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June 17 Britain's Got A Bunch of ShistersA selection of some of the alleged claims made by Members of Parliament.
Firstly, I give you, in the Blue Corner, all the way from the benches of Her Majesty's Opposition, the following contestants.....
Crispin Blunt (Bet his school days were fun) The Conservative home affairs spokesman was told to stop claiming thousands of pounds of second home allowances on his London home because he lived there with his children, the Daily Telegraph said. In response, the Reigate MP asked if he could take out a second mortgage against his constituency home in Surrey and claim for that. When this was refused, he sold the house and bought a bigger property costing nearly twice as much, and charged £16,000 to the taxpayer in stamp duty and fees. Way to go, Crispy
Michael Ancram Former shadow defence secretary Michael Ancram, who is the marquess of Lothian, (so he's had it tough) is reported to have claimed almost £100 for the repair of a swimming pool boiler. He also asked for reimbursement of £1,117.43 for a gardening bill which included "cleaning up moss etc" at a house in Wiltshire. The Telegraph said none of the three properties owned by the Ancram family has a mortgage.
The public feel for you mate.
Sir John Butterfill Sir John did not pay capital gains tax after making a profit of £600,000 from a house funded by the taxpayer, the Daily Telegraph said. The Bournemouth West MP reportedly lodged claims under second home allowance for his six-bedroom country house, complete with swimming pool and extensive grounds. He was reimbursed to the tune of £17,000 for servants' quarters. Servants quarters ?? Well, we've all been there eh !!
John Selwyn Gummer
Dear old Gummers, claimed £9,000 a year for gardening, according to the Sunday Telegraph. It says he charged the taxpayer hundreds of pounds for treating insect "infestations", removing moles and jackdaw nests from his Suffolk property, and for an annual "rodent service", the paper said. It was reported Mr Gummer initially claimed around £200 a month towards the interest on the £60,000 mortgage on his constituency home but that when other expenses were added he claimed close to the maximum of over £20,000 most years.
Who hasn't had worries over Jackdaw nests.
Sir Patrick Cormack
The Staffordshire South MP claims over £1,000 each month for rent on his second home in London, according to the Telegraph. Other claims by Sir Patrick have included £329 on a TV, £200 on a radio & £349.97 on replacement reading lamps.
That's a lot of "reading lamps" Paddy.
Sir Nicholas & Ann Winterton
The Tories very own "dream team" couple - MPs for Macclesfield and Congleton respectively - claimed more than £80,000 for a London flat owned by a trust controlled by their children.
And there I am worrying about paying my bills, small world eh !!
Brian Binley
The Northampton South MP is accused of claiming more than £50,000 to rent a flat owned by his own company, BCC Marketing. According to the Telegraph, Mr Binley moved into the flat in early 2006 and began claiming £1,500 a month. When Commons' rules changed two months later, banning MPs from renting properties from businesses in which they had an interest, Mr Binley appealed to
the Fees Office. Speaker Michael Martin reportedly took two-and-a-half years to process that appeal, during which time Mr Binley kept claiming the money.
Well done my son, that's a touch of class.
Chris Grayling
The shadow home secretary claimed thousands of pounds for renovations to a London flat 17 miles from his family home. The Telegraph also alleged he delayed putting in claims so he could received the maximum in Additional Costs Allowance (ACA) over consecutive years. It said he owned four properties within the M25, including his constituency home in Ashtead, Surrey, and the Pimlico flat for which he claimed his expenses.
Top drawer, Chrissy Boy. Top drawer.
Now, in the Red corner, representing Her Majesty's Government (for what it's worth) it's the turn of The "New" Labour Party.
Margaret Beckett
The Caravan lover found herself in trouble with the Fees Office after attempting to claim £600 for hanging baskets and pot plants. She claimed second home allowances of £72,537 from 2004 to 2008, despite having no mortgage or rent to pay on her constituency home in Derby. As environment secretary and foreign secretary, Mrs Beckett was living at the grace and favour Admiralty House in Whitehall, which enabled her to rent out her London flat.
Nice work if you can get it.
Hazel Blears
Leather loving Haze claimed for three different properties in a single year, spending almost £5,000 of taxpayers' money on furniture in three months, the Telegraph reports. She also claimed for stays at London hotels after selling her flat. In March 2004, she declared her property in her Salford constituency was her second home and spent £850 on a television and video and £651 on a mattress. In April, she switched her second home to a flat in south London, claiming £850 a month for the mortgage.
In August, she sold the flat, making a £45,000 profit, and stayed
in hotels over the following two months. In December, she bought another London flat for £300,000, claiming a monthly mortgage of £1,000 and a grocery bill of £400.
Ooh, what a girl.
Stephen Byers
Ex Trade Secretary used the expenses system to claim more than £125,000 for the London flat owned by his partner, it is claimed. Over the past five years, Mr Byers is said to have spent more than £27,000 on renovation, redecoration, maintenance and appliances at his flat in Camden, north London.
Now there's a man who knows a thing or two about trading !!
Ed Balls & Yvette Cooper
Absoluely determined not to allow the Winterton's to have it all their own way, the Governments very own "dream team" couple are bang on form.
Old Balls-UP & the missus have it sewn up, “Ms” Cooper re-designated, or "flipped", her second home from a property in South Yorkshire to the London home she owned with her husband in 2005. After that, The Telegraph says the couple each claimed half of the share of their £1,468 mortgage interest costs. In May 2007, the couple moved to a larger home in London and began claiming £1,031 each in mortgage interest as well as £2,000 in moving costs. According to the paper, the two submitted the same claim twice in July 2006. Additionally, Mr Balls was said to have charged £33 for two Remembrance Sunday poppy wreaths, although the claim was turned down.
Well, the cost of Cavier & Smoked Salmon is on the rise
Sir Gerald Kaufman
Old Jerry is alleged to have claimed £1,851 for a rug imported from a New York antique centre and tried to claim more than £8,000 for a television. The Telegraph also said he entered a claim for £28,834 - more than £15,000 of which was paid - for improvements to his London home, after telling officials he was "living in a slum".
You have to feel for the poor “Knight of the Realm”.
Ruth Kelly
Ruth “I’m not a geezer, honest” Kelly according to The Telegraph claimed £31,000 of taxpayers' money for flood damage to her second home, even though she had a building insurance policy at the time. Not content with this, the gravel-voiced genius (sic) went for glory by trying to claim £3,600 for a sofa and chairs, £2,355 for a dining table and chairs, and £2,000 for a plasma screen television but they were reduced by the fees office for being excessive.
Her response is even better than the claims she made.
She told the BBC that "my claim was neither ludicrous claim nor a phantom claim", unlike others featured in the Telegraph. She argued that the furniture which she claimed to replace was "worthless" since it was 30 years old having been inherited from her parents - and so could not have been claimed on insurance. She says that the rebuilding work was handled in her absence whilst she was juggling being a minister and the mother of four young children. She concedes that she did not explore whether she could have claimed on her building insurance. I love that last bit particularly.
The idea that it didn’t occur to an MP to look into the idea of using the insurance system you & I have to use is, frankly, brilliant.
Shahid Malik
The, & I love writing this bit, “Justice” Minister Shakey has rather brought his position into question. Consider the following allegations, he claimed £66,827 from the second home allowance - the maximum allowed - over three years towards the cost of his London flat - bought in 2001 before he was elected.
The Telegraph state that the “Justice” Minister claims over the period included £2,100 for a flat screen television, £1,420 for a bathroom, £671 for a fireplace and £730 for a massage chair. It says the Fees Office rejected the TV claim - ultimately granting the MP £1,050 for a TV and £250 for a DVD system, oh, & a further claim for an iPod. Mr Malik is also reported to have claimed for a £65 court summons for not paying council tax. While claiming the equivalent of £443 per week for his London flat, the Telegraph says Mr Malik was paying less than £100 a week to rent a property in his constituency from a local businessman.
Hmm, might be all above board of course, tee,hee.
Lord (love it) Mandelson
The business secretary claimed for improvements on his constituency home after he announced he was leaving Parliament to become an EU Commissioner. Oh, he later sold the property for a profit of £136,000.
"The fact is that these allowances would not have been paid if they weren't within the rules," he told BBC Radio Scotland.
Well done Mandy. I think it's the fact that they ARE the rules that is hacking people like me off so much mate.
David Miliband
The 14 year-old looking Foreign Secretary (the mere thought makes me shudder) claimed almost £30,000 for doing up his £120,000 constituency home over five years, it was reported. He spent up to £180 every three months on the garden at the property in South Shields. Additionally, he paid the husband of former Labour MP Meg Munn for tax advice.
But to fair to the lad, it's a hell of a step up from paper boy to Foreign Secretary.
Keith Vaz
Old Keithy, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee claimed more than £75,000 to fund a second home in Westminster, even though his family home is just 12 miles away in Stanmore.
Nice one.
Old Woody (former Tory MP, jumped parties without having the decency to stand for re-election) let us taxpayers contribute almost £100,000 to help pay the mortgage on a £1.35m flat he owned. A man who is married to a member of the Sainsbury family and worth an estimated £15m .
All credit to you me old mucker.
Just a small selection of alleged claims from our esteemed Members of Parliament’s
Naturally enough in most cases the MP’s have claimed they have done nothing wrong & have always acted “within the rules”.
Parties like the BNP have recently seen electoral success despite their vote actually dropping in numbers, a crazy indictment of just how far our political system has allowed itself to be dragged into the gutter.
Petrol has gone back up to 103.9 in my area.
I pay £100 a month gas & electric bills.
It’s good to hear that the “Benefit Fraudsters, we’re onto you” commercials are back on the radio !!
They did say life wasn’t fair though.
June 09 Euro Sceptical ??So the people (or at least those who could be bothered to) have spoken with their crosses & it looks grimmer than a certain Mr G. Reaper for Mr Brown (the one of the non-tanned variety). If you look firstly at Europe as a whole, the clear picture that emerges is that most worryingly of all for Brown, the majority of Europe has refrained from giving their respective Government’s an almighty kick in the Ballot Box. This despite the worst economic conditions in living memory. Even Berlusconi seems to have done well. If you want concrete evidence of the mess this Govt find themselves in, you need look no further than across the Severn Bridge, where for the first time since the end of World War One, the Labour party has failed to come top in a nationwide election. When you have the Tories topping the polls in Wales things have gone beyond Serious, & are on a train journey where the next station we are calling at is Calamity Central. Such a disaster in the Principality simply serves to demonstrate just how damaging a time this has been for the Labour Party. Maybe they have committed the ultimate political sin & taken the ordinary man for granted for too long. Charles Kennedy summed up the mood in Britain by stating there was an “anti-politics feel about things” which is a clear indication of the public’s reaction to the expenses scandal. Though, that said, there is also the danger that the Labour Govt. will effectively take the flack whilst it’s clear that members of all the major parties are “bang to rights” too. Writing in The Gruniard, Polly Toynbee rightly surmises that the expenses issue has caused a wave of public anger as it has “opened up the enormous inequality” in Britain. Meanwhile the “fringe” parties have reaped the benefits of such a clear demonstration of public anger & apathy towards the Government, most notably UKIP & the BNP. Whatever your views on these organisations, there is little doubt that UKIP have a valid point when they chastise Brown for failing to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. It’s Gordon Brown’s Achilles heel, similar to Scargill & his refusal to hold a ballot for the miners in 1984/5, it’s coming back to bite him on the old behind. Not that the incredibly annoyingly smug Nigel Farage should get too carried away. A lot of people might well share his views on the EU, but to come second in the elections might well be a tremendous propaganda coup, it’s as much to do with the current political & economic climate as anything his party actually stand for. I’ve long held the view that the vast majority of people in Britain have little interest in politics, a sad indictment of our nation, but there you go, as a result people use elections to register frustrations or disapproval as opposed to any warmth they might feel for a particular parties doctrine. This is especially true with the emergence of the BNP. Their electoral success are actually a victory for voter apathy, not for pure democracy. There is no doubt that the BNP now have both the national & European political platform hey have craved for so long, but it has far more to do with the current climate & just how dramatically the Labour vote, in particular, has fallen away. Griffin is in the position he finds himself in because of the serious political failings of all of the other major parties. The biggest gain for both BNP & UKIP is really in propaganda. Evidence is crystal clear if you take a look at Burnley in Lancashire, voters have pretty much rejected them on this occasion. They’ve had a taste of power there & the public have rejected them this time round. The new Health Sec. has described the BNP successes as being a “sad day for British politics”. Hmm, how about politicians being, by & large, completely out of touch with the realities of life of the very people that have elected them in the first place mate. Sort that little issue out before you take the easy & lazy option of criticising other targets. The Green party have, predictably, criticised the voting system in Britain after their support increased somewhere in the region of 50%, yet they still only have 2 MEP’s to show for it. Leader of The Green Party, Caroline Lucas, rightly points out that a similar voting system to that operated in Germany would have increased their number to at least eight members.
So the upshot of all of this has left Europe with a clear leaning to the right of centre after the lowest ever turn-out in the history of European elections, just over 43%. A 20% drop from the first elections in 1979. British voters turned out roughly 1 in 3 to vote with the fringe parties reaping the benefits. All in all, poor results for the centre to left of European politics with those parties to the right of centre gaining, hence UKIP & the BNP here in Britain.
Me, I voted with 150,979 others as a whole in the United Kingdom & 15,483 others in the South East for the Socialist Labour Party. Making up 0.7% of the vote in the South East & 1.1% of the people of the UK. Actually not that bad considering only just over 4 million voted Conservative & 2.1 Million casting their support for “New Labour”. Full credit though to the Wai D party who polled just 789 in the South West, campaigning on a platform who, if elected, would have ”undertaken at their own expense the creation of an internet site where citizens will have the chance to express, at any moment, during the entire legislative process, their own opinions And they couldn’t convince the good people of the United Kingdom, honestly, this country !!
May 28 Another Glorious Trophy Winning Night At AnfieldSo the 20th anniversary of Arsenal finest moment in their illustrious history has been marked in just about the best possible manner, namely a trophy win for Arsenal. Steve Bould must love this date, not content with being part of the title winning thirteen from 89, the folicily challenged one returned to Anfield this time as Arsenal youth coach to see his lads carry on from where they left off at The Grove last Friday evening. Starting with a 4-1 advantage, in truth it never looked likely that the Micky’s would overturn the deficit. Arsenal ran out 2-1 winners on the night, giving Bouldie’s young guns a 6-2 agg. win. Sultana’s coverage included a post match chat with professional Scouser Jason McAteer & one Michael Thomas. He might have played for both sides during his career but Micky is most certainly a Gooner. So all in all yet another satisfying May 26th in Liverpool. Good to note a decent sizable travelling support up there as well, brilliant also to see a “Respect for the Ninety Six” banner unfurled by said Gooners. A touch of class lads, a gesture which was warmly received by the home supporters.
Whilst the match was live on Sultana, I opted to watch Arsenal TV & their “Arsenal Pure Gold” programme, a regular look back at “classic” Arsenal matches. No prizes for guessing which “classic” had been chosen for viewing on this occasion. The only downside was that the whole 91 and a bit minutes weren’t shown, more like around 75 minutes of highlights, but well worth the watch anyway. Deciding to get into the full spirit of Anfield 89, I donned the yellow away shirt, well as best I could, twenty years on. I’m pleased to report although it seemed a little on the short side, it was still a reasonable fit, though admittedly if I stood sideways on & you chopped my head off, you’d most probably be wondering when the due date was!! Twenty years on though, I have to say that 1989 Adidas polyester football shirts itch like buggery. Perhaps Susanna & Trinny should’ve done something about that !
Still I got into the game & waited until Micky T missed a glorious chance to score some twenty minutes from time, before cracking open the nicely chilled Piper Heidseick (sod the recession & one wage, this was 20 years to the day since the finest moment I’ve experienced in a football stadium, bar none !!) & raising a glass as Kevin Richardson dispossessed Barnes & worked the ball back to Lukic to set Brian Moore on his way. “Arsenal come streaming forward in surely what will be their last attack” Dico, to Smudger & onto Micky T for surely the most dramatic moment in domestic football, for me, defiantly the finest. It’s quite amazing how much of the match I’ve actually forgotten, yet much of the day & evening still remains so vivid in the mind. The thing for me about the achievement that night, was that it had been so long since we had won the league – 18 years in fact. In 70/71 I was just 7 & whisper it quitely, an Evertonian (Alan Ball & all that) & to be honest, can’t remember too much about the season apart from the cup final at the end. So the feeling of becoming champions was something virtually unknown for Arsenal fans of the day, and a footballing Holy Grail. Winning it finally set us apart from the Spuds, having traded cups and league finishes over the years. We were the undisputed Champions of England, something they haven’t achieved in my lifetime, &hopefully/ probably never will. We were officially even better than Liverpool a side that appeared almost unbeatable &impossible to dislodge). Anfield 89 was just like a fantastic dream! Zoom forward 20 years, and of course the whole footballing dynamic has changed. Arsenal fans no longer have to worry about Tottenham achieving more than us, even Spuds fans themselves accept their inferiority. We live in a state of the art stadium & play in the Champions League every season (though it was looking a bit hairy at times this season !) We have been watching Bergkamp & Henry, Cesc, Vieira, and Pires, Arshavin & Overmars. Recent years have seen two doubles, two other FA Cups, European finals including the Champions League, oh & a style of play that I could only have dreamed of back in ’89. From a long serving fans perspective, the world of Arsenal has been transformed into something beyond imagination compared to what we knew back then. Now we are one of a few genuine world super-clubs; ok, so maybe not the biggest or best right now, but a super-club all the same. And perspective is the thing. This season we have finished 4th and haven’t won anything since 2005. Four whole years &the press would have us believe that everyone is up in arms. Sack the manager! Mind you, we have been to a European Cup final (lost narrowly with 10 men) a League Cup final (with the kids) another Champions League semi final & FA Cup semi, a team that ought to have won the league last season but for injuries, a bit of inexperience & bad luck. What I’d have given for this level of ‘failure’ in the 70’s, 80’s, and most of the 90’s The reaction to our current ‘plight’ leaves me nonplussed. I remember people getting disgruntled with Terry Neill. He won one FA Cup & bought John Hawley& Ray Hankin, but never got the dogs’ abuse that the current Arsenal are getting and rightly so. George Graham won two championships and three cups, then oversaw one of the worst Arsenal teams in my time as a fan with Eddie McGoldrick & John Jensen at the heart of midfield. Still few walked out moaning with half an hour to go when we were losing 3-1 at home to QPR, Dec 31 1994. Whilst I remain as disappointed about our performance this season as the next fan, and whilst I agree that Le Boss has ballsed up by not strengthening the squad after last season’s departures, the perspective that the occasion of the 20 year anniversary brings reminds me of what the club has achieved and where the expectation level now sits - and it’s in a different stratosphere. Like most people, I expect real value for money for my season ticket and demand the right to boo players when they underperform and dive. I want to see Arsenal at the top of the tree and it upsets me to see Man U and Chelsea thumping us at home as easily as they have these last couple of weeks. But everything is relative. The notion that Wenger should be replaced is absurd in the extreme. Replace him with who? Big Sam? Tony Pullis? Sven? My mate Mr Brown ?? C’mon you Gunners. End of SeasonIn the late May sunshine, the season ended in style as Arsenal avenged their defeat in The Potteries last November by running out comfortable 4-1 winners against Stoke on the last day of the season. Out of the blocks as quick as possible, The Gunners were three up in less than twenty minutes. First Beattie turned a cross from Fabs into his own net after ten minutes, five minutes later Shawcross, atypical journeyman clogger as was so evident back in Nov. Upended Van Persie who made a mug of him all afternoon. The Dutchman scoring comfortably from the spot. There can’t be a more clinical penalty taker at the club than dear old Batman, he always seems to strike the ball so well giving the goalkeeper little chance. So two nil up & a few minutes later it was three as Diaby rose unchallenged to head home, Van Persie then rattled the bar with a free-kick before Denilson made an unnecessary & clumsy challenge on Fuller in the penalty area resulting in the deficit being reduced.on the half-hour. The second half saw just one further goal as Delap showed his game has more to it than simply the long throw, as he attempted to head the ball back to his keeper but only succeeded in heading the ball straight to Van Persie to set him up beautifully for his second & The Gunners fourth. Toure also hit a post as Arsenal toyed with their visitors throughout the afternoon. So much so that third choice goalkeeper Vito Mannone had as comfortable an Arsenal debut as he could’ve possibly hoped for. Though it should also be noted that anything he had to deal with, was dealt with well. The crowd showed their support for Wenger throughout the game, it remains to see just how the mood develops as of August though.
So West Brom, Middlesborough & Newcastle are ralegated to be replaced by Wolves, Birmingham & Burnley. Pleased to see Burnley promoted as they try to play football, gave a decent account of themselves against Arsenal in the previous two cup encounters, even though Bendtner missed a hatful of chances ! Nearly beat the Spuds, well would’ve if the away goal rule was applied in the Carling Cup ! Knocked the Chavs out too. So well done to Coyle & his side & one thing looks evermore likely in the Premiership. That is there is a good chance that the newly promoted sides will stay up, Hull & Stoke have proved it this season & with them likely to be in the mix next season it gives the likes of Burnley more hope.
How poor were Newcastle this season, & at Aston Villa in particular ? I don’t think Owen touched the ball when he can on as sub, in a game they knew they needed to score in to have any chance of saving their Premiership status. But Shearer’s side simply meekly surrendered to their inevitable fate. And on the subject of how poor Newcastle were, didn't that just get Mr Brown out of jail ? Brown said: "We absolutely deserved to stay up and have a second year in the Premier League. "We got more points than the bottom three clubs - it is a simple as that." Now whilst I loathe the bloke, he's absolutely right. But please spare us the wild scenes of celebration, breaking into a song & dance routine, Britain's got talent ? More like Phil Brown's got no humility !! Your team stayed up because of the woeful form of Newcastle & to some extent Boro as opposed to anything you helped to conjure up. Twenty pts from a possible twenty seven to start with was both admirable & deserved, I've openly stated that The Tigers deserved the points at The Grove because they played two up front, defended well, Michael Turner in particular, boy does that fella read the game well or what. Also Hull rode their luck when it was required & fair play to them. But 8 pts from the next 66, & just the one victory in there (& that was an injury time winner at Fulham) tells you all you need to know about the standard of much of the premiership.Hull are a woeful side, Newcastle were, well, woefuller !! Hopefully they will now also let the Fabregas spitting row go too, reading between the lines it's clear Fabs spat at the ground, not something I condone but completely at odds with the rubbish spouted by Brown & Horton. Brown will never be forgiven for his, "for their club captain Cesc Fabregas to spit at my assistant at the end of the game shows you what thia club is all about" rant. Sad to hear such nastiness bile coming so soon after Hull had used Arsenal's training facilities pre play-off final match last May.
May 27 May 26 Remembered & Looking Forward tooAs the anniversary of that amazing night approaches, all sorts of memories flood back. I was lucky enough to be there that night and alongside the birth of my children, it remains the outstanding memory of my 45 years on this planet. My wedding day was great too, but sorry love, Anfield ’89 was something else... I was so fortunate to be there that glorious night, nothing (not even double wins, or winning the trophy at Shite Hart Lane) comes close !! Now onto the future, and Arsenal defeated Liverpool 4-1 in the first leg of the FA Youth Cup Final last Friday evening at The Grove in front of over 33,000, the sort of crowd many premiership sides would be content with. There were many highlights aside from the result.
Jack Wilshere, a name already known & revered by Gooners, simply ran the game. He glided past opponents, turned on a sixpence (even though he wouldn't know what a sixpence was), slipped passes through with an amazing maturity & was still able to evade some hairy challenges, as well as putting it about himself. Jack may have a low centre of gravity and be rather short but he sure as hell never pulls out of a 50-50 challenge. If he doesn't go on to be a top player, then something has seriously gone wrong. It's the first touch that sets him apart. It always propels him forward and at pace. As well as having skill and vision, he's also got a bit of Arsenal fighting spirit in him. He's obviously got a cool temperament as well. He's just about to take a crucial penalty in a cup final, and he stops for a minute to do his shoelaces up! No nerves there, then. Jack was brilliant, but he wasn't alone. Bartley and Ayling were solid in defence ably supported by fullbacks Cruise and Eastmond. Keeper Shea did what he had to do. Coquelin looked classy and solid in central midfield. Lansbury oozed class on our right, clearly toughened up having enjoyed a loan to Scunthorpe. Frimpong, born in Ghana but an England under 16 and 17 international was both tough & determined but was injured in the first half. Captain Jay Emmanuel-Thomas may look like a basketball player but his skills in close control and measured long passes were a joy. Up front Gilles Sunnu our French ace showed his quality speed and confidence. Sunnu was joined by the exciting Sanchez Watt when Frimpong was injured and Arsenal at this point changed from a 4-5-1 to a 4-4-2. Our first goal came from a sweet move from Wilshere to Lansbury to Sunnu who stroked home the opening goal to the delight of the kids both on and off the pitch. Our second came from Wilshere's very positive penalty kick after Watt had been knocked over in the box. Maybe the boys thought they were home and dry but Liverpool struck back almost immediately through their Swede Kacaniklic. Rolling over not being on the Scousers agenda the game went up a notch and a helter-skelter, tit for tat, tackle for tackle game ensued. Arsenal gained momentum which continued into the second half when a sweet through ball by Wilshere was latched onto by Watt who coolly chipped the keeper to make it 3-1. Emmanuel-Thomas is good in the air as you would hope for one so tall and it was his header from a perfect Lansbury corner that made it 4-1. Substitute Rhys Murphy was on long enough to torment a few players and have a good goal disallowed for offside. The extra goal would have been useful because this Liverpool side won't make it easy for us at Anfield, they're too good and determined for that. But a 4-1 half time lead in a two leg final must bode well for Stevie Bould's kids. How appropriate Arsenal’s young guns go to Anfield on May 26th You couldn’t make it up.
Wiltord not RememberedHave you ever been at a party but felt that the host didn't really want you there, or more relevantly, you don't feel part of it, a bit uncomfortable, you know how it is. Not knowing where to sit, stand etc.Well, my freiends, that person was Arsenal last Saturday lunchtime as Man Ure prepared to celebrate their third successive Premier League titleThe best thing about Arsenal’s draw at Old Trafford? For once, the away support would have been able to exit the stadium – on the assumption they didn’t hang around for the home side’s celebrations – without severe risk of getting their heads kicked in, a habitual fact of life when leaving the away section after a Manchester United match. There is not much to say. Arsenal performed creditably, but the inability to fashion many clear cut chances against a side encamped in their own third of the field is a familiar one. Normally, it’s seen at home matches and the same problems occur. Frustration and all too often these days, dropped points. Remember the sequence of four 0-0 draws earlier this year? Three of those matches were at Ashburton Grove. Still, credit to the players. Yet if United had needed three points instead of one, then it would probably have been a very different game. Three minutes’ injury time were played. That included half a minute to remove Wayne Rooney. Why that wasn’t added I’ll never know. Arsene Wenger is insisting that there is very little between his current squad and the newly crowned champions Man Utd. Prior to last Saturday’s encounter. Le Boss stated that we conceded just 12 more than them. “Just” 12. If you concede two a game and fail to at least match that, then you lose six games. I begin to wonder if Le Boss is finally going round the frigging pipe. He seems to be far too emotionally attached to his young starlets and will do anything to protect them from anything resembling criticism. A severe case of rose tinting. In championship winning terms, conceding a dozen goals more than your arch rivals is a total disaster, to which no team, no matter how talented, can ever recover over a 38 game season. The Facts. Post Old Trafford Man Utd: P 37 A 24 We have conceded ten more than Liverpool, who in the end came a limp second. Scoring goals is not a problem. Scoring them at the right time is our big problem, but you simply cannot expect to be serious title contenders against the three best teams in England, if not Europe when you are shipping on average, a goal a game. May 12 Arsene Facing the Music ??The manager has a question and answer session with shareholders at the stadium on Thursday. I am looking forward to seeing that on Arsenal TV. on Friday evening. The man has some serious explaining to do. No Arshavin or Song in the Semi Finals
No adequate replacement for Flamini to give Fabs the licence he needs.
Fabregas was scoring for fun when he had his minder there last season.
Forget the injuries, yes, we've had far more than our fair share, but it goes deeper than that, the squad is simply not good enough despite an insistance that this is the best squad he's ever had.
Cup runs to the semi finals when, in truth, we faced no-one of any substance in the FA Cup until the Chavs, Hull in the quarters were the first premiership side, & we made heavy weather of beating them !
A penalty shoot out against a very average Roma side, that could've gone either way.
A poor performance form Villarreal in the 2nd leg of the Champs Lge.
Wenger has absolutely no fear whatsoever of the tin tack because the finances look a lot healthier than what we’re witnessing on the pitch, at least when a half decent team is in opposition.
All of this despite the very reason for moving from Highbury being so the club could compete financially at the top level, hmmmm curious that one.
Either money is available or not, if it isn't we've been fed more porky pies than the pork pie eating champion of Great Britain
If the dosh is available, Wenger really does need to start spending it in all positions.
One defeat against a top team is unfortunate. Four in less than a month is more than co-incidence.
With another visit to Old Trafford to come at the weekend.
As The Stranglers famously once sang, Something Better Change. Oh Four Christ Sake !!I can confidently predict that any Arsenal fan whose lottery numbers come up this week will inevitably lose the ticket such is the kind of misfortune we Gooners are experiencing at present. The visit of Chavski to The Grove was not only a chance to get back out on the pitch & banish the memories of our Champions Lge. exit, but our last chance to achieve the dizzy heights of 3rd place thus avoiding the dressed Champions Lge. group qualifiers in August. It’s a cruel game sometimes, or most times it seems at the moment. Wenger decided to start with Van Persie playing as a lone striker but with Fabs. in that little hole just behind. So no Barndoor or Nick “where’s yer troosers” Bendtner in the starting eleven. We should have known better when The Gunners flew out of the blocks & looked set to take Tuesday nights frustration out on our visitors. Walcott was guilty on several occasions of firing wide, Diaby shot past the post when he so clearly should’ve left the ball for Fabs who was much better placed to shoot. Song was unlucky with a turn & shot which went narrowly wide. All of this came in the first 25 minutes & much lie the Carling Cup Final of 2007, the Chavs had barely had a kick. It all started to go horribly wrong when Fabs was penalised & subsequently booked for an apparent foul on Drogba, far be it for me to either criticise or indeed suggest that the Ivory Coast international “went down a bit easy”, but, it was a dive as per !! Regardless of the award, regardless of the undoubted quality of the header by Alex, who let’s face it, does have a bit of previous in that department at The Grove, once again it was a lack of basic defending from a set-piece that was our undoing. Alex’s header cannoning (no pun intended) in off the underside of Fabianski’s crossbar. Oppositon sides must simply practice set plays before they face us, safe in the knowledge that there is a fair chance of scoring from either a corner or free-kick. Whether it’s down to a lack of height, commanding prescence from the centre backs I’m not sure. Perhaps Diaby would be better employed picking up opposition players in these situations & trying to nullify the main threats. Before we’d recovered Anelka was allowed to go on a run through the middle of the pitch unchallenged, though Silvestre looked as though he was considering closing him down if he got as far as our penalty area !! No need to worry on that score though Mikel me old mucker, as the the former laugh a minute Gunner struck a swerving effort that Fabianski had little chance with & we were two down before the break. Anelka might well have made it three but for a good block from the young Pole. Chavski by rights should have started in black & white stripy tops & worn masks such was the similarities with daylight robberies. I half expected a Crimewatch reconstruction during the interval. With Arsenal needing the three points, I did expect Wenger to throw some extra firepower up front for the second half , but he left it as it was & within five minutes of the restart I was frantically searching the house for the mirror I have so obviously broken recently, as a cross from the most loathsome man in football was met by Toure who diverted it into his own net to make the situation even more shambolic than it would have seemed possible 10 pm Tuesday evening. Comforting to know that after Tuesday things could, indeed, get worse. Bendtner came off the bench & restored a little respectability by heading a Sagna cross past Cech & suddenly for a couple of minutes Arseanl looked threatening & Nick the Dane had another header saved before Adeybayor went down in the box appealing for a penalty after a tangle with Bosingwa. Silvestre saw a chance saved as we did our upmost to salvage something from the game, followed by Adeybayor trying to round Cech before going to ground looking for a penalty he simply wasn’t going to get. Woeful Barndoor ! Poetic justice maybe, the Chavs went straight up the field & scored a fourth as Malouda as far offside as it’s possible to be tapped into an empty net after Anelka’s shot hit the post. So, we were taught a simple harsh footballing lesson by a ruthless clinical finishing Chavski side. You cannot play slick pretty football mixed in with sloppy defending boys. After the footballing week from hell, how fortunate are we to have a nice easy run out at Old Trafford next Saturday lunchtime. It remains to be seen if Arsene was watching properly. It has all the potential of being an eventful summer in N5, now where’s that black cat gone ??
The weekend games have seen Man Ure all but secure the Premiership title, four points needed with Steve Bruce’s Wigan side ready to roll over & have their bellies tickled like a dog midweek. Taggert’s side can wrap up the title when The Gunners visit nest weekend, ooh how things have changed since we won the title ourselves up there just over 7 years ago now. Luckypool, to their credit, have done their upmost to push Utd all the way, most recently cruising to a 3-0 at West ‘Am whose Di Michele has surely wins the award for most farcical moment of the season. Carragher losing possession with absolutely no-one near him allowing Di Michele a clear run on goal. He raced clear, only goalkeeper Reina to beat, but managed to trip up right in front of goal after rounding him & tried salvaging presumably his dignity along with the situation, by diving which was all compounded by him receiving a yellow card from Old Mother Riley. Man Ure scored from the resulting penalty he awarded them (probably). At the bottom, West Brom beat Wigan to give themselves a glimmer of hope of survival. Two games remaining & the Baggies are on 31pts along with North East rivals Middlesborough & Newcastle who meet on Monday night in a game being described as a 12-pointer ! Both teams look so poor it seems inconceivable either side will manage to score let alone win. But the victorious side (should there be one) will draw level with Hull, making it (Phil) Brown Trousers Time on Humberside. Suuulaaann are far from safe either as all the sides with the exception of West Brom seem to be sharing their own private gag regarding a phobia to winning football matches. Boro manager Gareth Southgate has summed it all up well saying that his club ”are probably closer to survival than we were 8 weeks ago because the tally needed to stay up seems to reduce every week” Proving he’s the worst caretaker since Ian Huntley (ouch !) Alan Shearer has said, & I quote, “I am as surprised as anyone at the situation we are in”. Well I’m not at all surprised, your lot are shite & have been pretty much all season.
Breaking News - According to the Daily Mirror, Adebayor could be set to leave Arsenal this summer with AC Milan chasing the Togo striker and Wenger will find it hard to resist a big-money offer after a disappointing season. Id’ve thought he’d find it hard to resist £50 & decent night out in a French restaurant. Remember Arsene, if the club are really that strapped for dosh, I’ll give him a lift to the airport & save the club the taxi fare.
Mind you The Mirror are also claiming Wenger has Gary Cahill of Bolton & Bruno Alves of Porto on his “summer transfer radar”. It gets better, “Wenger could also compete for Portsmouth's Peter Crouch, who looks certain to leave Fratton Park in the next wave of fund-raising by the cash-strapped club. The lanky England striker has always proved troublesome to Arsenal both with Liverpool and since his move to Pompey.”
Bloody hell, if being “troublesome” was the critier, we’d have a squad of strikers bigger than Man Ure & the Cahvs put together.
The Mirror finish with, “He would be able to sell Emmanuel Adebayor to AC Milan for about £15m, Kolo Toure to Manchester City for a similar amount and Emmanuel Eboue to either Atletico Madrid or Espanol for around £5m. “ Is there not a printing error on this piece ? An extra M appears to have been incorrectly added right at the end !! Shamelessly Stolen -Well Done Doktor Schneide - I salute you sir for this fine piece on The Gooner website....
Arsenal Suicide on Tuesday evening
Amid sensational scenes at the Emirates Stadium yesterday, it was confirmed that a person with loyalties to Arsenal Football Club had ended his own life because of the 3-1 defeat suffered by the club at the hands of Manchester United. ‘It’s true, I’m afraid,’ declared a visibly shaken Peter Hill-Wood, Arsenal’s long time chairman. ‘The club is saddened to announce that last Tuesday night, during the Champions League match against Manchester United, Monsieur Arsene Wenger – someone who many of us at this club knew and respected – committed managerial suicide. ‘It was a bolt out of the blue,’ Mr. Hill-Wood continued. ‘None of us at board level suspected anything. We don’t think he had any money problems as he never asked us for any and he seemed a very confident person. Why, on the very same day of his tragic demise, he told me everything was going to be “magnificent.” He will be sadly missed.’ Pat Rice, Arsenal’s assistant manager, was horrified by the news. ‘Arsene was such a nice man,’ Rice said, choking back the tears. ‘He always used to say to me how important I was whenever he sent me on errands like picking up his dry cleaning or doing his shopping at Asda. Only last week he asked to go to as many libraries as I could to find reference material for the new book he was writing, called: “Tactics And How To Ignore Them”.’ Many others formerly and still connected to the club were also distressed at learning Wenger’s fate. ‘He was like a father to me.’ Said a grief stricken Emanuel Eboue. ‘In fact, he frequently came round to visit my mother who would often ask him, “Well, what are we to do with the boy?” ’ ‘I can’t believe it,’ said young Nicklas Bendtner. ‘He was always so kind. He was always giving me great advice like, “Remember, whenever going out, always check three things: Have you got your keys? Have you got your wallet? Are you still wearing your trousers?” Of course, as a world class striker, I’m of the opinion that two out of three isn’t bad.’ Emanuel Barndoor said he was prepared to say little. When asked if it was because he was in shock, Mr. Barndoor replied, ‘No, it’s because it’s late and I’m tired due to just being magnificent at everything I do.’ Mathieu Flamoney, an ex-player at the club contacted news agencies by email immediately the story broke. “I’m available to say anything you want me to.” The message began. “Provided, of course, that the cheque is big enough.” MP's - Dont You Just Love 'Em !!MP's - They appear every 4/5 years asking for our trust in them.
Cabinet minister Hazel Blears says she understands why people "hate" MPs' expenses as she faces pressure over the sale of her "second home". She sold the flat for a £45,000 profit but did not pay capital gains tax as it was registered as her main home with the Inland Revenue. She said I understand entirely why the public hates this. The system is wrong.
My particular favourite is ex Tory MP now NI Secretary (How this bloke was allowed to simply switch parties without having to stand for re-election is beyond me & goes a long way to explain the arrogence of these people) Shaun Woodward. The secretary of state since 2007, he has had the use of Hillsborough Castle and declares rental income from properties in England. He doesn't take his full ministerial salary, but in common with other MPs he does claim expenses. Details published on Friday show that the Labour MP for St Helens has claimed for phone bills, council tax, and nearly £2,000 towards utility bills. The claim is that Taxpayers contributed almost £100,000 to help pay the mortgage on a £1.35m flat owned by the Northern Ireland secretary. The money went on mortgage interest payments and council tax between 2004 and 2008 for the flat.
A spokeswoman for Mr Woodward said details of his claims are published every year and they are within the rules and guidelines. Presumably read from a prepared speech if you know what I mean !! Married to a member of the Sainsbury family, Mr Woodward is worth an estimated £15m and owns properties across the world. Although I like Keith Vaz’s style, The chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee claimed more than £75,000 to fund a second home in Westminster, even though his family home is just 12 miles away in Stanmore. I should imagine a very large number of his constituents travel that & more to their place of work. Vaz responded to the claim by saying, that the Stanmore home is “not in Central London” , but better still, "It's on junction 4 of the M1 and I keep the Westminster flat for early morning meetings as do many MPs who live in that block," oh that’s ok then mate. One MP has apparantly claimed expenses for having work done on his garden, ie grass cutting. Why doesn't garden maintaining costs come out of their own pockets. My definition of MP’s - A group of people as far removed from the reality of the lives of the very people they supposedly represent it is untrue !! Reflections - The Sequal, Or Do I Feel Any Different Now ??Fans deserve to be disappointed. It costs a scandalous amount of money to attend Arsenal matches these days and while the reward can never be expected to be commensurate we should be able to expect that Arsenal are capable of challenging for top honours. I never expect us to win anything but I do expect that we should be capable of giving it a damn good go. Unfortunately we look some way from being capable. That aside for a moment, it disappoints me that a lot of people left the stadium with half an hour to go. No matter how bad your team is playing how can people leave? What kind of supporter leaves like that? Are people really that desperate to avoid the tube queues? Stay there and support the team. Accept that Man Utd are a much better & more organised team. Being a supporter, rather than a mere fan, is about those moments when your team is at rock bottom. It is easy to support a team at the top. Being a supporter means sitting there and taking it, not having it away on your toes because you don’t want to be tainted by the embarrassment. Take the embarrassment, it's part of the deal when you sign up.
Every summer supporters voice their opinions on exactly what Wenger needs to do to get the squad right. Sell him,buy him,do this, stop doing that. That period will start early this season, pretty much from right about……now. So Arsene, Je vieux mucker,here we go, deep breath. Do what you should have done last summer – sell Adebayor & buy a proper striker. Eduardo is as natural a finisher as I can recall but there will inevitably be question marks over his fitness or susceptibility to injuries, it’s only to be expected given what’s happened to the fella, he cannot be considered our main striker as a result, sadly. A proven finisher is what we need, which obviously won’t be cheap but what is the point in claiming to challenge for the Premier League and the Champions League otherwise? Get a proper top drawer striker who can finish, cos it ain't Adeybarndoor. We have seen flashes of brilliance from this boy over the last few seasons. Spurs last season, Villarreal this, & a few others. But that’s the point sadly, only a few others. Henry, Pires, Wright, Bergkamp, pretty much showed their quality every time they were out there. Barndoor over 180 minutes against Man Ure had one shot I can recall, did even less against Chelski in the FA Cup, then along with other squad players we hear complaints that Arsenal don't challenge for honours enough, so when we get within a game or two of winning silverware, they disappear on the pitch & start moaning about the depth of the squad. Does he actually believe if Arsenal had £50m to spend on two top strikers he would be top of the pecking order? Time to offload this oaf for the first decent offer & buy a striker who understands the very basics of the offside rule. I wonder if Wenger still has AC Milan’s telephone number in one of his suit trouser pockets ?? Apparantly he’s “pledged” his immediate future to the club, get the red & white bunting out boys, it’s party time. When he says ‘Arsenal have made me into one of the biggest strikers in the world’, I assume he's referring to his height or muscle because surely even he is not as delusional to think he is one of the best strikers in the world.
I suspect it rankles with most fans that we have not one but two billionaires on our board, yet it seems we have been looking down the back of the sofa & underneath the microwave to find a few quid to buy Arshavin. It's patently not good enough IF we want to progress from semi-finals. But, I’ll say it again, a few players are needed sure, but not major open-heart surgery as some fans would have you believe. Do we need a new keeper, the trouble is all Almunia’s frailties come to the surface after his blunder with Ronaldo’s free-kick, but no-one was calling for a new man between the sticks this time last week when the Spaniard quite literally saved us from first leg annihilation. If we really did miss out on Alonso for the sake of a couple of million it’s criminal. If we can’t afford him at all fair enough I can accept that. I’d dearly love Arsene to go out & sign Torres in the summer, there’s probably more chance of my lottery numbers coming up (either would be most welcomed) but I’m a realist & know we can’t afford the Liverpool striker so my expectations are adjusted accordingly. We’ve got enough creativity, it’s just the defence that needs strengthening, a quality sidekick for Fabs & a goalscorer. The board say there's money to spend but Wenger seems convinced that he hasn't so somebody is telling porkies. Beyond that Wenger needs to buy two quality hungry central defenders. If only to have cover for Djourou who like Eddie, has question marks over his fitness. It’s a fact that Wenger has barely bought a decent central defender in all his time with us. Campbell was a freebee, Upson wasn’t here long enough to pass a reasonable judgement, he was recommended by Don Howe, that’s good enough for me, there was a man who knew a thing or two about defending. You don’t have to spend a fortune. There are decent ambitious central defenders who would jump at the chance of playing for Arsenal, players with guts and a desire to improve and achieve something. Steven Taylor of Newcastle, springs to mind, & definitely the big ugly brute who scored against us for Fulham. Taylor looks like an Arsenal type of defender, a fighter & uncompromising, a throwback to the famous back-four, someone with some blood & fire in his belly. Toure isn’t the same player he once was, Djourou looked rusty, Gallas was injured, simply not acceptable boys. Bringing in Arshavin was the first reality check, a proper world-class player. I suspect that Kroenke may give Wenger a year’s grace – so the time to recruit credible ready players is now. Eboue. We have tried to be patient with the boy. He has improved in the last 4 months,though it could only go one way in truth, but we all know that he simply is not good enough at the highest level of football. Time to move on Manu. Rosicky. Simple. World Class on his day, trouble is he hasn’t had one for about 18 months due to the fact he hasn’t played for 18 months and I suspect no one at Arsenal has a clue what’s wrong with him. Maybe it’s time to offload and recoup some funds (if he ever recovers). Denilson. Has his moments like Adebayor, but not the right man or good enough to play alongside Fabs. Too often his final ball is poor & clearly not a "Vieira" in the tackling department, which looks a fundermental requirement to me. Fabs so obviously needs a Barry/Alonso type midfielder to play with alongside.
Eboue. We have tried to be patient with the boy. He has improved in the last 4 months,though it could only go one way in truth, but we all know that he simply is not good enough at the highest level of football. Time to move on Manu. Rosicky. Simple. World Class on his day, trouble is he hasn’t had one for about 18 months due to the fact he hasn’t played for 18 months and I suspect no one at Arsenal has a clue what’s wrong with him. Maybe it’s time to offload and recoup some funds (if he ever recovers). Denilson. Has his moments like Adebayor, but not the right man or good enough to play alongside Fabs. Too often his final ball is poor & clearly not a "Vieira" in the tackling department, which looks a fundermental requirement to me. Fabs so obviously needs a Barry/Alonso type midfielder to play with alongside.
The fall out from this season looks fairly clear to me though, we had a better season than actually was expected last season, as a result expectations were understandably high this time round. You can accept Man Ure & Chavski are decent sides who will be difficult to finish above, whatever our feelings about such clubs. But the facts are clear, we haven’t challenged for the title anywhere near what was hoped for. Three years in a row that Wenger has told us this team will deliver next season. Are we any closer? Probably not, our defence hasn’t been good enough for at least a couple of seasons, hence the need for a couple of quality defenders? Back to my point about the need for a new & strong second in command at this club, preferably someone who can spot the required quality we need because Sol Campbell apart Wenger seems incapable of getting a good enough defender. Cygan? Stepanovs? Sign Brede Hangeland, the Fulham defender has been nothing short of immense this season,& looks just the type of player we need at the back. Brilliant in the air, surprisingly good on the floor. , aerial dominance, with pace, strength & a great reading of the game. What are you waiting for Arsene, this guy would probably walk all the way from Fulham Palace Rd to sign the contract. Le Boss MUST give up the pretence that this squad is the best he’s had. He MUST buy players with experience, stomach for the fight, two good feet and an understanding of offside. Arsene Wenger also crucially needs more tactical help, which brings me nicely onto our number two. What is Double Winning legend Pat Rice's role at this club exactly ? You never see him get off the bench the whole game, he just sits there staring. He doesn't do press or media interviews. As I say, an Arsenal legend, but sorry mate what do you bring to the team now ? You are slowly turning into Phil Neal as in Graham Taylor circa 92/93 & that saddens me immensely. Arsenal's wage bill is now around the quite staggering £100 million mark annually !! My company are presently trying to negotiate a deal whereby I’ll have a pay freeze for two years, not including the non pay rise for this year. That would be three years effectively with a pay cut given the price of heating, fuel, food etc. Reality is an amazing thing at times eh !!
It’s all selective this knee-jerk reacting, both positive & negative & we are all guilty of it. The balance needed is to not get carried away after a good win or a bad defeat. Consider the following , I couldn’t fault our display on Tuesday night from the kick-off, until an unlucky slip from Gibbs for their first goal, followed by a dubious (at best) decision from the ref to award a free-kick ended the tie early. I’ve been watching the Arsenal regularly for almost 30 years now, so I’ve seen plenty of highs & lows that comes with it (it may sound weird but I still think if we’d scored first, the game would have been oh so different) but I just can’t believe how we fell apart so easily, & that includes a good proportion of the crowd. As I mentioned earlier we have to question some of our "supporters" following Tuesday night. Leaving after the third Utd goal went in is unacceptable if you consider yourself a “supporter”. We all know the nightmare that is London Transport, we all want to get home (certainly that night !), most people have work/school the following day, I’m frequently up at 5am, I’m not saying that makes me a better supporter, I just get so frustrated as the people who left so early obviously do care, they’ve paid their dosh & have the right to vote with their feet if they so choose. But in my experience they are often the very people who whinge when they have no chance of a final ticket, or when some other sold out game is played.
Of course by the same token it must be remembered what we have achieved at this great club & not get too carried away by the obvious disappointment of Tuesday night. While not spending fortunes on players and risk bankrupting our future, Wenger has maintained our status, one that he built, as one of the top four clubs in the Premier League and one of the top 10 in Europe, at worst. Last year we were a whisker away from the Premier League, this year we reached the semi final of the FA Cup & Champions League & guaranteed Champions League Football for next year; this is on par with what Chelsea may end up achieving and in all likelihood better than what Liverpool will achieve. Not bad at all when you consider how much our squad cost in comparison to Man Utd, Chelsea & Liverpool (let alone the rest of the no-hopers like Tottenham, & West Ham who keep spending fortunes and getting nowhere) & that our squad could well be around for another five to eight years, while the likes of Chelsea after their own Champions Lge disappointments have several players in their 30’s & will have to rebuild. As for potential summer targets, it’s pointless suggesting potentials who would cost a kings ransom! As for replacing Le Boss, who do dissenter’s want then, Allardyce? Arsenal are a great club, playing in a great state of the art stadium with a great manager & a pretty decent squad; one that is the envy of almost every club in the land. Unfortunately we have lost out to one of the most powerful clubs in the world in Man Utd & a team built off the back of a billionaire, Chelsea; both have potentially precarious financial futures governed by the will of single men; either one of them could become another Leeds!!! At present, from what I know Arsenal has no chance of going down that route... is that something any real fan would want to change? What frustrates me & probably most fans is we really could & should have beaten The Chavs, no Arshavin & no Song were monumental cock-ups by Wenger. This side are actually pretty close to achieving something, but the targets above are, we must accept, pretty damn decent sides too. There is no divine right to win silverware, Rochdale are in the Division 4 play-offs this week, they’ve been in the lowest tier of league football for longer than any other side, more than 30 years, how d’you think their fans feel year in, year out, don’t you think they care about their club every bit as much as you & me care about ours? Ok, so granted they probably aren’t paying anywhere near the prices we have to fork out, both on wages & admissions, season tickers etc, but does that mean we have a right to care more, of course not !! We only get frustrated because we care so much, regardless of our allegiances. Why else did I need to buy a new mouse for the laptop after last season’s elimination in the CL at Anfield ??!!
Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner has apologised for his behaviour after being pictured leaving a London nightclub at 0400 am Wednesday morning.
The 21-year-old was shown leaving the venue hours after Arsenal's 3-1 home defeat by Man Utd. Bendtner was pictured with his belt undone and jeans pulled down. "I may be young, but my actions were a poor error of judgment and something I deeply regret," said the Dane.
"I love this club and was so disappointed to lose against Manchester United," Bendtner said in a statement.
"I want to apologise to the club and the fans for letting them and myself down. "I cannot change the past, but will learn from my mistakes. Tuesday is behind me now and I want to use my energy to fully focus on our three remaining games this season - starting with Chelsea on Sunday." Whether or not this was a classic damage limitation press release via the club is unclear, whatever it’s a welcome admission from the lad. I don’t think he should be condemned too harshly, he’s a young lad who probably felt the need to get the game out of his system. I wish I could have joined him !! There was one advantage on the night, we had 80 minutes to get used to the idea we were going out before the final whistle blew !
Loved Arsene's press conference comments though, “I am doing as well as I can with the resources available. If people say that’s not good enough, I understand that completely. Of course I’ll try to bring in one or two in the summer and whoever we get will not be short of experience,Chelsea have spent magic money and still not won the European Cup." Yet Wenger was not happy with Emmanuel Adebayor’s admission that Arsenal have gone backwards. He snapped: “I don’t take much notice of the comments of the players. Players at any club say they want to sign big names but never say they need someone in their position.”
A final word on our hapless neighbours though, the story about Palacios & his kidnapped brother is a reminder of what's really important in life, It appears "a body" has now been found in his native Honduras.
Palacios left Spurs' team hotel in Liverpool before the 0-0 Everton draw.
"The lad had heard from his family at one in the morning what had happened, and his brothers, I believe, have identified the body," said Redknapp
"He sat around the hotel lobby with his case packed until 7am because he didn't want to wake me.
His mother's been over visiting him on her first visit to England. And she left on Friday and is flying back home so she's travelling and won't know until she got home. I think it's been confirmed.
Football is not really that important after this."
Whatever my views on that lot from the wrong end of the Seven Sisters Rd.
It's a sobering reminder given the frustrations of last Tuesday night.
Reflections - Or How I Felt Wednesday MorningIt was intended to be the night that The Grove came of age. But Wenger’s youngsters well and truly soiled themselves.There is a belief, & boy is it an ironic one if it is actually true, that but for the impending move to The Grove, a certain Cristiano Ronaldo would have been an Arsenal player lining up against Man Utd now. It’s fairly well documentated that Wenger wanted him in the summer of 2003, but the club weren’t too flush at the time, David Dein worked on the deal, but the club did not have the readyies, mainly due to the need to raise funds for the new stadium. We could have stayed at Highbury, learned to live with the lesser income. But as football was becoming more and more money-driven, the board wanted a stadium which could raise serious money. It was never an option at the time & most fans understood this, as so often mentioned since the move, we were fed a load of propaganda about the need to move if we wanted to compete at the top etc. The problem seems to have been the short-term pain for the long-term gain. So we are watching a group of players that we are hoping can buck the odds rather than a team that can credibly compete with those who have not moved stadium and incurred debt that way. Instead, those teams have incurred debt on buying players, chasing the dream to win trophies. Since Arsenal’s last title win in 2004, Chavski (whose debt is on paper so will never have to be repaid) & Man Ure have carved up the title between them & won a few other trophies besides.. Arsenal have finished third or fourth. It’s our natural level at the moment, but of course, we don’t want to admit it to ourselves, or indeed, the outside footballing world. The long-term plan seems to be that gradually, there will be a decent budget for the manager to spend. But for now though, it’s make do & hope for the best. The consequences of that continue to be all too clear, the defeat by Man Ure being the most severe. Arsenal have at present a choice at left back between an 18 year old & a Taggert cast off who, let’s be honest here, would not get within a sniff of their first team now, however useful an experienced squad member he might be for us. At £750,000 I still think he was a snip but only as a squad player. In goal, we have, on the whole a decent enough keeper, though he’s not considered good enough to be called up for his national side. The fact he may be considered as a future England keeper brings to mind David James’consistant ability to drop a bullock. Last week’s gift to Bendtner just another example of his “ability”.If James is the best, it probably says little about the qualities of Arsenal’s shotstopper as top drawer, though I feel Almunia has at least earnt the right to prove himself for next season at least. But for all his heroics at The Theatre of Muppets in the 1st leg, that mistake at The Grove from Ronaldo’s free kick was truly abysmal Manuel. The squad is not good enough, it’s good yeah, good for 4th each season & that’s about it folks.. Wafer thin & capable of beating the also-rans. ‘We will be magnificent’Le Boss confidently predicted pre 2nd leg. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for building the players up, unbelievable belief & all that, but it needs tempering at times. Perhaps Wenger should learn to use the past tense when talking up his team. For all the pre-match bravardo, it looked pretty stupid on Wednesday morning I thought the team did not have a realistic chance due to the poverty of the defence, it was simply too damn hard to see Utd not scoring, but I waved my flag with all the others & was at least willing to believe that strange things happen in cups. Lord alone knows we lack & need some good experienced players who are proven at the top level. Where the ding dong bell was Arsenal’s scouting system when the likes of a Vidic are up on offer. It's not as if we're spoilt for commanding centre-backs. According to the financial blurb the wages the club pay match anyone’s except Chelsea’s & even Abramovich can’t buy everyone to become his playthings. The club can, by reasonable estimates based on the new stadium outgoings/debts etc. afford about £20 million a year on transfers at the moment, so the buying really has to be intelligent, blatant gambles are not an option. Eduardo and Sagna arrived for about £8 million each in the summer of 2007 & the result was a decent crack on the title. It began to fall apart when first Eddie & then the dreadlocked one got injured. Sagna played in “that “Birmingham game, a potentially pivotel turning point in Wenger’s tenure at Arsenal, days after the death of his brother. I am not convinced that this group of players has actually ever recovered from all the events of that afternoon. Three semi-final encounters in the space of three weeks recently & not a decent performance in any of them, at a time when it was so desperately needed. Is that too much of a trend to be considered merely unfortunate ? The defence is patently not up to stratch. There is no organization. Kolo Toure looked like a headless chicken in his first season, remember that uncomposed clearance at Villa Park when he hacked the ball into his own net, costing the team two points, & ultimately, a title we really ought to have claimed, Bolton & 2 up, only to draw, anyone ? Alongside Sol Campbell, he actually looked the part amongst the invincibles, but Toure is no leader of a defence. He’s enthusiastic, he’s 100% Arsenal, but he’s still not good enough. Something I take no pleasure in stating. Theo Walcott has pace to burn & we’re willing him to succed. But the boy is simply too inconsistent. Compare and contrast with Marc Overmars. A similar type of player. Theo is young, yes, but in that case, why are we playing him before his time? Why isn’t he still being used as an impact sub? Because the manager does not have better alternatives. End of. Finally, in January, the manager got it right. He bought a player with qualities the team was crying out for. Experience, big match temperament, a football brain, undisputed technical quality. And then what does he do? Leave him on the bench against Chelsea for the FA Cup semi-final. Sorry, but what the ding dong bell was that all about Arsene ? You are picking three players to attack, so you perm three from four and leave out the best one? Wenger in effect creates his own transfer budget by selling players he believes are expendable (or uncommitted) – both young and old – at good prices. So the balance sheets are looking good. Could anyone else manage to achieve such good figures on a shoestring? So any notion that the manager is under any kind of pressure from "upstairs" is simply not true. The board are most probably simply pleased that he’s kept Arsenal in the top four & made two semi-finals while spending (net) about £8.50 in the transfer market. I suspect that’s the bottom line in today’s financial crisis. So unless it changes Arsenal are going to be competing for – at best – third place for the next few seasons. I nailed my colours to the mast quite firmly in the depths of the despair that was the Spuds debacle, I said then I’m ok with the side being run on a financial budget consistent with the present climate, I can live with the reality that we can’t win all the trophies going, I’m realistic to realise the present squad is extremely unlikely to win the Premiership or Champions League however perilously close we might sail towards them at times, it’s when the manager makes such barmy decisions that I lose patience with the man. Fabregas tried in the Bergkamp type role at a stage in the season with prizes still on the table? Try it in pre-season next time in Austria Arsene !! The FA Cup really was “winnable” this season, who knows how that would have lifted the club, was Arsene more concerned (obsessed?) with catching Chavski in the league, no CL qualifiers for 3rd place remember? So no Andrey at Wembley but three days later, four shots & four goals at Anfield, two with his left & two with his right for good measure. If there is any truth in the phraseology used between Bendtner & Adeybayor during the debarcle at Shite Fart Lane back in Jan 2008, then when Bendtner came on as a sub on Tuesday night, I wonder if he was tempted to relay to Adebayor the words, “I’m on because you’re sh*t”? The 2004 team was quite possibly at the peak of its power, but we never saw its real potential. It was virtually broken up 12 months later. Pires should never been allowed to leave, purly for the sake of an extra year, nor Campbell, Lauren, Gilberto. We kept Vieira for so long. Every summer for over five years we had to battle to keep him at N5. One injury plagued season, and slight loss of form, & he was allowed to flit off to Italy. Too many great experienced players were allowed to leave in too short a time. Would our midfield have been overrun like it was last night with Gilberto or Vieira in there? Would our defence be so out of shape, with Campbell marshalling the back line? Our transfer policy is from the dark ages. No contract over a year for over 30’s? What’s that about? If United had that policy, Giggs, Scholes, Neville, and Van Der Sar would be sunning themselves in Spain like Bobby is at Villarreal. But, all these United players can still do a job at the very highest level of football. In the end, the biggest game of Arsenal’s season came to nothing. Almost unbelievably, it had fizzled out after a mere 11 minutes. Even before kick off, it was a game made all the more difficult by Arsenal’s failure to score a vital away goal at Old Trafford last week. In case you need reminding, despite our woeful performance in the first leg, we were lucky to leave Old Trafford just a goal down. So although we were still in with a chance, the second leg was always going to be difficult. Our biggest problem was trying to stop Man U from scoring at The Grove, but such is their array of firepower that it was almost inevitable that they would get on the scoresheet. We just had to hope that we would get off the mark before them. But the simple fact is this – over the two games we deserved nothing and we got nothing. Which begs the question “why?” Sad for a Gooner to say, but Man U have more quality across their squad. Never mind the players on the pitch, you only had to look at the faces on their bench – Berbatov, Giggs, Scholes, Tevez. And ours? Bendtner, Diaby, Denilson, Eboue, Silvestre. It says it all really. I don’t know how many decent goalscoring chances they created over the 180 minutes, but what I do know is that we created ONE decent effort over the two games. Yes, just the one solitary effort! No matter how much or how long Arsene pours over the stats, it was blindingly obvious that we were outplayed in every department and it was hard to see where an Arsenal goal was coming from. How ironic that it came from a dubious penalty. Just for once it was actually re-assuring to see Arsene looking thoroughly dejected at the post-match press conference and admitting it was the most disappointing night of his career. So presumably, as well as wrestling with the problem of how to lift the players for Sunday’s tricky game with Chelski, he must be asking himself “where do we go from here?” Surely he must realise that as things stand, if we retain our current squad for next season, the best we can hope for is fourth place again and a place in the knockout stages of the Champions League. Is that what the fans want? Just as importantly, would Ivan Gazidis and Stan Kroenke be happy to settle for that? Hopefully not, and we can but hope that pressure will be put on Arsene to strengthen his squad during the summer if we are to realistically challenge for honours. You only have to look at the impact Arshavin has made since his arrival several months ago. After all, it’s not as if we need a major clear-out of players but it is quite clear there are some who have failed to deliver during the course of the season – Adebayor, Eboue, Diaby, Denilson. We still have the nucleus of a good squad, but we need to add the quality of depth that our main rivals have. And let’s not forget that we also have some talented youngsters knocking on the door – Kieran Gibbs, Carlos Vela, Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey May 06 Should I Stay or Should I GoI hate it when I’m proved right, when I didn’t want to be, but that’s the feeling I had as I took the very lonely 22.20 Waterloo train home last night after seeing Arsenal demolished in the biggest match yet at The Grove. There was a perverse irony in the tie being all over in the first ten minutes, courtesy of two individual mistakes by the two best Arsenal players from last weeks 1st leg. Without doubt they changed the whole complex of the tie, goals, as we are often told, change matches. Well, they most certainly did last night. A couple of beers beforehand, & a stroll to the Grove, I got to my seat & picked up my free flag. Quite why the club felt they needed the gimmick of a flag to “get the crowd going” is beyond me, if you weren’t “up for it” last night, you’re never gonna be. No club inspired aides should really have been required. Still, the steady wind did help to provide an impressive sight as fifty odd thousand red & white flags fluttered high into the North London sky. The game began, and we started brightly enough in the early exchanges, a little bit of pressure on the Utd box, & er, that was it, as they say. The whole evening turned out to be pretty surreal so I shouldn’t be surprised that I missed the opening goal, you don’t get more surreal than standing at a urinal doing what comes naturally as you hear the depressing news of the visitors crucial away goal (copyright .B. Moore RIP) via Clive Tyldsley’s commentary on the concourses outside. Me & the bloke a few feet down from me also at the urinals (stop it !!!) both looked at each other & instinctively uttered the same phrase, (I’ll give you a clue, it rhymes with clucking bell !!) the full gory details of poor Kieran Gibbs slip described to me upon my return to my seat. So 82 minutes left to get three goals, sorry, make that 79 minutes left to score four goals. What looked at the time to be a soft free-kick awarded to Utd after a Van Persie challenge on Ronaldo, ended up with a 40-yard effort well struck & dipping but not fierce enough to beat man of the match from the 1st leg Almunia. That it did beat the Spaniard was down to the man himself end of. It was a comfortable height & really shouldn’t beat a keeper at his level. TV pictures have since confirmed the text messages I received that it was nothing like a free-kick, making the two early strikes all the more frustrating as they knocked the wind out of both the players & supporters sails, absolutely no question. Where on earth do you go when you need four goals against a side who don’t look likely to concede one ? My flag was on the floor by now, along with, I suspect a good few thousand others. By the mid-way point in the first half Wenger for me should have changed things, short of a real pasting, there was little the eleven out there could do save a bit of damage limitation. I’d have thrown Bendtner on at this point as he would at least made a nuisance of himself. Award for insensitive statement of the night went to the stadium announcer for his, “let’s take a look at the highlights of the first 45 minutes on the big screens”, yeah mate let’s shall we, just in case it wasn’t as horrible as it seemed in reality, ooh hang on, nope, it was, cheers Arsenal. An extra dose of salt was thrown into our wounds as Ronaldo’s free-kick was replayed from just about every camera angle conceivably possible. Eboue came out for the second half replacing the most probably distraught Gibbs, whether this was Wenger’s sole decision or the lads as well remains to be seen. Arsenal huffed & puffed but all to no port vale, then on the hour mark a very Arsenal type-goal sadly scored against us. Utd cleared a corner, Park passed to Ronaldo who back heeled it back, Rooney broke on the left & found Ronaldo on the right to finish, it was a sensational move & goal & put the result beyond any doubt whatsoever. I understand the frustration of those Gooners who had seen enough & decided to leave, it was all too much for one bloke near me who berated those leaving, so much so that one departee came back down the gangway to “have some” with the abuser, as is always the case a few others got involved, most it should be said were trying to defuse the situation. But there were enough hotheads who fancied punching their disappointment out of their systems thank you very much. As I said, I do understand why people feel the need to leave, often for a variety of reasons, which include the appalling transport system we insist of having in our capital city. A mainline railway station on the immediate site of a spanking new 60,000 state of the art stadium, but no upgrade of the station takes place so it’s closed when there is a game on, priceless. But, if you’re a supporter, shouldn’t you stay & do just that? We really are a spoilt bunch us Gooners, some of the best football I’ve ever seen has been served up on a regular basis over recent years, now we’re having an apparent barren spell (probably 95% of the teams in this country would happily swap places, but there you go !) & it’s the end of the world.
Sure it was humiliating, frustrating last night call it what you like, but the match itself HAS to be put into some kind of perspective. Go back to the first leg, Utd go two up in 11 minutes, a body blow, but not terminal, a 3-1 defeat last week would most probably have left us disappointed but still bullish about our chances of pulling it back, 2-0 would’ve been enough in that scenario. But the fact is two terrible errors / judgements changed the complete face of the game in 11 minutes last night. It wasn’t just another game, it was the biggest game so far at The Grove & we flunked it. Once the aggro calmed down, there was drama back on the pitch as the referee awarded us a penalty as Fabregas appeared to be fouled by Fletcher, it probably wasn’t even a foul & certainly not worthy of a red card, the moment he pointed to the spot I remarked, “he’d never have given that if we’d been winning 1-0”. Good to see we Gooners still retained some semblance of humour as we serenaded the departing Manc with “You’re not going, you’re not going, you’re not going to Rome” Van Persie buried the penalty as if we were 3 up & coasting, which prompted a fantastic rendition of “four more, we only need four more”. Sadly a steady stream of departing Gunners had missed the only bright moment of the evening. The remaining minutes were played out relatively uneventfully; save for an appalling challenge by Adeybarndoor on Carrick studs on ankle, the only moment he showed any commitment all evening. Fabs might have given the scoreline a little more respectability but shot straight at Van Der Sar. Ronaldo might have made it worse with a free-kick that fizzed just over the bar & that was that, the Italian referee finally put us out of our misery. Full credit to the supporters who stayed long enough to give Utd & particularly Ronaldo a standing ovation. You don’t have to like them to admire the quality of a performance like that. A theme echoed by a BBC reporter at the game who so brilliantly observed that, “ United don’t automatically inspire affection from rival supporters, but if you love football, you have to love that third goal. One end of the field to the other in a classic sweeping move characterised by superb passing & a stunning run from just outside his own area by Ronaldo to start & finish the move.”
Post- Match Arsene Wenger gave one of the most honest match views I can recall him giving. Arsene conceded Utd over the two games deserved to go through, well I suppose he could hardly say otherwise. He agreed Fletcher’s red card was harsh & rightly stated that the referee had a “very bad game”, he did , he was appalling. Then some soul-searching it would seem. “ I need to take some distance from this season. We are on a consistent run of 21 league games unbeaten but recently in games where it mattered, like Chelsea & Man Utd, we couldn’t win & that, of course, needs thinking about.”
About time too, a bit less of the rhetoric of, “battled well, showed plenty of commitment, spirit” etc.
Today is not the time for an inquest though, that must come in the close season, though without doubt it could well prove to be possibly the most important close season of Monsieur Wenger’s tenure.
Apparently Adeybayor doesn’t blame Kieran Gibbs for the slip that allowed Park to score early for the visitors. Two points here, firstly, no-one blames Kieran, it happens, it just happened to be that night, that early & in that position on the pitch, the boy done absolute brilliant this season & barely allowed Ronaldo a kick last week. He’s quality & will bounce back. Now, point two, Mr Adeybayor, no blame on young Kieran, but how about a little look in the mirror mate, why not question why you didn’t put yourself about a bit in 180 minutes of possibly the biggest club games you’ve ever played in? The guy isn’t a top drawer finisher & won’t become one in my opinion, a decent first season but found out this time round, added to an almost criminal attitude at times leaves me still happy to give the boy a lift to Heathrow myself should AC Milan or anyone else be daft enough to be willing to part with silly money for the Togo international. Look at the other sides in the top four, Liverpool have Torres, the Chavs have Drogba, Man Ure have Rooney & Teves. I’d swap any of them for Barn Door & doubt any Arsenal fan would disagree with me on that one. So overall last night, I’m gutted but I wouldn’t say I was angry in the way I was last season as the purchase of a new computer mouse last year will testify!! The early crucial minutes not only didn’t do our way, they positively conspired to work against us in the worst possible way. In truth we all know how fortunate we were to still be in the tie before kick-off last night but you cannot argue with the kind of clinical finishing Ronaldo displayed. The painful facts are three Champions League meetings against Premiership opponents have all ended in defeat, one we should have won, one we still feel cheated over, & one we were well & truly outclassed with no luck either. Two truly appalling refereeing performances (last night & Liverpool away last year) plus a stone-wall penalty not awarded in the first leg last year, all add up to more frustrations than a man should have to bear, now, all I need do is wait for the dreaded Season Ticket renewal form to drop through the letterbox.
May 04 Twenty Year ItchIf you had offered me a 1-0 defeat after half an hour of the proceedings at The Theatre of Muppets last Wednesday evening,I'd most likely have bitten your hand off & looked hungarily at your arm too, so mightily relieved was I that Arsenal even made half-time only one down. Arsenal fashioned about two, maybe three, half decent attempts in 90 minutes and deserved nothing more from this game than they got – in fact far less. Particularly in the second half we managed to hold onto the ball for periods of time to relieve pressure. To win the Champions Lge I think you need both decent defensive organisation, &the ability to take chances in matches where not many come your way. Even allowing for my usual glass half empty attitude to most things on the playing side, I don’t think Arsenal will make the trip to Rome in spite of home advantage in the second leg. But even if we do, we will meet either a Barcelona side all too well equipped to rip this Arsenal defence to shreds or a Chelsea side with Didier Drogba. At least the former will be a watchable game of football. The latter means it probably won’t be worth even travelling to Italy as Arsenal are incapable of beating any Chelsea line-up with Didier Drogba. We haven’t got a single defender with the necessary nous or quality to contain him. The nearest thing used to play with him & is out for the season anyway. I have no doubt that United will score Tuesday night, any side with the luxury choices of Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez, & Berbatov up against our defence just cannot fail to do so, we can’t rely on Manuel Almunia having literally the game of his life. Given I see a Man Ure goal a nailed on certainty, the big question is will Arsenal score three? , well, yeah, we might but can The Gunners really be lucky again with this backline. In my heart of hearts I’ve been of the opinion even before the game at Old Trafford that we simply don’t have the defence to win this tournament. Throw the injuries to Gallas & Clichy out of the equation & yes we look more solid, but in fairness to young Kieran Gibbs, he’s filled in admirably. I think in all honesty we’ve done well to get to the semis, but in fairness, it looks like they may have had an easier passage than the other semi-finalists to make it to the last four. Villarreal were simply not up for it at The Grove & Roma were no more than an average Premiership side. To be blunt, it’s only due to giant performances from Almunia & Gibbs that there is still hope for the second leg. Alex Song battled gamely enough, so much so I genuinely expected him to pick up a yellow that would rule him out of the second leg, how unlucky this boy would be if he were to pick up one on Tuesday night & miss the final if we were to progress. Adebayor had a typical game, in mitigation the support he received was laughable, Diaby was needed to get forward with those Vieira type marauding runs, he didn’t manage one of them! Nasri & Fabs were hugely disappointing too, Nasri was so obviously playing too deep to be able to take a hold on the game thus rendering him ineffective. He neede to be able to play the "Freddie" role, bursting into the box. In playing both out of their best positions, Wenger got it horribly wrong. Is this becoming a bit of a nasty habit in big games Arsene ? I think we should be told. The one chance old Barn Door got was wasted, yes Id’ve been offering to have his babies if his thunderbolt had beaten Van Der Saar, alas it looked more likely to worry the travelling Gooners high up in the stand behind. As I said he was almost completely isolated for the evening, but in individual challenges he was far from strong. It was a Champions League semi-final and it really didn’t look as if he was up for it & that’s unacceptable. Thirty goals last season & plenty of optimism to suggest he could repeat the feat this time round. Paying upfront alone as he did in an away European leg is a thankless task, as mentioned before his support was poor, but he couldn’t hold the ball up, to even allow for a midfielder’s run, he didn’t track back, & when he did get the ball in attacking areas, he seemed to waste it almost every time. It really pains me to compare & say it, but how so very different from Drogba, playing in a similar role he was magnificent & there can’t be a Gooner who wouldn’t swap the pair given half a chance. Prove me wrong Manu & stick a hat-trick past Van Der Saar !! United played at a high tempo from the off & concentrated on hassling anyone in a yellow shirt, which constantly forced a loss of possession. We picked up a little in the second half & if Bendtner had taken his glorious chance form a free-kick we’d still be celebrating the biggest mugging since the Scousers stole in the FA Cup from our grasp on that hot May afternoon in the Principality eight years ago. Quite why Arsene didn’t throw Eduardo on before Bendtner was another mystifying decision, I do so admire Le Boss’s faith in the young Dane & I’ve been quick to praise the boy’s effort & all round work-rate, but his continual ability to control a ball further than I can kick one goes some way to explain the Arsenal way at the moment, a lot of unfortunate injuries & a decent enough squad brimming with talent in reserve but simply not of sufficient quality to go that stage further & win the trophy I so dearly want to see us lift. Contrast our defence frailties with the Chavs in Barcelona the previous evening, as entertaining as going to see Chas & Dave, but boy do they know how to protect their goal, they quite crudely thrust a procession of bodies in and around their box that Barcelona found difficult to break through. In much the same way Arsenal used to with the likes of Adams, Bould, Nutty etc. Not that I’m asking for a return to Gorgeous George & his ways of winning matches, but we do so have a frustrating insistence of trying to play the ball out of defence, regardless of any impending danger. The positional play from the corner that gave Man Ure the only goal was akin to the sort of stuff I see on Old Windsor Rec on Sunday mornings when I’m down the swings with my daughter. Did we really have to give Peter Kay lookalike O’Shea the freedom of the North West to fire home? Ever since Campbell left, we’ve never truly looked anything remotely like authoritative at the back, despite the stats indicating a solid defence. Gallas was starting to look the part before his injury, he was truly outstanding at Shite Fart Lane back in Feb. especially once we were down to ten men. Wenger really does need to sort this out in the summer, go for broke Arsene, stick with Djourou & bring in a big ugly centre-back who looks as if he takes it personally every time we concede. That’s certainly how I used to feel “the famous four “used to treat their jobs. So yes I may be a tad on the pessimistic side, but I honestly view it as pragmatic or realistic if you prefer, therefore I’m acutely aware that the likelihood of this happening is small. We may be a hugely & richly entertaining side, but the team presently seems only equipped to fall when the final hurdle is in sight. So Tuesday night most probably comes down to this, can Arsenal win 3-1 ? If they score two, it’s as good as over. So the Gunners have to restrict them to one and breach them three times. It can be done & with 50 odd thousand Gooners screaming ourselves horse you never know, as I’m so fond of spouting, the longer I watch football the less I understand it, though the news that poor old Eduardo is out with another groin strain has hardly given rise to any potential bouts of new found optimism. Even allowing for sudden bursts of intense optimism, I won’t be booking my Late shift off work for May 27th just yet. Try & stop me Wednesday morning though if it all goes well. Therefore on the premise it’s better to be upbeat however downbeat I might be feeling, consider the following, It’s worth remembering though that you don’t necessarily have to be the best team in the Champions League to win the thing, you just have to do enough to keep going through. Look at season 2000/01, Dec 2000 we’re at home to Bayern Munich, now there’s a side who know what it takes to lift that immense trophy (apparently it takes 26 bottles of Champagne to fill the bugger) above your head. Anyway, back to Highbury & a full house & before they knew what had hit them the Germans were two down. Now this was a scoreline that would sent shockwaves around Europe, we were totally in control & playing sublime neat high tempo football. Needless to say, being Munich they scraped their way back into the match, eventually equalised & could well have gone onto win 2-3. Eventually Bayern reached the final, were drawing after 120 minutes of action against Valencia, & then went & did what German teams do, ie. They went & won the trophy on penalties. Job Done, Gute Nacht Espana. So it’s the case you don’t need to win the Champions Lge by stuffing teams in grand style, Man Ure are a prime example, outplayed in the Nou Camp (ironically by Bayern Munich) they nicked it in 1999, fast forward to last year in Moscow, who expected Terry to fall on his derriere as he shot to win it for the Chavs ? The Mancs slotted theirs away & they’d won it for a second time, that’s all the history books will say. Munich thrashed a decent looking Lyon side earlier in this season’s competition & in turn have been hammered by Barcelona. A couple of seasons back, Barca won all six group games, were the best team in the competition by a mile & got knocked out at the first knockout stage, it happens !! Arsenal are not immune to this, for every 5-1 in Milan there’s been a PSV 1-1 at home, basically an average side who were well organised & simply knew how to stop us playing our game. Ironically we’ve been doing a bit of a Bayern this season, seemingly doing enough to get through, it wasn’t pretty in Rome, nervy beyond belief on penalties, (even on the second 4 pint pitcher of Kronie !!) but we did it. So, perhaps, maybe, just maybe, it really will be alright on the night come Tuesday. One final thought on the subject, it will be exactly twenty years all but three weeks on Tuesday night since that glorious night at Anfield. A dramatic evening when Arsenal needed to beat the best team in the country by two clear goals, sound familiar ??
In the aftermath of Old Trafford & thoughts of the biggest night yet at The Grove, some significant news from the club appears to have almost gone unnoticed. Namely that Stan “the man” Kroenke has bought out the Carr family shares & thus effectively now has control of the club. Danny Fiszman is still very much ”a player” though & it will be interesting time ahead with these two now at the helm together. The assumption now is that Usmanov has little if any chance of owning Arsenal Football Club. Does this also mean the end of any hopes David Dein had of returning to what is still undoubtedly one of his great loves. What happens now? I’m just a long-standing supporter of this great club, so I have no idea. Though I bet Hill-Wood is secretly not best pleased, after his infamous “we don’t want his sort” rant about the American I suspect dear old Woody’s silence will be deafening.
Get Down Mr BrownThe latest in the long-running soap opera that is the Hull City Football Club Team Manager.
“There has been a change in certain people’s outlook with regard to myself & to Hull City,” he told The Times.
“Now, all of a sudden, instead of being the new kids on the block & people’s second team, we’re portrayed as being the enemy.
It has surprised me, if I’m honest, but I think it stems from standing our ground, speaking our minds, if you like, and being strong personalities, strong characters who didn’t want to lie down.”
There speaks a man doing a mighty fine impression of someone with a serious inferiority complex.
Spend a little longer on the training ground concentrating on trying to keep your side in the Premiership mate, or to be more precise, the job you're paid handsomely to do, as opposed to giving interviews to the press about something that not only happened a couple of months ago, but is now the subject of an FA inquiry & will be dealt with.
Gawd knows what will happen if Fabregas is cleared of any wrongdoing.
Should they be relegated, Hull City will be missed, as they've been a breath of fresh air to the Premier League.
Their manager. I suspect, will not.
If You Can't Take ItNow I’m not known for jumping to the defence of Chavski players, though I feel I must stick up for John Terry. I don’t condone players winding up supporters but I have to agree with Terry when after being taunted by the West Ham fans last week, he justified running towards the home fans when his side scored the only goal of the game. “When we scored, I went running over…..& gave then a bit back. There’s nothing wrong with that.” he said. “If they can give they can take it, & if I can take it I can give it” he continued. I like the final point he made, “they have to expect a bit back. When they do get a bit back they all get the hump a little bit.” It’s difficult not to argue with that sentiment provided it’s not overstepping the mark. I’ve become fed up with supporters abusing players, some of it is particularly nasty & for no real reason, Arsenal fans are not immune from this, though it’s understandable when a certain player returns. When you hear “grown” men screaming abuse proclaiming, “ I hope your kids die of cancer” & such pleasantries, surely it’s all gone too far. Some of the abuse Beckham has had to take is outrageous & it’s to his immense credit he has never retailiated As Terry says, don’t whinge & go crying to the Old Bill if you get a bit back.
1998 Charity Shield at Wembley, Arsenal (double winners) against Man Ure (won nothing) Made all the sweeter by the transfer of our dear old friend Teddy Sherringham to Utd from the dark side of North London. Arsenal bossed the game & eventually ran out comfortable 3-0 winners. Poor old Teddy took an entire seasons worth of abuse in one afternoon. “Ooh Teddy, Teddy, you went to Man Utd & you won F… All”, & so it went on. Fast forward to 1999 & the same sides contesting the traditional curtain raiser as they say. Teddy is back but unfortunately Man Ure had done the treble, Sherringham was on the bench but took great delight in warming up behind the goal where we were, he was getting terrible abuse as you’d expect, the difference this year was he was lifting an imaginary trophy three times in response. I understand some people complained to the police after the match about Sherringham inciting the Arsenal fans, now don’t get me wrong, I loathe the bloke, but he took the abuse & handed it back to us with interest. If people can’t handle it when they get it back they really need to look at themselves in the mirror.
April 29 It's Not Just About Two Legs !!On a pleasant spring April afternoon, Arsenal had a fairly ideal piece of preparation for their forthcoming Champs Lge encounter in Manchester on Wednesday night. A comfortable 2-0 victory over a Middlesbrough side looking destined for relegation with Fabs scoring both goals in a more attack minded position. No apparent injuries from the game, though a half-time substitution of Djourou for Silvestre was probably as much down to the young Swiss internationals fitness being checked ahead of Old Trafford As it was precautionary on an apparent back strain. It took us 25 minutes to break the deadlock, but it was worth the wait. Fabs released Arshavin who broke into Boro’s box before sliding the ball into the Spaniards path for him to blast home only his second premiership goal this season. Downing forced Alminium into a good save & ex-Gunner Aliadiere had a good chance to equalise in the second half when he was put through, but Manuel showed the extra experience he has over Fabianski as he saved well. Half-way through the half Arsenal put the result beyond any doubt as a smart move resulted in a Fabs-like defence splitting pass from Eboue played Fabregas in, the visitors keeper did his Fabianski impression by racing out of his goal, giving Fabs the opportunity to round the goalkeeper & slotting the ball into an empty net.
So onto the biggest Arsenal – Man Ure encounter I can recall. Potentially bigger than any FA Cup Final meeting, memories of Rocky (god bless him) being sent off up there after persistent fouling by Whiteside amongst others. Nutty offering words of condolence after McClair blasted a last-minute penalty high into the North Bank. McClair & Irwin assaulting Nutty & Limpar in the infamous “brawl “ battle in 1990, admittedly after a challenge from Winterburn that was so late it should have been cancelled. A brilliant goal direct from a corner right in front of us almost forgotten by everyone won the match. Dermot, Laurie & myself on the end of season video leaping around like demented fools celebrating. To think I’ve still never seen Arsenal lose a match at The Theatre of Muppets, anyone got a spare for tonight ? Rocky lobbing Schmiecal & the ball hitting the bar before hitting the miserable Dane & bouncing in off his back & into the net in front of the travelling hordes, priceless. Tony Adams scoring at their place in the title winning season in the pouring rain, sticking his head in amongst the boots to head us in front right in front of thousands of us celebrating Gooners. Desperately trying to clear a cross he sliced the ball past Lukic to gift them a fluky equaliser. They behaved as if they were the ones going to win the title, some Kevin Webster lookalike giving it the large one while we were kept in the ground afterwards, “where are Man U in the league” we taunted the muppet. I think they were 11th at the time !! A Smudger hat-trick as we were crowned Champions at Highbury, including the worst penalty decision we’ve ever been awarded. How poetic the justice that they had to applaud us onto the field after the brawl earlier that season. Cantona unlucky to be sent-off in a pulsating 2-2 draw in the mid 90’s. A dramatic 3-2 win at Highbury in the 97-98 season, two up through Anelka & Vieira before our favourite player Teddy scored two. Platty scoring with a textbook header right in the top corner to win it for us late on. The return in March 98 saw Overmars score the only goal, Schmiecal upfield for a corner late on falling to the ground in agony with a hamstring injury, priceless !! Almost as good as Taggert’s face at the final whistle. Better to come though as post-match he tried the old mind games routine, “Arsenal in the box-seat, they’ll have to deal with all the pressure now, there’s no question they’ll drop points”, sorry old Red Nose, we didn’t drop a point until the trophy was wrapped up, nice try though mate !! Season 98-99 & a cancel each other out semi – final at Villa Pk ended goalless, back to Brum for the replay & a classic that we should have won, Beckham for them, Bergkamp for us & Anelka putting us in front almost immediately afterwards (or so we thought) only for an offside decision. I don’t think I’ve ever celebrated a non-goal for such a length of time. Keane sent off by referee Ellery & Parlour fouled by Neville in injury time to give us a penalty. It’s history now that Man Ure went on to win the treble that season, as they finished ahead of us in the Premiership by a single point, I have no doubt whatsoever that a decent Bergkamp penalty would’ve resulted in a second successive double for the club. Who could forget the calamity that was Fabian Barthez, a backpass from Beckham at 1-1 which the Frenchman played straight to Henry, then fumbling a ball letting Theirry in for 3-1. “Give it to Barthez” the delirious Highbury faithful taunted the visitors. It got better though as the following May we “won the league in Manchester” with a Wiltord goal. Horseface punched Freddie pretty much in view of the referee but no action was taken. I bet Taggart enjoyed that night, as Arsenal went the whole season unbeaten on their travels. Wenger got it wrong in 2003 at Villa Pk in the FA Cup semis as he left Henry on the bench. We still should’ve been a couple of goals up before Durkin’s son Scholes scored the only goal. Then we had the battle of Old Trafford as Horseface missed a penalty in stoppage time in the invincibles season. In truth certain players probably overstepped the mark that afternoon, Lauren, Keown & Parlour, were more than “caught up in the moment”. Our 49 match unbeaten run came to a controversial end at Old Trafford as Rooney dived in the box under a challenge from Campbell, old mother Riley pointed to the spot & the run was ended. Pizza was allegedly thrown in the tunnel post-match & the ramifications carried on for some time. To this day I’ve wondered what such a “health food” was doing in the tunnel for professional athletes. A cup final in the rain in the Principality, Ronaldo gave Lauren the runaround for 120 minutes before Scholes had a penalty saved by Mad Jens & we’d nicked the trophy. The next few years were relatively uneventful save for Paddy & Keane having a bust-up in the tunnel at Highbury before a league match, Poll having to separate the pair before the teams had even shaken hands. Fast forward to this season & a fantastic match in the pouring rain at The Grove, two goals from Samir Nasri won the day, post-match Taggert was remarkably gracious in defeat, stating there was no shame in losing a game to a team playing such good football. Steady on Red Nose, or we’ll end up tolerating you !!
So to tonight, a fair bit of rivalry, history, call it what you will, it has all the makings of a couple of classics. Both sides are lethal going forward, Utd probably have the stronger defence, scoring an away goal would be great, but Utd are more than capable of turning us over at The Grove, the key is to be still in the tie at 10.00 tonight. Song needs to play in front of the back four, I predict Walcott will play with Adeybayor on his own upfront. Diaby could play a role if selected by breaking forward to support the forwards when we have the ball. Chelsea were very disciplined last night in Barcelona, a similar tactical ploy by Wenger at the back would be very welcomed. We need to keep the ball as we know we can hurt them.
Come on Arsenal.
April 25 Four F… Sake !!It must be great being a Walsall fan, no disrespect to the West Midlanders meant, but take a look at their position in Division 3 (old money), 13th in the table, can’t get relegated but can’t reach the play-offs. As a result they can all relax, enjoy the rest of the season, but of more relevance, they would have been able to put their feet up Tuesday evening, crack open a mild & bitter (or whatever is it they drink) & thoroughly relax & enjoy games like the one at Anfield. Two top sides, going hell for leather at each other, eight goals & barely a decent piece of defending between them. As a Gooner, I only really enjoyed the four goals from our little Russian, as the rest of the game, however dramatic & exciting for the vast majority of the viewing public, was painful in the extreme. It's quite possible that Arshavin isn't fully match fit for two big games in a week as yet, it would certainly explain his ommission from Wembley, let's face it if you can hit four at Anfield in a game where the side have been outplayed, then he really ought to be in the side somewhere. Ditto Alex Song for the defensive qualities he brings to a quite obviously shaky back four. Wenger made several changes from the disappointment of Wembley, Eboue, Walcott, Diaby, Van Persie & Adeybayor out with Sagna, Song, Arshavin, Nasri & Bendtner the replacements. Liverpool battered us in the first forty-five minutes, & I do mean battered us, how a professional footballer can have two such very different ninety minutes is completely beyond me. Fabianski showed a watching nation just how good a goalkeeper he is & will go on to be as he keep the Scousers at bay almost single-handedly in the first half. In particular a brave double save from Torres & then Arbloa, followed by a breathtaking fingertip save from Torres, boy if only we had the Spaniard up front !! Silvestre was fortunate to avoid a yellow card after catching Torres late, one for his ex-boss perhaps? At this point it was practically all one-way traffic, as we seemed incapable of holding onto the ball for more than a few seconds. Particularly amusing moment as referee Howard Webb (having the only decent game I can ever recall him having) waved play on when Kuyt collided with Silvestre & went down followed by at least three full dramatic rolls, there might even have been a fourth. As usual, the home fans went bananas but were almost silenced when Agger failed to head clear properly & Fabregas fired in a shot that Bendtner was inches away from connecting with to put us in front.. Liverpool powered back, with the almost by now unplayable Torres hammering in a shot that Fabianski couldn’t hold. Samir Nasri then headed off the line as the home side looked certain to score. I have to give full credit to the Scousers for a deafening amount of noise as they got behind their side. They sensed cockney blood as we were struggling to get out of our own half at times. The crowd at The Grove would do well to replicate this kind of noise & support. Liverpool fans knew exactly how important this game was to their season. Ten minutes from half-time, we looked like we needed it too, suddenly a brilliant piece of skill from Nasri played Fabs in, he cut the ball back in the box for Arshavin (who’d barely had a touch of the ball up’till then) to fire Arsenal in front off the underside of the bar. I was celebrating wildly but had my joy temporarily suspended as I heard co-commentator Andy Gray questioning if Fabs had been offside, he had the temerity to question the gaol as the freeze frame showed Carragher was quite clearly playing Fabs onside. Still no time to dwell as Benayoun curled a shot which Fabianski was equal to, pushing it round his post. So half-time and we were a goal up, despite having had just the one shot on target & no corners. Ten minutes into the second half & Liverpool had turned it round completely, a poor sliced clearance from Sagna went straight to Kuyt who eventually found Torres who powered home the header, then an awful clearance from Fabianski put young Kieran Gibbs under pressure, the ball ended up with Kuyt again who found Benayoun who risked injury throwing himself at the ball to head past Fabianski, the young Pole unable to claw the ball out from behind the line. Understandably the place was rocking, & even the most ardent Gooner had to admit they thoroughly deserved to be in front. Arsenal’s priority was to steady the ship as it could have turned into a rout, the midfield of Fabs, Song, Denilson, & Nasri were struggling to keep the ball still. Wenger had seen enough & replaced Denilson with Walcott, Nasri moving into a more central role with twenty-five minutes left. Two minutes later Arsenal were level as Arshavin released a pile driver from 25 yards that arrowed past Reina. The fun was really starting now as a couple of minutes later Arshavin fed Nasri whose cross was poorly dealt with by Aureilo, his sidefoot clearance fell straight to the Russian who slotted home for an amazing hat-trick & to put The Gunners in front again. Two minutes later & Liverpool had levelled again, Torres showing fantastic close control & fooling Silvestre with a feint to shoot, before creating enough space to fire past Fabianski, for 3-3 in case anyone had lost count. Bendtner was ruled marginally offside as he scored from a difficult angle as the crowd roared & both sides continued to go for the winner, not a night for defences. Torres was denied his hat-trick as his header was nodded off the line by Gibbs, Liverpool throwing everything at us as the need for the three points was becoming ever crucial, the game entered the 90th minute when we had one of those de ja vu moments. A clearance from Fabianski found Walcott on the right wing in his own half, breaking away with Liverpool committed to attack searching for the winning goal, memories of last seasons Champions Lge encounter came flooding back as young Theo charged down the wing, breaking into Liverpool’s half before an almost inch perfect square ball into the path of Arshavin, who else!! Andrey took it in his stride, kept his cool & slotted home his & Arsenal’s fourth of the night. A truly amazing solo performance, we hadn’t had a corner all night, technically Reina hadn’t had a save to make as we’d had four shots on target all evening, everything on target had gone in !! I was leaping around the living room like a demented fool, instinctively reaching for the mobile phone to text the Liverpool fans I know, I planned to tell them how this was all poetic justice for the cruel way we were eliminated from Europe twelve months previously. Wisely I decided to wait, half-expecting us to blow it, & I wasn’t surprised when despite having two chances to clear the lines, including an opportunity to put Theo clear again, with Reina upfield following a Liverpool corner, Benayoun was given the freedom of the penalty area to complete the nights scoring to make it an incredible 4-4. The draw will have harmed Liverpool far more than us, & in truth we probably didn’t deserve to win a game where we’d been under the cosh for large periods, but as always it’s incredibly frustrating to concede in stoppage time, particularly when you’ve netted what should be the winner right on the ninety minute mark. If Georgie Graham had been forced to field that back four at Anfield twenty years ago, I suspect we'd still have contrived to throw it away after "Micky did it". You have to question why it is Monsieur Wenger has only ever brought in one top quality centre back in all his time at the club, Sol Campbell. Gallas is clearly being missed at present mainly due to his experience, he still has some way to go to suggest he can be put up there with the classic centre-backs we've been blessed with over the years. Similarly Matty Upson never really did enough to justify a permanent fixture in central defence. What this result confirmed, more than anything else though was that Arseanl now have to play with the "attack is the best form of defence" ethos. That's not a problem if you love watching these heart stopping end to end classics. I just wish someone at the club (Pat Rice maybe ??) would install a little bit of concentrating at vital moments into their game. Whilst it might be great playing football that is "just like watching Brazil" there is still nothing wrong with picking out that quality pass straight into Row Z now & again, & I'd have thought that 4-3 ahead in stoppage time at Anfield would've been a bloody good time. Twice now this season we've drawn 4-4 (dropping four points into the bargain) because we simply can't or won't keep it simple at the most crucial of points in the game. Mind you, where the hell the officials got 6 minutes of stoppage time from is anyone's guess, (I bet it annoyed Taggert immensley though !!) The texts that flew back & forth amongst fellow Gooners post-match centred round the obvious, namely why the ding-dong bell wasn’t dear old Andrey in the starting line-up at Wembley? Isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing though?
Credit to the travelling Gooners for displaying their “Respect for the 96” banner & for Liverpool organising a tribute to watching Ray Kennedy, a double winner with Arsenal in 1971 & sadly now suffering with Parkinson’s disease. Cards with no.10 in yellow & blue & a no.5 in red & white were held aloft as the teams entered the field of play. A superb display for a player who still means a lot in the red halves of North London & Merseyside respectively.
Liverpool are left level on points with Man Ure but have played two games more. To me the question isn’t so much will or can Man Ure drop six points, more to the point will they drop six more points than the Scousers in the remainder of the season, somehow I think not. Birthday BluesWhen your side are beaten in a game that really “matters”, for me other than the sound of the final whistle, the worst feeling is when you wake up the following morning & one of your immediate thoughts is, shit, it did happen. I have little doubt that Lukasz Fabianski was feeling just like that Sunday morning, I suppose I should be grateful I wasn’t the only one. Young Lukasz will most defiantly have had better birthdays, & doubtless will have in the future, but birthday boy or no birthday boy, our Polish under 21 goalkeeper chose a bad day to have a bad day at the office. It is always easy to pick holes in Wenger’s team selection when the result goes against you, but I’m gonna do it anyway, mainly because it was yet another baffling FA Cup semi-final Wenger selection. Think back to Villa Park 2004 and Man Ure are the opposition, we’re in the middle of a Champions Lge quarter final affair, (ironically against the Chavs) with the second leg three days later. Wenger thought it was a good idea to “rest” Henry & give young Aliladaire his first start of the season. When it was clear the decision hadn’t worked Henry was brought on around the hour mark, he never really got into the game & another final appearance had gone. You start with your strongest team, get the game won, or at least comfortable & then make your changes. With this in mind I was concerned upon seeing the Wenger team selection as the sides entered the pitch in glorious sunshine. An already inexperienced (at least as a unit) back four with a young inexperienced goalkeeper needed a solid defensive midfielder sitting in front of it, namely Alex Song, I’ll give Arsene the benefit of the doubt & say perhaps he wasn’t fully fit, or perhaps carrying a knock from the Villarreal match last Wednesday night. But, if he’s on the bench, you have to assume the Cameroonian was ok. In principle I was fine with Diaby in the side, possibly he could have replaced Denilson with Song partnering him, Wenger obviously rates the Brazilian highly as he rarely leaves him out. No Eduardo on the bench was a huge mistake, again, unless the guy wasn’t fit, though he was a non-playing substitute last Wednesday, so unless there was a training ground problem ? My immediate thoughts on the selected side was both, not enough protection for the back four, & how much stronger our bench looked than the Chavs.
Arshavin was fresh, has been playing well, settled in excellently & whilst Hiddink would know his game inside out through the Russian national side, surely the occasion was ideal for the lad to start. So we started brightly enough if not altogether convincingly, Theo’s goal was a well struck effort from Gibbs cross, the goal made all the sweeter by the deflection off A spoilt brat ex Arsenal full-back who was rightly jeered throughout. In a pre-recorded interview on Sultana shown before the match, Cashly said he could understand why Arsenal fans felt the way they did towards him, fair enough, but then went on to add that he’d moved on & they should too. Good to see you’ve lost none of that arrogance Cashly. Football fans are, on the whole, a fairly unforgiving bunch if you slate the team that made you the player you’ve become, & that’s the real problem with Cashly. Not because he left the club in itself, witness the reception Bobby Pires received at The Grove last week. I truly despise Hole as he continues to sum up all the negative attributes of the modern day, rich before you’ve achieved anything, type of footballer. I accept he’s a decent enough player, & in the above I include youngsters who wear ridiculously coloured boots, you know who I mean !! For the equaliser we really should be good enough to prevent goals like that & there was a suspicion of offside, but it was a tight decision so it would be churlish to criticise the officials on that one, especially given the “offside” goal Van Persie scored in our win in West Moscow last November. Fabianski shouldn't’t have been beaten but Eboue was as guilty as he fell asleep before the guy shot. In truth we struggled quite badly from then on & the hugely disappointing Diaby hesitated far too long in is own penalty area & presented Anelka with a chance that struck our right hand post with Fabianski beaten all ends up. Before half-time there were some, quite frankly, crude challenges on Arsenal players, Ivanovic’s lunge on Van Persie was a horrible late one which deserved more than a yellow. Ballack clattered Fabs which the ref dealt with after playing an advantage. Arsenal never got any momentum going in the second half with far too many players having an off-day. Walcott & Eboue did ok, except when Eboue fell asleep for the Chav's equaliser. Walcott’s final ball was far too often, the wrong one, but he clearly rattled Chelsea as did Gibbs early on. Kieran Gibbs is 100% committed to the Arsenal cause, if he loses posession, he does his upmost to retrieve it A penalty for handball against Silvestre would’ve been harsh as it was quite clearly ball to hand, but, as the saying goes, you see them given. Ditto the push by Malouda on Fabs. Denilson’s booking & shove on referee Atkinson was deserved & could well have been worse, no excuses but it showed the young Brazilians frustrations, probably as much with his own game as the teams. Then came the deciding goal, a Luckypool style huge punt up the field from Fat Frank, the ever increasingly annoying Drogba outpaced Silvestre with such ease I suspect the ex-Manc would have struggled against the 77 year old friend watching the game with me, (no offence Bill !!) we then had Fabianski trying to win the award for “Best Arsenal goalkeeping mad rush out of the area without a hope in hell of reaching the ball first” currently held by one Alex Manninger circa 98. He’s already made a bid for it early on with an attempt to head the ball outside the area, leaving Drogba with a header that fortunately Kieran Gibbs was able to reach & hack clear. The most frustrating thing about this match though was we as good as threw away an excellent chance to reach a cup final to a pretty average Chavski side. Once more Bendtner demonstrated that he posesses an incredably frustrating talent for being in the right place at the right time but sadly this talent is matched by his generally appalling first touch & finishing. And that, I’m afraid, was that, we were left thinking about consolidating fourth place in the land of the hub-cap thieves on Tuesday night, an aim made a little easier by Villa’s apparent refusal to compete for it any longer, another two points dropped before we’d kicked off.
The young Polish birthday boy will doubtless take the majority of the flak that results from this defeat, though Wenger’s team selection must be questioned. Goalkeepers make mistakes, & invariably they will be punished, remember, a striker can miss a hatful of chances, but put away one & you can be a hero, a certain Togo international immediately springs to mind . Although appearances have been limited, I’ve seen enough of Fabianski to suggest he will make a decent enough keeper. Granted he didn’t have a lot to do last Wednesday, but even making allowances I didn’t hear too many Gooners questioning his ability before the semi-final. Wenger was stinging in his criticism of the Wembley pitch & rightly so, "The surface is certainly not as good as the old Wembley, I think everyone knows that. A lot of other events happen here, so it's not been easy for the groundstaff." Said Graham Taylor on 5 Live. Arsene rightly criticised the state of the pitch, though I trust the press will note he’d done so earlier in the week & also made it clear he was not using the pitch as an excuse for the defeat. April 17 Petite MemoryEx Arsenal player Manu Petit has now questioned Wenger’s transfer policy. But as usual the facts are convienantly forgotten. It’s all well & good criticising the club for allowing the likes of Flamini & Hleb to leave, but Arsenal are absolutely right not to break their wage structure. Southampton were in the Premiership a couple of seasons back, an FA Cup final six years ago, now they stand on the brink of the old division three where they could well be facing another side recently in the top echelons, namely Leeds Utd. Both clubs spent heavily, in effect money they didn’t really have. Arsenal are right to run the financial side of the business in the way they do, because we don’t want to end up like these two. Arsenal are in debt by millions with the new stadium, however it’s dressed up & described, so we don’t really actually have much dosh sloshing about for new players, the alternative is to spend money we don’t have, precisely what a lot of people & businesses have been guilty of in recent years, & hence we are all paying for it now in the economic recession. As for the players that go where they think the grass is greener, show me the ones that have made the right move, Flamini went for the money, pure & simple, yes I wanted him to stay as he is just the tough midfielder that allows Fabs to go out & play his game. Wenger made him a French international, but he was at the end of his contract so there was little the club could have done. Yes there is an argument for trying to tie him down to a deal earlier on, but hey, if he places financial wealth ahead of his career so be it, ditto Hleb, he’s hardly running the show at the Nou Camp now is he !! It’s also worth noting that Matty had a “bit of previous” as it were, namely, joining Arsenal from Marseille after the 2004 UEFA Cup Final, a transfer fee didn’t change hands then either as Flamini had not signed a professional contract at that point. The Marseille coach is quoted as having called Matti, “a traitor”.
I’ve been critical of some of the goings on at The Grove this season & feel as dismayed as the next Gooner about our attempt at winning the Premiership this season, but two semi-finals, (whether we progress in either or not) answer most of the criticisms in themselves, there is no doubt the squad needs strengthening, but it has to be with the right players. By the way Manu, you were a magnificent player for Arsenal, with Paddy you formed a central midfield partnership as good as any I’ve been privileged to witness, but what happened after you left our great club ? Oh yes, you joined Barcelona, did diddly squat there & came back to the capital to play for the Chavs, barely had a kick in the 2002 Cup Final & disappeared from the Premiership.
The FA has defended its decision to appoint Mike Riley to referee Sunday's FA Cup semi-final between Everton and Manchester United.
"Mike Riley is one of our top officials” said an FA spokesman
Everton manager David Moyes has questioned the choice of Riley to officiate the match after it was suggested he was a United supporter.
"A member of the press asked me if Mike Riley is a Manchester United supporter - I think that is something you would need to bring up with the FA," Moyes told the official Everton website.
I don’t know of anyone outside Old Trafford who thinks Riley is “one of our top officials”. It sums up just how out of touch the (sweet) FA really are.
Meanwhile dear old Taggart has renewed his war of words with Liverpool manager Benitez, old red nose accused the Spaniard of arrogance, however the press conference was interrupted at that point as there was a call for Ferguson from a Mr Kettle.
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