Oh Thou Arsenal: Redeem Thyself!

Emancipate yourself from mental slavery,

None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
‘Cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look?
Some say it’s just a part of it,
We’ve got to fulfill de book.
Won’t you help to sing
These songs of freedom? 
‘Cause all I ever have,
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs

Almost all players have head phones plugged into their ear drums whenever you see them arriving from the team bus before the game. I’ve always pondered over two things

• Were they not speaking to each other in the bus? Young people together and everyone seems to have blocked each other out with headphones.
• What songs are they listening to? .

We know Per Mertesacker is a huge fan of Bob Marley so chances are high that he is “high” on listening to the legend. If you ever read this Per, the song you should be listening to as Arsenal head out to play Man United has got to be Redemption Song.

The players and manager have to redeem themselves especially after the defeat against Swansea and the shambolic way we dropped points against Anderlecht we cannot afford to drop any further against United and Dortmund. Arteta captures it perfectly

We have two games, against Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund, at home and if we get the crowd with us from the start and get the results then it will be a very different story again. “A week ago, after three wins in a row, the place was getting back to normal with everyone looking happy. Then after two disappointing results, (it is down). – Arterta

The team needs to get earn the trust of the fans again, truth is this season we have been very inconsistent, we have struggled to maintain any high performance level over two games and we have been frustrating to watch. Especially on the back of our FA Cup Final win and the signings made over the summer, one would expect that the team would transcend to a higher performance level. On paper, we have a better team this season that we had last season , on the pitch our performances are nowhere close the table topping run we had last season that culminated in the FA Cup win.

 Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.

We haven’t beaten United since the 2010/2011 season, I feel we still have the ghosts of the 8-2 loss at Old Trafford hanging around us. As a team, we seem to live in their shadow, as a club they certainly eclipse us. It almost like a derby for us, no matter how bad United are, we struggle against them. It has got to be a mental block that needs to be cleansed and cleansed out quickly.

We failed to take advantage of their failures last season under David Moyes and this season with their injury list and failures to sign proper defenders (birds of a feather) we should beat them at home.  With Di Maria and De Gea seemingly not able to make the starting eleven, the only player in the United side that can claim a starting shirt in our current Arsenal starting eleven is Wayne Rooney and in the form he is in and with his penchant to always score against us, he is one to be watched.

Have no fear for atomic energy, Cause none of them can stop the time.

The opponents might not really have atomic energy, but it’s our conservative nature on the back of bad results that make them seem like they do. Last season, on the back on bad results we always became conservative, seeking not to drop points rather than to go all out and try to win a game.

With confidence in the team seriously dented from the bad run of games, I wonder if they would rather not lose this game against United rather than psyche themselves up to win it.

The problem with going all out to win is that this season we haven’t mastered the art of trying to hold back and kill a game.  The manager might be largely at fault here but we have senior players in the team that really should know the pressure they are under and call out to other players to work towards trying to keep a score line rather than trying to score more goals.

See quick analogy

Problem is we are conceding an average of 8-10 minutes immediately after we score.  The manager needs to address this, while United can consider coming from behind against Chelsea to grab a draw as good as three points, we cannot afford to have that mentality playing against them.

We play at home, so we have to take the game to them, gets the goals we need to win this game and defend professionally to see out the game.

How long shall they kill our prophets,While we stand aside and look?

Replace the prophets with trophies, and United are a team that have killed our hopes of winning some severally. A loss to United now with their injury list would be near disastrous for the already volatile fan base. On the league table a win against United would be three points but it used to be worth more than that. They are in a team in transition, struggling for form and not in contention for anything, and we really should be beating them.

Some say it’s just a part of it, We’ve got to fulfill de book.

Everyone has ruled us out of the running for the trophy and we really are just a team trying to qualify for 3^rd of 4^th place this season. Wenger hasn’t ruled us out yet but he admits it’s a struggle now. I was listening to A Bergkamp Wonderland Podcast a few weeks ago and former Arsenal player Perry Grooves was been interviewed and he ended his session with the words “A club of Arsenal’s stature should be winning trophies every year”.  You really can’t argue with that statement.

While we might moan about who we did not sign, the players we have currently at the club need to be reminded of what it means to play for Arsenal, what it means to play for a club with one of the largest global fan bases, a club with a history filled with pride.

When the Gunners file out against United, Arteta says they need to win the fans back, I’ll go with they need to redeem themselves. #UTA #COYG

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