Several years back, Arsenal ruled London and to an extent, England. London being a glamorous city, always needed a football team that was glamorous in its play and in its winnings. Arsenal always made London glow whenever they were involved in a football game; especially in the Champions league. However, all that seems to be in the distant past for now.
One remembers with sweet nostalgia, how our dear club Arsenal ran ragged over anything in London, that challenged it. One remembers how the fans always looked forward to watching Arsenal and how London stood still whenever Arsenal won a trophy. What has happened over the years? Where did we go wrong?
On Monday, we will be playing against West Ham; West Ham is a team domiciled in London and they seem to be in a little bit of good form at the moment. How will Arsenal fare against the team from London? Are we going to start our revival against them or are we going to lose our prestige, some more?
Right now, one team in London seems to be the pride of London. Chelsea football club, in my own opinion, has won more prestigious trophies for London than Arsenal in recent years. This is a sad truth; one that makes you wonder why things don’t seem to work anymore for Arsenal. In 2005, Chelsea’s revival started. After 50 years of going trophy-less in the premiership, they finally won the title and ever since then they have been on the rise, while Arsenal have been on the steady decline.
In the past, Arsenal FC always ended the season above Spurs, but in the last three years or so, we have found it difficult rising above the shadow of Tottenham Hotspurs and this may well continue this season, especially now that they have hired the self acclaimed special one. Hiring Jose may not be a problem, as long as we concentrate on winning games; a thing we are finding hard to do at the moment.
With teams like Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Tottenham and West Ham doing well in London, backed by the so much money in the league, will Arsenal ever regain their tag as the pride of London? Before we can think of that, then we need to start playing like a team with ambition.
Sylvester (Lagos Gooner)