Arsenal : Fans Face Up To Fear Of Humiliation

There's a fear around Arsenal at the moment. The squad and officials have ramped down their communications, leaving Arsenal fans and bloggers scratching around for things to write about.

Much of the writing is very negative, as if the season has been a great failure. Many calls for the manager and half the team to be replaced come out of that fear.

That writing masks something fans don't want to talk about, as does the negative hatred being written on many blogs.

Fear

There is a deep underlying fear that Arsenal, having been humiliated against Barcelona, Tottenham and then Wigan, may be humiliated further by Manchester City. The added fear that the rest of the season could see Arsenal finish below Tottenham and perhaps even Manchester City, makes the feeling much worse.

In order to avoid that fear and the potential of humiliation, Arsenal and its fans are talking about everything else. Laying blame, and making distracting talk of new players.

Arsenal have finished in the top four of the Premier League consistently since 95-96 when they finished fifth. This season could see them pushed back down to fifth. Hardly a disaster by the standards of most teams, but anathema in the eyes of Arsenal fans when their hated North London neighbors, Tottenham, could finish above them, alongside a club that have built their position on the massive wealth of an overseas benefactor, Manchester City.

It has often been said that Arsenal do things the hard way, building with resources that have seen other clubs relegated. Building with an honesty and integrity that other clubs fans could only dream of. Often however building with players that other clubs would overlook or discard—for good and bad sometimes.

Face The Fear

It's time for Arsenal, the club, the players, and it's fans, to face their fear. It's time to admit that the worst could happen.

With the admission that the worst could happen—there only remains to be gained the understanding of what could be done to reduce it. Certainly the fans can do nothing to reduce the worst, other than acceptance, and a continued focus on building for the future. The team can do nothing other than fight as hard as they know how.

Those fans who have turned their fear into a focus of anger against the team, the club but particularly the manager would do better to face that fear and deal with it in a more emotionally mature way—by focusing on a positive future, next season. In the meantime, continued support, and showing the team love and support will accomplish more than such negative reaction.

In Perspective

Realizing that things could always be worse is another good way of dealing with the fear. Liverpool for example, tipped as potential title winners at the start of the season have faded badly and now face not finishing in the top five. Everton, tipped to break into the top four had such a bad start to the season, they're now battling for seventh place.

Both of those clubs have glorious histories, Liverpool's particularly full of trophies and titles. It's important to regain a sense of persepective. It's important to realize that Arsenal have given its fans great hope this season, and while that hope may have been dashed at the last, for the most part it has been a great hopeful season. Certainly a season that, at it's start, faced the prediction that Arsenal would slip away from the top group.

There are ways of facing the fear we all face, as Arsenal fans. It's time we chose the good, mature, uplifting ways of dealing with that fear, instead of letting it eat us alive with negative emotions and reactions. Win or lose, we still support The Arsenal—and that's worth remembering.