When it comes to dry spells, history actually favours Arsenal FC. It is no secret that almost everyone wants English Premier League (EPL) ‘dinosaur’ Arsene Wenger, who coaches that lacklustre club with noisy fans, to pack and go. Wenger, and here is the hard fact, has no arsenal left in his armoury to win the EPL and will continue firing blanks until man relocates to Mars.
Well, perhaps it is only his critics and some disgruntled fans who believe Wenger has no firepower, because Arsenal owners have great faith in the Frenchman. That is why they have offered him a new contract, many months, even before his current one expires in June.
In Wenger, the owners see a master tactician who has only been unlucky and it is just a matter of time before he reclaims his sorry self. Let’s give the devil his due and be fair to Arsenal and Wenger.
When it comes to title wins, history favours Arsenal in many ways. The club has not won the EPL in 13 years, but that is just like an hour ago if you compare to records other teams hold.
While 47 clubs have competed since the inception of the Premier League in 1992, only six have won the title: Manchester United (13), Chelsea (4), Arsenal (3), Manchester City (2), Blackburn Rovers (1) and Leicester City (1). In other sports, some teams have waited for over 100 years to reclaim the title they won in their hey days.
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So, to be fair, what, honestly, is Arsenal’s 13-year dry spell? ‘The Chicago Cubs’, a baseball team in the US, makes Arsenal fans’ complains of a decade title drought laughable. And if you look at it optimistically, Arsenal may never beat the Chicago Cubs, because there is an indication that winds of change may sweep at the Emirates soon to usher in a fresh mind.
In November 2016, according to bbc.com, ‘Chicago Cubs’ won the Major League Baseball’s World Series to end — wait a minute — a 108 years title drought, the longest title drought professional games!
The last time the team were crowned champions was in 1908, that time beating the Detroit Tigers 4-1. And 108 years later, they beat Cleveland Indians 8-7 in 10 innings to end up with the top prize sparking wild celebrations in the streets of Chicago.
“I’ve been waiting my whole life nfor this, my grandfather has been waiting his whole life for this, and everyone has been waiting for this,” said a former player, Jason Nye, as he spoke words that Arsenal fans may say in near future. So when did the rains start beating the Chicago Cubs? Apparently, just like Arsenal before 2004, the club was one of the tops in the period leading to 1908.
Then the bad times set in soon after and legend has it that sometime in 1945, bar owner William “Billy Goat” Sianis cursed the team!
The curse, according to nbcnews. com began when Sianis bought two tickets to Game 4 of the Cubs’ World Series against the Detroit Tigers, one for himself, and one for Murphy, his bar’s billy goat mascot.
According to the legend, Murphy was too smelly that other fans complained, leading to the ejection of Sianis and the mascot. A furious Sianis is said to have declared on his way out: “Them Cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more!”
Adam Selzer, a historian in his 2014 book Chronicles of Old Chicago, said that Sianis later sent Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley a telegram promising: “You are never going to win a World Series again because you insulted my goat.”
And history proved him right that according to NBC, many attempts were made over the years to lift the curse, which the bar owner himself had withdrawn before his death in 1970.
His nephew Sam, says the news organisation, showed up at the Cubs games with a goat several times in bid to lift the curse in vain.
A Greek Orthodox priest later in 2009 blessed the Cubs’ with holy water, but still there was no win. And in 2012, five Cubs fans dubbed ‘Crack the Curse’ walked more than 1,700 miles with a goat as they tried to lift the curse.
Again, they flopped. The gods intervened at their own time 108 years later. Now, the big question is, who could be the disgruntled fan who cursed Arsenal? And Why?
