DB’s Season Diary

Week
Eight – We Are Still Top Of the League, Enjoy it

Well, I don’t know about you, but I
go into this international break extremely satisfied.
We are top of the Premiership, when if you had believed all the bollocks before
a ball had been kicked in anger, we would be embroiled in a relegation battle,
and any fan turning up with a pair of boots would get a game. Then they would
join the list of injured players our overpaid medical staff that haven’t been
the same since Gary Lewin left were forced to look after.

I’m happy, most Arsenal supporters I
know are happy. There are a few that aren’t though, and are doing their best to spread their
shit about as I write this on Sunday evening after a hard fought point away to
West Brom. This almost caused me to completely re-write this piece, as my blood is
beginning to boil, but this week it has all been about the positives, and a 1-1
draw away from home after going a goal down, while showing how quickly some
peoples perspectives can change within a few days in football, isn’t enough to
kill the buzz that I’ve had this week. It does, at the moment, feel like stuffing Napoli on Tuesday night was a long
time ago listening to what some people are saying. It wasn’t. Chill out, and let’s
go back a few days and look at how the week played out……..

Enjoy
Yourself…..

It isn’t exactly groundbreaking news
that it hasn’t always been a bundle of laughs being an Arsenal supporter in
recent years.
Arsene Wenger quite rightly brushed aside any suggestion as to whether Arsenal
can end our silverware drought this season.
It is very early days, and anything can happen. After all, it is still
mathematically possible for Sunderland to win the league you know…..

Sometimes though, you’ve just got to let go and enjoy yourself, so for this
week I say bollocks to that, let’s get carried away! 
This week I am going to stick two fingers up to reason, and thumb my nose at
caution. This week, I am going to revel in three words……

Arsenal. Are. Back 

Where better to start than here….

Arsenal
2 Napoli 0 – Umlauting myself get carried away

The feeling the day after the 2-0 win over Napoli is almost impossible to
describe. You don’t need me to try and do so to be honest, but if I just had a big space
here saying “insert own words here” it would be pretty lazy of me
would it not?  There was talk before the game that this was our biggest test of the season so
far, that we “hadn’t played anyone yet”.  I was a bit bothered to hear that actually coming from some of our own fans. Not the words themselves, more the tone they were put out with. The sort of
tone we should really reserve for other teams. I don’t think it matters too much who we’ve played so far when we’ve won that
many games on the trot, winning things is about beating teams and getting
points, the opposition is irrelevant to me when you are winning.

Anyway, enough about that, I don’t want to cloud the positive vibe with all
that bollocks, whatever floats your boat and all that. 
Personally, the fact that this was our biggest test so far was an exciting one,
a chance to prove ourselves, and I thought the way we played on Tuesday night
indicated the players saw it the same way. The first half was as good a display we’ve seen for a long time.
The speed and accuracy of our passing was phenomenal, as was our work in
winning the ball on the rare occasions we didn’t have it. We simply didn’t give Napoli the chance to settle, and after Olivier Giroud had
put us 2-0 up, they looked punch drunk and on the ropes.

Both goals were fantastic too. Girouds movement and touch for both shouldn’t be overlooked, and
Mesut.Fucking.Özil’s finish was the mark of a truly world class player. The way
he makes everything he does look so effortless is football porn at its sexiest. There were many more positives as well as Özil though. Matthieu Flamini & Mikel Arteta’s steadying presence allowed Aaron Ramsey
to get forward as an attacking presence even more, and him and Tomas Rosicky’s
energy had Napoli on the back foot from the off. Those two were both involved
in the opening goal, with Ramsey picking out Mesut. Fucking. Özil perfectly,
but Rosicky’s run into the box, taking two defenders with him shouldn’t go
unnoticed.

Giroud was absolutely outstanding, putting in a complete centre forwards
performance, holding the ball up and bringing others in to play. It’s great to see
him playing like this, and he’s going a long way to proving his doubters
wrong. I even saw a few snidey comments at the start of the week about him, having
gone three games without a goal. If you honestly can’t see how he’s contributing this season other than scoring
goals, then I don’t know what to say to you.

We took the foot off the gas in the second half and limited the Italian side to
rather speculative (and mostly, it has to be said, rather shit) long range
efforts. An amazing night all round. The one low point being I fancied 2-0 with Özil to score first but forgot to
put the bet on. Dickhead.

That’s probably the most I’ve wrote about a match in this diary, I don’t do the
match report thing usually, as there people on this site that do it much better
than me, but the fact that this could be one of the most important performances
by Arsenal for a long time makes it impossible not to cover it, and fits in
with the theme this week. It fits in as it is one of those performances that causes you to get carried
away, to dream, to look ahead to May 2014, rather than dread November. 

When
You’re Smiling….

I gave you a hate list a few weeks
back, how about a happy list? Here are some things to smile about….

The
Team
They are buzzing at the moment, you don’t need me to tell you that. Playing with a confidence and verve that just can’t help you getting carried
away.

The
fans
The moaners and groaners are starting to fade away like Marty Mcfly when he
couldn’t stop thinking about his mum’s tits. 
The odd grumble still being heard about not signing a striker, yearning for
Highbury, going on about finances and what not can still be heard, but they are
in the minority just now. Most of us are happier in our Arsenal lives than we have been for a long time. The atmosphere at the Emirates was fantastic once again on Tuesday, and how
much more enjoyable was a 1-0 win over the scum when we were all pulling
together?

Let’s not even get into arguments on Twitter with those who feel differently
from us. Let’s not have pissing competitions over who’s been going the longest, let’s
live in the moment. Could this be our year?  That may sound a bit “Spudesque”, but we’re not going to go out and
make a video full of fucking Yewtree suspects about top four being all we need
are we? No.

Revel in your smugness, enjoy it. We deserve it. If it all comes crashing down around us then so be it. We have won 10 games on
the spin, let’s get carried away!

The
Manager
I don’t know if it’s just me, but I think Arsene looks a bit healthier this
season compared to recent years. He’s certainly happier. 
Whatever you think about the last eight years, fuck that for now. If you think it should wait until May for him to be offered a new contract,
then be honest enough come May if he’s deserved it. If we pull something off this season, give the man the credit he deserves, as
it will be the sweetest of all. Seventeen years in the job celebrated with beating the team second in Serie A,
who were unbeaten until they came up against us. Happy anniversary, sir. 

Every
Other C*nt
If we are revelling in our current success, then everyone else certainly isn’t,
and that’s something to revel in ourselves! Just look at Glenn Hoddle with his shit Gerry Francis mullet when he was having
to praise us on Tuesday night. He had the look of someone going for a dump
while suffering from chronic hemorrhoids. It’s gotta come out, but it fucking
hurts like hell, and will do for a few days afterwards. Look at the tears welling up in Jamie Carraghers eyes when he says “dey do
do dat doh don’t dey doh la.” Listen to the disappointment in Gary Linekers voice when he smarms “what
if Giroud gets injured?”, when what he means is “Damn it! Why won’t
Giroud just get injured!?” 

Fuck ’em all! 

This could of course go spectacularly wrong, as I write this two days before
the West Brom game, but like I say, I’m living in the moment here….

West
Brom 1 Arsenal 1 – We Are Still Top Of the League

I found out a shocking thing today.
Apparently, if you take the teams we have played so far, compare the points won
against them this year to those won last year, we are five points worse off. I
shit you not, people. I think that means if we don’t beat every other team in the league we will be
relegated. I refuse to be drawn into this, not this week.

As it’s positive week, I’m going to look at it this way – this was the first
time since the opening day defeat to Aston Villa that we have gone behind. We didn’t
play too well, that much can’t be denied, but we responded well enough, Jack
Wilshere got a welcome equaliser after all the shit he copped from Twitter, as
well as The Two Jamies. What a pair of cunts they are. It was hilarious at the
end to hear Redknapp back tracking so much he almost ended up back to when his
old mans’ face was still part of his head. Prick.

If this result depressed you, scroll
up the page a bit and cheer up, it’s far from being the end of the world.

Right, let’s round off the happy week
with a bit of a laugh, with the return of the LALA corner….

Let’s All Laugh At – Napoli’s trip to the
hairdressers

I don’t know about you but I did wonder at one point whether part of Napoli’s
downfall on Tuesday night could have been down to them spending a bit too much
time on their hair. Some of them looked like they had stepped out of one of those fannyish black
and white posters on a barbers wall didn’t they?Apparently Giovanni’s down Upper Street was proper banged out on Tuesday
afternoon. Hey, if it’s good for local business then it’s fine with me.

The hair envy towards Arteta also became apparent when one of them clobbered
him, causing a number of hairs to move out of place. The bastard.

So, that’s that for now. We have an international break upon us now, and our
next big test this season is how we respond to dropping a couple of points,
given the fact that we have a break before the next game, and are unable to
just get straight back on the horse will be a test in itself.

Of course there’s also the worry of anyone coming back injured. Hey, Olivier, watch out for a jug eared crisp whore sneaking up behind you…..

Next week – the season so far….

Darren Berry

Islington born and bred, Arsenal through and through.

Published author.

Is Yours Gold? The Arsenal Invincibles Twentieth Anniversary – available now,

Over Land and Sea (and Lockdown), Arsenal 20/21 – The Corona Diaires – released 2021.

Clickbait: Life as a Modern Football Fan – released 2019