Dog Days of Febuary

Bayern Munich is playing the best football in Europe right now even with a midfielder playing central defence. But they are still out of their domestic league. Why?... They didn't have Robben or Ribery for the first half of the season. They are back now and for the last month have looked almost unbeatable. What does this have to do with Arsenal you ask?:
                           
        Injuries are a primary factor for even the deepest of clubs.


Theo is out of the Carling Cup and Cesc is hurt, albeit less severly. Ok...we knew someone was going to get hurt against Stoke, but there seems to be a palpable sense of dread amongst most Arsenal supporters. (at least in NYC) I am here to declare that there is nothing to fear except fear itself! Nasri is still only going to get more sharp; Ramsey is coming back...in other words, it's not the end of the world. What did we do when RVP was injured? We sucked it up. We stayed within striking distance of Man U. We showed character. Sure we are less dynamic without our world class players, but who isn't? What is most important is that our depth allows us to remain competative and get the points we need to stay above water. Maybe my excitement over watching Ryo turn into Ryodinho before our eyes in Holland has contributed to a complete loss of realism, but this team seems to possess more than the sum of its' considerable parts. With the news of the signing of the best 16 year old in Spain I actually am not entirely gutted this evening. Until Sunday... Come On YOU
Gunners!!!!

Champions League EX-stacy...(can I keep my girlfriend through this madness!??!)

     The first 10 minutes seemed encouraging enough, but as we got dragged and pulled all over the pitch throughout the remainder of the first half, I slowly and quite utterly descended into a very dark place. (I have to admit it didn"t help that I was surrounded by individuals who felt that it was somehow interesting or even sophisticated to shout things like, "Fucking pick it up Arsenal!", or, "How can you let Xavi turn on you like that!"...brilliant.) My soul had been repeatedly ripped to shreads with every Barcelona one-two. My bones were being pulled in increasingly awkard positions every time Barca pulled Arsenal from one side of the pitch to the other. Of course we had chances early, but by the 40th minute, the chances we had in the final third were being taken with legs that had chased the ball for, literally, 30 minutes. 
     I was truly humbled, FC Barcelona had hurt me personally.
           "How could they make it look so easy?"...
And then I remembered just how hard it actually is as a football team to perpetually be in supporting positions on the pitch the way that Barca does. It is nearly impossible for 90 minutes against average teams and we are certainly not average. Still, until RVP scored I was thinking about chucking it all and living a monastic life under the Brooklyn Bridge. I've lost my sanity with respect to this team years ago, I understand this. It can say, however, (with true sincerity and no small amount of shame) that the last thing I remember after Arshavins'  confident finish was screaming "Let's get fucking mental, let's get fucking mental, na na na na, na na na na." I still can't understand, though, why my better half is starting to hate this team? The last time I sang this song was over two years ago!!