Chp 609. English Premier League 2015-16

As somebody who has been blogging for the past 12 years, one of the things I love the most about blogging is reading some of my old posts. It's like walking down memory lane when I read about some of the stuff that took place many years ago.

My blog is kinda like my public diary sometimes, where I write about events that really mean something to me.

And I never fail to write about Arsenal. I've been a hardcore Gooner much before I started blogging (in my defense, there was no blogger.com platform back then) and so, to this day, I get the occasional banter from friends that Arsenal has never won the League since I started blogging :P

But in all fairness, you gotta admit that is true. The frustration we Arsenal fans have the past few years is obvious. And that is what banter is all about. We, as football club fans, tend to make fun of rival fans as much as we can.

Take ManUtd fans for example.

Until 2013, they kept taunting Arsenal fans with, "We got more FA Cup trophies than you". And then in 2014 Arsenal equalized that record and they’re like, "Heh, you still haven't broken our record", and then Arsenal broke that record in 2015 and they’re like, "FA Cup is such a plastic cup, nobody cares", and then this year 2016 suddenly they won the FA Cup and they're like, "FA Cup is the bestest cup in the whole wide world". :D

See, that's how banter works.

Here's one of the many many many examples… When Arsenal won the FA Cup last year, the Vice-President of the "Chennai Mizo Works at Manchester United Die Hard Fan Association" (CMWMUDHFA) commented -"Arsenal won a Chicken Noodle Cup, and they are so happy about it, lulz".



This year though, Arsenal won the Community Shield and ManUtd won the FA Cup. The same person above (now promoted to President of the CMWMUDHFA because the only other person in the fan club went back to Mizoram) commented - "ManUtd won the glorious FA Cup this year while Arsenal only won a Chicken Noodle Cup".



Ahhh… ManUtd fans :D

This dear friend of mine tries so hard at trolling Arsenal fans, but always ends up getting trolled back. Here's one such image I received on our WhatsApp group.



Man, whoever made the above meme is so evil. I wonder who that person is… :)

And this particular pic I received today really matches the above meme! :D



Remember what Paul Scholes said to ManUtd earlier this year, "Don't be like Arsenal who only think of FA Cup and aiming to come in 4th"… It's pretty sad for him that Arsenal finished SECOND this season, not fourth, whereas ManUtd couldn't even reach fourth position… :D

Banter is all about making people eat their words.

Pretty much like my friend Lalramenga who is a hardcore ManUtd fan :D He would always update his Facebook status with the results of the latest Game Week matches on Mondays, but only when ManUtd won while Arsenal lost. Hence, this ENTIRE season, he got to update his status about the Game Week results only twice :D :D :D :D

And then there's my colleague here at work, who's also a ManUtd fan. He and I made a promise last year that we would both wear our respective team jerseys to office on Mondays whenever our team won during the weekend. Now that this season has ended, my Arsenal jersey is completely worn out while his ManUtd jersey is still brand new :D

Yeah I like making fun of my ManUtd friends, mainly because this entire season, whenever Arsenal was playing, they would be extremely active in the many WhatsApp groups I was in. But of course when their own team played, they were nowhere to be seen. It was as if they watched only Arsenal matches this entire season (after all, who can blame them, Arsenal matches are beautiful).

These past three years had been a complete comedy for them, finishing 7th, 4th and 5th (with three different world-class managers and top-flight player signings), whereas Arsenal came in 4th, 3rd and 2nd (Arsenal didn't even sign a single outfield player last summer transfer!) Yet they never fail to troll Arsenal fans even though Arsenal is evidently class apart from them. They're like the former local celebrity of yesteryear, you know, somebody who once used to be quite famous in your locality, but these days, nobody cares about him and he'll do anything to stay relevant, and that includes bitching about the current new celebrities that people actually respect. :)

Anyhoo, enough of ManUtd for now, let's take a look at Tottenham Sp*rs. Arsenal's arch-nemesis. Our reason to celebrate St.Totteringham's Day.

For years now since we last won the League in 2004, Sp*rs fans were like, "Is that all you think about? To finish the season above us even though you didn't win the League?" And that was the retort they all had for the past 12 years. They made it sound so convincing that it was more important for them to win the League rather than finish above their North London derby rival.

But suddenly when Leicester City won the League this year (A BIG congrats to them), their tune suddenly changed to, "Doesn't matter if we won the League or not, all that matters is we're above Arsenal!!!!" and they sang songs mocking frustrated Arsenal fans with, "We want Wenger to stay, he makes us stay above you".

They were happy and content with staying above Arsenal, even though they didn't win the League. Their words, not mine.

And then suddenly on the last Game Week of this season, Arsenal beat Aston Villa 4-0 whereas Sp*rs lost to a relegated 10-man Newcastle United 5-1. And all of a sudden, Arsenal was in second place, above Spurs once again. And immediately, Sp*rs fans all over the world were like, "Is that all you think about? To finish the season above us even though you didn't win the League?"

Back to the same old banter I guess. Ahhh Sp*rs :)

Twitter exploded at the last match of the season. Like this tweet for example, from an Arsenal fan…





Hehe nice opportunity to show-off one's butt I guess… And she's much more beautiful and classy than that Miss Bumbum whatshername from Brazil who got blocked by Messi on Instagram.

And of course there were the other jokes…







This season's last Game Week had been an utter frustration to me though.

Yeah it was a great result for Arsenal, but still, it was the ONE FREAKING DAY I was really looking forward to the ENTIRE year, because the last Game Week of the season is usually exciting, as all matches are held at the same time. This year, even though Leicester City had won the league, there were still a lot of uncertainties till the very last Game Week matches. And I earlier blogged about my new set-up [Split-screen dream come true] where I now have this sweet setup of a 32" flat-screen as my monitor, with a 10 Mbps broadband connection. Yeah, I could watch all the big matches simultaneously using a split window. I even posted this pic back then…



And guess what Reliance did? They disconnected my connection just 2 days before the final Game Week day!!!! Aaaaaaarrrrrgghhhhhhh.

I even subscribed to a HotStar premium account, paying quite a hefty fee, mainly to watch the latest Game of Thrones episodes before it came on Torrent, but also because I can watch the last Game Week matches simultaneously in case other live streaming sites were down. All that money spent went down the drain.

I hate Reliance so much. I finally got back my net connection yesterday, but by then, the damage had already been done. I missed the last Game Week of this season :(

Still, I guess, this year was not so bad. Moving from 4th to 3rd to 2nd, I'm sure next year it would be 1st. And that is when I'll be able to say "Hey, my blog is not older than the last time Arsenal won the League" :P

Cheers everyone, including y'all ManUtd fans. Love y'all nonetheless :)