So I’ve been thinking of writing something on Arsenal for quite some time, all my close confidantes know how fanatically I support this club. The fanaticism is so much that I do genuinely feel it easily supercedes by love for the Indian Cricket Team. A normal Mumbai boy who was always dis-interested in football and preferred playing gully cricket with all the local buddies, this was quite a turnaround in the thinking.

The turnaround came on 8th May 2002, where I along with a bunch of Manchester United supporters who I call my 'Brothers' watched Sylvain Wiltord slide one in against Fabian Barthez to seal the Premier League Win for Arsenal against their most hated enemies at that point. I can honestly say up until that point I never bothered to watch a complete match of football maybe just bits and parts. But here was a team which mustered that 'Winning' pride through every facet of that match. The great Patrick Vieira kissing that cannon, it made me feel alive again. I never knew English Football least of all Arsenal, but this was that moment when I felt 'Oh God! This is surreal, unbelievable'. I never knew Man United and never wanted to know them, it just didn't matter to me. I saw a team which dominated everything about the game from the passing to defense as if it was child's play. The crowd at Old Trafford shouting 'We won the league here', yes OLD TRAFFORD! Before the very man I despise until today Alex Ferguson, the Red Army. This was just goose bumps! I looked around the room, my brothers were completely distraught, overwhelmed couldn't believe what had become of their dear team. They say a sign which changes your life comes in many ways, I knew this was it. I knew I had found my team, I knew I was a 'Gunner'.

A Gunner Be True, through all his life! Cut to reality on 8th May 2011, Stoke a team which will be facing Manchester City in the FA Cup Final and losing but will be playing the Europa Cup beats us '3-1'. This was the headline 'Stoke extinguished Arsenal's Premier League title dream'. This was a team manned by the current captain Van Persie and was immediately an indication of the sign of things to come. A team which imploded on Carling Cup night against Birmingham City and never seemed to have won a match after that implosion. A team rocked by constant tapping of Barcelona for Fabregas, and little by little the unsettling of Samir Nasri as we know today. A professor whom they call Mr. Wenger seems to have lost its way they say, a management who doesn't want to spend they feel and a pointless investment in a stadium which has left us bereft of money and crowd enthusiasm. If that's not enough, the entire transfer saga that gave us cold feet from losing Clichy to Fabregas to Nasri. A team short on options and the management not showing any intention on buying anyone.

Despite all the negatives, the Gunner in me said Manchester United away, if we win this (hoping against hope) what an answer it would be to the naysayers considering we just won against Udinese. That fateful day, United were in their game and we were thinned down to the very least. Traore unsure if he had to run or tackle, Jenkinson stretched to the most, Walcott being wastefully quick and then we see goals after goals after goals. The commentators were commeting on the high back line and then he says 'But this is ARSENAL we are talking about, This is ARSENAL!’ Every time a Goal went in my heart sank and sank deeper. But I knew this is what was required to show Wenger and Management where we are. From a team in 2002 which sang with pride at Old Trafford we left that same place in 2011 mourning the death of the Arsenal spirit.

We bought Mertesacker, Arteta (whom I always believed would be coming to Arsenal once Cesc left), Santos (whom I had never heard about) and Chu Young Park (whom we snatched from Lille considering we want Hazard too). With a win against Swansea and a draw against Borussia Dortmund, they say our confidence is coming back. I guess this new look Arsenal does require some time to gel and be fluid while pass and play. It will take time, but as an honest Gunner I know this is not what I had imagined, I don't want my Arsenal to be lagging back. I want my Arsenal to show that same fight I had seen in 2002, we didn't get a tag in the BIG 4 in the Premier League just playing shit football. We have earned it, it’s time we make it ours and stamp our presence. Does it mean buy better players, so be it the pride in being a successful club on the field weighs far more than the one in the accounting. We have Kronke and Usmanov time to make use of them. God Damn It! David Dein himself saw that self-sustenance was going to fail in the long run and this is the same guy who prodded Wenger to get Campbell from Spurs, yes from SPURS! to fill the hole. It is time we change, not the Manager but his thinking, not the Management but the way they conduct business.

I am critical of the ways things are being handled with Arsenal, but I will always have hope because I am a Gunner! A Gunner Be True, through all his life!