BAD LUCK AND AWE



Comparisons are inevitably made with the current side and the Invincibles but it seems worth pointing out that we were making those same comparisons a couple of years back. We thought that things were bad then but in hindsight that set of players were far nearer to achievement than the current group.

 

Despite not winning a trophy the Arsenal team with Fabregas, Nasri, Eduardo, Gallas, Clichy, Van Persie and Song was able to beat Manchester United and Chelsea and that team held its own against Barcelona; teams who are now out of our reach in competitive terms.

These were the players that were supposed to carry on where the Invincibles left off and the managers faith in Denilson, Diaby, Bendtner and Eboue was going to bear fruit. Obviously no manager has a crystal ball and there are always going to be players who don't fulfil their potential.A lot of dross left the club and a lot of players who didn't cut the mustard, but a good deal of quality departed.

An example of a starting XI in the 209/10 season is  

Almunia

Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy,

Song, Fabregas, Nasri,

Arshavin, Van Persie, Bendtner

 

A starting XI in the same season, that excludes players still at the club, might be

Almunia

Eboue, Gallas, Campbell, Clichy,

Song, Fabregas, Nasri,

Eduardo, Van Persie, Bendtner
 

Were they better players than our current set or is there more to it than that? That remains the question, and it is unanswerable. It may just be simply a matter of things not going according to plan. When Eduardo had his leg broken, when Bendtner was inches from knocking out Barcelona, when Birmingham City were gifted a late winner.  Could all these moments have made a difference? a difference in keeping our best players and attracting good recruits?
Given that I have no answers to what ails us I got to thinking about an unseen force at work at the Arsenal pulling strings and casting dark shadows.

 

Football is a game in which luck, good and bad, plays a part and perhaps, regardless of weightier issues, bad luck has played it's malevolent role in the current state of affairs we find ourselves in.

Could it be that broken mirrors, cracks in the pavement and Black cats played a part in our changing fortunes?

 

Maybe the truth is simpler; The Emirates being built on a Gypsy burial site perhaps. 

 

Bad Luck-Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes