These last two away games – against Liverpool and Burnley – left many Arsenal supporters asking the same old questions, such as why the team doesn’t put the required effort for the whole 90 minutes, why we’re going out there with an average goalkeeper who is damaging his colleagues at the back and why all the injuries?

To be honest, after yesterday, I’m in the same, exact position I was after the game at Anfield. It was easy to get carried away after that game because a win away at Liverpool is always a huge objective in our season, but I knew that Burnley would have been as equally tricky and I knew that the players had to keep their focus in order to get all three points.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

Why all the care for the grass on the other side?

In the game of football, if you want to win the title, it has to be about you. Granted, other teams have to drop points along the way to help your cause because it rarely happened that two teams won all their games and the title was decided when they met twice during the course of the season.

But unfortunately, I’m reading almost every week the same statements on Arsenal, of people hoping for Chelsea and/or Manchester United to drop points or people justifying our draws or defeats by saying that these two teams also dropped points. I mean, when will we stop focusing on what other teams are doing and try to understand why WE are dropping points? The fact that the other top teams are slipping every now and then should not justify our performances, especially when you consider that probably they are trying to fix their own problems so as to avoid further slips.

Agree to Disagree?

By reading all the comments in the ratings article, I first of all want to show my gratitude to all those who participated in the discussion but I then wonder what is happening to Arsenal to see the supporters of this club going at each other, sometimes with heavy insults.

Because believe me, had I not instructed our system to block “rude” comments, you would be surprised at how heave some of the comments are. Now having said, if supporters, of the same team, are arguing with each other, then maybe something is wrong after all, no?

But what? I think an objective way to address this problem is to understand that supporters are divided in three: the optimistic, the pessimistic and the realistic.

The optimistic are those who no matter what, will always see the glass half full, such as for example, if Theo Walcott and Eduardo had a very poor game yesterday, it’s because they are back from injury and need games to find their fitness level. Which is true, but whilst these two are being used, players who are more fit and who could contribute more are on the bench, not to mention that of course we’re dropping points.

The pessimistic are those who, well, seems they want us to lose. Even before the season kicks-off they write us off the title race, the Champions League and all other competitions. I don’t know how to actually confront these people as whenever I tried they always reply with the famous words that we didn’t win anything for the last 4-5 years and although I completely disagree with the way they address their messages, maybe they are not ready to accept the pain of back-to-back trophyless seasons.

Finally, there are the realistic and this is where I belong. If I look at our away-from-home form and see how we failed to win at West Ham and Burnley, how we won at Fulham and how we lost at Sunderland and Manchester City, how can I say that everything is going according to plan?

If we lose against Sunderland and Arsene Wenger says that had we played at home we would have won, how can I not raise an eyebrow and wonder what sort of statement is that?

You have to understand that just because someone is highlighting problems in the side, it doesn’t necessary mean that his or her comments are meant to be harmful. Please realise that Arsene Wenger and the players should not be immune to criticism and just because someone doesn’t agree with some of the decisions taken by our boss, it doesn’t necessary mean that he wants him sacked.

As funny as it may sound, we will never have the Arsenal online community living happy together, because even if we start an unbeaten run and go on to win everything, surely there will be someone attacking those who were negative when things were going wrong. And that is why it seems we have to agree on disagreeing but remember something and you all know how hard I work to make this possible: keep it clean, there is no need to insult, to provoke, to attack, we’re one big family supporting the same cause, let’s try to make it easier, to find a better way.

Looking Forward

Looking forward knowing that Cesc Fabregas will not be part of the action. That’s Hull City for you friends but it’s at the Emirates, reason why I believe we can do well even without Cesc, game which Aaron Ramsey can approach in the right way and replace the captain without any pressure, something which the Welshman could not do yesterday when he was thrown in midfield without even warming up.

As always, I’ll provide the preview for that one on Friday, which is tomorrow I believe, so I’d better start thinking about what to write.

Until then, take care!