By Myles Palmer
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NINE points ahead of Manchester United with 11 games left.
With a superior goal difference, nine points is more like 10 points.
So people have stopped talking about whether Arsenal will be champions, and started discussing whether they will can stay unbeaten in 38 Premiership games.
However, Wenger’s wonders have won nothing yet.
And Arsene says the title race is far from over. He has warned about complacency.
He always says that success is fragile, that you can lose in five days what you have built over two years.
It’s true that any footballer can be injured on any day. And that two footballers can be injured on the same day.
And any game can be lost.
It helps to have luck, as Arsenal did on Saturday.
Pires, Johansson, Saha – everything went for Arsenal that day.
Their first goal against Charlton was a fabulous move, but Pires was offside.
Jonatan Johansson’s overhead kick from the D happened to hit the post and bounce out in injury time. That would have been 2-2.
SIR ALEX went to Fulham and dropped Van Nistelrooy, Giggs, Butt and Howard.
Had he given up the title race?
Was he furious with some performances in the 2-1 defeat at Porto?
LOUIS SAHA scored an electric goal with a supercharged burst down the middle.
I’m not sure whether Anelka or Henry could have scored that particular goal.
Boa Morte equalised with a narrow-angled shot that reserve keeper Roy Carroll should have saved.
Then Edwin van der Sar took out Saha in the box. But there was no penalty, no red card.
Afterwards Edwin told Louis, “I’m professional, you’re professional – I had to do it.”
A 1-1 draw was what Arsenal fans were looking for.
And it’s always fun to look at the table and see that Man United are third.
That is something the whole country can enjoy. Something the whole country can share.
1 Arsenal
2 Chelsea
3 Man United
The weekend results confirm what I was thinking after Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-1 in the league game.
Chelsea then had to say to themselves: OK, we can’t beat Arsenal.They are better than us. So who can we beat?
And they could look at Man United and say : “They are missing Beckham hugely, missing Queiroz, missing Rio, Roy can’t play every game, it’s Howard’s first season in the Prem – United are vulnerable as never before. So we should go for second. Second is good. Second above Man United is very good.”
COMPLACENCY is a problem, especialy among younger Arsenal fans.
As I’ve mentioned, my Gooner daughter has gone travelling in her gap year.
Caroline, Abigail and Melita worked for four months to get the money to go round the world for four months.
One night about 10.30, just before they left on January 24th, she said, “Save me the pretty pictures from when we win the Cup – and the league. Just the pictures, I don’t wanna read about it.”
Caroline has been to the last three FA Cup Finals in Cardiff and assumes Arsenal will win the Cup again.
Complacency.
Young kids who support Arsenal have only seen good times and winning teams and exciting players.
That is all they have seen, so it is all they know. They think trophies come along on a conveyor belt.
Their fathers still remember the 16 years without winning anything before the Fairs Cup in 1970.
16 years is a long time between orgasms.
Those were grim years for Gooners, with the Spurs double team playing the glamour clubs of Europe, and Man United winning the European Cup in 1968.
That’s why some Gooners ran onto the pitch at White Hart Lane when Arsenal won the league there in 1971.
Yes, Mitch, I mean you. It’s a shame you were such a young hooligan.
Glad you’ve grown up now – it took you long enough.
BIG GOSSIP story of weekend was the Sandy Lane Hotel summit in Barbados.
John Magnier was there and so were Martin O’Neill, Dermot Desmond, Sir Alex’s agent pal Pini Zahavi, Man United director Mike Edelson, and investment banker Keith Harris, an associate of US sports mogul Malcolm Glazer.
Was it an innocent gathering? A co-incidence?
Since Celtic are romping away with the title, and Dermot employs Martin, why shouldn’t he take his key man for a 3-day break in the sun?
As you know, millionaires have always gathered in the Caribbean in winter.
Noel Coward had a house in Jamaica. So did Ian Fleming.
The English aristocracy may be vicious, but they are smart enough to know that this is the loveliest part of the world, bar none.
Indeed, if you are a millionaire, and you DON’T spend February in Barbados, you are an idiot.
I often wonder what the taxi drivers are like now.
Our first taxi driver was 60 and super-mellow and said, “It’s only recently that we’ve been able to beat you at cricket.”
Our second driver was about 22.
Taking us to a discotheque-casino out in the sticks, he raced another taxi at 70 mph on a bumpy road.
When the other taxi stopped at the crossroads, he jumped out, ran forward and shouted abuse at the driver, waving his arms in fury.
Just what you need on your honeymoon. A bit of aggro in the middle of all the bliss.
March 2nd 2004.