Arsenal Opinion: Go for the throat! by Toby Leach
Ok, so its Sunday evening and once again I am sat here on a big soft pillow with an “I’ve just been buggered” look slapped all across my Chevy Chase. Seems to be a regular theme after watching the Gunners play these days. Like all emotions though, its never good to bottle them up. So I understand fellow fans, or breadbins as I refer to them as, venting there spleens (other internal organs are available!) at whomever or whatever they deem responsible for this circus of a season.
The players owe the manager, and more importantly the Arsenal fans, big time on Wednesday night. I don’t for one second think we will win the game, nor do I even feel its important to do so. What I do feel is important is that we give it a right go and go down fighting.
Its not quality that Arsenal are lacking it’s confidence, and when it goes then every single game is a grind. What we need to do is lash out against Barca and treat the game as a complete free hit. We are Arsenal and we all need to remember what this club stands for and the type of football we play.
In recent years we have been a procession based attacking club that scored plenty of goals but this season we have been a pile of…….. well due to admin’s recent and relentless crackdown on profanities I’ll leave you to assume the missing word. I’m not sure if buggered will make it past language control either but it is in the dictionary so it would be bordering on communism to remove it..
Anyhow, I’m deflecting as my therapist would say. The truth is I am sick to the back teeth of this season and I am disturbed, not by my team’s results, but by there lack of identity both in style and character on the pitch. I want us to go to the Camp Nou and just have it out with Barca on Wednesday. I want the players to go for the throat as opposed to just going out with a whimper trying to contain and limit damage. We’ve always said we can give anyone a game on our day, so going all guns blazing is far more likely to pay off for us than any other approach, especially with the players we have. The players and fans all need a proper Arsenal performance to unite again and that’s what I want more than anything because I miss my team.
PS We may never have won anything in the Nasri, Fabregas and Van Persie era, but we played some absolutely cracking football, and we used to hand out some serious arse whopping’s on a regular basis. Oh how I miss those trophyless days! Lol.
Toby