At least Arsene still has fighting spirit

THE two giant screens in the opposite corners of Villa Park taunted the home fans at half-time on Friday night, as they trumpeted out the utterly bizarre match stats, into a brass monkey St Stephen’s Day night.

With Denilson having silenced the Holte End five minutes before half-time, we duly took our cue to rub their faces in it, as a chant of “we’ve only had one shot” rung out from our end of the Doug Ellis stand.

This was soon followed by a chorus of “we’ve only had two shots”, when Diaby knocked any remaining stuffing out of the Brummy turkeys, by banging in a second so soon after the break. Yet in truth, I don’t want to contradict our manager, but it would’ve been something of a travesty if we’d trundled back down to the capital with all three points.

Considering I would’ve gladly taken a draw, if offered it prior to the game and the fact that on a more fortuitous afternoon, Martin O’Neill’s side would’ve been home and hosed by half-time, I couldn’t really moan about us ending up with only a point.

Still, compared to Sunday’s pedestrian affair against Pompey, the Villa game was corking entertainment.

Rarely have I seen the momentum in a match swing so dramatically, for we struggled to string two passes together as Villa laid siege to our goal during the first-half. However having scored twice we were suddenly transformed in second half, back into a passing machine, capable of laying waste to all before us.

We had enough opportunities to put the game to bed, before Gallas’ rash challenge resulted in a penalty and le Prof’s touchline altercation with O’Neill.

Who could’ve possibly imagined that the man who arrived from Japan as the master of Zen and the art of football management, would be reduced to inciting his counterpart with “come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough” gestures!

Nevertheless, it’s good to know that the fire still burns so bright in our manager. I only wish all of our players were equally as passionate, for as Villa sensed our fragility, they emerged from their shell, while we withdrew.

In Sunday’s programme notes Arsene claimed that quality wise, last season was one of his best teams ever.

However never mind the 60,000 quoted attendance figures, the large number of empty seats at our place on Sunday was a litmus test of the lack of enthusiasm felt by the more fickle members of our not so faithful, towards the current first XI. Even those who turned up were more inclined to jeer, saving the loudest song of the afternoon (other than the goal celebrations) to exalt Tony Adams.

While it might be a complete myth that players still exist in the modern game whose loyalty can’t be bought by the highest bidder, where Liverpool have the likes of Carragher and Gerrard and Chelsea have John Terry, in the long-term absence of Theo Walcott, we Gooners don’t really have any first team players we can truly relate to as one of our own, whose names can be applied to our replica shirts, secure in the knowledge they will remain at the club, long enough for us to get some wear out of them.

That’s why Tony Adams return at the weekend proved so nostalgic and since you just can’t buy this sort of sentiment off the shelf, if Arsene has anywhere near the sort of faith he claims to have in some of our homegrown crop, he needs to start giving them their head, if he wants to restore the sort of pride that is guaranteed to put bums on seats and the sort of team-spirit that will not lie down until the last kick of the game.