Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft.

The Spuds came calling yesterday with their claims of being the North London team on the up and by the end of the game the difference in class between the teams was there for all to see. I spoke yesterday about how good Cesc, Arshavin and RVP were and how The Spuds had nobody to match them and by the end of the game that was evident too. RVP was excellent and so was Cesc and even though things didn't quite work out for Arshavin he gave it everything he had. To be honest the 3-0 score line flattered The Spuds and they could have got a real hammering. Our unbeaten league run against them now stretches to 20 games and 10 years and the bragging rights belong to all Gooners yet again.

I arrived at the supporters club in Bray about 10 minutes before kick off and the first thing I heard was that we had drawn Man City away from home in the last 8 of the Carling Cup with the game to be played on December 1st or 2nd. I then found out the team that had been selected and it was as I had predicted with the exception of Bendtner playing wide right. It looked a strong enough team and with Defoe and Lennon missing for them my only worry was the threat posed by Crouch. To be honest our defence dealt with him fairly well and he never really got a free header in on goal in the whole game. The only time we looked vulnerable was when he laid the ball off for Keane or any of their midfielders coming forward but all in all besides a few crosses to claim Almunia had very little to do on his return to first team duty.

We started brightly and after less than 5 minutes Bentley deliberately handled the ball in our half to stop us breaking but the referee decided to ignore the rule book and didn't even bother to lecture him never mind show him a yellow card. Only a few minutes later he came in late on The Verminator and caught him right on the shin. By the laws of the game he should have being taking an early shower as it was clearly another yellow card offence but the referee again chose not to issue a card. Even Andy Gray agreed that Bentley was a lucky man to be still on the pitch. At that stage we all agreed that the most likely player to be booked first would be wearing red as the referee clearly didn't want to book anyone too early in the game because he would have had to issue a yellow card for almost anything after that.

We had our chances in the first half and the best of them fell to Cesc when his shot from inside the box was very well saved by Gomes to keep the scores level as halftime approached. The game seemed to be petering out in that first half until we won a throw on our right about 10 yards from their goal line. Sagna threw it to Cesc and he passed it straight back to Sagna who stopped the ball and dispatched a cross towards the near post. It looked to be going nowhere but RVP gave it all he had to beat his man to the ball at the near post and Gomes seemed to be surprised at the shot coming in and was beaten at his near post despite getting a hand to it. The stadium went mad and we were all pretty happy in The Strand too as we looked to be heading to half time with a 1 goal lead that didn't appear likely only moments earlier. 

As we watched the the replays of the first goal again and again on the TV the camera suddenly switched to Cesc as he buried the ball in the keeper's right hand corner of the net and after a slight pause we realised that we were 2-0 up as we had scored straight from their kick off. A misplaced Spud pass hit RVP on the knee I think and rebounded to Cesc in the centre circle and he proceded to run straight at them and beat 3 players before sticking the ball in the corner of the net from 18 yards out. Half time came soon afterwards and we found ourselves with the same lead we had at West Ham last week and we knew that we could only beat ourselves at this stage.

A short while before we scored the first goal Bendtner signalled to the bench that he had to go off as he had what appeared to be a groin injury and we were treated to the bizzare sight of him attempting to run around the pitch for what seemed like at least 3 minutes as the ball stayed in play. Why he didn't go down and demand treatment or to be helped off I don't know and we were lucky at one stage that we didn't pay the price for it. Corluka had not got forward at all but it was blatantly obvious that if he did Bendtner could not track back so he obviously pushed forward. As he ran past him Bendtner called Clichy to cover the run as he couldn't but nobody did and we were only saved because The Verminator did very well to intercept Corluka's cross. It was very unprofessional of Arsenal to allow that situation to develop with a player clearly injured and Bendtner should have gone down or we should have put the ball out when we had the chance. Thankfully we didn't pay the price and hopefully we will learn a lesson from it.

At half time I commented on how Eduardo had changed the game when he came on but he hadn't had any part in either goal at all. I did think that the second half was ideally set up for a player like him who could time his runs to perfection behind a defence that was pushing forward to try to get back in the game. A little while later I was proved right as Diaby played a lovely ball through for him and I was certain he would score as he was 1 on 1 with the keeper but he got it just wrong and the keeper just about stopped it. We did manage to get a 3rd goal when Eduardo broke down the left and he was scythed down by one of their players. As we all waited for the referee to blow for the free with the linesman flagging he in fact waved played on and even though Sagna stopped he still had the ball when he realised that the game was still going on. As the Spud players had stopped too he crossed it along the goal 6 yards out it seemed that the keeper and defender had it covered but it somehow squeezed between them and there was RVP to tap in his second and our third.

After that it was just a matter of how many and when Cesc played Eduardo in again he ran with the ball from the half way line and approached the keeper who had left his box. When he placed his shot we were certain that it was going to be 4-0 but inexplicably it went wide and the scoreline stayed the same. We saw out the rest of the game with ease and our 3rd clean sheet of the season was a welcome extra to the game. The manager got very frustrated when we were 3 up and he said afterwards it was because he couldn't communicate properly with his players and he felt it was very important for us to get the clean sheet. He's right in that because after letting our lead slip against West Ham and AZ it was important to defend properly and keep that clean sheet. We moved up to 2nd in the table until Manure and Chelsea got their wins later but with Liverpool losing again and Villa drawing we are putting ourselves further ahead of the pursuing pack whilst keeping up with the pace setters. All in all it was a great day and a nd showed The Spuds that they have a long long way to go to reach our level.

Here's the goals from yesterday.

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And to finish here's today's title track from The Wedding Present which is for Robbie Keane because everyone thinks he looks daft after his claims about how good The Spuds are this week.

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See You Tomorrow.