Views of a Grumpy Old Gooner

Feel the love Joey, feel the love - Thoughts on the FC Twente and Newcastle games

Mon, 1 Sep 2008 14:46:56 -0500

Feel the love Joey, feel the love

Not a bad four days at the home of football.

There was an outbreak of competence against a pretty limited FC Twente managed by Steve McLaren – or should that be Shteve McLaren in the manner of his interview on Dutch TV which he gave in what he presumably fondly thought of as Dutch accented and phrased English. It made him come over like a Dutch Yoda. “Let Fabregash run midfield my team, shall not you”. Wonder what the Dutch made of this. Flattered by this attempt to “speak DutchEnglish” or thinking what kind of prat they have been suckered into appointing as manager.

Whatevs as the young folk say. It did nothing for FC Twente whose performance featured crossfield or backward passing that made Ray Wilkinsh such a favourite and the sort of frequent low level fouling characteristic of a Championship side intent on damage limitation. Be that as it may, four goals, a clean sheet, and a bit of drive and intelligence from midfield (thanks Fab) and that was job done.

The person who stood out for me on Wednesday, and not for good reasons, was the Danish donkey himself, Nicklas B, who had a mare. The more he tried, the worse he got. His goal was either the most undeserved ever or some sort of karmic payback for not giving up.

And so to Saturday against the bar codes, where we built on Wednesday’s performance. Difficult to really say how good we were because Newcastle were pretty average. Ameobi and rat boy upfront were dismal. The only time they combined was when Ameobi deflected Owen’s shot away for a goal kick. Their midfield was poor and the defence was static at best. Was Enrique hauled off because of injury or just to save him from further embarrassment?

Did we make them look poor. We had pace, flair , and we concentrated for the whole game. Some of our football, particularly on the break, was breathtaking. Almunia looked solid, the defence pretty good. Honourable mention here for Toure’s arse, which, following the retirement of Jimmy Floyd from Premiership action, must be the largest in the division. Is an expanding posterior a side effect of malaria? Mind you, I thought that Kolo had also inherited JF’s right peg – two cracking shots in the first half, and both on target (ish).

In midfield, and I know this is controversial, but I thought that Eboue had a good game. He stayed on his feet, passed to team mates (nice backheel for RvP’s second) and gave glimpses of why AW picks him. I thought it was great that Denilson scored. Still not sure about him and his passing was wayward but he never gives up, never hides, and seems v committed to the cause. Good on him.

Mixed news on the RvP front. First goals good, first injury bad. At last he and Adebayor were combining well and looked pretty dangerous as a partnership. Talking of Adebayor, AW said “Clasp this man again to your collective bosom, treat him as the prodigal son. He is not malicious or deceitful. He is guilty only of being a prat. His heart is pure.” Well, we clasped away and were rewarded by a good all round performance. He wasn’t offside that much, he worked really hard, and passed to all his team mates when they were in better positions. Mind you, I shall not mind if he makes an exception from the “passing to a better placed colleague” rule for young Theo. I do not think that a well taken goal against FC Twente can make up for overall performances still featuring too many mindless moments. Seeing Vela’s cameo on Saturday should have been a reality check for those claiming Theo as the new messiah.

The crowd were in pretty good form. We got well and truly behind the team not only Adebayor and were rewarded with a good performance. There was one person who was excluded from the general love in and that of course was Joey B. King Kev has lost the plot on this one. Joey B came on, immediately tried to deposit ball and Nasri over the dug outs, gave Nasri the sort of look that says try it if you think you are hard enough and if you do I shall shove this Egg McMuffin where the sun does not shine, and then KK went on about how disappointed he was with the crowd and gave Nasri a right finger wagging for tripping his boy Joey. Get real.

We should give anyone a second chance I suppose. This seems to have happened with Lee Hughes, whose crime was much worse than Barton’s but who appears genuinely remorseful and perhaps deserves redemption. Barton, on the other hand, is a scally with anger management issues (to put it tactfully), a serial offender who has had any number of chances. Ignoring the moral weakness of Newcastle’s position and those other premiership clubs who allegedly would have signed him if Newcastle had cancelled his contract is it good for a team to have a player whose idea of upping the intensity of training is to smack a colleague and who thinks the Christmas party will go with more of a swing if he stubs a cigar out on a trainee’s face?

Well, can we just put the Fulham shambles down to a combination of injuries, early season rustiness, and post international blues? Yes and no. The players showed they can perform well and dispose of ordinary teams like Newcastle but we are still heavily dependent on a few key players staying fit and in form for the whole season, and I would hate for AW to decide that reinforcements are not necessary on the back of this performance. Not only do we have to overcome the curse of the international break but the effects of long away trips in the Champions League. Our next two games in the premiership arw away to Blackburn and Bolton after an international break and the Kiev trip respectively. We are not out of the woods yet.

Come on you Reds.

Arsene Wenger IS magic!!

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:59:59 -0500

Sitting on Tankerton sea front Saturday afternoon watching my mother and mother in law play “catch the fly in the mouth” as they dozed away, I was cursing my luck. You see most Saturdays my wife and I take the old girls out and last Saturday was no exception.

I had turned down two tickets - or one ticket twice – for the Fulham game and was just hoping that I could get back home without hearing the score so I could watch a recording on Setanta and enjoy the live experience.

Well, I got back home at half time but any hope of watching the game later was ruined by my daughter greeting me with those immortal words:

“We are complete shit. We are losing 1 0 and Gallas and Toure were playing statues for their goal. Which came from a corner.”

What ,I said, do you mean that Almunia did not command his 6 yard area and clear the danger? I cannot believe it.

That was it. I just had to forget the first half, sit down and watch the second half unfold.

Ah yes, why do I think Arsene is magic? His defence made Zamora look like a cross between Klaas – Jan Huntelaar and (Liverpool’s) Fernando Torres.

The midfield turned Messrs Bullard, Murphy, and Davies into Gerrard, Zidane and Gattuso

The attack made four nomarks in defence look like I don’t know what - Dixon, Bould, Adams, Winterburn?

No mean effort. The man’s a genius! We all know he is but it is hard not to fear the worst after two stumbling displays and his comments about no need for panic buying. Perhaps not panic buying but WE DO NEED TO STRENGTHEN THE SQUAD. What are we going to do? Wait for Diaby and Rosicky to get fit? By then van Persie at least will be injured. We cannot pin all our hopes on the return of Fabregas. The boy’s good but he can only carry us so far.

The game does not seem worth commenting upon at any great length but..

I know that Toure and Gallas had no protection but they were pretty shaky. Is Silvestre the answer here when he has gone straight into the treatment room. That was an inspiring buy wasn’t it? How did he get a two year contract when he is over 30? Against Arsene’s policy surely?

Sad to see Denilson going from ABOY WITHGREATPOTENTIAL to PROBABLY WILL NOT MAKE IT. Perhaps not fair when our midfield is pretty weak – he cannot be expected to run the game but his passing was pretty awful.

Eboue? Two good runs in the second half ended by fouls from behind. Cue, outrage, hissy fit and handbags. Ruth, my daughter, told me that he was penalised for being fouled in the first half. Seems that even referees are getting fed up with him.

Walcott had obviously been told to hug that touchline which meant that his contribution was minimal. Bit disappointed with the way he left the field on Saturday. He had set such high standards last week but this week he was obviously practising the wizened old professional look of being slightly disappointed but actually pretty glad to be getting off and being saved from embarrassing himself further. Now, that is a look we shall be seeing a lot of this season.

Nasri looks good.

The strike force of Adebayor RvP and the Danish donkey tested the resilience of the Fulham wall and the reflexes of row M – as did Eboue and Song late on – rather than Schwarzer. As they say, we were lucky to get Nil.

So, where do we go from here? If we get Fabregas back next week, and have made a signing - Alonso? – then things look better in midfield. Get Toure fit. He looks off the pace and perhaps Silvestre is a better short term alternative. Play more through Nasri – and play anyone rather than Walcott – and then hope to God that RvP and Adebayor start remembering how to score.

If all this happens, then 4^th is definitely a possibility come May. That is irony by the way. Is this really all we have got to play for? Is the shagging season over already? Time for Arsene to prove he can pull a couple of rabbits out of the hat and perhaps Bischoff is the first.

Keep the faith and come on you Reds.

Another Season Begins...

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 08:02:01 -0500

Another season. It’s 50 years since my dad first took me to Highbury in 1958. Hope springs eternal. Or does it?

Going to the game against West Brom, I thought that supporting Arsenal has been like one of those long term relationships where your partner strays or disappoints you on a pretty regular basis. The Wenger years have been great but when you go back to the days when George Swindon and Billy Wright were managers, not even mentioning Terry Neill, you realise that there will be bad times. However, no matter how often they let you down you’ll always take them back and give them another chance.

My reserves of patience and tolerance were sorely tested last year and the lack of inward transfer activity over the summer is preparing me for another season of disappointment. At best we’ll still be in contention for trophies in March, at worst it will be all over by January when our U 12s lose to Bolton in the fourth round of the FA Cup and we spend the rest of the season trying to fend off Spurs for the all important (!?) fourth place.

So, I was not in the most optimistic frame of mind when I approached the Emirates. Nothing much happened to boost my spirits.

The ground? All very nice, clean sight lines, comfy seats, but no history ( early days I know) and as too many people say..little atmosphere. To my shame, I did not contribute too much yesterday as I spent much of the game with my head in my hands swearing quietly and not so quietly at the general ineptitude on display. At least I watched for the whole 93 minutes, unlike the majority of the club level muppets. What is so attractive about mediocre food and drink that keeps people out of their seats at the beginning of the second half?

The fans? Surely, it is time to lay down some rules.

If you are over 11, do not put your own name on the back of the shirt. You will never play for Arsenal. Get over it!

Personal slogans are so naff. Arsenal till I die! I 8 Spurs. Jesus.

Some are just bizarre. “Mrs Toure 5” anyone? She did not look like the sort of lass Kolo would shack up with. Just hope she does not shout out the wrong name at the wrong time.

The saddest of all? New home shirt. Number 14. “Legend in training”. Um, not sure that Theo will ever lose the L plates. Mind you he’s certainly got the hang of clapping and waving at all four corners of the ground as he is subbed. Think he’ll be getting a lot of practice at this over the season.

And then there was the game. Taking away the expected excellence of Sagna and Clichy and the promising debut of Nasri, what was there? Nothing. Zippo. Other than the three points of course.

You can’t blame Denilson for not being Fabregas and can Wenger really expect him to be the main defensive midfielder AND the creative force having saddled him with Eboue as a sidekick? We need reinforcements. Nice for Kolo to get a run out. Shame he didn’t realise he was expected to join in with the other 10.

The crowd reaction to Adebayor was interesting and hats off to the Gooner for its back cover. Excellent! There was a lot less tolerance for the frequent miscontrols, the inability (or is it unwillingness?) to see colleagues in better positions, e.g. Nasri about 10 mins from time when he was in a similar position from where he had scored the first goal, and the amazing number of offsides. He must lead the Opta stats in this category. The only way he’ll get back in our affections is by scoring a last minute winner against Spurs – the icing on the cake being if he latches on to an underhit Bentley back pass.

So, let’s prepare for another season of spells of great football, a few good runs of results, and ultimate disappointment.

Come on you Reds!!