Arsenal 1 - and so did Chelsea

I'm no Chelsea supporter, rather the opposite, but this news gave me enormous pleasure last night, and I'd like to share with you the reason why. It's about premature assumptions of greatness in sport. Three years ago, a young man, a Liverpool supporter in the habit of referring to Manchester United as 'scum' (not the practice of all the Liverpool supporters known to me, I should say), smugly told me, following a Liverpool victory against United, that they were now better than us and our glory days were over. We won the Premiership (again) that season, and Liverpool still have this achievement somewhere in their future - possibly. A bit later there was the notorious Gerard Houllier 'only 10 games from greatness' statement, and people are still waiting to find out when the 10-game sequence is to begin. LFC is not currently enjoying its most successful of seasons.

The point being that you haven't done it until you've done it. Arsenal - who, to be fair-minded about this, have been playing some outstanding football - were being talked up lately as if they'd already reached the peak. Within the space of three days, they and the talkers-up have had to sober up. Heh. This is why, though my spontaneous allegiances would normally have me backing Arsenal against Chelsea - except when, for instrumental reasons, I want a Chelsea win because it would be better for Manchester United - I was so pleased to learn that Arsenal had lost. I'm sure you all wanted to know that.