Everyone is Hysterical Over Arsenal

I can’t believe how many news stories I’ve seen over the past couple of days analyzing Arsenal. Our beloved club has become the foremost subject of scrutiny. It’s as though every journalist, analyst, and commentator has come out of the woodwork to take a sliver of Arsenal and put it under the microscope. If Arsene Wenger reads the news like the rest of his he must be feeling a bit overwhelmed for a manager that has managed to finish third in the English Premier League (or so we assume at this point).

Is this all deserved?

Wenger Overhwlemed Much?

I don’t think it is. Yes, we should all be talking about Arsenal. Yes, we should all be critical of Arsenal. But no, we should not talk as though the club is ending as we know it… or that Wenger needs to be let go… or that huge drastic changes must happen immediately… it’s just too easy to try and sensationalize the situation we are in. I will not play into the histrionics, but merely laugh at it. I bet Arsene Wenger is doing the same. I imagine him to be daydreaming about responding to all of this with just one long, drawn out, Frenchly accented, “Uhhhhhhhhhhh…”

Rumors today swell about Arsenal making a bid for City keeper Joe Hart. The part of the article I love the most is “A fifth consecutive year without a trophy…”. Great. Because we need more reminders of that, and using that sort of statistic is pretty ridiculous. Am I wrong here? I mean, it’s not like there are 10 trophies handed out every year to all the different teams… it’s hard to win a trophy. And for each competition, there is only one winner. Sure, given our history, we are expected to be winning some silverware. But at the same time, a dry spell for five years surely can’t be used as a statistic in every single case one makes. If that’s the case, let’s start talking about United and Chelsea as the teams that ‘have never had an unbeaten season’.

There’s not too much news today ahead of the Manchester City match. Bayern beat Lyon. Inter surprised Barcelona. Frankly, I hope Barca come back to win it. It would look better on us.