Why last season was a success and Wenger can lead us to the title again

A recent review of referees decisions from a possibly biased Arsenal source (Untold Arsenal) reveals a huge bias against Arsenal with a staggering loss of 27 points and 29 penalties not awarded (we only got 2). Even if we assume some bias of the source and he was wrong on 50% of his judgements then the impact of referee’s decisions is highly significant in determining the title. It’s time for video evidence in the EPL and I don’t know why it is resisted.

The conclusion I draw from this review of our season is that the scale of our disappointment was huge because of the dramatic rise in our expectations coinciding with an equally dramatic run of poor results.

Blame Arsène?

What further conclusions can be drawn from this analysis and what implications does all this have for understanding and evaluating the recent behaviour towards the team and particularly towards Arsène Wenger?

Let’s begin by considering who should share the responsibility for our disappointment for failing to win the league? The above review (with the addition of some obvious candidates) tells us that the ‘blame’ for our disappointment should be shared between (in no order):

• Leicester City FC for beating us to the title
• The fans for having unrealistic expectations
• The media for ratcheting up our expectations
• The refs for making mistakes
• The FA and Premier League who don’t allow a winter break
• The players for not being stronger under pressure
• The manager for not winning the title
• The board for being greedy and un-democratic

Here we have a whole bunch of different entities who each played a role in creating our disappointment but who takes ALL the flak from the fans and the media for being the cause of our huge disappointment?  Of course – it’s all Arsène Wenger’s fault! Sack the manager; off with his head!

Psychologists tell us that when we are angry, we need someone to blame for causing our anger. Anger allows us to continue idealising what could have been while consciously denigrating it, and we will hang onto it only because it's what we needed at the time.

In Arsenals case, when we fans experienced the disappointment of failing to win the league (and the FA Cup) many fans protested with anger or simply just called for a change of manager and directed it all at the most obvious and softest target – Arsène Wenger. Was this fair?

Of course the manager is the one who is responsible for the team’s performance but he should not be made solely responsible. He should be subject to scrutiny and criticism but the reaction we have seen this season goes way beyond criticism with little room for rational thought or awareness of the reality of just how difficult it was for us to win the league this year.

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