is ours and will be so, regardless of the outcome tomorrow. I'll be putting up an FA cup special on the blog hopefully as we count down to the Final.. but in the interim, it just feels great to be back again to the blog and to seeing the team in RED  i love play their game again..