Welcome Back Football

I loved the Olympic Games. I loved watching it, I loved going to see it for myself (at five different venues), and I loved the atmosphere of hosting it and enjoying the success of Team GB. However, I have missed football, and the idiosyncrasies of it. So may I whole heartedly welcome back the game that intrigues like no other, causes controversy like no other, and of course is lambasted by every corner of the population like no other. Lambast it we might, but we cannot help but fall in love with it again every year, not least because it gives people like me something to write about.

Subject 1 – Arsenal Fans.

I can understand them being upset about the loss of key players, year in, year out, but putting this aside, they provide hilarity and despair in equal measure. When a side drops points at home to a club perceived as being weaker, whispers often come of ‘parking the bus’. This is only natural, because everybody looks for an excuse for their team failing to beat one that they were expected to. Arsenal fans manage to take this to whole new levels though. All sorts of phrases regarding ‘anti-football’ and ‘negativity’ are thrown around as they desperately search for a reason to blame the opposition.

My question is a simple one. Why should a visiting team, in this case Sunderland, go and play an attacking game at the Emirates if they know this will benefit Arsenal. Sunderland do not need to win every game they play, but a point could prove very useful in May. Logically speaking then, they should play for this point in the way they feel they are most likely to get it, and Arsenal fans only begin to moan about this style of football as a 0-0 draw approaches, and Arsenal’s frailties are highlighted. When a team like Sunderland go to Old Trafford and play like that, if anything, I’m quite pleased. It means Man United are able to focus entirely on attacking, without having to worry about the threat of conceding on the break. Then, if the game finishes 0-0 it is simply a case of this… The supposedly better team, were not good enough on the day. When this as accepted, both by the fans of the club, and in Arsenal’s case, by Mr Wenger, everybody can move on, and Arsenal can focus on scoring some goals, rather than telling Sunderland they should gift them some.