Up For Grabs Now

The last couple of years haven’t been the easiest as an Arsenal supporter. Don’t get me wrong, of course we have come through much bleaker and more difficult times than the recent period, it’s just that there’s something especially painful about the feeling of coming close time and again, something especially frustrating about glimpsing so much glorious potential only for it to peter out at crucial moments.

Somehow, this season there’s the sense that something has to go for us, and that with a bit of the luck that we’ve seemed to miss for the last few seasons, this team could achieve something incredible.

Arsene couldn’t have summed up the feeling of every Arsenal fan better:

This is the moment we’ve been waiting for… there is something special we all hope will come out at this stage of the competition.

The great thing about being a Gooner, particularly under Wenger, is that you can look forward to every game knowing that if the team plays as well as it can the other team simply won’t stand a chance. Regardless of who they are, how expensive their side is and how many medals they’ve already got in their starting line-up.

But at the highest level, tonight’s level, we still haven’t seen this team keep up that incredible quality of performance for long enough to win through. Liverpool last year. Chelsea  ten days ago. It’s so frustrating because we know that the side is capable of winning. But make no mistake, the reason we can’t sustain that level of play is because it’s bloody difficult to reach in the first place, something some Gooners understand better than others. There’s a sense that though we’ve seen patches of just how devastating our game can be, we still haven’t quite realised what it is capable of doing to the opposition if sustained over 2 legs.

Tonight, of all the big Arsenal nights, is the time when these players need to perform. There are some games you never forget, games that become definitive of players, teams, even clubs. Remember Wiltord in 2002. Remember Giggs in 1999.

Tonight we face a United at the height of their powers. Talk of their recent form can be dismissed - these are big game players who know how to raise it for the big nights and how to perform when it really matters. They are the champions of England, Europe and the World, and tonight Arsenal have the chance not just to burst their bubble of dominance, but also to inflict the sort of defeat that announces the arrival of a major force in European football.

It’s a huge opportunity, one we can’t afford to waste. It’s also the sort of fixture our players should live for. Teams like Real Madrid and AC Milan are constantly turning the heads of our young players, and have been for many years. Well, neither of them are in the semi-finals of the Champions’ League, however much they might think of themselves. Tonight is a chance to show that clubs don’t get bigger than Arsenal FC, and that for footballers with real ambition, Arsenal is the place to be.

Let’s hope our boys make it count.

Tags: Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, Manchester United

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 at 1:10 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.