When Gareth Barry is picked in the England squad again, along with a youthful defence containing two players Sir Alex Ferguson inadvertently left liable for their near miss against an Ajax reserve side in the Europa League in 22-year old Chris Smalling and 20-year old Phil Jones; Stuart Pearce puts himself forward for the mammoth task that is Euro 2012; and it’s only February yet it seems the Manchester clubs are our hope for European success, and that’s only in the Europa League due to their failure in the Champions League, you know it’s been a bad week for English football.
Whilst, considering their start, Arsenal’s season hasn’t been all that bad, domestically at least, the past two weeks has seen their campaign crumble and any momentum they had mustered has miserably disappeared into the mist. The fan’s discontent was symbolic of their Champions League second round first leg performance against AC Milan at the San Siro and a defeat against Sunderland in the F.A. Cup did nothing to reroute The Gunners’ campaign. Even the second-coming, Alex Chamberlain couldn’t save their souls, bundling in an own goal. He does remain the possible saviour, however.
The post-January transfer window period has done nothing to settle the murmuring rumble of restlessness that the window itself served up, teasing fans with price tags and seductively involving themselves with a Dortmund young German midfielder: but ultimately, Arsenal fans have been left hungry for squad improvements and poor performances haven’t settled the hunger. Arsene is clinging to the achievement of fourth, something he’s still 13-games from achieving, and with promise of summer investment, a failure to do so would leave Gooners rightly inclined to make a meal of things: who’s going to join a team that isn’t in the Champions League?
Unfortunately for Chelsea, Arsenal’s ability to concede four goals from four shots, or their inability to defend if you prefer, has only cranked up the pressure on Andre Villas-Boas. Under previous managers, Chelski, as they were once jokingly referred to as, were everyone’s favourite team to fail: they had an owner that poured money into the club like it had a hole in the bottom, they had an egotistical manager that gave Sir Alex Ferguson a run for his money and their failed attempts at this very competition were the rest of the nation’s entertainment. Who didn’t find it quite amusing to see John Terry slip up as he struck his penalty, outside of the Chelsea faithful?
However, Andre Villas-Boas, who I read this week was either over-scrutinised or persistently naïve – and thus must be the former as the latter is an unconceivable ability as one cannot persist in a state of which they are not aware of – has the fortunate, or unfortunate, added support of the rest of England. He likes the pressure though right? Because, if Chelsea don’t overturn Napoli at Stamford Bridge, a scenario I painfully argued they could, England could be left without a club to cheer on in the quarter finals of the Champions League for the first time since 1995/96 when Blackburn Rovers finished rock bottom of their group as the sole English representative.