Arsenal will qualify for the next round of Champions League

Rejoice, rejoice! Arsenal have lost. We may surface once more

Arsenal have faced decent teams this season and have won. Arsenal made Napoli look very average and Napoli beat Dortmund. These people completely ignore that this is a very open group that is unlikely to have a dominant force and that we were tipped to be the whipping boys.

These people cannot be educated though as they will always seek to belittle Arsenal’s achievements and performances. Once Arsenal bounce back from this defeat, as they undoubtedly will and progress into the knock-out stages and continue to perform in the Premier League, these people will crawl back to the fetid hovels they inhabit and wait patiently for our next defeat.

And once Arsenal lose again, as they surely will at some point over the course of the season, as all teams lose, they will slither out again and declare that defeat to be our first true test. As such it is best to ignore such egregious folk.

After the match and into this morning an old argument has reared its repugnant visage and is creating yet another rift in the Arsenal ‘family’ and that is between the match-goers and the so-called “armchair” supporters.

Emirates-goers are under the impression that it is only the armchair supporters who criticise the home support and there are members of both camps who harbour extreme antipathy for those who leave the Emirates early.

Leaving early

I think it is unfair for those Emirate-goers to use the lazy and frankly pathetic response of “I go to matches and if you don’t you can’t criticise”. Well yes, actually they can and you can choose to ignore them. Every single Arsenal supporter wants to be able to attend matches but not all can. If you are lucky enough to go but choose not to aid in fostering a positive atmosphere at games, all games, then you aren’t fulfilling your role as a supporter. You are, in my opinion, relegating your status to spectator.

If you are happy just being a spectator then that’s fine, don’t get involved in the debate. If you don’t help create a positive atmosphere but call yourself a supporter, instead of arguing with those who criticise you for not singing ask yourself what you can do to not give them reason to criticise.

When supporters criticise the club they claim they are doing it because they want change for the better. Well, that is exactly what the armchairs are doing when they criticise the home support.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think the atmosphere in the stadium is entirely down to the supporters. The players have to deserve their chants, although we can chant “Come on Arsenal, come on Arsenal” even if they don’t, and the club has to play a much bigger role in generating a positive atmosphere.

The supporters are the instrument with which a positive atmosphere is created but the club has to do their part to encourage it. So on that side of things the armchairs are maybe asking the right questions but directing a lot of it to the wrong people and the home fans could be reacting to the criticism by saying “What can we do to make it better. What ideas can we present to the club to trial or implement”.

It’s hard to compare our away fans with our home fans because they away fans are spread all over the stadium when they are at home so their pockets of noise aren’t heard the way they are when they are away.

I would consider this quiet. That’s how bad it can get

With regards to leaving early, I don’t think it is right to criticise those that do. I don’t agree with it personally as I have never left a game early but it is not entirely their fault. I’ve seen a few people say it is down to the Emirates and the rise of the “tourist fan” and it never happened at Highbury but that is utter bollocks. I can’t speak for the 80?s and the 90?s but before I moved out of London I probably got to 6 home league games a year and at least 2 European matches as well as 3-4 cup or away games. 10-12 matches may not sound like a lot but 20-25% of matches attended for someone who didn’t have a season ticket I think is pretty good.

Almost every match I attended saw people leave 5 minutes early. I remember at least 10% of the stadium leaving a few minutes before Ashley Cole scored against Dynamo Kiev in November 2003. Why did they do that? Transport. Transport links are awful after matches and sometimes it can take 30 minutes to even get to the barriers at a tube station let alone get on a train.

I don’t agree with them leaving early but I can’t criticise them. These days I just hang around for as long as possible before getting on a train or a bus but no everyone can do that. Ideally everyone would stay until the end but unless transport improves or leaving the stadium is staggered (impossible to achieve) or additional entertainment is provided at the end of the match to encourage a slower flow of people heading to the tube stations people are always going to leave early.

It wasn’t the best result but we’re not exactly in bad shape so let us put the petty arguing aside and focus on the fact we are still in with a good shout in arguably the toughest group and are 2 points clear at the top of the Premier League!