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by MIKE HARVEY It’s been a good morning so far. Pleasingly, there’s no hangover resulting from my very long day up The Arsenal yesterday, where I witnessed our worryingly close tie against League 1 title contenders, Huddersfield Town. But thankfully, as we all know, a win is a win.
On a more convincing note, I secured my Carling Cup final ticket this morning – by 9:10am surprisingly. It was certainly a lot less stressful than the hour it took me to get my gooner friend a Barcelona home ticket!
Anyway, it’s transfer deadline day… so as an Arsenal fan, today means absolutely f*ck all to me.
I don’t believe we will sign anyone, and will of course, expect nothing to happen. These expectations (not that I have any) will remain dormant throughout the day. However if the impossible happens and we do sign someone today, I will be a very, very happy Arsenal fan – being a miserable bastard and expecting the worst isn’t all bad, you know!
I’m sure some of you have adopted this attitude for today too. Wenger hasn’t exactly filled us with confidence of signing a defender – or a player of any position for that matter.
You can argue that Arsene has got it wrong. Would loaning another centre back, or signing another forward (before the inevitable RVP injury happens…) strengthen our title hopes? Of course it would. That’s why I expect most Arsenal fans to go into February, with notions of regret, doubt and bitterness.
However, I feel content with our side and I will remain adamant that we can win the league.
We’re still in all four competitions, already in a final of the league cup, and only 3 wins away from the other domestic cup final. And despite being given the seemingly-impossible task of trying to overcome Barcelona, we’ve progressed to the last 16 in the Champions League, again. I’m sure most of you would have bitten my hand off if I had offered you this situation in July.
For me, the next 2 months will decide where the trophies end up – from our point of view anyway.
I firmly believe we will win the Carling Cup. Again, I feel we should start with a strong team at Wembley. It’s a final against a very no-nonsense Birmingham City side. I do not mean to disrespect their club, but this may be the first – and last chance for the majority of their players to win a trophy. Of course, they’re not going to make it easy for us. But we must ensure that we don’t make it easy for them either. We have to win, and I will feel incredibly disappointed if we don’t.
Currently, I believe the title is still there for the taking. Man United will drop points. They have to play Chelsea twice, City once and also have trips to Anfield and Emirates too – with everything else inbetween. I will tell you now, that they won’t go the season unbeaten. Why do I feel so strongly about this? Simple. Because they’re not good enough. I have no doubt that the Invincible side of 2004 would rip the current Man United team apart.
As for the FA Cup, I feel we will treat it as “just another Carling Cup”. Although in this case, I don’t feel we will make the final. With every league game being vital now, I don’t think we can afford to play our big players in the domestic cups anymore. In my opinion, the FA Cup has sadly lost its shine, and I don’t believe we should sacrifice any of our efforts towards the league title for the FA Cup.
… And before you accuse me, it pains me to say this. I was a boy who, every night, dreamt of lifting the trophy for my Arsenal – until I realised my career wasn’t going to involve me having a ball at my feet! Of course, I am deeply upset that the FA Cup isn’t taken seriously as it once was. But sadly, this is the new reality in our money-driven, business we used to call a sport.
Football is unpredictable, so it’s hard to put your neck on the line and publicize your predictions. But there’s no reason why you shouldn’t feel as optimistic as I do.
Despite feeling rather gloomy on this transfer deadline day, I would like to stress that there is a big difference between wanting, and needing a centre back. Of course, I would welcome a new player in with open arms, but I believe we already have a squad that is good enough to win the title. We just need to keep up the form, consistently win games and continue playing well with the quality squad we already possess.
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