James been trying to think of the right way to word a reply to this which isn't just parroting what you've said - but also I feel like I should reply 🙂 .
That Burnley game was almost a classic example of the difference between watching on TV and being in the stadium and being part of what has become an incredibly positive, supportive atmosphere. It was an immensely frustrating afternoon and yet, as I've said before, the fans largely stayed with the team. We don't have to go too far back to find games that went a similar way and were met with derision from the Emirates crowd or, worse, outright apathy.
Manchester City at home was the moment for me, really. The performance of the team was brilliant and the way the crowd recognised it spoke volumes. It would have been so, so easy to react in disappointment, but no, not a bit of it. Jonathan Liew actually referenced a similar moment this season, the concession of the opening goal against West Ham, in his most recent piece for the Guardian.
And that reaction last month is a direct consequence of what was being built last season. We saw this for ourselves at the last game of last season - it would have been so easy for the crowd to have turned up resenting the fact that we'd blown the Champions League annnnd not a bit of it. I kept saying it at the time, I still believe it now, but I think that a lot of us (some? just me?) could accept the fact that we blew a great opportunity because they could see the huge amount of progress we'd made through the season.
Culturally, we may yet to come back to look at Arteta's decision to remove Auba from the club as the most significant step to where we are now. I found the decision frustrating at the time, especially as we didn't really replace him, but there have to be standards at a club like Arsenal and if your captain, of all people, isn't following them then there's only one way to go. And as a former captain of the club himself, Arteta - of all people - is going to be the one to understand that.
As Maxi Jazz (RIP) once said, "you don't need eyes to see, you need vision"...
We're a long way from pre Brighton and the guy in Indiebeer wondering why our manager was "such a fucking prick" (I wonder if Jones was over for a game) and it feels fucking great.
