World-beaters to world’s worst? Time we grew up

FROM Fortress Anfield to a castle made of sand. From one of the best coaches in the game to “Bungling Benitez”. A season brimming with possibilities consigned to the dustbin.

Not a bad week’s work. That is if you are foolish enough to take any notice of the shrieking hysteria of the last seven days.

There isn’t this much wailing and gnashing of teeth in the hot place. Look, I told you about the Cardiff Cup didn’t I but would anyone listen? People pay through the nose for a glorified reserve match and expect their whinging to be taken seriously! They saw a game without precedent in our modern history. My dad’s in his 70s and sat through eight turgid years of lower league football — he’s never seen us concede six at home. At 3-5 it was an all-out assault at the Kop end just like the good old days. Near misses, penalty saves, the game had everything.

I don’t know if I’m the willfully obtuse type or just an old-fashioned snob. When everybody’s happy I’m grumbling. If fans are talking about “disgrace” I’m telling them to pipe down and grow up.

Wherever the masses lurch and lurk you’ll invariably find lazy thinking and knee-jerk sensationalism. All this crocodile weeping about the loss of a trophy, for God’s sake. Fat lot of good the same bit of tin did Houllier when he failed to reach the Champions League two months later.

If in May we were in fifth place but could go and look at the Cardiff Cup would you be happy? Seriously? My guess is you wouldn’t even recognise the thing.

Rafa doesn’t care about this trophy, he never has. If anybody predicted Arsenal would achieve almost 100% accuracy and score six times, well done. You can do my lottery numbers next week.

I was surprised by Bernard’s description of the 1-3 as “smash and grab” because they’d actually played rather well. The third goal was kind of flattering though and came about as a result of abandoning safety-first defending late on, as did the sixth last Wednesday.

Chalk off those goals that Reina would have stopped (probably half) and the results could have been totally different. Dudek certainly blighted his reputation and slightly tainted our memories of Istanbul.

Ever the pragmatist, it’s possible Rafa looked at the fixture list and decided he simply didn’t want the inconvenience of the domestic cups.

Once you start pulling this sort of stunt karma instantly gets you. You end up losing players to injury anyway. Garcia is a big blow to our Champions League hopes, which are once again a source of mirth in certain quarters. We had you all in stitches in 2005, don’t forget.

What certainly hurt was the lack of real aggression in both ties. When Rafa first confronted Wenger he knew the opposition were superior and somehow got his team to fight for everything. A late Mellor winner exceeded all expectations.

Two years later and it’s almost as if we think we’re too grand for all that grubby “effort” stuff now. You never are, and the grim defiance that took us to a Champions League triumph against superior opposition needs to be rediscovered quickly. If as seems apparent Arsenal have rediscovered their backbone in these post-Vieira times it bodes ill for the rest of us.

The task of beating Watford barely rates as Herculean but there’s no doubt it was a must-win game.

What Arsenal did to us, we did to Wigan a month ago and Watford this week. Good finishing is paramount. Bellamy is again being linked with a move (Spurs or Villa this week) but surely we’re not that stupid or incompetent? Reina was hardly overworked but even a little commitment to the cause is enough to spur the others on. Since we have three good centre halves, and Hyypia no longer has to worry about a strenuous schedule, it makes sense to pick them all.

Check the table: there isn’t a better defence in the league. But by Saturday afternoon we’ll probably be the world’s worst football team again!