Updated 27 April

Arsenal are in the FA Cup Final AGAIN, and will face Chelsea at Wembley Stadium in just a month’s time. Of course, Arsenal have won before what has become the most iconic of all football competitions, which is the oldest recognised football tournament in the world. It will be their third final in the last 4 years and they won the Cup on those two other occasions. In the last twenty years Arsenal have won it 6 times and been runners-up 2 times. That comes on top of being runners-up 2 times in the League Cup.

In the incredible English Premier League, which statistically and exciting-wise is the best domestic league in the world [ahead of the top-class Bundesliga (Germany), and possibly the most dominating La Liga (Spain)?] – as it is the hardest to win, and is so dramatic & unpredictable. In the past twenty years, Arsenal have won it 2 times, been runners-up 6 times, come third 5 times and fourth 6 times. They have also in that time ALWAYS finished higher in the Table than their arch North London rival Tottenham Hotspurs, haven’t they?

So furthermore, Arsenal have an unblemished record in consistently securing a ‘lucrative’ European competition place in these last 20 ‘consecutive’ seasons, whence in the Champions League in those 20 years they have been runners-up once, reached the quarter finals four times, and in addition been in the last sixteen seven times in the last 7 years alone (out of nine times overall).

Arsenal are a team that consistently play very very good entertaining football and indeed on their day they can beat ANY club team in the world – but they currently have an unfortunate trait in that they equally can also sometimes lose to ANY club team in the world!

Now, in all that time their manager has been Frenchman Arsène Wenger and despite that substantive record, a group of fans have decided that he is a rubbish manager now, ‘lost the place’ as the saying goes, and needs to be replaced by someone else better, so that the Club can finally win the Premier League ‘again’ [the last of their 2 wins under Wenger was 13 years ago)]. However, only 4 other teams have won the Title over the past decade – Man United, Man City, Chelsea (all three who have spent a fortune in transfers and wages), and lowly Leicester (albeit tellingly on only a shoestring budget).

Also, through diligent spending on players during Wenger’s period, Arsenal have almost uniquely maintained good financial stability and that has been achieved despite building a major brand new stadium with the third-largest capacity in England on a different site (overall cost half a billion pounds, eh?), hasn’t it?

Last summer Arsenal did half a dozen transfers-IN, and that include the significant record signings of Granit Xhaka from Borussia Monchengladbach (Defensive Midfielder) and Shkodran Mustafi (Centre-Back) from Valencia

However, a few years ago, some attention-seeking cretin (a so call Arsenal supporter) started stirring-up trouble over Wenger, (for lack of recent sporting success?),  demanding that he be sacked by the owner, or be coerced by fan pressure to resign, as he was mismanaging the team (and despite the spend of  some £700millions during his tenure?. Like all uninhibited vitriolic rabblerousing mobs do, it has grown like Topsy over the years, causing trouble on the terraces, and demoralising the team on the pitch. All true supporters of a football team know that the more vocal encouragement they can give their players the better they will perform (and vice versa), and that is true in all sports, isn’t it?

At Arsenal those who have set out to undermining the manager, are prepared to blatantly ignore that very fact, so it is hardly surprising that the team’s performance has suffered this season, is it? If they don’t like the way the Club is being run they simply shouldn’t attend matches, rather than cause discord in the stands with their demonstrations, don’t you think?

As the trouble off the field has escalated, so has the players’ efforts on the pitch deescalated, and results have imploded since mid-December and they have only won three of the last 7 matches (Arsenal are currently only 6^th in the Table while arch enemy rivals Spurs are still vying to win it, and with just six games to go, their chances of getting into the top 4 are slim and will heavily depend on Man U slipping up, so part of that will need to include beating them when they play at the Emirates stadium next month, won’t it?). However, It may well be that Arsenal’s best hope now of qualifying for Europe next year (though not in the top-table’s ‘Champions League’, but in the less glamorous UEFA Europa League), is as FA Cup winners through beating Chelsea in the Final, wouldn’t you say?

Even lifelong loyal Arsenal supporters are turning against Wenger because of recent results, and that is a shame, don’t you think? They should be careful for what they wish for though, because if Wenger goes (which is looking increasingly likely?) a new manager may not work out at all (even IF they get one of the high-profile guys on the world stage just now like Massimiliano Allegri or Thomas Tuchel, or even home grown Eddie Howe). You have got recent warning examples – like Man U who sacked their manager in favour of Louis van Gaal who cost a lot and spent a fortune (splashed the cash – a quarter of a BILLION pounds in underperforming signings alone), to achieve no better league results so was sacked himself after two seasons: like Liverpool who sacked their manager in favour of apparently high-powered Jurgen Klopp who has proved to be a bit of a flop and poor tactician so have little chance this season of the Title: like Man City who sacked their manager in favour of hiring the nicknamed ‘philosopher’ Pep Guardiola, talked-up as ‘the best in the world’, who after 6 months of this his debut season admitted he ‘maybe not good enough for the club’ (the project is not going as planned, is it?) – he has made poor buys (nearly £150 million squandered?), has replaced a solid goalkeeper with a novice by comparison, has tinkered endlessly, has made questionable team selections, whence the team has conceded the most goals in the top five except Liverpool (despite starting the season with 10 straight wins in a row!). They have lost to Arsenal twice this month (once in the Premiership and last Sunday in the semi-final of the FA Cup – so demonstrators want Wenger out, do they?).

Meanwhile, Chelsea under unfancied new boy Antonio Conte, ex-Italy manager at Euro 2016 (reached the quarter-finals), ex-manager Juventus (2011-2014), are in fact streaking ahead towards the Title.

Moreover, if Wenger is elbowed out of Arsenal those responsible should dwell on the fact that apparently, he has no intention of either giving-up club management, or leaving England, so they can fully expect him to be charge at another Premiership club and of being a thorn in Arsenal’s side that will certainly reduce their chances of securing the League crown next season, don’t you think? He won’t fancy taking over a relegation risk club or trying to get one promoted from the Championship, will he? No, but there are some quite big ‘well established’ clubs who might see him as a good fit perhaps, even it is after the start of the next season [like say Burnley or West Brom (but probably not West Ham, in light of its sleazy connections and today being under major investigation by the taxman, eh?)?

[Football is a sad old game these days; fans aren’t loyal to players or managers or clubs, players aren’t loyal to managers or clubs, managers aren’t loyal to players, clubs aren’t loyal to managers, and owners aren’t loyal to clubs or managers or players or fans – not like the old days when football was the most important thing and not money, eh?]