You know it’s November when:
- James McClean is getting abused for not wearing a poppy.
- Everyone’s crying about how much they hate spending four hours a night watching The X Factor.
- Jack Wilshere is being touted as England’s saviour.
- But no-one gives a shit about international football.
And, of course, the big one…
- Arsenal are genuine title contenders.
It’s happening again, it always does. There comes a stage every single year when everyone accepts that we were wrong and everyone, it seems, gets angry at the mere suggestion in the first place that Arsenal would be challenging for the league.
Then, quietly and surely, it creeps back up.
Wenger has changed. This player is going to answer every problem. Did you not see the way they played in April when they had nothing to play for?
It’s in full flow again and this before November football begins. And we all know what happens in November. Don’t we?
Apparently we don’t appreciate that Arsenal’s annual collapse is as reliable as an Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain injury. Their complete capitulation is always there bubbling under their surface like the ‘send’ key to a #WengerOut tweet. It’s ready. It’s coming.
Sometimes it hides itself well but sooner or later it reveals itself and it does so with fury. Do not be fooled.
We’ll no sooner be talking about the world class likes of Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil in the same old schoolers at the bar stool tone: they just don’t fancy it. Cold weather? Packed Christmas fixture? Not for them.
We’ll be crying out for someone to roll up their sleeves and drag Arsenal through a tough fixture. We’ll turn our attention to Wenger and ask why he hasn’t rectified the problem – why he refuses to. Stubborn, he’ll be called.
Tony Adams and Patrick Vieira will have their ears burning as real men and real footballers are held up as the examples of what Arsenal are missing.
And then, before we know it, they’ll be playing glorious football again when it’s too late, but it won’t be too late to stop people predicting them to get their act together and win the league again next year.
Next year.
This pretty much sums it up.
It’s cyclical. It’s predictable. It’s Arsenal.
Catch up with the latest episode of Football Friday Live
