Why anti-Arsenal sentiment misses the point

I've been an Arsenal fan all of my life and we've strangely got used to nasty feedback from our rival fans; but one thing that hurt the most was the fact fans doubted our celebrating of attaining fourth place in the league this year.

I put the question to you, why are Arsenal fans not allowed to celebrate finishing 4th place in the league? We have guaranteed yet another year of Champions League football. That's 16 years in a row thanks to the solid work of Arsene Wenger. Fans and pundits all across the country were laughing at us as the players celebrated after the Newcastle game. Yes, it looked like we had won a trophy, that's true. But the reason why the players were so overjoyed is for one reason of course - we had beaten our bitter rivals Tottenham to Champions League football. Not just that, but we watched our team battle to the very end to win eight games from their last ten in the league - that's some effort.


How did I celebrate my St. Totteringham's Day? Reading report after report and slating after slating from football pundits laughing at the overwhelmed celebrations of the Gunners' players at the final whistle. I just don't understand why they missed the point here. 


In a final day of a Premier League season, it's important to have at least something that goes down to the last minute. Arsenal and Tottenham were the only two teams fighting for some kind of success on the final day. It was us or them. The pressure had built up over the course of the week; one of these teams was going to guarantee a jackpot Champions League qualification, for the other side, an appearance in the Europa League.


Why oh why then did people not understand why Arsenal's players were celebrating like crazy after the 1-0 victory over Newcastle? We pipped our biggest rivals to the 4th place spot and even more importantly, we'd completed the comeback of all comebacks. Many doubted we could grab 4th place after we lost at White Hart Lane, but not even the brilliance of Gareth Bale would deny Arsenal of that crucial position.


So, whilst everyone seemingly continues their anti-Arsenal sentiment over the summer months, our manager will be busy preparing for yet another year in Europe's premier competition, and let's hope he signs some players so that we can push for some Premier League success as well.


Then, maybe next year, we won't be celebrating a fourth place finish but maybe some silverware too.