Morning all.
I meant to write an instant response blog yesterday, but I couldn’t because I was too depressed. Firstly I was depressed because the lasagne I had in the Maypole (£8.50 it cost, the chuckling profiteers that they are) was disappointing, and secondly because my beloved Arsenal put in one of the limpest displays of the season against Cardiff. Thank god it was the FA Cup, is all I can say, and our limp display did not cost us points but only enforced a replay – frankly no bad thing, since on the back of that our lot are going to need all the help they can get.
The experience itself, however, was not without merit. Grabs and I watched it together with some other people, and during the long pauses between moments of any action at all, whilst Arsenal played round after round of flaccid Islington Shuffle, some interesting points came up, points such as whether or not Lukas Fabianski looks anything like Enrique Iglesias (‘July Churches’ – you’ve gotta love those Spaniards), and then whether or not Enrique Iglesias had ever actually advertised a range of small condoms (I checked – he has), and then whether Fabianski’s mole is as big as Flamini’s mole was.
So not much about the football then, but then again there wasn’t much football to be, er, much about. Cardiff began brightly, but then again so did James Dean, and he’s dead now, whilst Cardiff are very much not. The midfield looked weak: Ramsey looked out of his depth in particular, but the team as a whole just didn’t click. The extra gear these guys find for big games just wasn’t there and it’s incredibly frustrating to watch. I mean Islington Shuffle isn’t great at the best of times but sometimes at least it’s elegant. Yesterday we just looked a bit clumsy.
Incidentally if anyone’s interested the finest piece of commentary on Islington Shuffle comes in Pro Evolution soccer 6, with the line ‘they’re stroking it around outside the box, looking for an opening’. If anyone can come up with a better football commentary innuendo my name’s not Grabber.
There were some positives.Van Persie looked good, and Nasri once again was effective in proportion to how central he found himself. In the absence of anyone else I really don’t see why he doesn’t start in the middle. And once they got going the defence looked ok for the most part, but they ought not to struggle much against the might of Jay Bothroyd.
So aside from these small graces it was an afternoon to forget, which is a bit of a shame since it was the only football for ages, and now we’re going to have to return to talking about Arshavin until the cows come home. There’s talk in the papers today about a deal finally being reached, but I can’t say I care either way anymore, especially not if it means the other midfielders are all going to start demanding more money. The grubbuckets.
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Who was Arsene Wenger managing when he joined Arsenal?
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Tags: Andrei Arshavin, Arsenal, cardiff city, philosophy football
January 26th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Love your blog mate, just not sure I agree about Arshavin. I think the display shows we do. Maybe without injuries we wouldn’t need him, but when are we not going to have those?
I started off thinking Song was awful yesterday. He got better in the 2nd half…ramsey didn’t. I def think the young Welshman was bowled over by the whole thing.
Completely agree about Nasri in the middle. If we didn’t have him or RVP at the min we’d be fooooooooooooooooooooooooooked!!!
January 26th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Thanks soulrebel, glad you’re enjoying it- I completely agree that we’re missing something, but I’m just not convinced Arshavin is necessarily the answer. I’m prepared to believe that Wenger’s had his eye on him for a while, and that he’s a useful enough player but I think a few good displays at the Euros have massively overvalued him – I can’t believe people were even thinking about £20m.
It’s also true to say that the Russian league is not the Premiership by a long stretch. I think everyone’s hopped on this bandwagon because the first half of the season has been so frustrating, but we’re really not far off the pace in the league and we haven’t lost for yonks now.
That said we were crap yesterday. It’s an interesting one for sure.
January 26th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Oh Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! back to arshavin will he wont he agent led stories that fill up more space than dark matter in the universe. Actually it was proven by a leading Scientist that were all the agents gagged and thrown into the ocean , carbon emisions into the atmosphere would actually halve. Also it would mean that the sea life would return because of the huge reserves of food available . The only mamal threatened would be the Humpback Whale – no longer would it be the largest mamal in the sea! Anyways , back to usual stuff about arshavin
January 26th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Julio Iglesias is July Churches, Enrique Iglesias is Eric Churches
January 26th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
You’re right, of course. Although I think it’s actually Henry Churches?
Anyway. I blame my original Spanish teacher. Historians will note I’ve not updated the original text, so the error is there for ever.
January 26th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Who on God’s good earth would choose to eat in the Maypole – the fat sweaty cook evidently has never sampled the filth that he serves up. The only time I ate there was when I was charged £10 for a burger and chips portion that makes the Happy Meal look like a feast.
I think that it is time to assume that Arsenal are not in the financial position to make any signings of note and Wenger is only interested in the rehabilitation of his midfielders.
January 26th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
This was the most I had watched Kieran Gibbs play and I was very impressed. He looks a serious prospect.
January 26th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
gibbs did indeed look pretty good- which means we can sell clichy just as he hits his prime and have an under developed gibbs play for a couple of season-it is what we do after all
January 26th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
gunningforthetop — epic answer, I was thinking the same thing.
January 26th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
I agree, and gunningforthetop don’t be so rude about poor Gael. If his name were Cashley Hole and he was the midget evil husband of new ‘National Pet’ Cheryl Cole, and he was a gigantic cunt,then I’d be worried about him.
But he’s called Gael Clichy, and I’m not. More likely I think at this stage is that Traore (or even Gibbs) gets moved on, unless one of them can be persuaded to play somewhere else (Eboue’s slot preferably. And by slot I mean slot)…
January 26th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
The demise of Ashley Cole’s personal life has been quite enjoyable. How could he cheat on the almighty Geordie Princess with that trashy bunk-looking hairdresser? Hate Ashley or not, his wife is mint.
So glad he left for the money. What a truly unlikeable person. I continue to try and destroy him with a wicked tackle anytime I play against Chavski on Fifa 09.