Arsenal fans are starting to believe in the team again

Hello everybody! It was another night of victory for us in Greece last night. It was a tough game against the strong Greek opposition in all honesty, but we found a way of beating them. Yes, I predicted a win of 3-1 to Arsenal before the game, but who cares? A win is a win! A needed much win, is welcome for a change.

Last night, I noticed some changes in Arsenal fans here in my homeland, before, during and after the match that I had not noticed in a long while. I finally realized last night that Arsenal fans around the world are starting to believe in their team once more. I don’t know how fans in your countries reacted to Arsenal’s victory in the Europa last night, but I can tell you that over here in Nigeria, Arsenal fans went wild! After being starved of something to cheer about in a long time, the fans are gradually finding reasons to associate with Arsenal.

Hours before the game began, a lot of Arsenal fans in Lagos were seen wearing their Arsenal jerseys. A lot of them who once vowed never to support Arsenal again, were seen wearing various designs of Arsenal’s jerseys. I could not believe my eyes, when about 30 minutes to the game, I saw an old man who has been supporting Arsenal for 50 years now, strolling down to the football viewing center, shouting aloud “My Arsenal is back and we are going to show the world that our victory against Newcastle on Sunday, was not a fluke!” I smiled sheepishly as I watched old man John stroll by with confidence; the type you get when your team starts playing well again.

During the game, at exactly 65 minutes, an argument ensued between some Arsenal fans and some Manchester United fans. The Manchester United fans kept shouting “I thought you guys beat Newcastle mercilessly? Why are you guys finding it hard to score just a goal tonight?” To which another non-Arsenal fan replied: “They have probably run out of goals, considering that they scored four against Newcastle.” A lot of people laughed at his dry joke, but Arsenal fans kept clinging on to hope. And as if the god of soccer was listening to the pleas of the Arsenal fans, several minutes later, Arsenal were a goal better than their opponents. At was at this point that Arsenal fans went berserk! The celebrations of the Arsenal fans were too hot for the non-Arsenal fans to handle, and before anybody knew it, the non-Arsenal fans had started exiting the football viewing center, with their heads bowed down. It feels good to celebrate in the presence of your rivals, doesn’t it? How was the celebration at your end? Thank you Arsenal! Thank you Arteta for giving us a reason to celebrate in the presence of our rivals.

We are Arsenal and we are proud.

Sylvester Kwentua

12 Comments

  1. Sylvester
    You had a thrilling night that’s for sure!
    A great win when getting wins were hard to come by. I believe in Arteta and what he has achieved so far: difficult to beat and now two wins on the bounce

    An interesting Sunday awaits

  2. As long as Ozil and Xhaka are still commanding the starting line-up at Arsenal, itll always be hard to believe

  3. Here in Nairobi Kenya, the game was a little late, 11.00 pm to be precise. We therefore mostly had to watch from our homes. All along though, I had been following conversations on several Arsenal fans WhatsApp groups and I can confidently say that majority of the fans have fallen in love with Arteta. In fact, the biggest fear is that the big two Spanish Clubs could come sniffing around in a few years to take him back to Spain once he has proven himself for a few seasons.

  4. Arteta should have come earlier. Many skeptics couldn’t stomach the idea of Arteta taking over Arsenal even when Wenger backed his candidature. Emery came in and left us miserable. Today the same Arteta is receiving plaudits that you’d never imagine happening to an arsenal coach.
    We believe in Arteta!!! Go Go Go Arteta

  5. Knowing that we have one of the most fickle fan base ever, I’ll be a realist and say the jury is still out on Arteta because in about 3 games so far, he has brought up the wrong team line up and by some good fortune has gotten away with it. His late substitions is another part of his managerial tenure I’m finding hard to swallow. Reminds me of when majority of fans used to complain about the same thing when wenger was in charge. I’m happy we’re getting a fair result, but realistically it’s still about 5 draws and 5 wins and many of the fickle fans are in fantasy world. Being a realist is not being negative but being cautious by not being swept away by the rave of the moment. Yes I’m excited we won but I’m not getting carried away because some of those draws, we got lucky. Example is the Burnley game when the ball hit the cross bar and went out. We could have easily lost that game. Arteta seems to know what he’s doing but to be honest there are times I doubt it especially from his team selection sometimes. Remember when emery got us on a 22 game unbeaten run including that famous victory against spurs at the Emirates. The same fickle fans shouted, we’ve got our arsenal back. Those same fans are the ones backlashing emery now. I hope Arteta turns out to be the real deal but I can’t afford to be in cloud nine just yet till I see more consistent performances from the team. Not playing awfully in the first half and playing better in the second. Against really good teams, the first half would be more than enough to finish us off. We’ve been lucky and I don’t mind that luck but the jury is still out on Arteta regardless. Hope he turns out to be the klopp of Arsenal though but I’m keeping my head down till then and I urge other fans to do the same.

    1. Kstix, Whilst I go firmly along with much of what you say about over excitable fans ,it cannot be sensibly denied that all perceptive fans MUST have noticed the far bigger change from the last dismal days of Emery than your post admits. The balance of your whole argument was far too negative, in my considered view. Of course we have far to go but we are the ONLY TEAM IN THRE ENTIRE PREM , INCLUDING LIVERPPOL NOT TO HAVE LOST A GAME THIS CALENDAR YEAR. THAT TELLS ME SOMETHING HUGELY POSITIVE IS HAPPENING. As a realist, and I note you call yourself one too, it is surely realistic to comment on and admit the huge change for the better since MA. THAT is MY realism, whether or not it is yours.

  6. Nice one Sylvester. An optimistic attitude and rightly so. I love the passion that so many of our Nigerian fans have for our club. Your article was an interstingread. More of the same please!

  7. Arteta has transformed Arsenal into a potential football power house. Hope he will be given more funds to rebuild this team and get Bukayo saka tied down to a long and lucrative contract to ward off the likes of Liverpool and Man U.

    1. “Potential football power house” must be turned into reality by Kroenke and the Board supporting Arteta in the transfer market in bringing in the type of players he wants. Expecting a head coach to coach players selected by others will not bring the level of success required by fickle fans.

  8. Overall, MA has changed a lot in our team. Notably is in our defensive duties on and off the ball. 90% of the goals conceded under MA were mostly unlucky deflections and miss calculated Leno positioning and response.

    As a result of solidifying the defense, we created little goal scoring chances and were wastefully uncleanical with fewer created chances. MA is working on that and we’re now creating more goal scoring chances, we’re now playing as a cohesive unit with purpose and ruthlessness.

    While it will take more time to arrive at the level of cohesion Pep or Klopp has instilled in their respective teams, we can’t deny not seeing enough positives MA has achieved in less than three months.

    We will get there and MA will get it done this time. We’ve suffered too much so in my opinion, let the fans go wide. Our satisfaction isn’t just in the victory but in the new philosophy and mentality MA is instilling at the moment.

    Gunners for life!

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