Fulham Broadway, No Thanks. Give Me North London Any Day !!
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Fulham Broadway, No Thanks. Give Me North London Any Day !!
Written by Jimc Monday, 08 February 2010 10:57
by JAMES CURTIS Sitting there among detesting Chelsea fans, watching Arsenal attempt to scrap themselves back into the game at Stamford Bridge, it all became clear. No matter how shit it is being an Arsenal fan, holding on tightly to a bare thread of hope with sweaty hands, getting beat down after beat down by your biggest rivals to the crown, thank goodness I chose the red and white trip of life over the blue and white one.
I didn’t have a ticket for this game, although my West Ham-supporting dad had been offered into a box at the Bridge by a city contact. I’m very working-class when it comes to football, and the catering of Chelsea FC wasn‘t attractive, nor was the thought of missing out on an Arsenal win with my pals. But after a day’s deliberation and not wanting to insult my dad, this haphazard Gooner obliged.
In hindsight it might have been a sad mistake; regardless of where I watched this game though, there would have been a dark cloud of interim depression. I began to look for the positives of a misspent evening travelling across London and found it in the pure simplicity that just being an Arsenal fan was a winner.
First of all, what kind of football club has a Marco Pierre White restaurant attached? This was horrible to see and encapsulated everything I find distasteful about Chelsea. Around the ground there was an under-whelming and ordinary match-day atmosphere, like Lords in-between overs. With it’s tacky swimming-pool style west stand and tight walkways around the ground, Stamford Bridge was more Championship than Prem.
Inside the distaste continued. One man at half-time was reading the Financial Times with his legs crossed and jacked-up slacks revealing fine nylon Italian socks. A boy had been hired to wave a giant Chelsea franchise flag and I felt far from the Emirates. Arsenal’s home is like a hive of excitement attracting buzzing fans from all different directions. Stamford Bridge was the end of the line.
What had I learnt about Arsenal’s performance though? Nothing I didn’t already know and worth writing that hadn’t been on repeat like a scratchy 1950s record. What about the last five years though, as the Chelsea fans humiliatingly sang, “five years and you’ve won fuck all”? After a kick in the teeth which brings around the annual forfeit from the chasing pack, something I had read Wenger saying sprang to mind.
Last week I picked up the official merchandise catalogue. On page 28 a picture of Nicklas Bendtner modeling a brown towelling hooded robe was enough to give you nightmares, but it was a message from the manager on the inside page which really lodged in my memory: “With this team there is something in the side that is light-hearted and enjoyable to watch,” Wenger says.
What a great summary of the last trophy-less spell. Arsenal haven’t just been enjoyable to watch though, because sometimes the football world has been left speechless at the caliber they can play the game. Arsenal do own tremendous football players and I recognise that talent. On the contrary, Wenger has it in a nutshell when saying the attitude is light-hearted, which only prevents their skill turning into trophies.
While Chelsea and Manchester United ply players with hunger, Arsenal opt for the gifted, yet light-hearted. Never will Nani become Ronaldo but his desire last week put Arsenal’s to shame. Yesterday afternoon, Didier Drogba defined exactly what levels of hunger are necessary, clearly not bored with rolling Arsenal over.
Of course there are plenty of footballing issues to question, like tactical errors and indifference in attitude between the fans and the club on spending money. Still, only one team can win the Premiership, and as millions of young men grow up fantasising about being the worlds best player, the challenge will become increasingly tougher. At the moment, Arsenal are pushing hard to win, but in the most competitive league in the world, it still isn’t enough.
Are the Arsenal fans light-hearted? In a positive way they can be, which isn’t to say they aren’t as passionate. Nonetheless, they understand the funny side of Arsenal which makes defeat easier to bounce back from. Also, it makes Arsenal easier to carry on supporting. The club collects weird players of all shapes and sizes, nationalities and personalities, and hearing the away support bellow Eeee-manuel E-boooou-eey to the tune of White Stripes on the crest of another embarrassing defeat raised a smile. There definitely is something special about being Arsenal.
Chelsea are a serious club with serious players in a serious area of London. This has contributed to their dominance over Arsenal in the past five years. But defeat will come their way sooner or later and it will be then where the deadpan feeling I experienced, disguised among Chelsea fans, will be all the harder to cope with.
I’m feeling happy knowing one day the league will come back to North London. Yes, Wenger and Cesc could long be gone. I remember the last time Highbury and Islington hosted street celebrations. A ball was being kicked around and police attempts to move the Arsenal fans were feeble when they sat on the ground and couldn’t be moved. Long did the singing continue. Even if Arsenal didn’t win yesterday, at least I did by choosing the right club. Fulham Broadway, no thanks, North London any day.
Comments
I feel the same way.When the cup does come back it will be a wonderful feeling worth the wait and knowing we did it the right way and not putting the club in jeopardy overspending.I fear for real chelsea fans that there club may be some way below by then.
chelsea/ fulham broadway/ stamford bridge really doesnt feel like london. just a wine club for football fans !! somebody i met said marco pierre white's does the best beer you'll taste. a dirty carlsberg export from the twelve pins for me !!
and do send my regards to marco, although id rather have a keebab on the holloway road than eat at his pad
the difference is though chelsea think they are in football factory. one rinsed oaf of a chelsea fan on my train was really intimidating people, saying they must be foreign because they wernt singing up. couldnt see what was wrong with what jt did.
the best part of people like them is their little rotten faced little freind who looks embarassed but tries hard to go along with it. the truth is they have no other friends. life is so sad
the worst part really is when a new rich club becomes a revolving door of signings. wasting millions on del horno, veron, shevchenko for the hope one of them might be good. that is what discredits what wenger is 'trying' to do ...
They had even made themselves these yellow and red cards, and waved them everytime a foul was commited by an arsenal player.. Arrive ten minutes late, leave 5 minutes before half time for drinks and canapes, 5 minuets late then bugger off to the nearest wine bar with 10 to go.....
it was sickening and all i could think of was when the teams come out of the tunnel on fifa.
When I lived in London I always felt sorry for Chelsea supporters for their miserable ground, now I think they deserve it.
I didn't expect a win yesterday so I wasn't surprised. Hoped for a draw. What yesterday proved once and for all is that AW is not building a winning team. The clue is in what he said about our home game v. Utd and in the aftermath of yesterday's game.
After the Utd game, he said "we were not at our best" - we did not perform at our top level. After yesterday's game he said the defeat was difficult to swallow because his players "gave absolutely everything" and "we were the better team" -- exactly. Which means at our best we cannot beat a full strenth Chelsea team with Drogba playing, simple as.
We simply are not as good as they are. We don't have the cutting edge to beat Chelsea and Utd at their best--AW is not building a team that has that edge.
So better that we just stop fulminating and ranting, accept that we will be 3rd or 4th in the league for years to come, until something changes dramatically, enjoy the football on offer, accept that we can keep our best players only for a few years, and just learn to live with this nearly-men status until we're back up again. It will be years of course and I don't believe it will happen until AW is gone.
Hey, at least I could celebrate the Saints' win over the Colts last night. Now THAT was a magnificent display of an offensive underdog believing in themselves and taking it to the tougher, defensive, hard men of the gridiron--and winning it all!
We did play far better than football than Chelsea yesterday. The good thing is, if Wenger finally buys a striker in the summer and we keep hold of everyone, we will be a force and be challenging for the league and not 3rd or 4th place.
As for not being as good as Chelsea, you need to define what 'as good as' means. No we can't grind out results like them. No we don't sit back and defend for 90 minutes. I want us to play football like we do and get the killer instinct forward our team needs.
That is what AW has to do.
The simple basic fact is that--unlike Ferguson, Ancelotti, Mourinho--Wenger does not adjust his tactics according to his opponents' weaknesses. Ferguson and Ancelotti do respect the quality in our team so they thought out their tactics according to our weaknesses. And did it very easily. It doesn't matter a damn how much possession we have or chances we create, they are not at all worried when we have the ball. It's very easy to figure us out. We are utterly predictable.
Wenger's only solution is to impose our game on opponents, regardless of who they are. It's staggeringly poor management.
Last season Chelsea came very close to eliminating Guardiola's magnificent Barca out of the CL. They survived ONLY because of one moment of magic from a supremely brilliant player and a generous referee. I thought Arshavin might be that game-changing player but clearly he's not up to it. We simply do not have that cutting edge.
Burnley and Hull can contain Chelsea--we can't. Relegation fodder teams can contain Chelsea--we can't.
Putting ARSHAVIN as the center forward against Chelsea??? Is that supposed to impress them???
Refusing to drill basic defensive tactics into them. Refusing to adjust tactics and approach to his opponents' weakness. So we may play the better technical football, but it isn't effective, it results in no triumphs, and it makes our team into very predictable, easy-to-figure out opponents. I want beautiful football with variation, beautiful football that is not easy for strong opponents to suss out. Just think of what these repeated defeats to Chelsea and Utd do to these young, developing players and the fallout: the media and players like Ballack and Evra sneering at them as meek, easy to beat, boys or infants.
What does that do to these kids' confidence? It's AW's fault for not making them into a tougher team to beat.
there were two guys on the train home, really humble gooners. "cheer up young gooner" one said and gave me the thumbs up getting off the train. if you're reading, this article is dedicated to you
THE SMUG ANNOUNCER ON THE PITCH!
He truly was a c*ck. From announcing Ashley Cole as the worlds best left back, John Terry as having played 40 games for club and country this season and then at half time, reminding everyone of the score.
What a first class arsehole. The funniest part was when we were all chanting 'wanker' at him. He turned to the Matthew Harding stand for them to cheer him and no one did. He looked like a prize twat.
Lacking in class I am afraid. Which sums Chelsea up.
almost makes you kind of like our half-name-calling-tannoy-bloke. still nothing on the thicko at dagenham and redbridge who gets every half-time and full time score wrong. must be on the teletext still !!
Man Utd do it, Chelsea do it, Liverpool do it. I take this as a backhanded compliment.
If we can learn to defend better now we are more exposed to these situations and get the clinical finishing back, we wont be far away.
I am keeping the faith.
Brought a smile & that ain't an easy thing to do at the moment.
The Arsenal.
It was horrible to lose again yesterday but I was encouraged by the difference in attitude between last weekend an this, at least it looked as though everybody was willing to fight for the team. If only we had a Drogba Sigh!!!
That is the ONE positive I thing I saw yesterday, glad you mentioned that. That's the ONLY reason I didn't come away from the game feeling as badly as I did after the game v. Utd. I didn't expect us to win, so I wasn't as upset at the result. I WAS heartened at the attitude of the players--but still disappointed in the failings of the manager--his tactics, formation and basic approach.
You need to watch the goal again. We did have players on both posts initially. But due to Arshavin failing to pick up a man, Clichy had to move to where Cesc was and Cesc then went to cover for Arshavin. It was poor defending and led to the goal.
Sunday football teams know which player they are marking. You would think we would know too.
On Arshavin, why dont we put him on the post at corners? He is no value anywhere else. Then at least Clichy could mark someone.
http://onlinestore.arsenal.com/invt/a3366&bklist=
look and you will see the item is out of stock. clearly there has been a sudden surge in sales since i wrote this article. im looking at you, John In Norfolk
Wickid column bra, well written, takes me back to the old days of USC campus. haha. Well done mate.
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