Arsenal Season in Review: October & November

Well after August and September comes October and November.

13 years is all it takes for a man to be immortalized in stone. Arguably Arsenal’s greatest ever manager (or second greatest if you fancy an argument) celebrated his 13th anniversary in charge of this institution. In the meantime, Chelsea and Tottenham have seen approximately a dozen managers come and go. Each.

Or at least i thought so after that Blackburn game where we demolished Evil Sam’s team by scoring 6 in a game yet again. TH14 was back as waterboy special visitor on this special occasion. Of course, NOW I don’t believe the stupid rumors anymore.

After that came 2 depressing draws, the AZ away Champions League game which was pretty inconsequential, and even more galling the stupid stupid stupid 2-2 throw away, gift of points at Upton Park.

What we needed after a few abject performances was a real pick me up and what better way to do that than play those big mouthed, peanut brained neighbors of ours! What made the eventual result even more fun was all the yacking to the press they indulged themselves in before the match. The game of course was a beauty. 7 seconds between 1-0 and 2-0. Not nearly enough time to celebrate properly.

We then really made use of the momentum gained to pull off some great results in the League and in Europe. The Wolves and AZ in the return leg were thrashed 4-1 each prompting the fickle press to back us to win the league by scoring a 100 goals. Of course that was the cue for disaster to strike.

Broken ankle became torn ligament. 5-6 weeks became day after tomorrow after a Serbian Quack promised a miracle cure using HORSE PLACENTA. Day after tomorrow finally became what every Arsenal fan had been fearing. The reliable doctors (read non Dutch National Medical Staff and Non err Unconventional Healers) concluded that van Persie was indeed out for 6-7 months; meaning almost the rest of the season; prompting the resident Manc to write this.

The scene was set for the first Inter Big Four Clash of the season. Chelsea came a calling and the adrenaline was high. Our Charity of the season was the Great Ormond Street Hospital and the players as usual very graciously agreed to donate a day’s wages and bonuses each and picked the game day as the day of good. The charity didn’t make too much money that day. Indeed they were lucky the team didn’t get fined for what was a truly abject performance. 3-0 to follow the 4-1 they handed out to us the previous season. The gulf was evident, sadly.

That was our FOURTH defeat already in  the season and left us with a mountain to climb. We could not have made it harder for ourselves. Oh Wait.

Till next time.