Your gunning my heart down

For as long as I can remember, my highlight of the Christmas break is the sporting fixtures starting on boxing day and through to the new year. It’s a time to relax, enjoy the back to back football fixtures and get all the demons out of you before the start of a new year.

For some background here – I’m what you call a fanatical Arsenal supporter. I live and breathe Arsenal football club, so much so that when we lose, some people have sometimes certified me as borderline depressed. My only defence to this accusation is that I don’t hold the monopoly – it’s a common affliction endured by many a football fan.

Ever since I can remember, I’ve always supported Arsenal. Granted, back in the management days of Don How and George Graham, we were never that flamboyant or top of the table material as is now expected by Arsenal fans all over the world, but we were efficient. That sort of efficiency earned the gunners the nickname of “Boring Boring Arsenal at Highbury the Library”.

Step in the Professor Arsene Wenger in 1996, and a new era of sexy, scintillating football (well, not always), was ushered in with a truck load of accolades to follow including 3 championships and 4 FA cups.

Now this I think, is the reason why we got spoilt. Boring, Boring Arsenal never used to do this sort of stuff, but Professor Wenger has created a legacy that will forever associate Arsenal with the best eye-catching and sublime footballing you will arguably see at any club around the world (that’s if our players actually turn up for the game – metaphorically speaking…clearly, they’ve failed to even get off the bus on some occasions this season). When in sublime form, the Arsenal team have made other opponents look very pedestrian as they are forced to chase shadows all over the park while geting a footballing master class.

Now for some reason – well, quite a few reasons, this season has not started well for my beloved team. Funny enough, I don’t think that in the grand scheme of things, we’re doing too badly, considering the ups and downs this club has had over the last 25 years. But in the last few weeks, every time Arsenal play, my blood pressure has increased tremendously.

My wife thinks I need help when it comes to Arsenal, but I’ll be damned if I listen to or take footballing advice from a Chelsea supporter (Yeah! Many people have asked how on earth I can live with a Chelsea supporter in the same house – but this world is a crazy place I tell you).

This season, Our performance has been indifferent at best, and heart attack inducing at worst. After dropping 2 points at home a couple of months ago to Tottenham, the worst team in the world (I’d rather walk naked in the cold of winter up and down Holloway Road than lose to these bunch of low life punks), the closing stages of tight games that we’re leading is a cause of serius heart attacks to me. We admirably survived the Man U and Chelsea onslaughts – but for some reason, I’ve never been worried about how we perform against the big guns of the Premier league.

However, when it comes to the so called lesser sides, my blood pressure increases dramatically because we’re seriously unpredictable in the closing stages of tight matches. Case in point, yesterday’s match to Aston Villa. That match was a done deal and we should have closed it down. The punks scored in the 92nd minute to equalise. Granted we didn’t lose, but we dropped two vital points. More importantly, I was at risk again, of another heart attack.

I don’t want to analyse the game, or look at the positives or where we messed up et al – I’ll just get more depressed. I’ve decided that I won’t listen to any news or punditry (God the pundits can be serious blow holes at times), read any newspapers or watch Sky Sports until 5 minutes before we play Portsmouth tomorrow at 2.00 pm – when they announce the teams.

Though I will never forsake my beloved team even if we’re relegated into the long grass of the lower divisions, the indifference of the performances this season is taking its toll on me for now. The new year will be different – I know it. And for those tired ass punters that sit on sofas with their oily faces and cheap Top Shop suits, Arsenal will still make it to the champions league next year – so quit the dramatic nonsense about Wenger having lost the plot.