(The Sky Is Falling In)

Wednesday, 24 December 08, 04:38 AM · Comments(2)

I was out with a few friends last night- never, ever arrange to meet your drinking buddies at Oxford Circus, you'll lose valuable drinking time just trying to find the right exit out of the place- and the hot topic of conversation was, ooh, have a guess, go on... no? Well, I'll tell ya, the big question of the night was what the hell is happening at Arsenal?

I didn't have the answers and so we moved on, I still don't have the answers this morning, but it seems to me that there is an extraordinary degree of negativity surrounding the club and I don't quite understand why. I bumped into Ben Ingber on the way into the office this morning, his first words to me were, "I forgot your Gooner!" That's my holiday reading fucked. Cheers Ben.

Seriously though, we talked about that issue and the Highbury Spy's latest column which, Ben tells me, was so negative that Ben actually gave up trying to read it. It was identical to the "Wenger's lost the plot" from the pub bloke that Ben described in the comments section here a few blogs ago, perhaps the pub bloke was the Spy, I don't know.

So, having crawled into work with the hangover that comes from copious lager topped off with Jaegerbombs (I promise I'm not getting Arsebloggy on you), I sat at my desk contemplating this state of affairs for a time and then decided to go and get a couple of bacon and egg sarnies that my boss kindly stumped up for. I'm sitting and waiting in the Star Cafe (did the guy wash his hands after finishing his fag and making the sandwiches? I don't know) and I pick up the Mirror, which I had earlier glimpsed on the Northern Line. The backpage headline says "Scrooge is going to the Sales". Or something like that. Of course, they are talking about Mr Wenger and there followed one of the most doomsday articles I've had the misfortune to come across since Martin Lipton used to write in the same paper. John Cross the offender here, the article ran something like this: Fabregas may have played in his last game for Arsenal, Arsenal might not qualify for the Champions League, Arsenal may face a player exodus (which, let's face it, might not be such a bad thing in some cases), Arsenal might struggle to attract players to north London and like a house of cards, the whole thing keeps on collapsing until the white elephant that is the Emirates Stadium comes crashing down around Arsène Wenger's ears.

As I say doomsday time. Armagideon Time, perhaps.

The reality of the situation is that we do need players, but we only need a couple of quality signings. There has been a tendency, and I'm as guilty of it as the next Arsenal blogger, of overreacting to things and writing players off on the basis of a couple of bad games. But we have two of the best full backs in the league, for all his faults as a leader, William Gallas is quality and he has a good centre back next to him in Johan Djourou. The front two are as good anybody else in the league, Eduardo is on the way back, Vela and Bendtner are decent back up but the midfield is not far off being a shambles and it is there that Arsène must improve things. The sense I get from reading around it all is that he is very aware that the confidence he placed in this group of young players has been misplaced and that he will take steps to rectify this. I just hope that he doesn't rule out signings on the basis of Champions League ineligibility. Given that it is entirely possible we will only a play a further two games in the competition, it would be nuts when there is still half a season of league football to play.

And I don't think Arsène is nuts. Yet.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Like this blog? Help spread the word: