Thoughts after a few deep breaths

I was following the game online on Wednesday and just couldn't. fucking. believe it. I pretty much still feel like I've been punched in the stomach -- me and every other fan, everywhere around the world. Oh Arsenal! And against Spurs!

But after a couple of days of contemplation, and lot of wine, here's where I've landed:

1) This is worrying not only because we GAVE AWAY THE GAME, but also because we conceded four goals. WHERE was our defense? Where the fuck was our captain? I can't think of another top-tier team that could conceded four goals in a game, much less two in the last two minutes. At this point I'm not even worried about winning the league, I'm worried about coming in fourth.

2) We'd better be buying someone in January. What hurts the most is watching Alonso with Liverpool, and reading about his banner season. He could have been with us! What a waste of an opportunity that was -- and for what? £2 million?

3) If this keeps up, I'm worried we're going to lose Cesc. He's already said that a) he's tired of not winning anything; and b) that anyone that watched Arsenal last season would know exactly what our weakness was. He must be steaming.

4) But in the end, Arsenal need our support now more than ever, right. We all have a right to be angry, disappointed, whatever, but we would be poor fans indeed if we were only supportive when we were in form and/or doing well. Hopefully we'll be fourth or better, but even if we're not, they're still ours.

Sigh.

Guess what I'm going to go see?!

Yup: Zidane, Portrait d'un 21e Siecle [Portrait of a 21st Century]. At the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Monday. Stay tuned for a review...

UPDATE: There was a shooting in Brooklyn and the area was blocked off so we couldn't go. Ah well.

International Breaks Bore Me!

So Arsenal will be back this Saturday and we will be missing several key players who are injured. Still I'm ready to see the Gunners back in action.

These international breaks are so boring. We are so far away from the World Cup and we still have to go through all these rounds of matches to get us to the point where we pick the final teams.

Watching the US play Cuba or England v whoever, it is just disfunctional football. These guys don't practice that often together and they look that way when they get on the field. Sure it's an all-star cast, but everyone wants to be the star and they damn near fight each other out there.

What we need to do is have qualifying in the off season of Europe and limit it to that.

Too many good players get hurt and exhausted from play and travel.

So, the bottom line is that we need to change this whole policy on the international breaks and let the boys play for who pays them.

Waxing Philosophical After a Crappy Day

I've said this before, but Cesc and the boys can teach us a lot about life.

Character. As Joe Biden says: "Champ, when you get knocked down, get up. Get up." Can you imagine what it must be like to lose to Hull City, at home, and have millions of fans howling at you? How hard it must be to have the self belief to play, play well and win? You get up.

Professionalism. It would have been very easy, and quite understandable, after the summer he had, for Xabi Alonso to sulk all season. Benitez is an idiot, albeit an idiot with an unbeaten record, and he deserves...ha...Denilson. But what he's getting is Alonso's 100%. I admire that. If Alonso can, I can, right?

Loyalty. For two seasons now, Cesc could have gone anywhere for more money, no heart ache and no Gallas. He's shown his loyalty (ahem, Ade), now it's our turn to show him ours.

Love. No one plays like our favorites do because it's just a job. We could all learn how to love what we love, even when, and particularly when, times are tough.

In the end, you could call all of these things courage. And maybe we're lucky to have that in our life every week.