“When you represent a club it’s about values and qualities, not about passports.”

I haven’t written a blog in a very long time. This is mostly likely due to the fact that I don’t really have a lot of positive things to say about Arsenal lately and I haven’t had the heart to put down all my frustrations in writing.

Living here in Canada can make it difficult to be a Gooner, but there are days when it makes it easier. When I’m sick of Arsenal and their constant disappointment, I turn off the TV, shut down my stream, log-off from Twitter and walk away. Watching the game at home or in the pub, I can complain to my friends on Twitter or the person standing next to me: I am allowed the right to yell at players, complain about our defense and even ask Arsene what the hell he is thinking even if it’s only shouting at the ether.

While spending my time following The Arsenal on Twitter, I’ve noticed a trend of “blame the home fans” tweets popping up. I often read them and think how easy it is to make these statements from the comfort of one’s living room. There is no expectation on me as a fan. I don’t have to cheer for 90 minutes, I don’t stand in the freezing cold being taunted by other fans and I don’t have to live with the media backlash for days after a loss. I’m allowed to voice my opinion without fallout or negativity and, most importantly, when I’m sick of Arsenal I can just walk away with no repercussions.

Home fans are there game in and game out. When it’s cold, when it’s snowing, when Arsenal go on a run of incredibly depressing, lacklustre and mind-numbing games, the home fans are there living it. We are all sick of hearing about financial statements and balanced budgets but without the home fans there wouldn’t be an Arsenal. The majority of the money that Arsenal make does not come from merchandise, television, sponsorships or CL money. Our home fans and the money they spend are what our team is built on and for that fact alone they deserve some respect.

Home fans are not responsible for the signing of players, how a player performs, where a player is utilized or when Arsene’s zipper fails. There is a myth of the 12th man on the pitch, that somehow these home fans are expected to be “super” fans who don’t feel the same frustration and disappointments that we do. A belief that if these fans chant a player’s name, he somehow he excels against all odds. These players are professionals. They are paid millions to do a job once or twice a week. They didn’t have thousands of fans screaming their name as they were learning how to play football, they should be able to be talented and productive players regardless of what the fans are doing.

I was privileged enough to attend a game at The Emirates thanks to the generosity of a season ticket holder. Being at The Emirates was an experience I’ll never forget. I attended the very first 5-2 North London Derby and the intensity of the emotional rollercoaster I experienced was overwhelming. I didn’t stand and scream the entire time, half the time I forgot other people where even there. I was so caught up in the game, the emotions and the constant silent pleas to the football gods that we would score, that I didn’t think to even attempt to start a chant.

It’s become commonplace to assign blame, to score points by bashing others, attach an acronym to a supporter with a differing view. The art of conversation and dialogue has been lost, we are a fanbase bitterly divided and it’s difficult to see a way past that. I’m hoping that we can return to a time of rational discussion, to hear and respect viewpoints which differ from our own and understand that no matter where a person watches Arsenal, we all want the club to succeed.

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”

This whole series of blogs started with a conversation between Mimsie and myself. She had written a blog about fangirls, and her defence of them challenged me and forced me to view myself as a supporter in a new light. How was I seen? Could I fit the definition of a fangirl? How did the male Gooners I interact with perceive me? As I began trying to figure out answers to these questions I reached out to fellow female Gooners whom I respected and asked them to write about their thoughts and experiences. Mimsie as well wrote an excellent blog on her thoughts and experiences here, from which I will shamelessly quote as I attempt to explain my thoughts.

As I thought about my experiences as a fan, I discovered that it wasn’t about my gender, my preferred midfield, or how much I wanted Arsene as our coach that was important to me. What I wanted from interaction with fellow fans was a sense a community, a place to be heard, to listen, to be challenged and grow as a supporter.

I realized that I have never made my gender an issue. I had never thought of myself as being different to any relatively new Arsenal fan. I love our team with a passion and with every passing year, my knowledge grows. Last season when I had the incredible fortune of travelling to London and watching the season-changing 5-2 NLD, I didn’t view myself as a female surrounded by male supporters. I felt like I had come home. I wasn’t excluded; I was embraced, maybe a bit too roughly while being pounded on the back with excitement, but I wasn’t complaining.

As in the quote below I had viewed my fan experience as ordinary until I was reminded by others that I wasn’t:

“It’s an extraordinarily unordinary fan experience, as far as I’m concerned. Which is fine, seeing as I’m just another fan. Every so often, though, I’m reminded — by blog posts, tweets, off-hand remarks — that this isn’t exactly true. Every so often, you come across a comment that feels like a slap in the face. Because women don’t actually like sports, it’s assumed. Women only care about how hot the players are, not how well they play. Only men can really appreciate football. And therefore men are better fans.”

I mentioned in my introductory blog that recently had my first experience of being told I wasn’t a ‘good enough’ fan based on gender, and while it was shocking and hurtful, it did cause to me to grow as a fan. I hated being degraded, I hated the insinuation that I was stupid and most of all I hated feeling like an outsider when Arsenal has felt like home. The worst moment happened later. While I was sitting up at night stewing over how someone could pass such a judgement, I realized that I have been that person.

I am a hypocrite. I have judged other Gooners based on their opinions, I have called other female supporters fangirls, I have mocked and called into question the support of those who think Wenger should be replaced. I have made other Gooners feel the way a man made me feel and it’s not okay.

Once again Mimsie explains my thoughts better than I can:

“It’s ugly, this hierarchical code that expresses itself as the need to put down a fellow human being in order to feel our own self-worth. Either be the best, or at least make sure there is someone still lower than you on the ladder, and make it clear that you are superior to because of reasons x, y, and z.”

It’s sad that we’ve been conditioned to believe such a lie, because superiority is a double-edged sword. The constant drive to prove your worth means you are never actually sure that you’re worth anything at all. The name of this game is insecurity itself.”

Although I didn’t enjoy being judged and questioned based on a gender-biased view, it helped me to expose some of the flaws in my own self and because of that, I will transform what was meant to be a hurtful and belittling experience and change myself into a better woman, better person and better Gooner.

I may not agree with your opinions, I may not care for your personality, style of writing or tweets, but I will treat with you the respect that all fans deserve.  When we met in a pub or hopefully someday at The Emirates again, if you are a Gooner you are welcome to sit with me.

Genesis of a Gooner

Following on from yesterday’s  introductory blog on female fandom, today I sit down with some ladies I’ve come across on Twitter to get their insight into matters.

The one question I often get as a female supporter is: “how did you become a fan?” Often this is in an inquisitive manner, but sometimes it is asked to question my knowledge or judge if I have been a fan ‘long enough’. The worst-case scenario is when it is asked in the sceptical, “I bet she’s just here for the pretty players” type of way. I asked some of my fellow female Gooners to share their experiences and we spoke of how we became fans of football and what it’s like when people question our beginnings.

Kajal – When people say: “It’s so cool that you’re a girl who is into her football”, my only ever response to this comment is that I am not into football, I am into Arsenal. This results in some rather odd looks or uncomfortably toned answers such as: “Yeah but you still know your stuff”, as if to somehow mark me ‘credible’ in their eyes again.  My love for Arsenal derived from my mother who is your more unconventional football supporter. As a schoolgirl she had an affinity with the (dirty) Leeds, just as my peers toyed with a brief love-in of Manchester United because it was seen as fashionable to do so.

She also has a soft spot for Leicester but I’m more forgiving of that as she used to live there. Her true love, however, is Arsenal and all credit goes to Arsène Wenger for making her fall for his beautiful and more-than-digestible style of football, and not before long, so did I. I got some stick for beginning to follow Arsenal at a time when they were doing well as opposed to attending games from the age of 5 and watching the famous ‘1-0 to The Arsenal’s under George Graham (never by Arsenal fans, mind you) but I didn’t care. I loved everything about The Club from Highbury to the detail on our home socks.

Sandra – I’m 52 years old and originally from Brazil and grew up in Massachusetts in a heavily Portuguese area. My Brazilian family kept their love of football when they moved to the US but it was hard to keep up with it at that time. We emigrated in 1964. My uncles fostered a love of football in me so they had no issue about me being a girl. From an early age I grew up with a divided family in terms of football clubs – the Rio side being strong Flamengo supporters, and the other side being strong Corinthians supporters.

In 1970, my family (my uncles mainly) and Brazilian friends wanted to be in Brazil for the World Cup because Brazil had a strong chance of winning it. They planned to travel there. I really wanted to go but my mom couldn’t afford it so one of my uncles lent her money and we spent a month in Brazil watching the World Cup on small TVs. It was a family thing – though clearly it was men who knew the game better.

But I learned from them.

Later as a teenager, college student, grad student and post-grad school I traveled and worked in many countries around the world and went to many football matches.  I  have experienced several encounters in which a male would doubt my knowledge about football but I’d just shoot back with the amount of stuff I did know and then their attitude would immediately change, and they’d take me more seriously.

Jules – Many of today’s female fans grew up playing football. For me, I idolized the US Women’s National Team of the 1990s. They were female role models excelling internationally far more than the Men’s team.  In my personal experience I’ve been in love with the game since I started playing as a child. It frustrates me that there are people out there who consider me a dilettante just because of my gender.  And they almost certainly believe that I shouldn’t wear a jersey as I can’t be a “real” fan. I can’t possibly appreciate the role of a defensive midfielder, or gasp in awe at the beauty that was Andrea Pirlo’s free kick. That’s a false premise based on stereotypes rather than truth.  When I look at my Twitter timeline or the readers of my own blog, I know that there are a lot of female fans. This community has basically live tweeted matches all season and continued to do so for the Euros. Clearly women are still a minority among football fans, but we’re vocal. We’re blogging, podcasting, v-casting, and submitting pieces to magazines. It’s anything but passive.

I think about the female bloggers that I regularly read. I don’t choose to follow blogs based on the gender of who is writing them, but on the quality of writing. Discounting strong writing and analysis just because a woman wrote it would be ridiculous. There’s no reason to close yourself off from different perspectives. I don’t care if a person is from Mars, if they’ve got insight I want to know about it. Don’t worry guys, I read y’alls too. If I’m reading you it’s because I like you, and what you have to say. There’s no quota of types of football blogs that I read. If you’re good, I want to see it.

This past spring MLS suspended Simon Borg for 7 days after he made comments regarding passionate female fans being unattractive to the opposite sex. There were two issues present. One: All men think women who really like sports are unattractive. That’s easily disprovable by going to a professional football (soccer) match. Many men welcome the female presence, as having interests in common is typically a good things for a relationship. Two: Why does my interest in football have to be viewed through the lens of “will a man find this attractive?” It’s incredibly self-centered and heterocentric to think that women at sporting events are mostly worried about how they will appeal to men. This discounts lesbian and bisexual fans as even being considered fans, and also again takes the point of view that women are there to be enticing not cheering on their team. Guess what? We buy merchandise too, and teams like selling merchandise.

I guess the short version of what I’m saying is that I’m a fan. A kit wearing, tv yelling, euphoric from wins and despondent from losses fan. I know and like the game, so please don’t discount me because I’m a female. We’re all on the same side as long as you don’t consider club loyalties.

Does being a female fan mean being different? Is there an invisible line that separates us from male supporters?  As I wrote yesterday I rarely think of myself as being anything other than an Arsenal supporter. My gender has rarely come to mind but yet it impacts everything in life. Here we discuss what the implications of being a female fan has meant to us as individuals.

Kajal – One comment that really struck me as a female fan (I don’t advocate the use of the word Goonerette – if you don’t want to be seen as different to male supporters, why use it) was the failure to understand how I could appreciate the way that Arsenal play without having played football myself. This was actually a valid point, and one that I had thought about on a few occasions. I played football at school when we had to in P.E, tried to join in with the lads at break time at Lower (Primary) School on a few occasions because we thought it was ‘cool’ and practised penalties with my brother when we were younger but I never really understood things such as the mathematics and precision behind free kicks or the weight of a pass in a practical sense yet these are amongst many things I appreciate and fawn over when done well. How is that so? I don’t know the answer to this but I also don’t know how any fellow human in this planet (whether they love football or not) could not be overawed by the magic and trickery of my one true idol, Thierry Henry.

Even discounting his many, many goals, it was his presence on the pitch, the way he was so strong yet ran so gracefully, his nutmeg of Danny Mills, the Trompe L’Oeuil pass to Reyes, his sarcastic goal celebration towards Mr ‘I’m A Celebrity’ Poll, who had given him a hard time about the placing of the ball for *that* free kick. I could explode just talking about this man! I can’t leave this paragraph without the inclusion of his solo goal and celebration against Sp*rs – now the desktop background of many, many Gooners, including myself.

No Arsenal-related, French love-in could be complete without a few words for Mr Wenger. I love the man. That is all. Well, it’s not really all. I look on the social networking sites and see our very own fans calling him derogatory names and I want to throttle the whole lot of ungrateful [insert profanity here]. I just about understand that the man is not infallible but I just cannot fathom why he is subject to abuse from fans, and I’m not just talking about our own ingrates but we know not to expect an ounce of morality from that lot down the road, and that other lot over in Fulham, and that other lot three hours up the M6. The media have to take a large portion of the blame but it’s 5.45am and I’m having to remind myself why Jess kindly asked me to participate in this blogging session so no more on that!

Onto Twitter. The joy and bane of my life. Not only have I had the pleasure of meeting other female Gooners (they really know their stuff y’know! ;-)) but also other Gooners from around the world. This has been extremely eye-opening for me as to how much worldwide recognition and admiration we have but also the dedication and unconditional love from our friends in different countries. The effect Arsenal have had is special, but not as special as the effect these fans have on the Club.

My Twitter followers will know that I do love a good moan so I’ll try not to deprive you too much on here. One of my pet hates on Twitter is a female using their affinity towards Arsenal to get attention from men and use it as a dating service. All female Gooners I follow are beautiful, funny and shame me in my knowledge of Arsenal – past and present! I think we’ve worked pretty damned hard to change the perception of female fans so therefore am vehemently against being tarred with the same brush as those wanting to use Twitter as Match.com (or Shaadi.com for any Indian readers!)

Sandra – In Brazil and other Latin American countries, the stereotype about women and football is typical of the old stereotypes of women and sports here in the US: women don’t get the rules, they’re not interested, they get annoyed that their husbands or boyfriends spend so much time with it, they don’t get the passion involved with supporting a club, etc. And much of that is true – a lot of Brazilian women don’t share their men’s passion for the game.

But at the same time there are always a strong, loud representation of women fans in nearly every game in Latin America. Certainly men are more predominant but women are always there. I’ve been to games in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Ecuador, Mexico. I’ve seen a lot of bad behavior among fans and certainly have been called misogynistic names by drunken male fans but whenever that happened I received support from other male fans who defended me.

Jules – Being female in what is traditionally considered the domain of males is interesting. For most people it’s not a problem, but for others my mere presence somehow cheapens the importance of their interest. Especially in sports culture, women have long been passively set to the sidelines as casual observers. Time and time again we’ve been told that we don’t understand the game, and football matches are often considered a perfect time for boyfriends and husbands to tell the ladies to go shopping. Those old standards don’t hold true anymore. All one has to do is look on Twitter to see that it’s changing. There are tons of female fans, and it’s a good thing.

There is the immediate assumption that if a female is a fan, she’s only there because she thinks the players are hot or is trying to win over a guy. I don’t really understand this argument as all of us have eyes. We can all see that someone is conventionally attractive.  Just because I might find a player handsome, doesn’t mean I rate him as a player if he doesn’t perform on the pitch.  The argument about shallow fangirls who only like the looks is annoying since from the Olympics of Ancient Greece, the athletic form has been revered by our culture. The ESPN Magazine Body issue continues that celebration. Furthermore, there is distinctly a difference between a women who fakes an interest in sports to attract a guy, and women who are fans. The unwillingness to note those distinctions and place all females in one category doesn’t address the personality variance that occurs across genders. There will obviously be fakes who are there for the eye candy, but they aren’t the female fans who watch all the matches, and fret over injury lists. It’s offensive to be considered vapid and ignorant just because I’m female.

Any memories that you would like to share, be it Arsenal-related or more general?

Kajal – Highbury was a special experience that I never fail to want to relive. The magic of attending your first match and have the coach pull up outside and Mr Wenger standing less than six feet away from you is something pretty indescribable. That’s something I miss at Ashburton Grove, it feels like the players are now too exclusive for their own good and your only chance of seeing your heroes off the pitch is if you wait long enough for them to drive out – and that’s if their chosen car that day doesn’t have blacked out windows.

Sandra – Two of the worst encounters I’ve ever had was in England – involving a couple of Spurs fans and one Stoke fan. All three treated me and my two female friends appallingly. With the Spuds it was outside White Hart Lane; with the Stoke fan it was in a pub watching an AFC-United game. They said we should go back home and start cooking, we don’t know shit about football, we’re ruining the game, etc.  They were drunk of course.

Most of the time I’ve found men to be incredibly happy and impressed that they’ve found a woman who knows the game and loves it as much as they do. But there are always a few who feel like we’re intruding into their space just by being at a game or at a pub watching it with them. Most men I find are also tolerant when we express sentimental attachment or physical attraction to players. That’s been my experience, anyway.

The one thing I’ve always had some trouble dealing with in football being around drunk men. Wherever I’ve gone, very very few women are drunk and a lot of men aren’t but a lot of men always are. Especially in England and the UK generally – it’s a massive drinking culture there. And I’m not much of a drinker (this always was a topic of jokes in my time in England). It’s not a moral issue with me, nothing like that. I just don’t drink a lot. I don’t mind a little now and then but it’s just not a big part of my consumption habits. Over time I’ve gotten used to it and a lot of guys are perfectly funny and pleasant when they’re drunk. But it’s something I’ve never been crazy about. Never stopped me from attending games, though 🙂

Jules – I spent Easter morning 2012 at a pub in Brooklyn, NY watching Arsenal play Manchester City. Initially I was the sole female there, and my husband playfully teased me about being the only girl in the pub. I ordered a cream ale and ignored him. It was nearly match time, and all I could think about was how it was a must win match for the Gunners. Many a weekend morning has been spent watching matches with the boys. It’s amazing how the moment you prove yourself as knowledgeable the anti-girls attitude pretty much disappears. It’s not much different than the experience a new guy in a circle of soccer fans would find. You have to size people up and determine how much they know, which really isn’t different from any other interest on the planet. I don’t have any problem with that as I can hold my own, but I distinctly have been questioned about my knowledge of football spanning from the offsides rule to how I believe Messi would fare in a cold wet night at Stoke. I’d really like to see that match.

A big thank you to Kajal, Sandra and Jules for their contributions and insights. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s finale where Mimsie will share her experiences and thoughts

Jules’ blog can be found in it’s entirety here

“I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters”

Being an avid social media user, I have had the displeasure of seeing many different types of infighting between Arsenal fans. Foreign vs local, the Arsene Knows Brigade vs Wenger Out Brigade, pro-snood vs anti-snood, and the list goes on. What struck me recently and inspired the idea of reaching out to fellow female Gooners was that I’ve had very little interaction and experience in the debate of male vs female supporters.

Most of my experience in relating to fellow fans has been online. When I first started supporting Arsenal in 2008, I found a community of fans on a site called LiveJournal. I spend the majority of my time on ONTD_FOOTBALL and later branched out into ArsenalBBS. I didn’t conciously notice at the time, but all the fellow fans I interacted with and spoke to were female. While there was infighting that us Gooners have become accustomed to (you haven’t seen an online war until you’ve seen the fallout after a Sergio Ramos hair cut; I’m firmly in Team Long Mane) no-one ever questioned my knowledge or support of Arsenal based on my gender.

When I left the cozy confines of LJ to venture further afield to the new frontier of Twitter, I began to interact more with male Arsenal fans and for the most part it has been a good experience. In fact I never even considered the fact that I was female fan amongst male fans until recently. The majority of topics I discussed with my fellow female Gooners also extended into similar conversations with male Gooners. We talked about tactics, new signings, Pat Rice’s shorts, Arsene’s water bottle hatred and his often inexplicable substitutions. I’ve met male Gooners who are bigger fans of individual players than I am, who created parody accounts with us, who debated the merits of our One True Pairings (OTPs) and shared our collective sobs and heartbreak when that man Fabregas left. Over time I learned the art of the subtle unfollow for Gooners whose tweets I didn’t enjoy and I remained content with my eccentric and eclectic group of Gooners.

Then Robin van Persie happened, and in the midst of my shock, tears and crushing loss of faith in loyalty in football, I began to notice a different kind of reaction. Other Gooners began to tell me how to feel about Robin. I was told my opinions weren’t valid, that I needed to get over it and to “stop being so emotional already!” I noticed this happening to other female Gooners and the majority of the people doing the admonishing were male. I had my first experience in being told my thoughts weren’t valid because I was female. It isn’t an experience I’d want to endure again, but like most unpleasant experiences it pushed me to learn and to grow. I decided to reach out to my fellow female Gooners and listen to their experiences, hear how they became Gooners and discuss their experiences. It has been moving, informative and eye opening. There has been a lack of Victoria Concordia Crescit in our club lately – especially in the boardroom – so maybe it’s time for us supporters to show them the way.

Remember to check in tomorrow where I discuss the road to Goonerhood with @mimsicality,  @GreenieJules  and @SandraHelena39 and others.

Should a love of a country stop at the border?

As many of you can guess from my “Oranje_sky” username, I am of course a devoted fan of the Dutch National football team. This has been a painful Euros for me as you can imagine. What caused the most pain for myself was not the infighting and lacklustre performance of the Dutch, but the negative and often cruel comments and attitudes of my fellow Gooners on Twitter.

I can appreciate banter, and Holland deserved every bit of criticism they got, but the personal attacks, the questioning of my support of Holland, Arsenal and the Canadian Men’s National Team were all surprising to me. I understand internationals can be tense, fans who are normally supporting the same team are divided and it can cause tension. If you are wondering why people get so sensitive around international tournaments or simply don’t understand those who support a country, allow me to share why.

Watching football became special to me because it was something that I shared between my grandfather and myself.  Growing up in Canada it was difficult to watch international football and impossible to follow a club. Together we would make the effort to follow and track the Dutch national team as best we could.

As I grew older and we watched games together that would be one of the few times my Grandfather would share stories about living in an occupied country during WW2. Although the stories were always humorous and related to his football antics, they were tinged with the sadness and desperation of that time.  He threw himself into practicing tricks and developing techniques to avoid being in a house that was often used by German soldiers as a food base because of the large garden in their backyard. Football started as an escape and blossomed into a passion, which he was determined to pass on to me.

Being an Oranje fan has never been easy. Loving a team that is hell-bent on selfishness, drama and self destruction can be painful at best. They have traditionally shown the world incredible football allied with a legion of colourful and devoted fans.  My Grandpa taught me to appreciate the skill and vision needed to complete the perfect pass, the incredible talent and intelligence it takes to direct a midfield and the strength required to constantly probe and attack a solid defense. We always rooted for the players who not only showed great skill but were full of passion and drive. We were mutual fans of players like Edgar Davids and the de Boer twins. But it was Dennis Bergkamp who I fell in love with.  We watched his now famous goal against Argentina together and it has become one of my favourite football memories.

Fans who argue that club is more important than country often fail to recognize that, for quite a few of us, our Country lead us to our club. For me it was Dennis Bergkamp and Robin van Persie who attracted me to Arsenal.  Although I have come to love Arsenal in its own right, I wouldn’t be a Gooner today if it wasn’t for the Netherlands NT and my Grandpa.

When you see people like myself – a Canadian with an Oranje heart – take a minute to ask them their story. It’s so easy to judge and criticse people’s love and passion for a National Team, but to me Holland is so much more than just Robben’s selfish behaviour, World Cup finals or fans in goofy wigs. The team carries the legacy of my grandfather, my introduction to football, and the start of the journey to being a Gooner.  Hup Holland Hup!

“It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you place the blame.”

I’m sure many of you follow the excellent tweeter and blogger WengerBoy1. I have had the pleasure of getting to co-write the following series of blogs on some of the common myths that seem to prevail around this Arsenal team with him. This is Will’s take on the myth that “Missing goals is a sign of a struggling player.”

I would like to quickly challenge is the belief that missing a lot of chances automatically makes you a worse player than those who don’t miss as many. Gervinho and Ramsey in particular have come for a lot of criticism this season due to this and while some of it is deserved – the pretty darn crucial, not-scoring part – they also deserve praise for their actions. Praise which many are reluctant to give out.

It’s obvious why people wouldn’t praise them for missing chances – why would you praise a player for not scoring? Just saying it sounds completely counter-intuitive and with good reason – it’s wrong. Ramsey and Gervinho do not deserve praise for the actual act of missing and that is not, it should be noted, the argument I am putting forward.

But it is an often overlooked fact that players who have missed loads of chances have actually worked to be in those positions to begin with. Players who don’t have the movement or awareness to get into those positions can seem immune to the above criticism – they didn’t miss the chances so therefore they must not have played as badly. And – crucially – if, say, Ramsey only had two goals this season instead of three but had a 100% conversion rate people would likely be rating him more highly, despite a lower over output,  because he would not have been seen to miss so many good opportunities.

I would much rather hear about all the chances that a player was missing then not hear about them having chances at all. A player that gets into a scoring position very often, which is a skill that requires intelligent reading of the game, is more likely to contribute to a goal – even if they often miss – then a player which does not, simply because they are providing threat. A missed chance can result in a rebound, a deflection, opposition confusion – any number of potentially positive outcomes – but the absence of a chance does not produce one thing. What is more worthy of criticism  – a game where you create and miss ten chances or a game when you create and miss none? It’s the latter every time, in my opinion.

And usually these players don’t miss all their chances, just some, which is important. A player who has 10 chances and scores 80% of the time will gets 8 goals but a player who has 100 chances and scores only 10% of the time will get 10 –  2 extra goals despite a 70% difference in conversion rate. The more chances you have the more likely one will result in a goal so it is obviously better to keep having them than not.

It also takes courage to have a shot or to want to be in a position to score, and many players shy away from that. To keep missing and yet still keep trying to get on the end of a cross or take a shot requires mental resilience –  you have to believe that no matter how many times you have missed you can still score with the next chance. Part of the issue this season with Fernando Torres, formerly one the most feared and lethal finishers in the game, is that he’s been scared of getting into good scoring positions because he’s so afraid of missing, therefore limiting his opportunities to score and further hitting his confidence.

Gervinho (earlier in the season) and Ramsey, however hesitant they may be, don’t shy away from getting into those positions. And in Ramsey’s case this in spite of the fact he must be able to tell that the crowd and fans are already heavily on his back for previous misses, and likely to be more so if he misses again. Having determination in your mind, even if your confidence on the pitch is low and you can feel discontent emanating from ‘supporters’, is an immensely positive trait and one that allows a player the best chance possible of improving and doing better the next time.

Bendtner is a fantastic example here – someone who is known for missing loads of chances, yet has enough chances to score a fair numbers of goals and enough confidence to not let the misses affect him. I remember in 2009/10 when we played Burnley and he missed sitter after sitter:

 

“The margin of victory could have been far greater but Nicklas Bendtner spurned several gilt-edged chances before being substituted” (Sky Sports)

What happened in the next game? He bagged the first ever European hat-trick at the Emirates against Porto. And that’s why a player who gets himself into scoring positions but misses is worth playing – because as long as they keep doing what they’re doing they will get plenty more chances to score.

 

Will’s work can also be found over at one of our favourite fellow blog sites http://www.arsenalvision.co.uk/

You can catch him on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/#!/WengerBoy1

LPGCast End of Season Awards!

The time has come for our group to celebrate the end of our season! Thanks so much to you for listening, voting in our poll, retweeting our stuff, and basically supporting us since the beginning. But don’t think you’ve got rid of us quite yet! We will be having a few podcasts this summer, depending on what sorts of news we get, so keep following our twitter accounts (find links on our profiles) for important updates.

If you’re hoping to get involved somehow, here’s how you can help:

• Submit a FFA Friday guest blog (instructions here)
• Join us as a guest podcaster (contact via email for more info)
• Ladies: join us as regular bloggers

Listen to the latest podcast below, or click the download link and save for later!

Download Here!

Music: “Jump in the Line” by Harry Belafonte
“Troll in the Dungeon” clip from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Disclaimer: no profit is being made from this podcast. We are, in no official way, affiliated with Arsenal Football Club.

Uplifting Animal Spirits

With such a disappointing end to our 10/11 season, the LPG casters announce their spirit Arsenal players. What is a spirit animal/Arsenal player? Simple: the player with whom you share most/all personality traits, or rather, your Arsenal soulmate. These spirit Arsenal players led to a lot of jokes, thus the ‘uplifting’ in the title. In this episode, we talk, at length, about Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie, and transfer rumors.

Keep your eye on our twitter for superlative categories and polls!

Download the podcast here!

Transfers, tactics, mental strength – where has it all gone wrong? Part 3

 

Having spoken of personnel with Zara (www.twitter.com/goonerathena) a few days ago in part 1 and tactics with Steve (www.twitter.com/newfiegooner) yesterday in part 2, the final instalment of this three-part series focuses on mental strength. Sameer (www.twitter.com/thesquidboylike) gives his opinion on why this aspect is our main downfall…

 Ah yes. Mental strength. Arsene and Arsenal’s fabled “mental strength”. How sad it is that one of our supposed qualities touted most by the manager has completely evaporated since that fateful February day at Wembley. The problem with mental strength is that it is intangible and cannot be quantified. However, we can use some stats to illustrate where it is clearly missing – since we last won a trophy, we’ve lost 40 leads that we’ve held in matches. For me, this depicts a lack of mental strength. While I don’t have the comparative figures for Man Utd and Chelsea at hand, I can bet my bottom dollar that it is nowhere near that number. This season alone we’ve suffered the horror of losing two separate two-goal leads against our deadliest rivals, the notoriety of being the first Premier League side in history to let slip a four-goal lead, and being the only team in living memory to score a 97^th minute “winner” yet somehow contrive to not win the game .

But mental strength isn’t just that which occurs in matches. It is something that needs to manifest from game to game, something we need to summon to come back from adversity. Here’s another damning stat for you – we’ve only won three games out of 14 since the Carling Cup final. A run which has seen us exit the FA Cup at the hands of Man Utd, the Champions League at the hands of Barcelona (and bent refereeing), and fall away in the title race.

Yet not only have we dropped out of the title race, but we’ve also managed to sink to fourth place. And unless things go our way this weekend, we will be faced with ignominy of a mighty difficult Champions League qualifier in August. What’s that old joke? “Arsenal are the only team that can finish fourth in a two-horse race.” Sad but ultimately true.

In my eyes – and I guess many share this viewpoint, including the players – our season hinged on the Carling Cup final. After so many barbs over the years regarding our lack of silverware (if you Google the word “trophyless”, the first few search results relate to Arsenal), beating Birmingham was meant to open the floodgates and push us on to greater things. And with all due respect to Birmingham, we have never had a better opportunity to get the monkey off our backs. Having come up short so often, winning that day was to instil belief in the players and fans that, together, we could go on to achieve greatness this season. And you know what? I believe it would have. We may have still got knocked out of the other two cup competitions, but I reckon the players would have used the foundation of a Carling Cup win – of knowing they were winners – to drive them on in the title race.

However, the opposite transpired. We managed to lose the final in almost comical fashion, and the belief visibly drained out of the players as they lay sprawled across the Wembley turf. And this is where our so-called “mental strength” needed to come to the fore. We needed to exhibit bouncebackability, to learn from our mistakes, to dust ourselves off and maintain the verve that we had shown in the December and January and February. The same verve which had seen us banish of Chelsea and Barcelona.

But it didn’t happen. Gone was the vibrancy of the enigma that is Theo van Nasregas (admittedly, we suffered from injuries to two of the four components). Gone was the high pressing game that typified the middle third of the season. Gone was the hunger and belief required to be champions. Instead we ploughed along, starting games in lackadaisical fashion, failing to put our opponents to the sword and too often conceding first (largely from set-pieces, as Steve alluded to yesterday). This meant we were often playing catch-up and busting our arses to the last minute in search of an unlikely equaliser or winner, which is hugely taxing both physically and emotionally.

So we ended up fading from the title race, and a huge sense of déjà vu struck. The exact same thing happened last season, where we looked strong for two-thirds of the campaign but when the going got tough, we didn’t. I think one of the starkest aspects of this year is that we can no longer blame injuries. Last year, we could at least hang on to the fact that our fall from grace coincided with a horribly mounting injury list. Not so this time, which hit home to many – including myself – that maybe, just maybe, our first eleven simply wasn’t as good as we all believed and our backup was even worse.

As Zara said a few days ago, it does seem that we need new additions. Experienced and specialist backup for Alex Song is a must when you look at our record without him. And as Steve said, we do need to mix up our tactics, especially at home against the bus-parkers.

Thus whilst I unequivocally agree with both their suggestions of fresh faces and variety in our attacking game plus tightening up at the back, I can’t help but feel it won’t be enough. Whoever is part of our squad next season, they need to collectively overcome something greater than poor communication at corners or ineffective sideways passing and crosses to nobody in particular. They need to somehow believe again.

Money can buy us new players, hard work on the training pitch can help our tactics, but how do we find the mental strength required to take us to a higher level? As I said right at the start, it is an intangible that we cannot quantify or measure, it is simply has to come from within the side. There is no right answer or guaranteed cure, of course. So all I can do is look to the past. In 2001 we finished 10pts behind Man Utd and suffered late heartbreak in a domestic cup final. That summer there was significant movement in terms of transfers – most notably bringing in Sol Campbell. A similar marquee signing may do wonders against this summer. But the following season there was something else. The team broke free of the shackles of failure and came together in perfect harmony to win the Double. The players had spent a few seasons together getting used to each other and seemingly looked at each other and said: “Enough. No more second-place, no more glorious or tragic failure. We have to work harder, run faster and be stronger in both body and mind. We just have to win.”

And so they did. In swashbuckling style. If Arsene can hark back to what happened then and try to replicate it over the coming months, everything may be rosy again in the garden of red’n’white.

Transfers, tactics, mental strength – where has it all gone wrong? Part 2

After discussing the importance of having the right type of players in our squad with Zara yesterday , I thought it would be important to talk about how the players are being utilized within in the squad. There have been a lot of comments that players like Bendtner and Arshavin have been played out of position, and today Steve  is going to offer his thoughts on how a change in formation and tactics could be the key to solving our problems…

　

There has been some serious discussion around the problems at the club in recent seasons, this one in particular. One aspect that has seen attention is our tactics and the areas of weakness in our game. As I see it, our formation and ineffective crossing and corners are giving us the most trouble.

Formation: I think our formation works with our starting XI for the most part. Van Persie as a central striker is strong and both Walcott and Arshavin play well in their positions on the wings. There’s no question about our midfield as they all work well together and provide strength to our game.

I think our formation issues come when we bring on substitutes that are then played in positions with which they are not particularly comfortable. The big example here is Bendtner being played in Walcott’s role. He’s a big man, not as fast as other players and is better on the receiving end of a cross in front of the box. He’s better made to receive crosses than provide them. Wenger should be playing Bendtner in the centre to take advantage of his height and finishing if he wants to maintain our usual 4-2-3-1 formation. If he doesn’t want to do this, then why not try a 4-4-2 set up? This way we gain a more condensed midfield for defensive purposes and Bendtner can be paired with van Persie up front to provide a closer attacking partnership. Walcott and Nasri are still on the wings and can provide support/service to the strikers, as well as taking their own chances to score. This will increase the number of forwards we have in the box at any given time and should make our crosses more threatening.

Crosses: This is one area where we are rather weak (in recent games we’ve had over 30 crosses and no goals from them). As I said above, if we have one main striker in the box to receive crosses that lessens our accuracy and chances of scoring, especially when that striker isn’t particularly skilled with his head. Van Persie, though a tall guy, hasn’t scored many headed goals lately and it’s partly because it’s not as much a talent of his as, say, someone like Bendtner or one of the centre halves. When we have other attackers in the box they are usually rather short (Fabregas, Nasri, Walcott, Arshavin, Wilshere, Song…well actually nearly our entire team is short and less likely to win headers). You can’t always rely on striking for goal with your feet when an aerial ball is coming across the front of the net.

The other issue with crossing is the players providing the service. Clichy, as many know, is not the best crosser. He’s actually one of the worst we have. Sure, he provided that beautiful ball for Song to head home in the last minute of the West Ham game at the Emirates, but what else has he done? He’s much more likely to cross the ball awkwardly while Robin tries, awkwardly, to reach it. Clichy is not good at picking out players this way. He is good at moving the ball forward and providing a short pass to Arshavin, Nasri or the like, but that’s about it. Sagna is marginally better, Walcott is poor with the accuracy of his crosses, and Nasri is less likely to attempt crosses and would rather dance around defenders. Overall, in the attacking positions we are weak in this area. Poor accuracy of the cross and poor heading ability by our players.

Corners: If memory serves, we score more goals from corners than crosses and I would argue this is because we have our big boys – Squillaci, Koscielny, and Djourou – there to beat opponents to the ball. Squillaci and Koscielny have scored at least two each this season, while Djourou has scored one more recently. I realise it’s partly because at a corner we have more people in the box, but that means nothing if they can’t finish. Our outfield players have skill and ability, but not the height or physical presence to be effective this way.

The same problem comes when we try to defend corners. We’ve got our two bigger centre halves there plus van Persie, but everyone else is not physically imposing enough to dominate the space in front of goal. I believe a recent statistic has shown that we concede nearly 60% of our goals from set pieces like corners or free-kicks, which is a shocking amount, really. Part of this come down to the physical component, but there is an organisational element as well. Rarely do we see the players shouting orders at each other when lining up to defend a set piece, instead they stand around looking lost and hoping for the best. There needs to be more communication and players who want to take control of these parts of the game. I don’t know if this should be coming from the captain, since he’s really not much of a defender, but a hell of a playmaker instead. Tony Adams was not only a great defender, but he was forceful with his own team and able to motivate them to defend and perform as needed. He was also the captain of the side giving a strong personality and influence in that area and perhaps that’s what we need now (I’m not taking anything away from Cesc, he’s a great captain, but his strength is not in defence, which, if you look at some of the big blunders of this season, you will see this area has caused us more than a little stress). I think the calls for a new keeper and new centre halves could be nullified if we had one strong defender who captained the team and provided that needed element to the back four.