Giles Midweek View

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GILES SMITH`S MIDWEEK VIEW

Posted on: Wed 10 Feb 2010From his vantage point in the Matthew Harding Upper on Sunday, supporter and columnist Giles Smith witnessed a work still very much in progress. For one man's sake he hopes we'll get there.

On behalf of each and every one of the Chelsea fans in the ground on Sunday (and on behalf of the many more watching on television), could I just take this opportunity to apologise to Arsene Wenger for our club's failure to provide him with 'a demonstration of football' this weekend?

It was clear from his disenchanted comments after the game, that we badly let the Arsenal manager down in this respect and I think it's the duty of all of us to put up a hand at this point and offer the sincerest expression of our regret.

What can we say? We are doing the best we can, within the scope of our limited resources. The players and staff are working hard, they really and truly are. We, the fans, are doing what we can, as well. And one day, with good fortune and a following wind, we may, all of us, conspire to produce a 'demonstration of football' fit to lay before the increasingly baffled-looking Arsenal manager - one which has him purring with approval and stroking the air with delight. In the meantime, we would only urge Wenger to bear with us, and show as much patience as possible in what are clearly exceptionally frustrating times for him.

Now, no doubt there will be some people who will be scratching their heads in puzzlement at this point, and asking themselves, 'If ripping a defence into confetti in the first 20 minutes of a match, and then energetically, and with startling coherence, protecting the two goal lead that you have established in that opening act of fantastically daring gauntlet-dropping doesn't count as a 'demonstration of football', then what, in the name of sweet Garth Crooks, does?'

And one seems to recall that tearing the stuffing out of a side, blowing that same stuffing out of the roof of the Emirates and causing nearly all the home fans to leave with half an hour to play didn't count for much by way of a 'demonstration of football' with Wenger at the end of last year, either.

But what you have to appreciate is that it's not about crude things like 'winning' or 'losing', or being 'better' or 'worse', or even about 'scoring goals': it's about having standards and principles. And in this area, Wenger rules and the rest of us can only sigh and aspire.

You would say this much about Arsenal, too: they might not win anything these days, but they play the game the way we like to see it played - in other words, in such a way that it's no longer too much of a problem to take six points off them in the course of a season, scoring five, including three at their place, and not conceding any.

Mind you, at the risk of uttering a heresy and encouraging large, smoking thunder bolts to take me out at my desk, as I type, how much fun is it, in fact, to watch Arsenal these days? I mean, lovely triangles, and everything. And I enjoy a quick pass and a darting run as much as the next person. Even so, witnessing Arsenal pass and dart themselves triangularly all the way back down the tunnel on Sunday, I couldn't quite suppress the sneaking feeling that, if I had to watch that every week, I would eventually go ever so slightly mad and start chewing on the back of the seat in front of me. Or even chewing on the back of the person in front of me, which might not go down well.

It's like the entire squad is locked in the grip of some terrible old wife's tale. 'Shoot? Ooh, you don't wanna do that. If you shoot, you'll go blind and your toes will turn green and drop off, you see if I'm not right.'

Anyway, Wenger's list of dismissals grows longer. Aston Villa? Long ball side. Manchester United? Intimidatingly aggressive and borderline illegal. Chelsea? 'We didn't really get a demonstration of football.'

Well, he might have been right about United. But it's not hard to see the thread here. It's the teams who have the temerity to get in the way of Arsenal that tend to bring the Professor to the lectern. And we beat Arsenal so, accordingly, we must face the fact that we are the enemy of football.

Ah, well. UEFA thought that, too, and we got over it eventually, by hard work and application. Keep striving, everybody. Little by little, bit by bit.

[Rubber bullets 1,183]

:goodpost: Brilliant.