So 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.

On Tuesday night, I resorted to quietly creeping into bed after a long exile in the living room watching a movie way past my bed time. As much as the Chelsea defeat to Mourinho’s Internazionale planted a smug grin on my face all night, I thought it prudent to stay away from the bedroom until the coast was clear.

If there’s one thing marriage teaches you, it’s the skill of knowing when to compromise for the sake of world peace. My wife had clearly had an unpleasant night, seeing her beloved Chelsea bitch slapped out of the Champions League, and I had to rein in my temptation to shamelessly gloat.

I thought I’d got away with my stealth entry into bed only for her to say ”wipe that stupid smirk off your face”. Whatever happened to ’goodnight sweetheart’.

It was only until yesterday when we got round to talking about football, and the conversation naturally revolved around where Chelsea go from here. I’ve always maintained that it was only a matter of time before the footballing senior citizens from Stamford Bridge reached the point of diminishing returns.

Whenever I get the opportunity, I wax lyrical to anyone who will listen about the virtues of Arsenals youth development infrastructure, and the benefits it is slowly yielding. It’s the antithesis of the brazen ’cheque book’ style of management we’ve come to know in the last 8 years or so.

For many clubs, the ethos and practice of ’building’ a team within your means has become an unfashionable concept. The easy way out for clubs chasing glory is to ’buy’ their way into stupidity, as Chelsea and Real Madrid have spectacularly shown.

The Chelsea hierarchy and fans have been carrying out a post mortem after Tuesday’s dramatic exit from the competition their wealthy owner sees as the holy grail. Not surprisingly, the solutions being bandied about evolve around the need to dismantle the squad and start over.

The Chinese have a saying suggesting that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I couldn’t help but notice the default position that the football establishment and punditry have taken on this issue.

It seems that no one has learnt the fundamental lesson here that you can’t buy success. For one, this short-term mentality is a sure fire way to flush millions of pounds down the toilet.

Secondly, the constant cheer leading by the pundits and hacks for Roman Abramovich to whip out his cheque book is so detached from reality, you honestly start to wonder if these guys live on this planet.

My sense is that one of football’s biggest problems is the fact that pundits are unfortunately given a stage by media houses to spew some serious diatribe that goes unchecked.

There’s an inherent assumption that if someone played football at one point in time, then they have the competence and or ability to form a reasonable, well thought out and researched opinion about footballing matters. Unfortunately for us, we’re stuck with a bunch of folks who I’ve got to tell you, leave me with the impression that they possess the IQ and personality of a fence post.

We are forced to endure the injustice of having folks who’s grasp of tactical and general footballing matters such as finance or the evolution of the game across the world is so off the pace, it ventures into the realm of criminality.

Even after Abramovich has spectacularly lit a bonfire with over £700m of his own fortune and watch it disappear with the dying embers of an aging Chelsea squad, the pundits are so far removed from this world to think that the solution is for Abramovich to keep spending more of his personal fortune.

Clearly, the club can’t afford to spend its own money considering they’re still running an operating loss and have a payroll to revenue ratio that beggars belief.

I’ve got to tell you, spending £700m (and counting) is an expensive if not a breath-takingly stupid way to acquire 2 EPL titles and a few FA cups, and at the end of it, you’ve got a squad that is about to retire, and no viable solutions to organically refresh the squad in a sustainable way.

What’s ironic is that in the last 5 years or so, this group of pundits and hacks have totally derided Arsenal and Arsene Wenger for going about their business in the right way. It’s become fashionable to sensationalize and shamelessly laud the virtues of what is clearly the financial doping of football by the injection of obscene amounts of ’artificial’ investment.

The sycophancy around the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City’s unsustainable spending sprees is typical of a culture that has lost any form of reality. It’s a culture that still thinks that football is immune to the impact of the global economic crisis.

My take is that very few if any of these pundits have the capacity to understand and digest the environment that football is operating in. They fail to grasp the fundamentals that affect the dynamics of the game as it evolves, and they fail to understand the impact of their ill-informed and misguided so called ’expert’ opinions shoved down our throats in the media.

This in my view makes them extremely dangerous. I have a friend Kevin, who retired from the Armed Forces, after serving in both Northern Ireland and in desert Storm, the first Gulf war if you will.

The miseducation of these pundits reminds me of one thing Kevin says about combat and how intelligence is important. Going to war without intelligence is bad enough, but there’s nothing more dangerous than going to war with the wrong intelligence. It’s inevitable that people will die.

Pundits have the same dangerous effect on football, in that what they perceive to be their expert opinion about football is actually wrong and misguided for most part.

The constant clamour for Abramovich to spend more money to rebuild the squad is a classic example of having absolutely no grasp about the issue that ails Chelsea. Buying this squad is a fundamental part of the problem because it’s not sustainable.

I think one of the issues that can be addressed is that some standards regarding the basic education and communication skills of pundits are put into place. It’s insulting to pick any Tom, Dick or Harry who has just walked through the ’I used to play football’ door, stick a Mataland suit on them and put them in front of a camera.

I sometimes get bemused that following any news and or football event, there’s always an ”ex…” something available for his 15 seconds of fame in front of a camera or at the end of a phone to provide an opinion.

You do wonder whether it’s impossible for the media houses to get the opinion of somebody reputable who is actually in the game as opposed to a ’used to be’ who wants his name out there.

We can’t do any worse than expect that whoever sits on a sofa and earns his corn as a pundit should at least have a competent grasp of the subject matter, if not a basic education.

What was more interesting and telling though, is that through gritted teeth, some of them have reluctantly started pointing out that the Arsenal way is perhaps the way for Chelsea to go. I get the sense that the tide is starting to turn.

The losses of Real Madrid and Chelsea in the Champions league, despite the urban myth that has evolved to suggest that big money equates to trophies, is a visible indicator of this misguided notion.

My sense is that the success of Arsenal and the achievement of winning titles in years to come will do more for the sanity of football if only to illustrate that you can live within your means and be successful.

Speaking of football punditry, the late legendary Nottingham Forrest manager Brian Clough has to be commended for his shall we say – bitch slap of the hacks and pundits and putting them in their place.

Watch the video here:

If there’s one thing that really gets my goat on a Sunday that should be a good footballing Sunday, it’s the amount of negativity floating around about the Arsenal’s chances against our neighbours from down the Kings Road. Granted, there’s a lot of disappointment about Robin Van Persie’s long term injury, but for me, the disappointment is more for the player than it is for our perceived inability to cope.

The negativity about Arsenal’s chances this afternoon is not just coming from the media circles, but from some quarters of Arsenal fans around the blogosphere who look like they’ll be hiding behind the sofa come 4.00 pm.

The hype around the ”3 derby Sunday” is fever pitch as usual, though sometimes I find that all the hype about super Sunday’s and the promise of ecstatic football is underwhelming once the games kick off. Wenger doesn’t seem to mind the hype and sensationalism that is fuelled by the media machine, and perhaps just sees it as part of the entertainment.

We met Chelsea at Stamford bridge this weekend last year and beat them 2-1 with 2 crackers from Van Persie and an own goal from Johan Djourou just for good measure. However, just like with the game against Man United a few weeks earlier at the Emirates, the expectation that Arsenal will win was so low that when we eventually won, most people seem to focus on the short comings of the opposing team rather than accept that Arsenal were actually worthy winners.

In such games where Arsenal are designated as clear underdogs, it’s important that the Arsenal team focus on their own strengths and mental attitude. There are stereotypes abound when it comes to describing the ideal winning machine that is required to contend for titles in England. For most observers, Arsenal’s technical ability, creativity and speed around the park is misguidedly discounted in preference of perceived strength, height and grafting ability.

Arsene however prefers not to talk about Chelsea and leaves that to commentators. Rightly so, he believes our focus should be on our strengths and mental attitude and how we approach the game. It is more important to do our talking on the pitch. We have enough in our locker and we’re ready.

Samir Nasri certainly thinks so. And while acknowledging that the game against Chelsea is important and supporting Wenger’s belief that the team is ready for battle, he affirms that whatever the result, the team will still have belief in abundance. They are not turning up to make up the numbers and Chelsea will have to earn their corn.

We of course have our customary injury schedule, but we cannot use this as an excuse for not turning up as we have a big enough squad to cope. Eboue will probably be preferred at left back for such a big game, and Gallas looks optimistic as his boxer’s eye calms down.

There is certainly no reason to fear Chelsea despite the hyperbole about their strength and power – Wigan and Villa made this Chelsea team look very pedestrian. The match will not be easy though and we need to be on top of our game.

My prediction for a starting line-up:

Almunia
Sagna Gallas Vermaelen Eboue
Song Denilson Fabregas
Rosicky Eduardo Arshavin

Subs: Fabianski Silvestre Traore Nasri Vela Walcott