It's an Arsey Versey World.

King
By Boris Mellor
October 24 2005

The hang them and flog them brigade were out in full force yesterday, no it wasn't the Conservative party conference, it was just angry Arsenal fans.

Hanging them would be too good for them, especially if it was outdoors as it would mean the perpetrators would have the benefit of fresh air. So what was the henious crime? Well for those of you who live on a desert island and haven't heard yet, and you would have to live on a desert island not to have heard, Robert Pires bungled a penalty.

 Even more upset were the new Labour Party who felt that the bungled penalty showed a lack of Respect, sorry I meant Man City, because as we all know Respect means a lot to New Man City, oops I meant new Labour. Man City would have much preferred a penalty that had broken the back of the net causing them to go two nil down. Instead they had to watch in extreme disappointment as the referee awarded them a free kick. Meanwhile Mills continued to show respect to Bobby by harranguing and kicking him all over the pitch.

Meanwhile the makers of it will be "all right on the night" and other shit balls up videos welcomed the error, as in the run-up to Christmas sales need a boost, and there are only so many David Seaman England Howler compilations you can produce. Especially now he has retired.

HoweverArsenal fans had to content themselves with three points whilst Manchester United fans wildly celebrated a point won in deadly seriousness, without any joke dead ball situations. It would never happen at Chelsea and they have the empty seats to prove it. Of course as one fan said if it had worked it would have been proof of our Gallic flair and genius, but it didn't so "yah booh sucks you frog eaters".

Some football experts pointed out that Arsenal would have played better with Vieira, after all in this fixture last year he managed an assist that led to a goal, unlike Robert Pires who had failed to assist Henry. Viera's assist had led to one of the finest goals ever seen at Highbury, and showed the greatest of Respect, and Sean Wright Phillips was very grateful.

However to be serious.

This was not one of Arsenal's finest games but they got three points on a day that Manchester United, Spurs and Liverpool did not. Everyone might want to make a fuss about the missed penalty, but I was more interested in the fact that we kept a clean sheet without Campbell, now that is something to celebrate. There is a lot of rubbish being spoken about Arsenal's recent form.Yet we played well against WBA and Boro and got nothing at all.

What has to be taken into account is that this has been a disrupted season, even yesterday Wenger could not call on the services of Cole, Campbell, Ljungberg, Hleb, and Reyes. Henry is clearly not back to full fitness yet, Pires is having a poor season, and Bergkamp would probably be more useful on the bench. Van Persie does not seem to have recovered from the international break yet, so clearly Wenger did not start with his best 11. He also had to use players that were below full fitness. Our form has to be seen in context.

Wenger is not the only manager to have been badly affected and disrupted by internationals and injuries, one only has to look at the position of Everton. Of course it could be said that all managers are equally affected, true enough, but Arsenal's high-speed short passing game is dependent on the team training and playing together on a regular basis. This season Lauren has had five different right side midfielders in front of him, he himself has played very well, but we are not getting the same number of goals down that side. Yesterday Fabregas got into the scoring position several times but he is not the deadly finisher that Ljungberg is, neither was Freddie at the same age. If the spine of the team is Campbell, Gilberto, and Henry how often have they played in the team at the same time this season? If the front two strikers are Henry and Reyes how many times have they been the front pair so far? If the best back four is Lauren, Toure, Campbell, and Cole how many games have they had together?

 Pundits talk about Arsenal being found out, but the main thing we have found out is that Arsenal deprived of their best 11 cannot win away from home in the Premiership, but can do so in Europe. This is where the throw money at the problem brigade believe they have a solution, and they are not shy to shout it out. Like a football pools winner in the 1960s they cry spend spend spend! Wenger has £30 million to spend, which will buy a lot at today's prices, Baptista not available? Never mind buy someone else-it doesn't matter who, or how good they are just buy. Perhaps football has become the last refuge of the shopaholic.

Then there were those who complained that Wenger did not use the youth enough. Now they have got their wish, but for some the experiment has gone too far, nine games and 16 points later they are screaming for mercy. Never mind the youngsters buy buy buy! If Wenger was to listen to his critics he would need to be a schizophrenic with at least four clearly distinct and counter opposed managerial styles.

So why doesn't Wenger spend spend spend? The answer is he doesn't believe in it, leastways not in excess, it is against his football principles. He does not start from proposition of spending on the ready-made article - but rather does the player have potential that can be developed, can they play out of position, is the price reasonable. Nor does he believe that Arsenal should have two to three highly paid internationals sitting on the bench for all 11 positions. To create that kind of situation you would need half a billion pounds to spend, and Arsenal are not in a position to do that. Some believe he should spend the Emirates revenue in advance, but Wenger is more responsible than that. He is against the philosophy of what he calls the financial doping fix. He also believes that football will suffer financially in the very near future, that TV revenues will drop, that overexposure on TV will see football attendances drop. That changes to tax regulations will make the clubs wages bill even more expensive.

Fans need to be patient, once our squad is strengthened by the return of injured players, and training is uninterrupted by international and Champions League fixtures; and the youngsters get the chance to gel with the more experienced players, then the good performances will return. Meanwhile we should leave the hype and hysteria to the media. The media may not put the issues into context and sensible proportion, but there is no reason for Arsenal fans to copy them.

Can we catch up with Chelsea this season? Almost certainly no, after all Manchester United with all their resources are finding that difficult. Can we catch up with them the season after? Possibly. But once we know what the revenue is, and how good some of our youth are, no doubt Wenger will make some judicious signings and take us back to the top. There are also several cups to be won and it could be our year in the champions league.

Finally the game is also about entertainment and innovation, lets not take all the fun out of it with an its only the winning that counts mentality. Henry apologised - but he also found it hard to stop laughing at what he called Bobby's leg going numb. It might not be "only a game" but it is a game.