During the summer, I woke up here in the United States one morning and read the news from the other side of the Atlantic, as I usually do. I could not finish my breakfast; never had I tasted anything so horrible in my life. I still remember my lemonade tasting like pee as I took another sip from the glass in front of me.

Yes, I am speaking of the sale of Thierry  Henry to Barcelona; for the next few weeks my symptoms would get worse as the whole of 'bloody England' predicted the fall of my glorious Arsenal.

My company had just hired a new director; changes were ringing from every corner of the planet as we sought to adjust to new management. I was on the Arsenal official site every 30 minutes to check if we had bought a world-class replacement for Henry.

'A win on Sunday would be the first this season against one of the title contenders; it will establish our credentials as the leaders of the pack'


To my dismay, the days turned to weeks, and the only name on the site was Eduardo Da Silva, a striker of unproven quality in a top league. True to his tradition and philosophy, Arsene Wenger was the only one who believed his team could compete for the title this year. To sum up my summer, I had a mental breakdown from worrying about Arsenal and the amount of work I had to do at the office.

Naturally, I was ashamed to tell my wife that most of this mental breakdown was due to all the darkness and gloom that surrounded my beloved club. A trip to the doctor confirmed I was severely stressed and needed to be put on medication for a month. I think during this period the Arsenal official site got 40 million hits - I truly believe I was singularly responsible for at least a million of them.

Finally, the season started and to everyone’s surprise the Gunners embarked on a roll. Not only are we playing the best football on the planet, we are actually scoring; the days of King Henry are long behind us. When I think of my summer madness, I am not sure why I was so stressed after all. We are one point ahead of the pack; yes, we stumbled at Boro, but I would have jumped on this opportunity had it been presented to me during those sleepless nights when I was worried about the Gunners.

This brings me to my point on why we must win the Chelsea game on Sunday. I told myself I would not get excited about our title ambitions until we had played at least 15 games. After 33 goals and 11 wins I know the Gunners are real title contenders this season but this must be reaffirmed by beating Chelsea. Arsenal have not won against the Blues in the last 10 matches and for me the most painful of this sequence was the defeat endured by the Carling Cup kids. I really think we deserved to win that game considering the number of chances we had and sublime quality of football put on by the kids.

In the end, we had to succumb to the hit man that is Didier Drogba. A win will show the loss to Middlesbrough was just one of those days when things didn’t go our way. Four games on the road is not an excuse but with all due respect to Boro on the day, I think the reserves could have won that game. A win on Sunday would be the first against one of the title contenders; it will establish our credentials as the leaders of the pack. Victory would also give us the confidence to go through this rough patch of the crazy Christmas schedule that will definitely produce some bad results for everyone.

I am also tired of reading how thin the Arsenal team is, I don’t think I need to justify the quality in our team but I really do think the Gunners reserves could push for a top eight spot in the league. Say what you want, but I know we have enough quality to beat anyone, with any team, on any given day. I think Abou Diaby, Denilson and Lassana Diarra would walk into almost any team in the Premier League. While most of these kids may be short on experience, there is no denying their quality and determination to win the individual battles on the pitch.

With the title race so tight this season, any side that takes maximum points among the top four will have a considerable advantage towards lifting the title. I really do believe we could have won the game against Liverpool a few weeks ago. After that draw, we barely managed a point against Manchester United at the Emirates. At some point, we must show our ambition for the title and make a bold statement. We must rise above the rest with cannons firing; when the smoke clears on Monday there has to be one victor, standing proud with the red crest firing the shots of warning to the rest of the league.

There is no better time, or opportunity than now to show that we ought to be the champions!

After this long rant, I must issue a call to arms to the Gunners. We must beat Chelsea on Sunday; it's a victory that is not only long overdue, it has truly been a while since they got a good north London spanking from us. Personally, I am still waiting for justice for the defeat of the Carling Cup kids. A convincing victory will send a message to the rest of the league that this is indeed our season.