By Dennis Asiimwe on 3 March 2013

It is now really easy to spot an Arsenal fan in Kampala. A simple process of elimination will suffice.

We are the ones getting up this warm balmy Sunday morning with anxious expressions. We are the ones seriously considering going to church today for a little comfort, and then shelving the idea because it just feels wrong dragging God into all this.

You see, our game against that rancid tribe from White Hart Lane, Spurs, is today, a Sunday, for heaven’s sakes. And it’s away.

We are the ones clinging on to all sorts of comforting straws, and yesterday it was brought to our attention on arseblog (and distributed heartily around the city while taking worried sips from whatever beverage we were all imbibing on) that we have the best away defensive record in the Premiership.

Huh? With the way we have been playing, how did that slip under our radar? Well, the thing is, we haven’t been scoring that many either, while playing away.

If today’s game against Spurs was already on a knife’s edge, that edge became sharper with the victories for Chelsea and Everton yesterday. Now we must either draw, or win; defeat would be disastrous (and no, that is not an exaggeration).

The typical Gunner in Kampala now falls into one of two camps: the defiant one, who is sure we are going to get something out of this season (usually the kind that thrives either on denial or hope, either of which are quaint human traits) or the one who has quietly given up and focuses on other things, like paying the rent, getting drunk and taking the occasional peek at the Premiership table. And the defiant camp is getting steadily smaller.

It’s sad, really. I have mentioned before that this is certainly the season that will decide the fate of the Gunner fan base; not the team, but the fan base. It’s gotten to the ‘enough-is-enough’ stage, and I am now certain that if nothing is done to strengthen the team this summer, well…I used to be a Bundesliga fan when I was a teen (Bayern); can’t be too late now, can it?

Of course, if we win, everyone will come out of the woodwork, and Arsenal, as we have done for the last couple of seasons, will ride on a triumphant crest of optimism to a reasonable end of the season; Wenger last week even mentioned that ‘Manchester City might not be too far’. Stop laughing at the back.

Whatever the outcome today, and yes, I do hope we win, I, like the rest of the Gunner contingent in Kampala, am simply not ready to go through another season like this; not with the club posting record profits for another year!

That I will not be able to stomach. But that particular worry is a couple of months ahead; for now, how about giving that tedious team from White Hart Lane a good old-fashioned whooping?

Come on yer Gunners!