Proving the hacks wrong, the Arsenal way

One of the things that you notice nowadays is that there are no glaring headlines in the newspapers, no calls for heads to roll, no pointers on players wanting to leave. Perhaps that’s because the favourite club of the tabloids is sitting pretty on top of the table and so there’s nothing to bad say about them.

It’s easy to see why all the hacks at these tabloids are having a tough time trying to come up with stories. All their favourite cash cows, so to speak, are no longer giving them the dividends they have come to expect.

Who can they talk of now? Aaron Ramsey? He’s untouchable right now, having scored 9 goals from 12 games (including the English Premier League and the UEFA Champions League). How do you talk negatively about that, when he’s in such fine form and providing assists left, right and centre? When he can dribble past a bunch of players with the skill that reminds people of Zinedine Zidane, what part of his skill set do you say is not up to the mark? When he can get 3 defenders on their backsides and score a wondrous goal that comes close to beating the most beautiful goal in recent memory, incidentally scored in the same match, how can you write anything about how he doesn’t contribute enough to the team?

Olivier Giroud? The Frenchman who was supposed to be slow and not good enough for the English Premier League? How can you say he’s slow when he holds up the ball so that the rest of the attacking players can get into spaces to score goals? How can you claim he isn’t a clinical finisher when he’s already scored 6 goals this season, and a gazillion other games still to play? Should you say he doesn’t have enough variety in his skill set? But then, he goes on to give a pin-point cross so that his transfer record breaking team-mate can score a headed goal for the first time in his career. How do you get past that?

Per Mertesacker? The player that was supposed to be having the turning radius of a tank and was too slow a defender to be able to track the runs of opposition strikers? But then, why do you need to even think of turning around when you can read the game so well that you will always be in position to break up attacks even before they get going? And when you can intercept any potential through balls, what can a reporter really latch on to talk drivel about?

Laurent Koscielny? The Ligue 2 defender who definitely does not have the quality to be playing for a club as huge as Arsenal? But how can anyone claim that any more when he repeatedly brings out those near perfect tackles inside the penalty box to negate any potential attack?

Wojciech Szczesny (almost got the spelling right at the first attempt!)? The kid who was not mature enough to be starting games and which put Arsenal in need of an aged custodian? Not any more, eh? Especially not when you can pull off save after save, when the defence lets in an opposition player on those rare occasions.

Arsene Wenger? The old man who was supposed to have gone mental because he could no longer get a team to play the modern way? How can you say that when the team is playing the most beautiful football, perhaps in all of Europe? The man who was supposed to have lost his marbles because he could no longer see that one needs to spend a lot of money to win? That claim went out of the window when Mesut Ozil was signed (and 42.5 million still seems a bargain!). The manager who was supposed to not change tactics during the match based on the match situation? But when you are controlling the game so well, why bother about the opposition?

It is no wonder that the tabloids are empty – they have nothing to complain about. Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal is playing some of the most beautiful football, and winning matches on the trot, which is perhaps the more important thing. All they can think of is Jack Wilshere smoking a cigarette. And if he can score goals like that, I wouldn’t mind his little indulgence.

True, the opposition so far has not been the strongest in the league, but most of the games that have been played so far have been ones that fans anticipated nervously, as the chances of losing or drawing were a lot higher than winning. Therefore, to win, and win so convincingly, makes the 3 points that much sweeter and the sight from the top of the table that much more wonderful.

True, Mesut Ozil has perhaps been the difference maker, vindicating the cries of millions of fans that money needs to be spent. But it should not be forgotten that even before Ozil was signed, the players that were already there had started the comeback, responding to the defeat to Aston Villa. The players that were already at the club made it possible for Ozil’s signing to be taken as more of an icing on the cake than an absolute necessity.

True, the real test will be when they lose a game. It’s easy to be soaring high on confidence when you are winning game after game, but whether you can be mature enough to be able to get over a loss immediately and start winning again is what will determine whether this team has what it takes to win a trophy, let alone win the league.

Am I claiming Arsenal to be invincible? I am not. But if there was ever a team close to the 2007-2008 squad, then this is it. That squad was near perfect and there was only one ingredient lacking – experience. They have that now, and this is perhaps the best chance they have to win the elusive trophy.

So sit back, and enjoy the evocative work of art that the team is painting on the canvas of European football. And who knows, if you are lucky, maybe you, like me, will shed a tear or two.