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20th April 2016
08:08pm BST
Every single year, it follows an identical narrative. Arsenal come flying out of the blocks, their defence is finally made of sterner stuff - of the Adams and Keown stuff - and they've finally got the spine to mount a title challenge.
Every single year, Theo Walcott is reborn, Jack Wilshere is the great English hope, and Arsenal not only have a striker to get them the goals, they have the depth to go with it.
Every single year, they've identified the holding midfield problem and, every single year, they have a new hero that's going to sit and allow the other nine of them to saunter up the field to finish off a 142-pass move.
Every single year, they've developed a winning mentality and they've found the missing piece of the jigsaw.
Every single year, column inches and panel show hours are dedicated to the genuine credibility Arsenal now have. They talk about their team, they say it's as strong as any but why they don't justify it - how could they?
Then, every single year, a powder puff outfit is selected to take them through the treacheries of the Premier League.
Every single year, one or two injuries is all it takes to expose the lies. A couple of cold afternoons in December begin to end the debate and the boos start to ring around the Emirates Stadium again.
Every single year, a struggle to make it through the Champions League group stage is ended with an underwhelming second round exit and the wheels come off emphatically from the bandwagon that was being pushed only by hype.
Eventually, every single year, Arsenal's title challenge amounts to a battle to keep hold of a top four spot and, every single year, for the last 10 years at least, they don't even get a sniff of second in the end.
And yet, every single year, people fall for it. We're forced to listen to the same debates, the same fantasies and the same arguments as to why this time might be different even though it's the same team with the same problems at the same time of every single year.
The big names back them. Former players come out and agree that this is the one. Every single year.
Back in August, Thierry Henry shamelessly declared: "I think that the team they have at the moment is good enough." He said that even though Jamie Carragher was comparing that team to a proper Arsenal team back at the start of the last decade.
"It started in the tunnel. I've never felt so inferior standing in a tunnel," Carragher said of a team of genuine winners. "If you've got a template of how to win the league, why would you change that?"
Gary Neville weighed in. He understood the club tightened the purse strings, they invested in a new stadium and they still stayed afloat as a top four force all the while. But they changed their approach.
"Where I've got less sympathy, is the type of players that were being signed in that period," Neville said on Sky Sports. "I can't think of a word to describe that bunch - I could, but it might not be usable on television - but they're certainly not what I would call the type of characters that you would want to win you a league.
"The profile of players has completely changed. The style has changed. And that, for me, is where I have no sympathy for them. I don't know where it's come from."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztqxfVr5LtE
But Henry continued to argue. They had Cazorla and Coquelin now in the engine room, you see. What could go wrong? The same with every year, they seem to forget that Arsenal have to compete with tough teams for 38 games and come out with more points than 19 others.
"I think [James] McCarthy and [Gareth] Barry are a good pair but I don't think they'll win you the league," Neville responded.
"I think they're a good pair [Cazorla and Coquelin]. But if we're measuring them as title winners, they're not a good pair.
"I actually think they're good players but I'm talking about Arsenal Football Club winning the league.
"To me, it's arrogance. To think that you're not going to adapt your team to change to impact on the other teams that you're playing against and their strengths. It's either naive or arrogance. Because they keep losing this way."
Unfortunately, it takes the benefit of hindsight for some people to recognise that these players are weak players.
Even more unfortunately, that realisation soon dissipates with a result in May or August and we're left talking about Arsenal yet again and whether or not this year is their year. Whether or not this year is going to be different.
Every single year.
From now on, when any pundit tries to go through the same diatribe again, stop them. Just stop them dead.
Show them the tapes of last year and let's move on. Because talking about this Arsenal team as title challengers is a waste of everybody's time. Talking about them every single year is becoming insulting to the concept of winners.
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