Yep, pretty much describes my attitute towards the club for like 5-6 years or so.
Trying to get positive about the club just inevitably results in more anger in the future. Indifference and detachment is the only way.
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Agreed, used to be all over the nnc transfer gossip column every morning without fail and various other Arsenal related but donāt bother anymore.
saw the game was on Amazon last night got excited and then rememberedā¦ Meh Arsenal. Iām ok thanks.
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So rather than sack our woefully inadequate manager, letās just replace half the squad instead.
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Can we do both 
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This is good
I had no idea he met with Spurs first and they ended up paying for his cab over to London Colney to sign for us 
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Wish he didnāt leave too. Gilberto and Edu werenāt as technical or as imposing as Petit. I remember him often being better than Vieira. Iām not sure how well he aged but I think we win more if we donāt sell.
I think we only got Ā£5m for him. Selling Overmars for Ā£25m and bringing in Pires for Ā£6m was a masterstroke though. Although it probably hurt us initially as Pires took a season to really adapt.
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When he joined Chelsea safe to say he was a shadow of his former self? I canāt remember ever watching them during that period and thinking to myself I wish he was still ours.
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The one goal he scored for Barcelona was an absolute belter
I much preferred Gilberto for his reliability. He went about his business quietly and efficiently with little fuss. I think with Petit, his body was always a bit of a ticking time bomb with regards to injuries and I always felt he wasnāt quite as consistently āonā as Gilberto was.
When he nailed it, he was incredible to watch though.
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Iām only seeing this now but Petit was spot on and looks like this is what weāre doing. Arteta still might not be the right man for the job even if I am quietly optimistic about the season ahead. With saying that you genuinely canāt argue that getting half of these eternal shitters out of the squad isnāt the right decision. Change of mentality in the dressing room is something we desperately crave.
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I remember him not looking good vs us in the Fa cup final, Lampard played well but petit was out of ideas and lethargic. Do you reckon the Barcelona transfer killed his love for the game a bit, the manager had no idea what position he played or anything about him and he became more injury prone as a consequence. I donāt remember him being injured too often before then. Could be wrong all from memory;)
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Youāre right with the last bit. It almost felt like a 4-2-4 formation in 97/98. The 2 being Vieira and Petit with both exhibiting defensive and attacking skills in equal measure. It gave the team a certain unpredictability, too.
Could I say the Gilberto/Vieira partnership was better? Hmm, Iād be hard pressed. In terms of all the Wenger title winning seasons, in terms of raw excitement and watchability, Iād go 01/02 to 97/98 and finally 03/04 (although thereās not much between the three of them, in all fairness)
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I think 97/98 was the most brutally efficient that we were under Wenger and thatās from a lot of rewatching. Ridiculously strong and experienced core.
But outright excitement I think any team from 02-05 was as exciting as any title winning Arsenal team. Powerful but so beautiful and easy on the eye.
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2001 to 2006 was the absolutely peak for me, Iām starting to doubt Iāll ever see the club have a five years like that ever again.
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Yeah fuck we were a dangerous side in that period, sad how far weāve fallen.
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The landscape of football changed completely in the years that followed sadly 
I liked the 97/8 team most. Petit and Viera were fantastic but you stil had the old George Graham defence as the back bone and Ray Parlour and Ian Wright if I recall correctly. I have a lot of nostalgia for those older guys who helped build the culture of determination to win and good defensive organisation and a number of them had been key in our previous title win.
Probably the team between 2001 to 2005 was better though. Really shouldāve won the title in 2002/3 as well. After we won in 03/04 I never wouldāve guessed weād not win a title again and weād go on to decline as much as we have. With hind sight I think Dein selling out was the big nail in the coffin and the wig wearing vampire has been clueless after he took control.
I was very disappointed when Petit left for Barcelona and sorry for him that he seemed to lose his way after that.
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There was a real āswashbucklingā quality about the team, wasnāt there? Win the game before weāre even on the pitch. There was a steel, a grit and a determination that I felt might just have been lacking in the latter teams.
The most recent reminders Iāve had of that Arsenal team are Man United in 07/08 and Liverpool in 13/14 (even though the Scousers didnāt win owt, haha)
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Absolutely we should have won 3 straight 01/02, 02/03 and 03/04, shame we just missed out as it would have made us go down as one of dynasty periods in English football.
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