Night Of The Long Knives

I have been pouring over the forums in the wake of the Champions League exit to PSV Eindhoven. It’s not easy, and you can see the point at which reasonable people gave up the ghost and went to bed. The lunatics took over the asylums.

In fairness it cannot have been easy being a teenage Arsenal supporter these last couple of years, never knowing what it was like to follow players of obviously limited ability to defeats at places like Peterborough, York, and Wrexham.

Younger Gooners have been brought up on a diet of three Premiership titles, four FA Cups, two European Finals and, just over a week ago, a Carling Cup Final.

For the life of me though I cannot fathom how short a memory you have to possess in order to come out with the criticism I have seen of Henry, Hleb, Lehmann, Adebayor, Clihy, and Diaby since the final whistle blew at the Grove tonight. (Not forgetting Wenger, but I’m sure that was Tottenham fans in disguise, wasn’t it?)

Let me share something with you people. Finishing fourth last season was not our lowest league placing of all time. Falling to Barcelona and PSV in the Champions League is nowhere near worse than not qualifying for Europe at all, or crashing out of the UEFA Cup to Winterslag (yes, that’s a real team and they beat us!) or PAOK Thessaloniki (them too!).

Relieved of the threat of fixture congestion there is even a realistic possibility that we will finish as Premiership runners-up this season. Certainly third place is comfortably within our grasp, and this too with an injury list that would have floored any challenge by our nearest rivals.

We have seen young talent flourish with the likes of Clichy, Denilson, Hoyte, Diaby, and Walcott impressing at various stages. We have seen Adebayor take the first steps to claiming a regular starting berth, and Fabregas, Hleb and Rosicky making a real impact in the midfield.

We now need to see our newer supporters to adopt the maturity that our brilliant young team has shown more often than not this season. We need them to understand that you cannot win trophies every year. We need them to see that Wenger is creating a third great side. It’s harder this time because new investors at Chelsea, Manchester United, and Liverpool are moving the goalposts, but those clubs don’t have Wenger and his incredible knack of assembling great teams.

Keep the faith, and a little sense of perspective people. A year from now I’m pretty sure you will wonder why you were so upset tonight.