Home away from home?

Insert boring match report here

Yes, the Gunners were out in full attacking force Saturday, hiding Fulham 3-1, proving that the latter will always be stuck in the mire of rebuilding mode. Arsene's acolytes trudged into Craven Cottage and trounced the Lilywhites with a divine display of vision, work rate, and lovely flowing moves. All while showing off their shiny new away kits that had Gunners' faithful partying like its 2004 all over again.

And Tomas Rosicky is as well, turning back the clock for the third game in a row and making a case to be a regular in the starting XI, at least, unless he gets injured again. (Knocks on some very hearty wood.) Santi Cazorla effortlessly flowed to-and-fro in the 'roamer role,' showing up precisely where he was needed, exactly when he was needed, while Ramsey did everything else, as usual.

Giroud, Giroud, Giroud is on fire, scoring his third goal in as many matches, putting him squarely on pace to net roughly 55 this season. Podolski finally rolled out of his summer slumber and straight into the starting lineup, and who can complain about such a performance? Two chances, two goals, now that's efficient. Who says we need a new striker?

The attack attacked and the defense defended, all to the extent that the Fulham faithful were treated to an Arsenal summer signing sighting - think in the Panda echelon in terms of rarity - in the form of lanky Yaya Sanogo. The sight of a relative Arsenal youngster in a non-league-cup game is reason enough to overlook the fact that Sanogo looks to have yet to shake off the jet-lag from his flight from France.

The whole display, from energetic attacking moves to doggedly fighting to regain possession when it was lost, really has everyone wondering exactly where this was a week ago. Sure, Arsenal may have hit the snooze button one too many times, and is just now waking up to the hangover from last season's phantom fourth-place trophy presentation, but something of a different nature is troubling them, I think.

Behold the Emirates, Arsene's Library, where upper-middle and upper class North-Londoners spend notoriously egregious amounts of money to watch the only real team London will ever have play the most beautiful brand of football the world will ever see. This sort of a monetary commitment demands that a satisfactory show be put on both on and off the pitch. After all, these lovely people are choosing to spend their time in a football stadium while their maids are allowed to clean unsupervised, and who knows what trouble that could bring?

As you could imagine, this scenario may put an unreasonable amount of pressure on the players and manager who are held hostage to such perfectly reasonable expectations. While it is generally accepted that a team will get its share of abuse away from home, it's not often that it happens in your own backyard. Home games are supposed to be sure-things for players and managers, where a draw is the doomsday scenario. Players should be at their best when their sails are flying to gusts of their fan's unwavering support. When that support is cut off, however, isn't every game an away game?

No, it's far worse than that. As previously stated, players know what they're in for when they march into unfriendly confines, and they should know they'll be supported at home as well. When your own crowd can turn on you for conceding a goal, rather than attempting to help drag you back to your feet, the away team can actually receive a boost. When Fulham dragged a goal back on Saturday, the fans were in full throat, despite still being down two and having an owner who also owns the biggest wreck of an American football team around, the Jacksonville Jaguars. Looking back on that, I can't help but worry that Arsenal wouldn't have any fans left to cheer were they to go 3-0 down in the first place.

So, my prediction is that unless things change in a big way, Arsenal will earn more points away than at home.

Keep the faith faithful Gooners, and help any who have lost their faith along the way. The team will always need us!

Till next time.

Break a knee Van Persie,

Thomas