Jorginho’s ‘goal’ to silence the hate

Yeah, it officially went down as an Emiliano Martínez own goal in the scorebook, but that was Jorginho’s goal and will be remembered as such. A goal at such a pivotal moment can do a lot, but it could do so much more for a player like Jorginho making just his second Arsenal start since moving across London on deadline day.

Arsenal have been burned before by such transfers from Chelsea. Petr Cech had an up-and-down time in north London; David Luiz could say the same, but many fans would consider his impact overall to be invaluable to the team. Willian’s short stint failed to find any of the positives of the other two. Gooners had a reason to be wary of the 31-year-old Italian, especially after not being fans of the player for so long.

Jorginho’s ‘goal’ to silence the hate

I, like many fans, was not a fan of the potential move when the Italian emerged as Edu’s plan B following the club’s failed move for Moises Caicedo. After pursuing a young, exciting player to bolster Arsenal’s title charge, the pivot to the older midfielder on an expiring contract was far from exciting. Ultimately, Jorginho switched across London on deadline day to not much fanfare. However, no matter how fans felt about the former Chelsea player, they should’ve ditched any preconceived notions or biases once he donned the famous red and white of Arsenal.

For many, biases remained after a cameo against Everton that failed to set the world on fire; it seemed clear that many still were seeing Jorginho in blue, not red. When he was thrown into the fire with his first Arsenal start against Man City in what seemed like the biggest match of the season, he came out of it looking better. Arsenal lost, but he was not to blame for that defeat. He again got the start against Villa, and that is where everything should change between Arsenal fans and Jorginho.

His stoppage-time rocket won the match for Arsenal, in a moment that revived Arsenal’s title hopes and could be looked back upon as pivotal come the end of May. If Arsenal fans haven’t gotten behind him after that, I don’t know what he has to do to deserve it. The way I see it, Arsenal fans should be rooting for Jorginho to work out. If you aren’t, then do you support Arsenal? Or do you support an agenda?

After those late-match heroics, the hate for the Italian midfielder has gone silent, some may have genuinely dropped their hate or their agendas, but some may be silent and waiting for his next mistake so they can be proven ‘right’. Why? Why would you want your team to fail in the interest of being right? Players are human, and they likely see a lot of what is said about them, especially on places like Twitter; supporting your own is the best way for them to succeed.

There’s a fine line between criticism and hate. Hopefully, our fanbase can find it.