We don’t learn, do we? While fresh with optimism after bossing the champions at the Etihad, and leaving with a well-earned point, Arsenal fans have sunk back into the usual cries of ‘same old Arsenal’ while rubbishing any chances of success after losing to Chelsea.

It’s not the end of the world

Arsenal didn’t play well yesterday, that much is obvious.

Laurent Koscielny was at fault for both goals, while Santi Cazorla was quiet and Gervinho was his Jekyll and Hyde self, scoring a great goal sandwiched with moments of maddening error.

The only players to really come out looking OK were the two full backs and Mr Metronome McLego Hair himself, Mikel Arteta.

This doesn’t mean that Arsenal are poor, or that the players aren’t good enough, however.

After last week Laurent Koscielny was being lauded for his performance and goal against City, but now he’s apparently useless and should never play again.

He shouldn’t play next week, because Per Mertesacker is needed to maintain defensive solidity, but he’s still a great defender. How many times did he get us out of trouble last year?

If last week wasn’t a decent barometer of whether Arsenal could challenge for the title this year, neither was the Chelsea game. All teams have off-days, and there are 32 games left in the season.

Poor support

That hasn’t stopped many Gooners from essentially declaring Arsenal’s season over and many players ‘not good enough’.

Take Olivier Giroud for example.

He came off the bench with 20 minutes left, and gave Arsenal a lot more attacking impetus. Chelsea remained resolute, and the Frenchman ended up making a great chance for himself, rounding Cech and squeezing the ball wide from a tight angle.

He was murdered.

Fans booed, threw their hands up in disgust and some even declared that Giroud was no better than Marouane Chamakh. The disappointment at the miss was amplified by the lateness of it.

If Giroud had started and done the same thing 5 minutes in, he would have been seen as unlucky. He also would have given the Chelsea centrebacks a lot more to think about that the mercurial Gervinho.

But this is the issue with Arsenal fans at the moment. We expect every season to be another Invincibles season, and whenever something goes wrong we’re too quick to point fingers and turn on players.

The crowd, so great against Coventry, were quiet and too quick to bemoan missed passes. Doesn’t help the team much. The worst was saying ‘I can’t believe we have to pay £62 pounds to watch this’. It’s too much, yes, but the players don’t set ticket prices, do they?

Help each other

Every Arsenal game is a battle. Not a footballing battle, but one between different groups of fans.

There are steadfastly positive fans, reasonable fans, fans who see either side, and fans who are so steadfastly convinced that everything at Arsenal is rotten to the core they refuse to accept anything good.

And every chance, every run and kick of a ball is analysed and used as ammunition.

‘Poor from Koscielny, told you he can’t cut it’.

‘Haha! Gervinho scores! Take that naysayers!’

One side isn’t right. Arsenal aren’t perfect, but they’re certainly not doomed. The problem is that these fans fight, they aren’t unified. A good performance is a point scored against the negative mob, while an off-day , like yesterday’s, ‘shows those bloody AKBs they’re deluded, we’re crap’.

Unite, debate by all means, but don’t politicise games and use what happens on the field to further your own agenda. The happiest I imagine the players felt yesterday was when they poured forward at 2-1 down, and the 60,000 present roared ‘COME ON ARSENAL, COME ON ARSENAL’.

That’s support. The kind of support they need every game. Not snap judgements and petty point-scoring.

Arsenal will play better, they’ll move forwards. Accept each result as it comes, not as an example of everything to come in the future. Anything can happen in football, remember?

Where will Arsenal finish this season?

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