SOMETIMES, not even results are enough to lift the mood. Arsenal make the short trip to West London today after back-to-back wins that followed consecutive defeats. However, context matters and beating up a winless Bournemouth side at the Emirates and watching a team packed with second-stringers overcome Cologne in what felt like an away game at the Emirates, is hardly satisfying.

The lingering fear is that the worst is yet to come, that performances like the 4-0 defeat at Anfield will become the norm. The importance of confidence is often overstated – particularly by ex-pros who can’t explain why a striker put his finish in Row Z – but it is undeniable that there is a malaise enveloping the club and their fans. And, while Arsenal have thus far shown a tremendous capacity for stoicism in the face of Groundhog Day-like mis-steps, at some point that will change.

Today’s trip to Chelsea represents a chance to stem the tide. To buy some time. To show there really is some sort of plan behind Arsene Wenger’s last six months. And, above all, that the players and fans understand what that plan is and, crucially, are willing to buy into it.

In the knee-jerk world of modern football, it’s almost bound to be a binary outcome. A draw or a victory allows Wenger to continue spinning his narrative, particularly if Alexis Sanchez or Mesut Ozil shine. He has long held the line that hanging on to them – at the risk of losing them on a free in June – makes sense; they will ensure Arsenal remain contenders and might even decide to stick around and sign a new deal.

Then again, there is also the possibility of a heavy defeat and the wheels coming off… again. It’s not hard to define a worst-case scenario, especially if the defensive woes and midfield listlessness continue.

It matters all the more because Stan Kroenke is coming into town in a few weeks for the club’s AGM. And while the mood of the majority of Arsenal fans is sometimes tough to gauge – the bluster on social media and phone-ins often dissipates once they enter the real world – there is no question Kroenke will get a far less comfortable reaction unless the club appear to be moving in the right direction and doing so in double-quick time.

They will face a Chelsea side fresh off a 6-0 stomping of Qarabag. You need to allow for the quality of the opposition of course, but also consider the fact that Antonio Conte left out half a dozen starters. At the very least, it suggests that maybe the complaints over having a small squad that were a summer-long theme might be overblown.

Relative to Arsenal and what Wenger is facing (much of it of his own creation), Conte’s moans (like needing a third striker) appear the definition of first-world problems.

THURSDAY in the Europa League offered a glimpse of an alternate form of football fandom, when an estimated 20,000 Cologne fans marched through the centre of London, subsequently bringing the Emirates’ security and logistics operation to its knees.

Reaction was wildly disparate. Some saw it as hooliganism by another name, a horde of ticketless fans descending on a city centre and bending it to their will by the sheer weight of numbers. And, later, at the ground itself, trying to break in and gain free entry by those very same means. The writer and broadcaster Robert Peston, an Arsenal season ticket holder, complained about their behaviour on Twitter, seeing plenty of aggression and even “Nazi salutes”.

It would be head-in-the-sand stuff to deny the fact thousands of Germans marching and singing in a foreign language in England’s capital offers loaded optics. Certainly more so than a bunch of Filipinos or Portuguese. As it happened, the Nazi salute tales were swiftly debunked, but still, there was a sense of violation and intimidation.

Others pointed to the fact that this is how folks in other countries feel when English clubs roll into town. Which, perhaps isn’t quite as accurate, not least because these fans were organised and, other than a few skirmishes at the Emirates when a small minority of Cologne supporters tried to force their way in, there was little in the way of violence and vandalism.

Others still marvelled at the sense of civic participation – this was Cologne’s first European foray in 25 years – and the way plenty travelled simply to be a part of the spectacle. And they noted how, thanks to them, the Emirates came alive in ways rarely seen in recent years (or, in fact, since it opened).

There is no question it could have been handled better. Local media and Cologne fan forums had been talking about a mass migration since the draw and how they planned to rendezvous at 1800 hours outside the ground. Despite warnings, plenty had talked about how easily they had obtained tickets from Arsenal fans or on the secondary market or even on Craig’s List. Clearly, local law enforcement was unprepared and, just as clearly, Arsenal may want to revise their ticket policy. Hopefully, those Cologne fans who attacked stewards will be identified and punished.

Yet beyond that apportioning of blame, perhaps the best way to think of Thursday is as a throwback. The antiseptic, quasi-Disney experience that the game has become, particularly in places like the Emirates, has made it wealthier, more family friendly and, at least on television, more entertaining than ever.

It has come at a price and we’ve lost things that might have been taken for granted 30 years ago. Like turning up on the day ticketless, drinking in the stand and sitting wherever we like. The outcome is a sanitised, far less boisterous experience.

Was it a price worth paying? Have we gone too far and can we recover some kind of middle ground? Or, in this day and age – Arsenal today play a quarter of a mile from a terrorist attack on a busy train – do we need even more vigilance, oversight and restrictions?

However you feel, it’s good to think about this and debate it. Nobody should feel as if they have to accept the status quo. And nobody should feel as if change is inevitable.