The Folly Of Questioning Arsenal’s Mental Strength
BySo what does mental strength actually look like? If you walked into a supermarket, would you be able to point it out and pick it off the shelf?
The way Arsenal’s mental fortitude keeps getting questioned makes you wonder whether there’s an industry standard ISO 2005 definition of what mental strength is supposed to look like.
What is interesting for me is that those who seem to constantly question Arsenal’s resolve to win the title are those who find it hard to come to terms with how the league table is shaping up. The table doesn’t lie.
The core problem seems to be the intransigence of commentators and pundits who find it hard to fathom Arsenal’s defiance of the establishment. I frequently waiver between sheer bemusement and blood boiling anger at the contempt and disrespect still shown to Arsenal.
I should know better really, but it does still get to me when in lieu of reasoned argument and debate, we’re stuck with prejudicial bile. It’s almost like we’re watching two different Arsenal teams and the Chelsea and Manchester United sycophants are stuck in a time warp that seeks to pigeon hole Arsenal as an ’also-rans’ team.
Watching the grave-digging pundits and hacks squirm about Arsenal’s title challenge
is as enjoyable as anything I’ve experienced in recent years, but the questioning of Arsenal’s mental strength seems to get to me more than normal.
My sense is that I’m getting a bit edgier because we can actually smell the business end of the home stretch. Don’t get me wrong, the next 7 games are the biggest 7 cup finals this group of Arsenal players have to face, and one game at a time, we will chip towards that promised land.
They are by no means easy matches, but in the same token , they are very winnable if Arsenal remain focussed, determined and tenacious.
Watching the games have become harder and harder, and there are times that I’ve seriously contemplated hiding behind the sofa because the stakes are just too high.
The thing is this though – even before a ball was kicked this season, Arsenal was written off as a joke. It was typical of football writers, commentators and pundits to fill the columns and air waves with their customary nonsense about Arsenal’s frailties. They insisted that Arsenal need to wait for this – ’spend big money’ to save Arsenal from the evil of mid-table mediocrity.
Guardian’s football writer Amy Lawrence was typical of the bunch with her cynically titled article, Time For Stubborn Wenger to Change His Youth Policy.
Firstly, it’s breath-takingly naive for a football journalist who brands herself as an Arsenal insider to fail to understand the vision and path Arsenal has taken in the last 5 years and the constraints it has brought.
It’s easier to label Wenger as ’stubborn’, than to take the time and effort to look at the bigger picture and competently analyse Arsenal’s short comings in the context of Arsenal’s bigger success in realising its overall vision.
Amy doesn’t hold the monopoly when it comes to the ill-informed nonsense written about Arsenal – there’s many of them around. What is interesting for me is the shifting of positions through the season by the hacks (including Amy), to position themselves well enough to start lauding the Arsenal team and Wenger in the unlikely event (unlikely for them of course), that Arsenal win the title.
If you collectively take all the negativity and all the dismissal of Arsenal as a title contender pre-season and throughout the season, then you will get a sense of why I’m suggesting the stupidity of questioning Arsenal’s mental strength.
These so called kids from the London Colney nursery were written off like a battered 17 year old banger broken into 4 different parts after a car accident on the M25.
These so called kids have the highest goal tally in the EPL, despite not having what these hacks and pundits refer to as a recognized striker. I honestly don’t know why they think Bendtner and Eduardo are defenders or ball boys.
These so called kids have not once, not twice – but time and time again, risen from the ashes like a phoenix and stubbornly refused to give away the title and fade away into oblivion.
These so called kids are blowing away every obstacle placed in front of them as pundits and hacks scramble to look for excuses to explain away what clearly wasn’t in their script.
These so called kids are proving that through the long marathon that is the 38 game EPL battle, they are physically, technically and mentally ready to last the course despite being written off time and time again.
These so called kids are quickly showing that they have learnt the bitter lessons of yesteryear and are determined to build on the excellent progress that they’ve made.
These so called kids are defying the very notion that you have to spend obscene amounts of money to put together a world class team.
These so called kids are putting two fingers out to the doubters to show their class and talent on the pitch as the best in the business. To be fair to the misguided pundits and hacks though, the likes of Alex Song and Abou Diaby have also blindsided many an Arsenal fan who never expected them to become the no-nonsense midfield generals that they have become.
These so called kids have constantly showed a ’never say die’ spirit and have fought to the bitter end to salvage a point or smuggle the 3 points from a very tight game. Scoring 15 goals in the last 5 minutes/added on time is not a feat to be scoffed at.
And yet despite all this, you get discredited punks all over the shop still asking whether Arsenal have the mental strength to go the distance.
Apparently, Manchester United and Chelsea have shown time and time again that they can do this and that they have the mental strength to do it. At least that’s the excuse being bandied about to explain why Arsenal can’t hack it.
Pray tell though, what on earth do you call the defiance beyond belief that this Arsenal team has shown by refusing to go away this season?
If that’s not formidable mental strength, then I don’t know what is.
Tue 13th September 2011; 19:45, Dortmund
Darius,
Exactly! What is it? That is also my question. May be, this thing “mental strength” is so variable that it is team specific that it gains a different definition for different teams. Even then, what is it? Do they perhaps mean, making dangerous (maiming) fouls and the ref waving play on even when the fouled player needs lengthy treatment and comes back unrecognisable (cue what happened during the Man U vs Liverpool match at Old Trafford over the weekend)? What is it?
I completely agree with Darius. Far too few people look at the bigger picture when assessing Arsenal. You correctly mentioned the policy Arsenal have followed over the last five years. Building a team from scratch when you’ve disposed off your Invincibles is no easy task, and it looks like Wenger’s plans are finally bearing fruit. I think it may have taken a little longer than expected. I feel that if Wenger had retained some experience during the first couple years after we last won the title, or if we hadn’t suffered so many key injuries, like the defenders last season, and the frontline this season, then maybe the progression would’ve been easier.
But to come back to your article, Arsenal is perhaps the only team in the top four that are untroubled on the financial aspect of the game. Wenger, Hill-Wood, and now Gazidis have talked themselves hoarse about the magnitude of the achievement behind nurturing a young team on a constrained budget, and qualifying for the Champions League year after year. Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham and Everton all have plans to build new stadiums, but none have progressed beyond the planning stage as the clubs are worried about staying competitive during the intervening years between building the stadium and paying off the debt taken on for the same. Arsenal have shown impressive financial nous in that they actually completed the project within the stated time frame, and also took on the burden of redeveloping the Highbury land and disposing it at a profit, instead of merely taking what they got for the undeveloped land. Smart. That, coupled with the strategy of intrinsic growth by buying talent on the cheap and developing it, has finally begun to pay off for the club. Unless you have the backing of an owner with deep pockets and cash to burn, this is probably the only worthwhile strategy to successfully build a stadium without regressing on the field.
I believe that this Arsenal team are poised on the brink of success. Hopefully this season, if not, then almost surely the next. The signs are good. The new found maturity, the killer instinct with a sting in the tail, the solidarity of team that has grown playing together etc. are all signs of things to come. I think most telling, for me at least, is how top managers like Ferguson, the Chelsea managers, and Benitez have so far not sided with the critics against Arsenal. It would be unprofessional of them to do that anyway, but the fact that not a cheep has been raised from Ferguson dismissing Arsenal’s credentials over the last five years in evidence enough of how the best in the business have seen the things that the myopic media have failed to recognize,
Darius
i like your view about this mental strenght of arsenal. I hope most of this critics know that arsenal players suffered worst injuries right from the kickoff of this season than any other football club in europe. I believe this guys are almost there. We should keep supporting and believing in them and disregard arsenal enemies disguise as football analyst.
You do well to bring up one of the most heartening things about this squad Darius.
The way they have applied themselves to the chase combining good old graft with flair augurs very well for the future.
I hope they keep this going right to the season’s end, let the pieces fall where they may.
Drawing Barcelona frees this squad from the burden of expectations, allowing them to play without fear or inhibitions. I think it isn’t a foregone conclusion by any means.
A note for Ken Hendrickson and “clockendrider”: I have added a comment to part three of the series on debt that explains the computation of the 107% “Debt/Value” by Forbes.
I have also updated the article itself with a friendlier debt comparison table.
Do take a look, and let us know if we’ve clarified your doubts.
I’m glad someone else has noted that “Arsenal fan Amy Lawrence” is simply the other side of the same journalistic coin. It never ceases to amaze me that while professing an affinity with Arsenal, she still manages either to sit on the fence or simply agree with the journalistic consensus time after time. But then, in common with all sports journalists, we mustn’t assume that because someone is able to string two words together and has a basic command of grammar and syntax they write anything worthwhile reading.
well,
grudgingly or otherwise, all have to at one stage ot the other acknowledge the arsenal
ot = or
well written blog by the way
Darius – I know you have written about this often enough, but I will highlight it again. Apart from the general failure of the press, who for commercial reasons will always sensationalize and and mis-educate the public (e.g. “you need to spend big to win anything” which typically means getting into huge debt with the banksters and corporate raiders masquerading as owners), the other disturbing element that has dogged the progress of the club over the past four years has been a swathe of so-called Arsenal bloggers who have done their best to undermine Arsene’s vision. We shouldn’t be fooled by their apparent conversion over recent weeks as they too must revise their stance and get on board lest the championship bus become filled and leave the station. They not only pronounced “project youth” a failure but did their very best to write death certificates for some of the most talented young footballers in the world who at an average 22-23 years of age are years away from their prime. Of course, Nieves Denilson is the latest Lazarus to have risen from the sepulchre. But how much shame can we pour on those who demanded big signings and big spending to prove we can compete with the big boys. Like you and your readers , I wait in vain for an apology.
Gennie.
You know you might be on to something there. The definition of mental strength may depend on what team they’re talking about. You can see the pain they have as they suggest through gritted teeth that despite Arsenal’s resurgence, they still don’t have this mystical mental strength thing.
@A fan, I think it was impossible for anyone to say for sure how long the project would take, and also, whether mixing and matching the eexperience would have helped.
For what it’s worth, I think that we had made a hell of a lot of progress in the 2007-2008 season. I’ve always felt that we missed Rosicky more than we missed Eduardo that season, and people under-estimated the impact of those losses.
In the following 2008-2009 season, we literally lost 75% of our midfield from the previous year for the entire season (Flamini and Hleb ventured into the reservation and Rosicky was out with an injury), and with Cesc’s 4 month absence, we also lost the remaining 25% of that said midfield.
Tell me any team in the world which would have survived that onslaught on their midfield.
We need to accept that injuries will continue to be a factor, but that in itself, is an indication of the strength and depth of the Arsenal squad.
Darius,
You’re right, I don’t think Wenger was quite sure how long the Project would take, but I mentioned having a couple of experienced players around because sometimes I think that was the only thing they were lacking. We’ve lost our composure on more than one occasion in the last few seasons. That was where the cool head of an old hand (a terrible pun, I know) would’ve helped. But I guess as a result of that risky decision now we have a team with almost all the players from roughly the same generation – which can’t be a bad thing at all.
As far as injuries are concerned, you have to admit Arsenal get more than their fair share of them. I’m sure it’s been looked into as Wenger has expressed his concerns on the same. We’ve coped well enough this season (imagine United without Rooney) and it is heartening to see the depth in our squad that wasn’t so apparent last year. We have so many versatile players (Song, Eboue, Ramsey, Arshavin, Nasri, Diaby, Denilson) that going forward, I believe injuries would not affect us to the extent that it has in the past. A case in point was the West Ham game, where we lost Vermaelen, but still only needed a positional shift in midfield (Song moving back and Denilson covering), and not a substitution to be almost as effective as before!
Anyway, I’ve been looking around for an Arsenal blog to follow for a while now. I think I may have found it.
Great article, I forgot to mention it earlier.
I think you must have a certain “mental strength” to even be a professional footballer. It just goes up in grades to the very top.
Though subjective it relates to confidence allied to actual ability with a strong determination to succeed.
Our lads have been showing that of late.
There are many things that affect confidence. The run of the ball helps but the vile sniping from the now quietening anti-support has been a serious obstacle. However surviving the negativity is character building in itself.
Perhaps those of us who have always supported this squad feel it more than AW & the lads themselves.
Darius, another award-winning piece; thank you. I have, like you, often rotated between anger and frustration, even sometimes impotence at my inability to do smoething about the iZombies and the anti-support. The sheer audacity that they have to arrogate to themselves the power to mis-educate and misinform the footballing public is beyond believe. But more annoying is the jostling for position on the U-turn table.
Whatever they choose to call ‘Mental Strength’ that our ‘kids’ supposedly do not have, is their problem. Our boys should just focus on each game as it comes. I don’t even want them to be concerned too much about two games down the line. We are getting there; and we will certainly get there.