Published: 13 December, 2012

HOW were they to give it their best shot, the little Arsenal-supporting shepherds who had to go through with their school nativity play performance this week after hours of taunting from Chelsea and Spurs-supporting shepherds.

Arsenal-supporting bus drivers will have been accused of being grumpy, not slowing down for speed humps or stopping for those running late to the bus stop. The Arsenal-supporting posties will have lost their whistle. The Arsenal-supporting artists will have used only the colour black.

The Arsenal-supporting Gorilla-grams (are gorilla-grams an actual thing?) will have been less cuddly on the doorstep. Jeeeesh, imagine if you had to have an important operation conducted by an Arsenal-supporting surgeon with their minds haunted by  the nightmare of Bradford.

The thing is, whichever way you try to explain it, everyone supporting Arsenal felt a woeful sense of angry embarrassment by watching a full-strength team lose to a club in the bottom division. That’s the very definition of embarrassing, only one peg up from losing to Spurs.

But what did Arsene Wenger say?

He reckoned the Arsenal players gave everything they could and there was no need to feel any humiliation. Arsenal fans can judge by the reaction they got when they reached school and work the morning after whether he was right. What those little Arsenal-supporting shepherds stumbling over their Away In A Mangers this week, distracted by their inherited loyalty to a club which embarrasses them at playtime almost twice weekly, needed was an apology. Not an apologist.
Richard Osley

YOU know your club is getting desperate for a morale-boosting win when two things happen.

First, your most talented player goes down in the box like a sack of taters when the most contact he’s had is the waft of an opponent’s untimely fart.

Stand up Santi Cazorla, you fooled no one against West Brom. Apart from the ref.

Second, your first team are dragged up to the freezing north in the middle of the week to play in a competition your manager once reserved for kids. And Philippe Senderos.

Sit down Gooners, your dream of winning something, anything, is all but over; dashed by a team 64 places below you that cost about seven quid to put together.

That’s slightly less than Didier Drogba paid for the tasteful ring pieces he doled out to his old Chelsea pals last week, but considerably more than you’re likely to get for Theo Walcott if Man U nab him from under your noses.

But you won’t need to worry about Bradford or Theo if you can get your Arsenal back.

So go for it. Urge super Thierry Henry to pull his underpants on over his jeans, beg Pascal Cygan to pull down the shutters on his clown school and plead with Jens Lehmann to forget the Paralympics. Bring ‘em all back.

And if you’re still stuck, maybe Spurs can help by tossing William Gallas your way.

It’ll be a sacrifice, but as his hapless arm-waving at Everton showed, he still knows how to defend the Arsenal way.
Catherine Etoe

• Send your views to Sports, 40 Camden Road, NW1 9DR or email: sports@camdennewjournal.com