If Anyone Wants to Get on the Arsenal Bandwagon, I'll Help You Up

Okay, Arsenal has been my favorite premier league team since I lived in England as a child. I love my Gunners. Arsene Wenger has proven to me that he is probably the best coach in the premier league. I make a distinction between a coach and a manager because a manager handles players who know the game in and out or have egos too large to change (think Chelsea). A coach teaches the game, mentors young players and developes them into superstars - and he manages the personnel egos too. Wenger has one of the youngest squads year in and year out partially becuase Arsenal can't afford to bring in established stars and becuase he is such a good coach that they have confidence to do it with young players. He brings up players like Cesc Fabregas and Robin Van Persie and turns them into stars - and he has a lot of success at it.

Arsenal now sits in third place in the Premier League table after a 3-0 victory this past weekend. They also have played one less game than the two teams in front of them (Chelsea and Man U) and are only four points behind Chelsea. This means that with a game in hand, a victory moves them within one point of first place.

The only real problem with Arsenal is that their youth have trouble with consistency and therefore trouble with claiming cups year in and year out. They are a perpetually third or fourth place team, which is kinda like rooting for the Dodgers in baseball - they never quite make it, but their fans love them anyway. That's my gripe anyway - they never quite have enough to win the premier league. But they labor on anyway.

This year gives me a lot of hope though. Wenger has his team in a great position for the halfway mark of the season - third place on the table and their best football still ahead of them. A bunch of players have just come off injuries which held them out of the first half; players like Fabregas and Theo Walcott are getting their stride back after several weeks out, and the team is starting to gel at just the right time. I expect great things for the Spring and there is a chance that Arsenal come from the outside to grab the Premier League title! So if you want on board the Gunners' bandwagon, come on up, I'll lend you a hand.