Are the bad old Fergie days coming back for Arsenal? by Sam P
I do not think for a second that Arsenal will fail to get the points we need from the last four Premier League games of the season. There is still a chance that Louis van Gaal and his Manchester United side could overtake the Gunners and force us to play the two legged Champions League play offs, enhanced after they won away to Crystal Palace yesterday but they are still two points behind and we have two more games than them left to play.
What I am worried about is next season. Because it seems to me that the bad old days of the Alex Ferguson era could be on the way back. Maybe I am reading too much into what happened in one game, but some terrible one sided decisions by the referee and his assistants yesterday absolutely gifted the three points to Man United and that sort of thing became so normal with Old Purple Nose in charge at Old Trafford that we stopped complaining about it.
Fergie himself has since admitted that he had a deliberate policy of putting pressure on the officials, including the famous tapping of the watch to get some extra, or some less, depending on the situation, stoppage time. Ha ha classic Fergie, people say. Classic cheating more like but people like him and the new king of cheats Jose Mourinho seem to not only get away with it – but actually benefit from it. Van Gaal seems to assume that United deserve all the help they can get and will surely be putting as much pressure as possible on the officials.
I do not want Arsene Wenger and Arsenal to go the same way, but I wonder just how much harder it will be for us to finish above Chelsea and United when we are up against the refs and the extra spending power. Do you think this will be a big problem for Arsenal next season or am I worrying over nothing?