Sunday, 8 November 2009
Tame Wolves pose little threat
Friday, 6 November 2009
Mancs don't dive
This was a blatant dive. The clip above makes it look like a dive and it is the most forgiving angle. From the side one can clearly see Fletcher throwing himself down before any contact is made and the contact that is made is microscopic to say the least. The ref got it spot on and booked Fletcher for his gamesmanship.
The media reaction has been an utter shambles. Both Andy Gray on Sky and the ITV commentator are bigots living in denial as they both called it a cast iron penalty, refusing to even acknowledge that there might have been a bit of gamesmanship at work.
Alex Ferguson has gone ballistic as always, refusing to even consider that one of his honest players would ever con a referee, remember that this is the man who let Ronaldo get away with the worst cheating of any player around for year upon year:
"I can't believe it. I watched the camera by the side of the dugout and it is the worst I have ever seen in my lifetime – unbelievable."
It was one of the worst dives you've ever seen 'Sir'(*). Just remember what Sir Alex said about the Eduardo situation, as if we needed to know what he thought:
"It was a high-profile game and something has to be done, it creates an incredible reaction from the media and public in these instances. Something should be done and we hope the message gets across."
Either Ferguson is a moron in denial or his is cunningly trying to detract attention from the dive by pretending it wasn't one, either way he's a clear hypocrite. Strange how it's fine for Fergie to have his say when one of our players exaggerates a challenge, but if Arsene had his say on Fletcher I bet he wouldn't be too happy. The media's refusal to even acknowledge that certain players from certain special clubs ever dive is frankly pathetic and reveals their complete lack of objectivity. The media's partisan coverage of Arsene's and 'Sir'(*) Alex's respective behaviour also gives their game away, one is labelled a whinging moaner whatever he says while the other is routinely given a free ride to justify the unjustifiable.
(*)-denotes the fact that the title 'Sir' means nothing more than Alex Ferguson being rewarded by the Labour party for backing them both financially and non-financially, it has been purchased with money just as if you or I went to the supermarket to buy an apple, it most certainly does not signify that he is a man of good repute or of good honour.
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Rampaging russian catalyses dutch demolition
Clichy was out with what I suspect is a stress fracture of a pars interarticularis in his spine, it is common for this to be present on both sides of the vertebra and this is the case for Gael as his previous stress fracture was on the other side at the same level. Sagna was rested, Manuel remained in goal, while Samir Nasri started his first game following his return from injury as part of the front three.
The football was slick and cut Alkmaar to ribbons, Andrei Arshavin seemed to be at the heart of everything, the movement and pace was simply too much for the dutch champions to cope with. The first goal from Cesc saw some pretty dodgy keeping but it was still a fairly decent effort from the skipper. The second goal was Nasri at his best, recieving the ball and turning neatly in one movement, he created space for himself and buried the finish low into the bottom corner, top class stuff. The slick passing and interplay for the third and fourth was awesome, two lovely finishes as well from Cesc and Diaby. Manuel was done by an excellent bit of trickery with the eyes for the Alkmaar goal, predicting the centre Manuel was completely undone as the ball was fired past him at his near post.
Overall job done again, it would be nice to tie things up with a win against Liege in the next game. It is heartening to see the team clicking together so nicely, we are defending far better than we have for a while, Vermaelen is not only an excellent aggressive defender but he is also a great leader on the pitch. Gibbs now has a great chance to cement himself into the starting eleven. The young midfield are growing together, Song is looking a force to be reckoned with, Cesc has been finding top form again over the last month, while the unfairly maligned Diaby does appear to be improving and improving his decision making, Up front the abundance of talent is frankly incredible, last night we had Bendtner, Walcott and Vela not even involved for various reasons, but we still had so many options to choose from. If we can keep things going through the grim winter months I will seriously fancy our chances come May.
Monday, 2 November 2009
Amusement from some idiots
What a comedy opening line, I really think Arsene would have been quaking in his boots, if Harry Redknapp is his biggest threat I genuinely think that Arsene's corpse will be able to manage Arsenal adequately when Arsene dies of old age in approximately 2045. Read the rest of Venables' comedy piece for your own amusement, it really is side splitting at times. The Sun really does bring its readers some absolute chestnuts of wisdom, the greatest footballing brains such as Redknapp and Venables are never too far from a cracking column, you are more likely to find a pearl of wisdom fishing in a public toilet.
Speaking of idiots, one well know Arsenal commentator felt the need to big up Craig Eastmond to such an extent that he claimed he was already better than Song, Eboue and Denilson. I've nothing against Craig Eastmond but the lad is only 18 and we should be careful before hyping him up too much, we should also be careful about slagging off our own players who are already looking absolutely top notch such as Alex Song. There was a veiled accusation of racism against Arsene that I found unpleasant as well as out of order:
I wonder if this author would name any single ex-Arsenal player that has gone on to greater things having left the club, has a single one of these players looked like someone who would have been an asset to our first team? Exactly, there is no evidence to back up this lazy and stupid argument. I will not link up to who wrote this story as he deserves no further coverage of his shoddy work, is is enough to say that the man is a music writer by trade and understands football about as well as Jamie Redknapp. This author is scum of the lowest form, he sensationalises merely to attract readers as he knows that without it no one will read his average run of the mill dross.
Finally you've just got to love this quote from RVP after the spuds humiliation, absolutely priceless words that need to further comment:
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Partisan media and Redknapp out of his depth
The media reaction to Eduardo being toppled against Celtic was also rather strange. He was public enemy no 1, he was written off as a cheat despite an unblemished career record, the tag lives on despite him actually being a rather honest player. In recent weeks we have seen numerous blatant acts of cheating routinely ignored by the media, something strange is afoot. Arsene has hit the nail on the head with comments in the screws:
Why indeed? The silence following Parker's blatant dive was deafening, the lack of comment regarding Cole's compliance with gravity was also notable. Yesterday Didier Drogba was back to his best, he was put clean through against Bolton, Jay Lloyd Samuel pursued him, Drogba took too heavy a touch and the chance appeared to have gone, Samuel made a slight attempt at a tackle, Drogba slowed himself down and took the most minimal of contact, he then went down as if shot, writhing around in fake agony as only he knows how, the game was changed, a penalty to Chelsea and Bolton down to ten men. Drogba's cheating has again been rewarded. The media have been silent on this, so what hope is there that cheating will be stamped out when it is so routinely ignored by the media?
Harry Redknapp has again revealed himself to be the most sore of losers. Redknapp tried to put down the defeat to just suicidal defending, he failed to admit that his inferior side were comprehensively outplayed for the duration. He even tried to claim that the spuds controlled the game in the first half, it's a bit strange to control a game without creating any chances while seeing the opposition have more possession and chances. He gave no credit to RVP for his excellent finish for the first goal, Redknapp tried to put this goal down to the third person as if the ball 'had squirmed in somehow'. In fact our excellent striker was too quick for your crocked centre back and he managed to control the ball into the bottom corner, that is not 'squirmed in somehow'. Redknapp pretended the spuds were comfortable until the 42nd minute, in fact it was more of a case of the spuds riding their luck, only one team looked like scoring. The fact that at 2-0 down they never looked as if they had the ability or belief to get back into the game was also ignored by Redknapp.
To put Cesc's goal to just bad defending is bizarre as well as disgraceful, it was a majestic piece of play, not many players could do what Cesc did yesterday, the fact that we have players who can do this is what makes us a class or ten above the spuds, something Redknapp would do well to acknowledge rather than pretending it was a self inflicted defeat. It is strange that the media give this average manager such a free run to say what he chooses, it is strange that he is never labelled a sore loser when he is always so very ungracious in defeat.
This is all very strange. At least at the end of the interview Redknapp effectively admitted that he expects to lose at Arsenal, he denied the result was a 'blip', to me this is an inadvertent admission that he didn't hold out much hope of a victory at the Emirates. At least bitter 'Arry got one thing right, it was indeed 'sunday morning football' and this came from his sunday morning players that have been assembled at double the cost of Arsene's squad, well done 'Arry, what a lovely cheeky chap you are.
Saturday, 31 October 2009
Spuds baked, fried, mashed and then devoured
For once I was happy with the starting eleven. Almunia was back between the sticks, good decision and he went on to justify his position rather convincingly. Bendtner and RVP both started, a good move to have two strikers on against the spuds who often like to play on the counter and would have been much happier against one striker.
The first half was a little cagey, but overall I thought we were very disciplined and controlled the game nicely. Bentley was very fortunate to stay on the pitch after a shocking lunge early on. We were winning the midfield battle, Song was hoovering up nicely in front of the back four, Diaby was erratic but did work hard off the ball and Cesc was very much involved. I was particularly impressed with the centre backs, Crouch was beaten to a lot of ball and when he did win it we invariably swept up the second ball. The chances were all at Gomes' end. Arshavin had a few half chances, Cesc forced a great low save from Gomes and RVP also had a few decent openings.
The end of the first half saw the game turned away from the evil spuds. Of note Eduardo had come on for the injured Bendtner. First RVP clipped home brilliantly from a nice whipped Sagna centre, Gomes had no chance. Barely had everyone stopped going mental when Cesc nipped in, he beat one, two, then a third, he was through on goal, he finished in sublime fashion, 2-0, it was a sensational end to the half. It felt almost like flying in a dream combined with a massive adrenaline rush and a big thumb to one's chest, bloody hell that was a good feeling.
The second half saw us continue to dominate, the freakish Crouch was a lone figure up front and looked completely outclassed, in the end his frustration culminated in a petulant yellow card for dissent. The spuds looked beaten before the third goal but RVP's second after Gomes had made a dog's dinner of a cross made sure that justice would be done. We had several other great chances, the best was one which Eduardo missed when clean through. It really could have been five or six in the end, we had some great positions on the break but failed to grind the spuds' ugly mug into the pavement quite as violently as it could have been done.
There is a lot to say. I have to comment on the ref as always and Clattenberg was weak, he failed to book a couple of shocking tackles while his inconsistency in dealing with handballs was embarrassing. But overall the day belongs to Arsene and the lads. Collectively and individually we were better than the spuds in every single position, it made an absolute mockery of various comments in the media that were telling us just how close the gap between the two sides now was, it was as convincing a derby day win as I have seen in my lifetime. Almunia was rock solid, our defence outsanding, of note our midfield really worked really hard to help our defence in hoovering up the danger, while we always seemed to have the class and spark to be able to open up the opposition's defence when we needed. Well done Arsene and the lads.
Friday, 30 October 2009
No hiding place
The banter has been there from the spuds, Keane reckon their squad is better than ours, Redknapp thinks they are as strong as us now. Arsene would not get embroiled in this petty talk, I would argue that the person who goes on about how pretty his wife is probably doesn't have a very good looking wife. The spuds are talking a lot about how great they are now, the season is not yet ten games old.
The back four picks itself, although I can't help but think that Eboue and Gibbs are pushing Sagna and Clichy very hard. Song, Diaby and Cesc will probably be the middle three, while Arshavin and RVP will surely start up front. That leaves one place open and it will probably go to Eboue. I'd be tempted to stick Bendtner or Eduardo in from the start if I were Arsene. Whatever happens I would like to see the likes of Nasri and Ramsey given at least fifteen minutes to make an impact if needed, if substitutions are left too late then they are often wasted.












