The way I see it - Arsenal v Chelsea

Last updated : 10 December 2004 By Jason Hogan

For me, my sofa is the equivalent of say the legendary Anfield boot room, the place where in my own mind I do what I do best - putting the issues of the football world and, more importantly, Arsenal's world to rights.

So, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, with my missus well away in the Land of Nod in the bedroom, I, for once, had the thoroughly pleasant experience of sitting on my living room sofa not with a cold, furrowed brow but a warm, tranquil sense of satisfaction.

I knew that the fact we had thrashed Rosenborg on Tuesday night was hardly going to send massive shock waves through the massed legions of dissenters that the Arsenal have but then, who cares? Tuesday was not only about Arsenal taking another step forward in our rehabilitation and building up the confidence many outsiders believed had totally evaporated away, it was, above all else, about the team proving to themselves that we were still more than capable of adapting when the chips were really being laid down.

After all, it's not as if the press and the media were talking us up in the run up to the game, were they? As is their way, the only time that they ever really talk about Arsenal Football Club in any great depth is when there is a whiff in the air of something negative, controversial or a mixture of both going on at Highbury.

And, rather than talk us up and get behind what is, after all, supposed to be one of England's representatives in the Champions League the emphasis was instead on what the Arsenal stood to lose by not beating Rosenborg and the raging controversy over our goalkeeping position.

That is not to say that my feelings on the goalkeeping situation aren't mixed because they are. I cannot deny that there are question marks that can be placed against Lehmann and, in all honesty, I certainly cannot deny that there are huge question marks against Almunia given what I have seen of him in the last three games.

However, I'm still amazed nonetheless at the level of ballyhoo that has surrounded this. Question marks have been raised over Tim Howard but when Roy Carroll came in to replace him and made a gaffe against Lyon the other day it didn't prompt the same level of mass hysteria.

Every club has managers who are paid to go with their gut and make tough decisions. Arsene is no different and I certainly don't think that anyone outside of Highbury has the right to question the integrity of the decisions he makes, whether it's on the subject of goalkeepers or anyone else.

In other words, Arsene, like everybody else in his situation, can only work with the tools he has got and hope that the decisions that he is making in all good faith will then pay off. As I said, I cannot deny that there are question marks over Almunia but, if he is picked ahead of Lehmann on Sunday, we Arsenal fans have to run with it and hope that the boy conclusively shows why he was brought to the club in the first place. There isn't an awful lot else can we do right now, is there?

Still although, looking back to Tuesday night, things didn't entirely go perfectly and yes, Almunia made another gaffe, I think that we are entitled to be proud of the way things turned out for us. People can bemoan both Rosenborg's general standing and their defending on the night all they want but the upshot of it all is that, unlike a certain team from Old Trafford we did what was expected of us by finishing top of our group. And, unlike another certain team that I can mention we did it without losing a game. I don't think anyone has the right to ask for much more than that.

And so lets look to Sunday and our game against The Phoney Russian Franchise masquerading under the name of Chelsea.

Now I don't know how many of you Gooners managed to get round to reading Ken Bates' column in the Current Bun on Saturday but I thought the first paragraph was particularly interesting.

Bates talked about the Chelsea "chairman" Bruce Buck. Who is he? I'm not entirely sure but on the surface he is some faceless Yank hotshot originally from the world of Investment Banking as far I know.

Anyway, according to Bates, this chap, Bruce Buck, is looking to run Chelsea along true business lines in the future. This prompted Bates himself to say that if that is the case then Abramovich will need to chuck his chequebook away. Mmm, I thought.

He then went rambling on about running costs, footballing dynasties and that the Phoney Russian Franchise otherwise known as Chelsea is spearheading the shift in football's power base from the North to the South of England.

Suddenly, I exploded. "Hold the phone!" I thought "What contribution have Chelsea made over the last three years and beyond to entitle them a place at the forefront of any shift in power from the North to the South?"

The answer to that is whilst the Arsenal have been the most successful club in this country over the last three years and therefore put up a considerably more plausible argument for any shift in power from the North to the South, Chelsea, for all the money they have spent and all the hype and all the big talk that has come with it, have won nothing.

Here's the funny thing though; fresh on the back of winning The Double back in 2002 Arsene came out and said that he believed his side had the potential to go a league season unbeaten only to be confronted immediately with people scornfully calling him and Arsenal "cocky and arrogant". Now, when things didn't quite pan out that way the following season, both he and the club were universally ridiculed endlessly.

Here we are, two years on and we now have a situation where Chelsea, without any recent success whatsoever to back them up, are going around telling to all and sundry exactly WHAT they are going to win (which happens to be everything by the way) and, terms of the Premiership, exactly WHEN they are going to do it. And, Guess what? Nobody in the press or the media is putting up the merest HINT of a dissenting argument. Funny that.

Oh, but wait, Arsenal fans, you haven't heard the best bit yet because let's suppose that the Mighty Mourinho actually does what is currently perceived to be "the unthinkable" and he doesn't actually win a thing with his team this year. What's the first thing the press and the media will say? I'll tell you; they will say that it's only Mourinho's first season in charge and the time to judge both him and his Chelsea team will be next year!

Everyone knows that they can buy pretty much who they like and everybody knows that they can go around saying what they like without any reproach but it's this "Have their cake and eat it" culture that exists there, over and above everything else, that I personally resent more than anything.

Let's get one thing straight about this coming Sunday; even if Vieira, Gilberto, Edu and Ljungberg were all definitely available for the game, the Arsenal would still be going in as underdogs such is the level of hype surrounding our opponents these days.

Do I mind? Nah, not a bit. And I'll tell you why. I have seen Arsenal win many games and ultimately many things over the last 15 years often against the odds.

How many people outside of Highbury for example gave us a prayer of even WINNING at Anfield let alone by the necessary two clear goals we needed on that famous night back in 1989.

How many people outside of Highbury thought that we would beat a very good Parma side to win the Cup Winners Cup back in 1994.

And, how many people outside of Highbury thought that we would ever win the league again let alone go an entire league campaign unbeaten when Abramovich first arrived and started flashing his cash around. Not too many- on all three counts.

This particular match does not carry quite the same level of significance as the two aforementioned matches did. Nevertheless, the fact remains that we have been written off more times than a stock car and time after time we have proved people wrong. I, for one, refuse to bet against us doing it again either on Sunday - or ultimately when the season is over.