A wise man once said that we should not worry about things we can’t control. While this advice may be useful in one’s day to day life, it is at odds with a soccer fan’s life. Because being a soccer fan means precisely worrying about things one can’t control. Some soccer fans inside a stadium may lay claim to cause a ref to make an incorrect decision or even influence a player to react, but fans watching the game remotely are helpless in forging their team’s outcomes.
This helplessness only magnifies the frustration when things don’t go in the team’s favor. Different fans have their own ways of coping with their team’s results. If one sets expectations really low, then anything the team does above that is bound to be something to cheer on; if the team performs poorly, then the poor performance fits in with the low expectations. On the other hand, if one has high hopes for a team and things don’t go as per plan, then the disappointment is a bit too much.
Ofcourse, expectations sometimes change course from pre-season to end of season. I remember a few years ago West Ham had done quite well in the league and finished in 7th place. The fan’s expectations for the next season were that the team would do better. But during the next season, West Ham spent most of their time in the bottom half and flirting with relegation. The fan’s expectations which before the season’s start were around the team breaking the top 5 were now content with the team just surviving in the league. In the end, I think West Ham did get relegated.
Judging a Team:
Despite the disappointment of the last few games, I still managed to have hope for the team everytime I saw the players line-up before their next game. As the camera moved from player to player, I was positive given the technical ability of the players. Most of the Arsenal team is capable of playing extremely well but technical abilities alone are not enough to win games. Mental strength is required as well and this is something one can only judge during the course of a game. What a player does in a game and also what a player does not do both provide a hint into the player’s mental framework. The camera in a game is centered around the ball and one can’t always get a feel for off the camera behaviour like why a certain player didn’t make the appropriate run. But if a technically capable player is making simple errors, then one would have to point towards the player’s mental ability.
I have not seen the movie Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait but I think the film’s idea is great where multiple cameras focus on Zidane during Madrid’s Liga game against Villareal. In this way, one can truly study Zidane and assess how he thinks, etc. I think there are some Arsenal players both from the current team and the past few years who would be good candidates for such an experiment. I think the last few games might be good case studies to truly observe some of these Arsenal players as plenty of them have not performed to their ability and a big part of that would have to do with their mental state. Mentally, the team is in bad state and not up to coping with things. What the team really needs is for someone to take responsibility and lift them. Sort of like what Henry did with that solo goal against Liverpool in 2004. The team’s current situation is in keeping with some of the comments made after Henry left. Henry felt that there was too much responsibility on his shoulders and that others were not doing enough; the players always looked towards Henry and gave him the ball, hoping he would take care of the rest. Ofcourse, most times Henry did want the ball at his feet but the team always looked for him. So when this season started, the team knew Henry was no longer there and stepped up. The different goal-scorers early on showed the confidence different players had; each tried to take a chunk of responsibility. But unfortunately, the Eduardo injury might have changed that. Suddenly, all the technical weakness of the team were exposed and to make matters worse, mentally there was no strength to perform the regular tasks.
For once I was hoping that the international break might be good for someone like Gallas. This break would have given him a chance to meet up with his old Arsenal team-mates and talk things out. But since both the ex-Arsenal captains Henry and Vieira are injured, Gallas won’t get a chance to talk things through. He is capable of lifting this team but unfortunately, his recent displays have not been that convincing either. Also, between Gallas, Sagna, Cesc and even Flamini, there is enough mental strength to kick-start the team. Sagna’s goal appeared to provide the perfect tonic but unfortunately, it was only a temporary revival.
No more gifts:
Arsenal have given their opponents enough gifts over the past few weeks, especially Man Utd. Now Man Utd are a team that get enough help from officials as is thanks to Ferguson’s mouth and they certainly don’t need a helping hand from Arsenal. Man Utd certainly won’t give Arsenal any favours. Heck, they could not even provide a decent pitch to play on during the F.A Cup tie. Chelsea also won’t be doing Arsenal any favours. They can’t even do the simple task of returning the ball back sportingly. Arseblog.com described the incident quite well yesterday in how the ball that Eboue put out was sent to the far corner by Terry. Such is the mentality of Chelsea and Terry that he sought to find advantage from a situation where there wasn’t one.
Arsenal have also given a helping hand to the teams at the bottom end recently. And on Sat, they come across a team that have not been kind to them in recent years.
It ain’t over till it’s over…
For some reason Sunday’s defeat feels worse than the 3-2 home defeat to Leeds which mathematically ended Arsenal’s title hopes and gifted Man Utd the title (argh..another gift). But currently, there are still 7 games to play for. From Arsenal’s perspective, they should still try to win all those games and not make it easy for Man Utd. Because if Arsenal lie down then Man Utd’s task will be much easier and they might even start resting players for their Champs league games. Arsenal should still keep plugging away and take heart from some examples in Europe. A month ago, Real Madrid were declared un-touchable. Then they lost two games in a row, and suddenly Barca were within 2 points. However, Barca threw away that advantage to lose their next two games and fell back by 8 points. But somehow, Madrid lost two more games again and Barca are now within 4 points. If Barca had not lost two games and tied another, then they might have been top. The Italian Serie A title was declared won by Inter a few months ago. But Roma hung in there and after Inter’s defeat to Juventus, Roma find themselves 4 points back.
For Arsenal, there is also the matter of the Champs League Quarter-finals as well. Still a lot to play for. At this stage, the team can only take one game at a time. First, they have to win their next game. Only after that, worry about their next opponent.
And finally….
Hleb’s magic food?:
Hleb’s last good game was in Milan. Now it is has emerged that he went for “ice cream” the night before. Maybe just like Popeye gets his strength from spinach, Italian gelato probably helps Hleb? If so, someone should take him to the plenty of Italian Gelato places around London.
Also, it is a good thing that Arsenal are not playing Roma in the Champs league. Because there are some excellent Gelato places in Rome. I fear that once Hleb tastes that Roman Gelato, he might not want to get back on the plane back towards London.
12 Responses to “Winning without the Gelato”
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March 27th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Sagna ruled out for 3-5 weeks. Likely we won’t see him again this season. Another bad blow. One of the very few consistent performers in the last 5 games is out. Hoyte or Eboue now? Maybe Toure with Senderos back.
March 27th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Nice stuff Sachin. I wrote a similar piece…sadly Mike hasn’t yet put it up. I agree though…flat as I feel I still hope and hope that somehow we will get the reserves from somewhere to pull through and win something. I’m not sure how it will happen though. ManU are nowhere as inconsistent as the galacticos from Spain. Even if they lose 1 game will we able to win all our games? I hope so..but its going to be really tough. And if you add Sagna’a injury; the only everpresent and consistent performer in the team it looks a garangutan task. Please move Kolo to right back and play Senderos…we might have a chance that way defensively. Mostly though I think Hoyte will play because of AW’s pecking order policy
. And with all those diagonal balls pumped up to Davies without Sagna there..I’m struggling to see how Hoyte will cope. I hope he does well…but it’s going to be an unforgiving brutal learning run-in that will teach the kids more..much more than they learnt for the last 8 months.
March 27th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Thanks LDE. When did you submit your article? I sent this one on tuesday afternoon and I think it got posted this morning. I am sure Mike is busy, so yours will probably go up soon.
Losing Sagna is a big loss, to say the least. Bolton will be big test and I am not sure Hoyte can handle it. And yeah LDE, I know Man Utd are not like Real who seem to be quite off form. I think they now have 7 losses from their last 10 games.
SEH: you notice the stellar game on sportsnet Sat morning? I know sportsnet has second pick of the sat morning games but surely they could have found something better than Derby vs Fulham?
March 28th, 2008 at 4:18 am
Bolton game tomorrow. How are we going to deal with their aerial play?
Sagna is out. If Gallas and Toure play like they did at Chelsea, it won’t be good? Time to get Senderos back (imagine saying that) and move Toure to RB. That would be our best back four at the moment and for all the important games ahead.
Will Wacott start? Will Ade or RvP score a goal? Let’s hope so.
March 28th, 2008 at 8:09 am
I don’t think Bolton will be able to cope with Adebayor and van Persie. We’ll be too strong for them. Hopefully, Adebayor looks to pose an attacking threat again as we’ve missed that from him recently. We need him to be the tip of the sword again. One thing is for sure, Bolton will fight very hard to earn something from this game.
Sachin, I know it aint over til it’s over but the reality is many thought it was only a matter of time before we faltered. We’ve all been hoping for the best but expecting the worst. After beating Blackburn, we were five points clear. Suddenly, we appear to have forgotten how to win games. Sure the Eduardo injury was significant but we can’t say that’s the reason why we’ve fallen off.
They say that form is temporary and class is permenant. Well I think Ade and Cesc’s goals were form and not class. We need someone else’s form or van Persie’s class to help make things right. I think he and Walcott will make definitive contributions for our season. Yes, I said it, Walcott will score again.
March 28th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
If a season is made up by few turning points, I think there were 2 for Arsenal so far.
1. The season opener, following that Jens howler, we went on to beat Fulham in the dying minutes. It went on to make a hugh difference, and triggered our great start of the season. I don’t know if anyone thought the same at that time, after Jens conceded a silly goal inside the opening minutes - that our season would be a hugh struggle from then on? That’s what i thought at that moment, after we prepared so well in preseason and had we blew it in such a silly style in the first game of the season, it would be extremely difficult for our team to recover.
Luckily we didn’t. in fact we came from behind and beat them, that gave us a hugh psychologic boost.
2. The second turning point gotta be that late penalty Clichy conceded Vs Birmingham. when the moment it happened, u just had that “sinking feeling”, that “Man, it’s gonna be difficult for us to recover from that”.
Psychologic factor plays a key part in this game. That Birmingham match could allow us to extend the lead in the league. Instead, our lead were cut short. If we never took a 2-1 lead in that match, and Walcott only scored once to get us a draw, it might not have affected us as much. As we would take it as a one point gain. And even if we allowed them to equalize from a setpiece or something that might not have hurt us as much neither.
but the fact that we had conceded a late goal in such a stupid manner that really killed the team’s momentum. And bare in mind we were playing with an one man advantage.
I think the team never recovered from it. Those soft of thing does play into ur mind.
it somehow reminds me one draw Vs Bolton away many years ago. i can’t recall exactly which season. But we were also in a title race back then. Towards the later stage of the season, we went away to play Bolton, taken a 2 goals lead. Somehow allowed them to come back and drew us 2-2. With the 2nd goal conceded they scored from a long cross (via free kick), which the cross flew past everybody and caught Seaman offguarded. It was a horrible mistake by our defenders and the keeper. And a game we should have won. We never recovered from that and let Man U went on winning the title.
March 28th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Andez that Bolton game was in 2003 and Arsenal followed that by losing 3-2 at home to Leeds and giving ManU the title. 5 points lost in those two 2 games.
Joshuad: Even though prior to the Chelsea game, there was still a chance that things could be turned out but going by the last few games, the evidence was never there. I think of an article that Myles Palmer wrote in ANR regarding Henry’s futurea few years ago. Palmer said that all the fans in the stadium could see a huge question mark hanging over Henry’s head everytime he took to the field, regarding whether he will stay or not. Using that example, I have to say plenty of Arsenal players have been running around with a huge question over their heads as well (Will he turn things around?) and some even have an exclamation mark over their heads which reads something like — It is all over!
The players have felt like it was over for the last few games now. I can’t understand that. It was not over, even if they had won in the Boro game, a run could still have been made. But the title race is disappearing amid hushes and whispers, slowly everything is fading away. I keep thinking one win, one huge win and everything will be ok. Sort of like in those action movies when the hero keeps getting beat up and then he looks over to see the reason why he is fighting in the first place (maybe he spots his wife, girlfriend, kids, whatever) and then gets up with renewed strength to punch his way to victory I am still waiting to see Arsenal wake up and the players get rid of those annoying question marks.
March 28th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Why is the site so dead????? Spoilt brats ; absolute spoilt brats we’re behaving like who don’t want to play anymore once they aren’t winning. And we talk rubbish about spirit and culture and attitude and Pascal Chimbonda walking down the tunnel and Gallas being a cry baby. Well guess what …. we are no better. Being flat is not an excuse — and we blame the players for being flat in a stray game. We are guilty of exactly the same fucking thing. Start posting again..please… and don’t tell me you were busy and had no time. It just won’t do….
March 28th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Agree Nip. Sendy needs to play and Kolo needs to move to RB. AW though will not do that. He never rotates after a bad game. He always keeps the faith and does what no one expects him to do. And its usually worked. I’m not scared about Kolo n Gallas; they will probably get it right. I’m a bit scared of Davies vs Hoyte …thats all. Mark my words…Arsene will play the exact same team that lost to Chelsea bar injuries(the real ones). And we’ll probably nick a goal through ———- (fill it up) and win as well.
March 28th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Great post Sacchin. I’m a diabetic now but sugar free gelato or with sucralose would do me fine. I loved the stuff, still do but now every rare spoonful is a delight. Maybe Hleb has the same thing and if not maybe he should develop it. No point in self indulgence!
March 28th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Thanks SEH.
March 28th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Yep got to agree with SEH on this one “great post Sacchin”. Keep up the good work fellow.