This season Liverpool FC will be where we were last season in terms of years without a trophy. Yet I can honestly say that I cannot remember one time that a pundit, newspaper, commentator or whoever dished out that stat that they love so much. We hear about the roar of the Kop, about Stevie G, King Kenny (not sure what makes him an actual King) about their wonderful history which is indeed wonderful yet here we are today in 2011 and not a jot is said. Liverpool FC have NEVER won

Football is a funny old game, actually it is not funny at all. Football is a serious, rather important part of life. Am I going a little overboard? Maybe but the fact that football, both playing and watching takes up a rather healthy percentage of what makes me happy in life, tells me that it is very important, to me at least.

A few weeks ago Arsenal were in crisis, a full blown, unadulterated crisis. Broken Arsenal badges splattered over the back pages of tabloids, Wenger’s head in his hands being shown repeatedly over and over again on sly sports. It was all a little too much to take.

A few weeks later and we have won five out of six matches and that one defeat included a hand ball goal from the opposition that could and perhaps should have been ruled out. Vice captain and all round super hero Thomas Vermaelen has signed a new contract with the club. He is also ten days or so from a first team comeback.

We are toppa da league. Ok, it may only be our Champions League group but we are there, teetering on the brink of qualification to the knock outs. The players have been speaking about how the team is coming together because many of the new players are finding their feet, partnerships are starting to form and come together.

It is a part of football that is often overlooked. The idea that you can plonk six or so new players into our squad and expect a smooth transition without any teething problems would be to distort reality somewhat.

The reason for all this jibba jabba is basically due to Arseblog’s post Marseille report. I found his thoughts of the way supporters are consciously or subconsciously fed nonsense from commentators and pundits very interesting. It is something that I have thought about for a while now and it goes way beyond this sport we love so much.

Every single time we flick on the news or open up a newspaper we are gently told what to think or how to think, some of it is very subtle, some not so subtle. I won’t go beyond football but I find it amazing that so many people believe that life is what we are told or what we are made to believe life is like.

If the actual world we live in is portrayed in a certain way to benefit certain people then what makes us believe that little old football isn’t dished out in the same way or worse. Last season did anyone hear or read the statistic about how Arsenal have gone five years without a trophy? If you are struggling to think about the answer then you need to either climb out from underneath that rock or give your local GP a call and book an appointment for yourself.

This season Liverpool FC will be where we were last season in terms of years without a trophy. Yet I can honestly say that I cannot remember one time that a pundit, newspaper, commentator or whoever dished out that stat that they love so much. We hear about the roar of the Kop, about Stevie G, King Kenny (not sure what makes him an actual King) about their wonderful history which is indeed wonderful, yet here we are today in 2011 and not a jot is said. Liverpool FC have NEVER won the Premier League. Not once, nuffink, nadda. Yet a huge amount of money has been poured into that club. They are given a free pass and we are told that it is ok. It isn’t worth fussing over even though they are a more successful club than we are.

I don’t have to mention the success of Tottenham, we all know that they are forever in our shadow. One of their players Gareth Bale has been painted as one of the best players in the world. He is seen as this amazing talent that could walk straight into the Barcelona and Real Madrid teams. Yet that guy who has no footballing brain or final ball as more goals and assists last season and I am pretty sure this season to date.

I have no doubts whatsoever that a section of Arsenal fans would feel very different about our situation if we read that ‘King Arsene works his magic in the transfer window’ or ‘Magic man Arsene continues to punch above his weight’ from Alan Hansen, Chris Waddle, Jamie Redknapp, The Daily Mail, The Sun etc etc. Many minds would be pushed into another way of thinking. This isn’t to say that everyone who doesn’t support Arsene as a manager is brainwashed, many people regardless of what side of the fence they sit understand that we are told what they want us to hear, but there is a large section of people in everyday life, whether that be football, politics or whatever, swallow whatever that is fed to them without questioning.

A perfect example of this is the transfer rumour. It takes a tabloid to run with the Arsenal linked to player x. Let’s call player x Gary Cahill for example. Before said rumour, Gary Cahill’s name could be mentioned a handful of times by Gooners. Then a few days after the transfer rumour, he is THE player that will solve all our problems. Then it gets all weird because he is English and the media start Gareth Bale-ing him to new levels regardless of what we are watching for his club side. This in turn makes Gooners even more insistent that he is the man of Arsene’s dreams.

I am not saying that Mr Cahill wouldn’t be a good fit for us, he might well be but this does not change the media-fan relationship.

The reverse is very much the case also. Laurent Koscielny came over as an unknown, needing to adjust to the pace of the game and gain a bit of strength. Pundits labelled him as average foreign player who should be locked away with Cygan, Senderos and Igor Stephanos. Koscielny had adapted, developed and put in some top performances but it was too late. Alan Hansen had already said that he and Squillaci were poor buys. To this day, many are still scoffing at Koscielny which I do not quite understand personally.

I don’t want to sound like Mr paranoid Gooner so I will take a backwards step from comparisons for the moment. I do want to get back to the start of the article though. What makes a club, a club in crisis? What is a crisis?

With eight games crossed off and four points behind big spending Liverpool does this mean that we are no longer a club in crisis? If we are in crisis then can we invite Liverpool, Tottenham and Everton to our crisis party? If everyone brings a bottle then perhaps we can make an evening of it.

But I get the feeling that invitations are not available. This is a reserved party only for Arsenal fans who accept that we are in crisis. For those who believe that it has been an absolute failure not to have overachieved enough to wrestle away trophies from those above us  with vastly superior resources.

Don’t get me wrong, I have been massively disappointed in the last few years, especially last season because we have managed to overachieve enough to have found ourselves in a title challenging position with only two months to go. To nose dive so quickly was a bitter pill to swallow. The following poor form was ridiculous and very frustrating to everyone.

The summer was awful and everyone, including the board and manager know it could and certainly should have been handled differently. But does losing your best player and another very good player mean that you are in crisis? Were Manchester United in crisis when they sold Ronaldo and replaced him with Valencia? Or was the crisis on hold because of the £80m? Ah but was that cash used for debt purposes or playing staff? Which way does the crisis go? Did the Ronaldo selling crisis stop when Manchester United won the league?

Define a football club in crisis? Is a crisis subjective to each supporter or do you have to over step the crisis line drawn on the floor.

I cannot really answer my own question to be honest. If I was to throw the broken badge crisis at any clubs then how about Juventus getting done for match fixing and having to drop a league. Well worthy of a back page broken badge. Leeds United who got big for their boots, just needed that little bit extra to buy those three more quality players to take them to that next stage, just borrow a little more, perhaps even use the television money from the following season and all should be ok. Cue financial doom and a nose dive out of the top flight, never to be seen again. LEEDS UNITED IN CRISIS!

Portsmouth and are old friend Harry, never ‘scared’ to spend a few bob that doesn’t belong to him, unlike Wenger who we are told from the media and some fans, is petrified to spend money. I hear he wakes up in cold sweats screaming ‘Don’t make me spend it!’

But Harry slept like a baby after he twisted his then chairman’s arm to buy some more ‘triffic players. Until the money dried up, players were sold for peanuts and the club was on the verge of vanishing into thin air.

I don’t know where that magical crisis line is but when I look over at the Emirates when I walk down Holloway road, I do not see a club in crisis. When I look at our squad on .com and see that we have RVP, Vermaelen, Sagna, Koscielny, Wilshere, Song, Chamberlain, Coquelin, Frimpong and many more internationals or up and coming talents then I struggle to find this actual crisis.

Before I am accused of wearing Arsenal coloured specs, I shall take them off and wear the colour of the opposition for a moment.

Wenger’s plan to bridge the gap didn’t work as he wanted it to. Players who he has put plenty of trust and faith in did not deliver the goods so in that respect he failed. Eboue, Bendtner, Vela and Denilson have not yet or will not go down the same path of Alex Song who continued to progress and establish himself as one of the best in the league in his position.

So rather than a crisis, I see an unfortunate and premature transition of this Arsenal team. The players who have left should have been part of our success over the last few years. But it hasn’t worked and we have to start again.

Right now that 17 year old Denilson who ran the show at White Hart Lane all those years ago is Coquelin, that new Thierry Henry from Southampton, Theo Walcott is now Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and the Cesc that scored at home to Juventus is Jack Wilshere.

Backwards steps, I would say so. But crisis?

There are a whole load of Wenger comments that have just flooded the news feeds but I shall save those for tomorrow’s blog as time has just caught up with me and smacked me straight in the face.

Back tomorrow.