Arsenal

I've never really been a massive fan of Arsenal, everyone has teams other than those they support who they like to do well, Wimbledon back in the 'Crazy Gang' days is a prime example, and people have those teams they actively dislike, for me this team for many years has been Arsenal. 

It was mostly due to the fans, not just those that were interviewed on TV giving their "opinions", but also a handful of fans I knew personally (not all of you though), the thing that annoyed me the most is the arrogance and the belief that they know best about football which manifests itself in a self-righteous attitude and the fickle nature. This dislike was then compounded by the players who themselves were no stranger to arrogance, Robert Pires and Thierry Henry were the two main culprits of a team and squad who strutted about the pitch like the opponents should be grateful to share the pitch with them let alone play against them.

But do you know what, I actually found myself sitting down to watch Arsenal vs Liverpool yesterday lunchtime wanting Arsenal to come away with the result.  I don't know exactly when my opinion changed, but looking at the team sheet I didn't see one player that I didn't like, and looking at the bench I was even excited about the prospect of seeing some of the youngsters like Ryo Miyaichi.

It occurs to me that the reason I've changed my mind is the exact reason that most Arsenal fans, the fact that Arsene, through necessity or not, is giving young players a chance and in the time when players are changing teams for obscene amounts of money Arsenal continue to be a competitive team playing an attractive brand of football.  I think the selling of Fabregas will provide funds with which the squad can be strengthened, but I can't see Arsenal buying a finished product, purely because whenever Wenger has tried in the past he has got it wrong (and I fear Gervinho may be another example).  Whilst Arsenal along with Chelsea have long been used as the example of "foreign players ruining England's chances" they have now begun to move towards a little more home-grown talent.  In a few weeks we could conceivable see a midfield trio of Wilshere, Ramsey and Frimpong with Walcott playing wide and Jenkinson at the back...all very much home-grown.

I'm also a sucker for what has been describes as an "agricultural" player, and Frimpong produced just such a performance that I enjoy watching against Liverpool, despite being only 19, he put himself about and made some great tackle and also showed a willingness to stride forward with the ball from deep positions...even though he got himself sent off I think that it was not a bad start to the season for him.

The fans are still the one thing that will prevent Arsenal from being a team I would like to see win the league, again this was shown yesterday...with a squad depleted by injury, suspension and transfers and a first team with and average age of somewhere close to four they did play well against an experienced Premier League team who are fancied this season to do well, sure the result wasn't great, but the performance wasn't bad...so why oh why did the "fans" boo them of the pitch?  I've got no time for fans who boo their team off the pitch, especially after the second game of the season, it helps no-one and show just how little your average Arsenal fan knows about football (again, sorry to the people I know who aren't what I'm describing, you know I don't mean you)...someone needs to either ban them from going to the ground, give them an education in football or just put them down, I'm easy either way.