Well, I don’t know about you but the nerves are really kicking in ahead of the United game.
So much so this week that I needed something to take my mind off of it this week, so rather than enjoy the fact that we won at QPR, our first consecutive away win for a while, I’ve decided that the first part of this week’s piece will be totally dedicated to analyzing Mesut Özil.
After all, I’m sure you will all agree there’s not been enough of that in the last few weeks.
I will make up my mind about him first, then I will either dig up some stats, or look at some stats that someone else has dug up which I will either ignore, or use selectively to fit in with what I’ve already decided.
Great Stats Darren!!
I’m not sure what I’ve actually decided yet though, I’m going to see what most people are saying this week and either go along with that to save me thinking for myself, or go the other way and write the biggest steaming pile of shit and nonsense you’ve ever read, just to be contrary, in the naive hope that this will convince people that I must know what I’m talking about.
If I decide to go down the “he’s lazy” route (which, ironically, is quite lazy in itself), I will totally ignore any information that suggests he covers more ground than a lazy player would, and will simply counter with “yeah, but he don’t look like he’s bothered / look at his body language”, or “for £42 million, I expect him to do more than run around a lot”, also known as the Ashton Method.
The Ashton Method
If I decide the opposite, I will ignore everything other than stats, to the point that my life completely revolves around stats, and my life has been taken over by stats, only I don’t realise because there are no stats to prove it.
“Was there something wrong last night, darling? You seemed….tense…” “That’s where you’re wrong. If you look at my heat map, I covered a lot of ground around the edge of the box. That counts as an assist as you finished yourself off….”
“Was there something wrong last night, darling? You seemed….tense…”
“That’s where you’re wrong. If you look at my heat map, I covered a lot of ground around the edge of the box.
That counts as an assist as you finished yourself off….”
Seriously though, the Özil “debate” is a perfect example of why it’s so difficult sometimes to take people’s opinions seriously.
Especially if it’s an opinion that people refuse to shift whatever he does, good or bad.
We all do it, and I’ll hold my hands up and say I’ve done it myself, and I’m not exactly on the fence as far as Özil goes.
I justify it with the excuse that I didn’t spend countless hours at school trying to convince other kids that Martin Hayes was better than John Barnes just to be told years later that Mesut Özil is “shit.”
Sat down being LAZY again
While we’re at it, let’s not stop at Özil.
Pick a player you don’t like, slate him to the point of no return, so much so that you’re forced into ignoring them playing well then wait for them to have a bad game and pipe up again.
Keep on doing this until you’ve completely lost the ability to enjoy football whatsoever, apart from the consolatory smug satisfaction you get from going on Twitter and reminding everyone you told them so.
After all, football isn’t about enjoyment any more, it’s about being right.
While we’re at it, do you think there’s any chance a player can have a bad patch, or even a poor few games, (come to think of it in some cases one poor game!) without it casting doubts over his future or something?
Obviously social media is to blame for this, having taken over our lives to the point that you can’t have a real life conversation with someone for longer than two minutes without looking for the “like” or “favourite” button.
Have. A. Fucking. Day. Off.
Anyway, rant over.
The nerves are kicking back in now, and tonight is a massive, massive game.
Win and we are at Wembley for a semi-final, and beating Man United in a quarter final is nothing to be sniffed at, however you view their form at the moment.
Still, no reaction will surprise me, given that there are STILL Arsenal fans that suggest we were lucky to win the FA cup last year as we “scraped past Wigan” and “were 2-0 down against Hull, almost 3-0 down if it wasn’t for Gibbs clearance off the line.”
No offence and this is just my opinion, but if coming from 2-0 down in a cup final is “lucky”, and ignoring the teams we beat on the way to the final, then there is probably no hope for you.
It’s what Tottenham fans do.
That was another rant wasn’t it?
Sorry.
Anyway, here’s hoping we do the business tonight, and if nothing else, at least we’ve pissed off a load of people who are missing Eastenders.
If we do win, please try and enjoy it, and if we lose, there are plenty of stats to dig out, and plenty of draft tweets to be sent, no doubt.
Up The Arsenal
Islington born and bred, Arsenal through and through.
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an Ozil fan here. on television its hard for us fans to see what he does good or bad. sure there are a few aspects which could come better with time. it does get pedantic on twitter so i limit following and i try to avoid discussion. on todays game an away goal will surely get us through.
Got yourself screw in mind, mate? Me either. I think you’ve spot on. Nowadays, football fans like result more than process. We’ve won FA Cup trophy in a hard way. We passed top hurdles like Spuds, Everton and specially Looserpool (right after 0-5 beaten in EPL). Then we crawled back every inch to defeat Wigan and Hull. I even think our champions mentality was finally born. Since then we’ve won the Shield (FA should change the trophy name, because in other league the battle contested title holder against cup competition champ is called Super Cup, and it’s prestigious). Lucky? Fortune is always following the hard workers, not just the best.
As for Ozil, his fitness level will determine his football stats, and it’s running great so far after his long injury break. Get rid of him, let’s the Oz concentrate on his stuff.
Let’s fire the night tonight guys! COYG!!!
It is funny how i even fight with other arsenal fans about Ozil. I like him, i believe his vision of the game is exceptional and out of this world! You could call it paranoia but i have this feeling that the media always make ot a meal of things when arsenal and its’ players are going through a patch. Mesut has taken some getting used to, but one must admit that since he has come back from injury he looks a different player, more physical and has contributed a lot to the team. I really wish he shines tonight so as to silent his critics.
For the team tonight, a win will do us some good, i just feel we have this mental block when we face united!! If we can show the same mental strength we showed after Aguerro scored against us at the emirates when we went a goal down, or the mental strength that we had a at city, we can have a go at this united team.
COYG!!!