I know this is a film-oriented blog but, well, when you’re an Arsenal fan and you’ve seen a defeat like the one we’ve just been put through sometimes you want to make sense of it all. This chap here commenting on the Guardian’s website says it almost perfectly for me:

hackneygriffin
28 August 2011 10:02PM
Wenger’s being hoisted by a petard with his name on it. But I remain surprised that fans and pundits are placing the current destruction at his doorstep. Especially with the glaringly obvious role the owners of Premiership clubs have had on their recent fortunes.

Arsenal have steadily made a small collection of people staggeringly rich. They’ve achieved more for less than any other club in the Premiership, finishing high enough up the table and staying long enough in the CL to bring in huge sums of money, whilst investing far less in their squad, and their squad’s wages, than their rivals. They’ve watched club after club outspend them in the premiership, and player after player thank them for transforming him from sparkling child to millionaire man by leaving the moment someone offers them a few (or a lot) thousands of pounds more a week than the thousands of pounds a week they already earn each week.

Amongst this Wenger has competed successfully, he’s sold players for more than they cost, he’s moulded a side that play attractive football and he has never, once, like a true solider blamed his superiors. In fact he has been the most marvellous general. And because of that it is very easy to believe Arsenal begins and ends with him. But come on people, and especially you Richard Williams and other sports journalists who believe they are worthy of the second half of that title. Arsenal, like all Premiership sides, begin with the man who writes the cheque.

“Ah but he’s got money to spend” you say.

Not on giving Nasri enough money to keep him. Or on the kind of wages Modric would ask for if he were to replace Fabregas.

As the Glazers continue to run Man Utd like their personal chequing account they will continue to bankroll the wages necessary to keep and bring in top talent. Like the £20m Rooney costs a year (and just imagine what that has done for the wage demands of his teammates). Because without the club’s success it will simply collapse. Arsenal however does not exist to fund it’s owners existing businesses or to allow them to live in the style they are accustomed to while those businesses fail, nor does it exist as a plaything (and as a means to acceptance in a western state) for a billionaire owner. Arsenal exists to make a small collection of very rich people richer. And when that’s threatened (or like David Dean they feel they’ve earned enough thank you very much) they will sell. Until then every Arsenal fan out there needs to wake up, stop being so fucking short sighted and pray to God that the only manager able to keep Arsenal competing with clubs with so much more money to spend stays. I hope he goes. The complaining, booing and failure to hold the board accountable doesn’t suggest Arsenal deserve him.

Time and again we’ve seen boardroom instability cause ructions on the pitch. Liverpool being one prime example. Arsenal have had all sorts of things going on and now have two new owners. I wouldn’t be as harsh on some of the people who have now gone – Danny Fiszman and Ken Friar are no longer of this earth, and were the architects of the plan we were all sold on. Move to a bigger stadium to compete with the big boys, get cash from redeveloping the land at Highbury and around Ashburton Grove, stick with youngsters until money would permit competing for the biggest signings. This plan seemed to be working, almost. There was a promise of things to come there. However, now Fiszman and Friar have gone and we are left with silent Stan owning most of the club, and Usmanov most of the rest, we are in a new era, one that has been destabilising for the club for some time now. It is very easy to blame Wenger because he takes all the flak, but it is behind the scenes that you have to wonder what’s going on.

Are we being deliberately run down? Everything is certainly being squeezed – 6% rises in ticket prices, the most expensive stadium in the country by far to go and visit, about £70m made from players sold this year alone (add to that the £40m from Adebayor and Toure). Where’s that money going? I, frankly, cannot believe it is Arsene Wenger ’sticking to his principles’ that means this money isn’t being spent. Not long before the board last said the usual “there is money there for signings” we reported a loss for the first time in a long time.

Something is up.

Hopefully it’s not Arsene’s time at the club.