Arsenal are a club in turmoil. The usual ambiance of the Emirates was replaced by tumultuous anger on Saturday with widespread infighting and outcry at the apparent wrongdoings of those in charge. This storm has been brewing for a while now and it doesn’t llok like going away any time soon.

The stagnation of Arsenal as a Premier League club is not a new phenomenon; the ‘Invincibles’ era is but a distant memory for most. So why do Arsenal fans still have such delusional expectations? Agreed they are the most heavily extorted by the modern crop of footballing capitalists, but since when did that give them the right to expect to be beating teams of the calibre of Aston Villa week in, week out?

Arsenal’s consistent fourth-placed finishes have continually masked the inner turmoil at the club, in essence they have been getting by due to Spurs’ consistent appetite for a slip-up and Liverpool’s questionable new direction under FSG.  Whatever the rights and wrongs of the boardroom-level activity at Arsenal, I still think it is wholly wrong to expect the club to just turn up and beat teams. There is no longer a ‘big four’ in the league, that dissipated a while ago to be replaced by the new three juggernauts of English football. Arsenal’s lack of spending and ambition has seen them slide very much into the second tier.

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Villa by contrast, like many of their near rivals, have undergone something of a revolution of late. The crumbling regimes of the past have been replaced by a new look, youth-centric model which has seen Paul Lambert’s side enter the new season playing a captivating brand of football which could see them go toe-to-toe with anyone. Worryingly for Arsenal this ambitious new collection of clubs is widespread, Southampton and Norwich also look to break into the top-half and with it invariably compete with teams like the Gunners. In the future, teams of this ilk beating the Gunners in their own backyard should not be viewed with such surprise; I wholly expect it to become something of a norm.

The thing Arsenal fans need to realise is that things change in football, expectations need to be reviewed. Aston Villa won the European Cup in the 80s, a feat Arsenal have never achieved, but that doesn’t mean their fans should expect them to indefinitely dominate the European scene. So is it time for Arsenal fans to re-evaluate their club’s standing in the game?

Aside from the Manchester clubs and Chelsea I would expect the league table to be extremely competitive. Teams will continue to take points off each other regularly, with very little consideration for form or reputation. This extends beyond Arsenal, but my point is that they now find themselves in a collection of eight or so teams who will be in direct competition with one another whether they like it or not.

My opinion is that the Arsenal divine right is not something grounded in football specifically, I honestly don’t believe their fans are that single-minded and ignorant. The problem for the Gunners is that they believe they should be beating teams because of the financial investments they make individually, and the perceived lack of contributions their board makes. In the end it all comes down to money.

I don’t begrudge the Arsenal fans here one bit and I would agree with a lot of what the Black Scarf Movement have to say on the matter. In a letter to the board they made the following comments:

“If the Board is simply intent on milking the Arsenal brand for all its worth to the detriment of the team (but to the benefit of our bank account), season ticket prices at Emirates Stadium should be reduced accordingly. Our loyal fans should no longer have to bear the burden after doing so for many years.”

Arsenal fans don’t believe they should be beating teams like Villa because of reputation or right, because in purely footballing terms it shouldn’t be such a guarantee. The problem here is that Arsenal are run by possibly the most financially minded capitalists in our game, who are all too happy to take advantage of their unerring supporters. Does paying nearly £2000 for a season ticket give you the divine right to success? Maybe not. What it should necessitate, is a board who are willing to match the fans’ ambition. At Arsenal this simply isn’t the case.

The response to the Black Scarf Movement and indeed the concerns of fans more generally will be an interesting one. Supporters that clamour and demand success will not be easily tempered and the board could have a self-induced crisis on their hands here.

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