A civil war has gripped Arsenal football club, some fans want to overthrow the management, some fans want to overthrow those fans and some fans just want a new transfer policy. On top of this angst in the stands, several players are being moved on and harmony is not a word that you would associate with the club right now despite ‘victory through harmony’ allegedly being the club’s motto.
However, UEFA, the second largest and second most erratic of the world’s governing bodies may have given us a cause to unite behind. After a scandalous refereeing performance from a UEFA official in the Nou Camp Arsene Wenger found himself the victim of a one game touchline ban for daring to criticise him. Now, after seeking clarification on the terms of the ban from UEFA officials, our manager has now outrageously been found guilty of not adhering to the ban and now faces a further two games away from the touchline and the dressing room. This ban will take effect immediately, ruling him out of the Udinese game, the most important match of our season.
Now, Arsene has undoubtedly helped to make life difficult for himself at the start of the season by failing to secure signings in pre-season but he is now having to endure some extremely bad luck. Injuries have become par for the course in recent years but harsh suspensions to the players and now for himself have stacked the odds against us. This may be where this team can come of age though.
Saturday proved that we do have some characters in the squad who will stand up to be counted, contrary to the perception in much of the media. Thomas Vermaelen, Wojciech Sczcesny, Bacary Sagna, Alex Song and Emmanuel Frimpong can all be relied upon to stand up when it matters and with Gervinho back in contention we should have enough energy in attack to trouble the Italians.
Arsenal fans and players need to unite now if we are to have a chance on Wednesday. Everything could fall apart at the seams if we do get the wrong result so we need as much positivity as possible going into the match.
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