Sport might be about winners and losers, but above all, sport is about competition. 99% of the people who enter into the Tour de France have no chance of winning, but they sure do compete.

5. A club shouldn’t worry about getting its finances right.

This is a really baffling one. Arsenal get a lot of stick for keeping a close eye on making sure incomings are more than outgoings. It’s hard to understand why though.

One would expect anyone who’s made it through teenage years would know the very fundamental wisdom inherent in making sure you stay on top of your finances. Well, truly after the last 8-10 years or so, it seems large numbers of people in industrial societies didn’t learn that lesson but one expects the media to be enlightened.

The criticism of Arsenal often centres on another myth. The myth that football clubs exist only to win trophies. A useless myth if ever their was one.

90% of football clubs will NEVER win anything. The Premier League is a competition which has been won by 4 teams in all its history, but no fewer than 30 clubs have participated in it.

If it were true that football clubs exist solely to win trophies, then the likes of Chelsea would have ceased to exist from 1970 to 1997 in which they won f*ck all.

Football clubs, like most organisations, exist to survive and to continue their business. Football is about competition. Competition means striving to get the best performance given your resources.

Sport might be about winners and losers, but above all, sport is about competition. 99% of the people who enter into the Tour de France have no chance of winning, but they sure do compete. Tennis is a sport where 99% of players will also never win a grand slam but they compete, and have fulfilling careers.

It is really very perverse that Arsenal get so much stick for trying to do the right thing. Life is about values, and even business valuations depend on values. The rules of the game.

If the media and the football culture value spending (to win trophies) more than competition within resources, it’s no wonder that most sports have become riddled with cheats, dopers, and morons. That’s why boxing is dead. That’s why athletics has lost its credibility. That’s why deep down we all know our football culture is stagnating or decaying.

The likes of Chelsea, Manchester United & Liverpool are more at risk at Arsenal. They are more in crisis fundamentally than Arsenal. They are praised no end, for their ‘pragmatism’ while Arsenal is the quaint old club that’s lost its way. Perverse is the one word that explains this.

This is a rather amusing one. Jose Mourinho, the media’s masturbatory god, threw a strop in December 2006 after John Terry’s injury derailed Chelsea’s season. He wanted a new player signed in the January window. The owner refused, and he claimed they lost the league for this reason.

The media accepted this narrative. Even more, I can’t count how many times we’ve been told about how well Chelsea were doing despite big injuries. (A statement that acknowledges that injuries would accept teams). Since their form changed, pundits keep talking about them missing Essien, Drogba, and Carvalho.

Real Madrid were in outstanding form last season. They simply overwhelmed Barcelona and the rest of La Liga. Well, this season they have numerous injuries, and they’re in 5th place. Real Madrid, with a squad packed full of expensive big names.

The team, however, that can never be affected by injuries is Arsenal. Just mentioning the impact of injuries on Arsenal in any way is making excuses. The reason is that it has been decided, that Arsenal have no “strength in depth”. And if you have no strength in depth it does not matter if you’re hit by injuries or not.

Look, as a fan I am sick of our struggle with injury. Is it an issue that Wenger has to find a way to deal with? ABSOLUTELY! But you can’t pretend it doesn’t affect the club.

It was surprising to see a strong outpouring of criticism of this article by Kevin McCarra in the Guardian yesterday.

Apparently, Arsenal fans have simply become sick of reading the same unending story of Arsenal crisis. Every situation bodes badly for Arsenal.

You only have to wonder, reading the media and listening to pundits for 6-7 years now, why Arsenal has continued to prosper.

Every season, right from the Overmars-Petit exodus, every exit has been the signal of impending doom for that little French club in North London.

Every Red Card for Paddy Vieira was the sign of something deeply wrong about Arsenal.

In this era, it’s the impending exit of Cesc Fabregas who’s now been equated to Arsenal Football Club.

The number of articles saying exactly the same thing as McCarra’s is quite a lot and you wonder why Arsenal continue to even exist.

Seriously, if you read the newspapers you would think Arsenal are in relegation zone.

To be fair, lately, boardroom worries have left the notion that something might be about to unravel. But some of us have heard of impending doom so often that even that seems trivial.

This one is related to Myth 4. Here are the facts: Here is Arsenal’s line up with all players fit.

Bench: Walcott, Eduardo, Silvestre, Fabianski, Djourou, Diaby, Vela

If that’s not a quality side, I want to see one.

I am just tired about hearing about how Arsenal don’t have quality and all that crap. The core of the side is pure quality and I have to think we’re the only top 4 side that hasn’t had this core fit for one whole year.

Arsenal fans might argue about what needs to be added. Improvements have to be constant and continuous. The squad is not perfect by any means. Bodies are needed given the injury situation.

It is however wrong to forget the basic fact that we actually have a core of players who, kept fit are good enough to win titles.

We have a squad that despite a particularly difficult set of circumstances; the disappointment of falling away last season, the loss of important players, injuries, a hostile footballing environment, discord within the squad….despite it all we’re 8 points away from the leaders at Christmas time.

When one really thinks of it, that’s amazing! Our squad can’t be crap and still be up there. It’s just not possible. People had better recognise this.

Far be it from me to think I can defend Arsene Wenger. Wenger’s record defends Wenger.

Even in the famous last three seasons since we last won a trophy here are his results;

1. Champions League Final.

2. Topping the table and looking the part for 3/4 of a season until rather extreme circumstances derailed all that. Even after the loss of the club’s greatest every player who the team had been built around.
3. Carling Cup Final with a team of kids.

I want to know how many managers in the League have done better than that in the same period.

By the way, why don’t I hear unending stories about how Liverpool haven’t won a trophy since 2005? Unless I am missing something, the last time Liverpool won a trophy is 2006. I am looking forward to hearing unending references to this fact.

Anyway, Wenger hasn’t lost it by any means. He is getting a lot of stick for not recruiting players and not replacing the invincibles. However, unless I am missing something, here are the players he has acquired since 2004/05; Gallas, Sagna, Eduardo, Rosicky, Diarra, Adebayor, Diaby, Walcott, Denilson, Nasri, Hleb, E
boue…etc etc. I am unaware of anyone putting a gun to his head to make him acquire those players.

Seriously, Wenger has constantly fortified his squad.

I know that the criticism is that he did not buy last summer. Like most fans, I was very disappointed we didn’t get direct replacements, if only to quicken the heart of the squad, and please the fans.

Deep down, however, I find it hard to believe he didn’t try. Even when we had the invincibles Wenger bought every year. Even when we had Gilberto, Flamini, Diaby, Cesc, Song in central midfield, he still went out and got Diarra. It would be completely out of type for him to not buy, and he did buy.

I think what happened was that he was focused on trying to keep the squad, and not lose his players, and the Adebayor, Hleb situations (and others we might not know about) took his time and focus,

I see the criticism of Wenger for letting Diarra go and I am incredulous. His move to Real Madrid is supposed to reflect badly on Wenger. If anything it does the opposite. Wenger got this player for £2M. His apparent valuation is €20M. If that’s the case it just underlines the rank folly of persecuting Wenger for not spending big.

The mark of Wenger’s true greatness is being willing and confident enough to start again from scratch when he was at the top. This was inevitable anyway. Even Real Madrid had to do it after the Galacticos. AC Milan are having to do it now.

Arsenal’s football and style of playing as much as quality players is a strength. The reason clubs go crazy, and treat playing Arsenal like a crusade is that Arsenal’s way of playing can tear teams apart. it is effective.

A lot of recent problems this season has had to do with not finding a way to play as Arsenal do. The team has been unrecognisable due to a serious lack of confidence within the squad.

It’s hard not to admire a man able to swim against the tide and go against the mob. Balls! That’s what he’s got.

In the final analysis, everything that has made Wenger great is still in action.

He works harder than ever.

He knows better than ever about football.

He is as able as ever to pull out quality players at a premium.

Arsenal’s football is still effective.

He is still a brilliant man manager.

He is still a man of deep character.

He is still a brilliant manager of the team’s operations and organisation.

He is still a winner.

To me, anyone who wants to throw away the best Manager in the world, doesn’t want the best for Arsenal. Pure and simple.

And yes, Arsene Knows. And I am a Brigadier for that cause.