‘Mankind’s essential illness is the inherent nature in us to do evil.’ As mentioned in Lord of the Flies, where human beings are depicted as having the innate capacity to do evil, and on basis, are inherently evil. Arsenal meanwhile, have the innate capacity to self-destruct, their essential illness caused by the failure of exorcising their inner demons.
While last night’s performance would have been consigned to ‘one of those nights’, it is worrying that Arsenal have yet to exorcised their inner demons, which so often prove costly in pressing the self-destruct button. How frequent a sight is it to see Arsenal dominate possession, but with pedestrian passing, and bombard the opposition goal, yet fall behind to the opposition’s first shot on target. First grade suicide case, and Arsenal, frustratingly, have been the culprits for too long.
The mischievous little demons last night, reigned superior over Arsenal. So what has the team’s 10-game unbeaten run in the league gone to show? Perhaps, worryingly, and frustratingly, it still shows that we have yet to shake off the capacity to self-destruct, and that that capacity, is still innate in us.
After the game, Wenger lamented that ‘We were unlucky I think against a team who refused to play completely and just defended.’, but that’s just the harsh reality of the game, and unfortunately, teams will now start to look at the basis of what Chelsea and Swansea did to us, and try to play the exact same way, and when that happens, then its incumbent on us to break them down, and not complain about the way they play.
I can’t deny the fact, although painfully, that the team still has a lot to do to catch up with Chelsea. It is frustrating as last night’s result was on the back of a very convincing, strong run towards the end of the season, to build up confidence for next season’s strong tilt title push. However, last night has gone on as a strong reality check that we are still some distance away from the champions. Not greatly in terms of personnel, but really, our own innate capacity to self-destruct.
There were plenty of chances to win the game, and ‘if you can’t win it, don’t lose it’, a lapse in concentration, that has proved decisive, cost us. This was the type of game that was common earlier on in the season, exactly like the game at the Liberty Stadium, where our team was fairly disorganised, without attacking flair, carried by Alexis, and the defence was patched up with rags and tissues. However, there’s no excuses for us anymore, if ever one thought that we had discarded and long moved away from the troubles earlier on in the season, it is a grave mistake. Last night’s result was after a brilliant, strong run of form, and it just feels disappointing, to see the mistakes from the first part of the season, and once again, our inability to dominate and exorcise our inner demons, come back to haunt us.
This result has also come off the back of ‘St. Totteringham’s Day’, and I absolutely love being on top of Spurs year in year out, but shouldn’t a club of massive stature and ability like Arsenal in the world, challenge and celebrate for bigger honours, more prestigious, highly craved silverware?
It just feels disappointing, it feels empty, but the team’s inability to conquer their innermost demons, their inability to cure their essential illness, the innate capacity to self-destruct, year in year out, might just devastatingly see them crumble and die – like the decadence of Jack himself in the book.
