I’m usually one of those painfully optimistic Arsenal fans that everyone gets annoyed at.
I try to see the silver lining in most situations and although I remain realistic, I also don’t like to get too bogged down in the negativity that often surrounds our team. Not good for the mental health, and all that.
However, when we lost 1-0 against Chelsea at the Emirates on Sunday, I failed to be able to see even the most minuscule sliver of silver on the black cloud that was our performance (nice imagery huh?).
Once again we failed to beat a Chelsea team, which hasn’t even managed to reach the top half of the table yet. We made silly decisions and managed to shoot ourselves in the feet by being reduced to 10 men again.
I think this is why Hector Bellerin’s comments about keeping our heads up and bouncing back in our next match fall on deaf ears.
“It is difficult because [even though we were] playing with 10 men we thought in the second half that we wouldn’t give up, and we had some chances to get a better score,” the right-back said.
“It couldn’t be done and it was a bit unlucky on our part. We need to keep our heads up and move onto the next game.”
Maybe the result is a bit raw, maybe I’m just sleep deprived. I know there are many that feel as if we played pretty well for 70 minutes. But there’s only so many times we can keep repeating the same mistakes and subsequent ‘bouncing back’ statements before they get old. And for me, it’s getting really old.