by Paul Williams

Why do we sing about hating Tottenham and not about loving Arsenal?

On Saturday evening, Arsenal Football Club ended a trophy drought that had lasted… ooh, about twelve months. ‘Didn’t we win the Community Shield in August?’ I hear you cry. Yes, well, the Community Shield only counts as a major honour if you are a Spurs fan.

We’re Arsenal, so it doesn’t count.

Whilst fans of other clubs may like to tell you, the Arsenal fan, the FA Cup is not an important trophy we all know that it is. Naturally enough, there was a parade on Sunday for our heroes. Despite decidedly unseasonable weather, thousands upon thousands of Gooners lined the streets to greet a bunch of players now beginning to make a habit of winning things.

As you know, the headline news from the parade was Jack Wilshere’s decision to ask the time honoured question, “What do you think of Tottenham?” 

Well, we all know the answer to that particular question.

Jack has been criticised in certain sections of the media for his actions, to the point where he was moved to apologise to the nation via his Twitter feed.

Arsenal, for their part, have said they will not be taking any action against the England midfielder and the end result is some lunatic Spurs fans – who have no doubted chanted much, much worse thing s- laughably trying to get Jack into trouble with the police. 

Oh, apparently, Micky Hazard is quite upset too. I don’t know how upset he is exactly, because he blocked me on Twitter months ago.

Now. I don’t have any real problem with what Jack said. I can certainly see an argument that, as a role model for kids as well as being a representative of the greatest football club in the country, leading the crowd in a chorus of “My old man said be a Tottenham fan…” is not a particularly smart thing to do.

Frankly though, if you’re looking at Shisha Jack as a role model, I’d question your life choices.

I would would agree with the Arseblogger’s view that, in an age where a footballer’s salary puts him on a different planet to the rest of us, it’s nice to see one of ours connecting with the fans. Particularly someone who came up through the ranks here.

What does irk me – irk is the wrong word… What I find a little frustrating, though, is this need to bring Tottenham into the conversation. Especially when there’s no need to do it. I even did it in the first paragraph of this article *slaps own wrist*.

I watched Saturday’s ridiculously comfortable victory at the stadium screening and it was a lot of fun. Part of it was the surreal nature of looking down at a football pitch containing huge television screens displaying a football match. The effect was sort of like a weird Russian doll. Part of it was that we were able to drink beer – in my case, cider – as we watched; yet another part of it was the almost carnival atmosphere created within the stadium, particularly once Theo’s brilliant left footed volley had sliced through the tension and into Shay Given’s net.

Both my companions, Jo and James, commented that the atmosphere seemed better than at most home games, this despite there being, at a generous estimate, half the usual number of people inside the stadium.

It really was an electric atmosphere in the stadium too. Hopefully, this video I took of the final couple of minutes gives you a flavour of it. Warning for the easily offended: I swear in it. Once.

Yet, I found myself growing tired of the repeated exhortations to “Stand up if you hate Tottenham!” 

Of course I hate Tottenham, I’m an Arsenal fan. I don’t need to stand up about it though.

I would, however, happily stand up because I love Arsenal. Yet, you never, or at least rarely, get that invitation.

Which is fine, if you’re playing Tottenham.

We weren’t.

We were playing, and destroying, Aston Villa. In an FA Cup final.

When I tweeted along those lines on Sunday afternoon, I got an interesting response from several people – a response that lasted till around Monday evening. 

Several people got in touch saying they totally understood and shared my frustration. In the interests of fairness, I should also say that a reasonable amount of people got in touch telling me about their experience, in the Gunners pub or elsewhere, of a day totally devoted to Gooner love.

Obviously, that’s great. I wonder if, at least part of it, is just something intrinsic in how football is watched in a pub as opposed to a football stadium, even if it’s a football stadium pretending to be a pub.

Does the very fact of being in a football stadium rob us all of that bit of wit and spontaneity we all display in the pub? Or is it just that it’s much easier to get a new chant going in a pub?

We often hear a chant when the lads are at Old Trafford along the lines of “Vieira, wohhh Vieira, he gave Giggsy the ball and…” and I can never make out the next bit. Does anyone really think the United fans roll that one out when they’re not playing us? Of course not, why would they?

I’m not trying to tell anyone how to celebrate, or what they should or shouldn’t do in a football stadium. I just think that we have such a rich history at this football club and are lucky enough to have seen, in our lifetime too, some true legends of the game. We should be celebrating it at every possible opportunity.

I don’t want anyone to misunderstand me. I had a brilliant day on Saturday, I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere, or with anyone, else. Nor do I care whom Jack Wilshere may have offended. Or that the FA, as I write this, have just hit him with a misconduct charge. I just wish we could celebrate our successes without needing to refer them back to that lot.

To me, it’s exactly the same kind of small mindedness as they display season after season, ‘This year, we’ll definitely finish above Arsenal’. Every Spurs player to have worn the cock and ball for the last twenty years comes out with this as if it’s the be all and end all of their existence. Perhaps it is!

I think we’re better than that. In all senses of that expression.

As Joe Strummer once said to Mick Jones, “I don’t hate you, I don’t think enough of you to hate you!” 

He was joking, but when it comes to Tottenham, that’s how we should all be.