A bit of Grumbling in North London

Arsene Wenger is at it again.  He’s having a moan.  Adeboyer has joined him too.  Its all regarding the events of the recent 1-1 draw with Liverpool at the Emriates, particulary Adeboyer’s two yellow cards and sending off.  Here are my thoughts:

Was the first yellow legitimate?  Yes, but it was a bit soft.  Was the second yellow card right?  No.  As Adeboyer said, he was just trying to shield the ball.  It may well of been a foul, but it don’t think it was a bookable offence.  Arbeloa did go down as if a sniper had hit him.  Now annoyingly, both Adeboyer and Fabregas (due to injury) will be out for the crucial tie against Villa on Boxing Day.  But controversy aside, it was a good game.  A good tempo from both teams, although it died a bit at the end.  Both Van Persie and Keane’s goals were excellent and I was happy that the latter got a goal to his name (despite it being against Arsenal and his annoying celebration).  For me though the highlight had to be Emmanuel Adeboyer’s big African smile in the post match interview with Match of the Day.  Superb.

Overall, yes annoying but a good result to draw with Liverpool.  I can understand Wenger’s frustration and annoyance at the decision, but I do wish he’d stop winging so much at times. 

There was also a spot of grumbling from the other team in North London.  Arry, wasn’t happy with his team’s loss against Newcastle.  Fair enough, Frazier Campbell should of got them back into it twice. 

Also, while were at it, i’m gonna have a grumle.  Its starting to annoy me how teams like Man City, Wigan or Stoke will play really well against Arsenal and then play shockingly bad for the next couple of games.  Perhaps I’m being biased.  Perhaps i’m reading too much into it, but I reckon that Arsenal appear the most beatable out of the top four so teams like that can ‘smell the blood’ as it were and perform very well in the hope of a draw.  Who knows.  As I’m moaning though I think i’m allowed to make outlandish statements.

James

Mid December Musings

In my opinion, the past weeks football was a bit dull in comparison to recent weeks.  Apart from Villa’s performance against Bolton and Hull City’s draw with Liverpool, most of the games were a bit on the ordinary side.   I want to talk about two things regarding the recent results:  Arsenal and Tottenham.

Arsenal

After a poor performance in Porto, Arsenal were held away to Middlesbrough.  The game at the Riverside stadium is always a tricky one for Arsenal, so in some aways to come away with a point was good result.  However if Arsenal want to make anything from this season in the league they need to be winning games like that.  So I was disapointed with the outcome.  However my main concern was the way the Arsenal players treated one another and the lack of team cohesion.  Maybe it was just me, but most of the players seemed peed off with one another, particulary Van Persie and Adeboyer when the ball was in the final third.   A number of times when they didn’t recieve the pass they wanted from midfield players, their faces said everything.  My guess would be that there isn’t a great team spirit at the moment amongst the players, which means they fail to connect and perform amongst smaller teams, while against bigger teams, the motivation of being the percieved underdog has pushed them to win. 

I may be wrong with all this, but I thnik that might explain Arsenal’s inconsistency.  If this is the case it will make the next game against Liverpool very interresting.  If Arsenal were to beat them, they would complete a hat trick against the ‘big four’ but still only be in fourth place. 

Spurs

I watched the Tottenham v Man Utd game and found it a bit dull.  It seemed to have a goaless draw written all over it, as Tottenham just sat back and defended, while Man Utd looked particulary lacklustre.  Whenever Utd don’t have Rooney and Ronaldo or they underperform they seem to struggle and this was the case on Saturday.  I was impressed by the ref who spotted and rightly disallowed Ronaldo’s handball, but a bit peeved that he got away with lashing out when he was tackled.  Although this was obviously percieved as a good result for any Spurs fan, as a neutral I just found it a bit dull.  I’m sure Man United fans will be annoyed that they never really showed up and failed to gain more points ahead of their absence for two weeks. 

James

Thoughts on Spurs’ Progress

I haven’t written for a while on here, so thought I’d put some brief thoughts up, while listening to the Stereophonics and drinking hot chocolate. First, Harry’s had his first couple of losses, both pretty disappointing results against Fulham and Everton. Those were both games in which I fancied us to get a result, and we played pretty poorly both days (Gomes’ error was of course pivotal against Fulham). Had we won those games we wouldn’t still be down in the bottom five, but with the Prem so close this year, a few more good results (tomorrow night at West Ham to start with) should have us clear. On the whole Harry’s done wonderfully, and it would be silly to suggest everything would come right in a few short weeks. And at least Gomes seems to have some confidence back now.

Second, we’ve reached the Carling Cup semi-finals, and will play Burnley. Assuming we beat them, we will likely face Man Utd in the final. It looks like retaining the Carling Cup may be our best route back into Europe next year, and so I’m hoping (if we do get to the final) that we do what we did last year, and pull of a shock result. Would be lovely to win another trophy given how bad the season started. Third, rumours are that Rafa Benitez might be looking to offload Robbie Keane in the January transfer window. I’m not sure how far I believe that, but Robbie really hasn’t had the start as a Liverpool player he would have wanted (and neither, I’m very pleased to say, has Berbatov at Man Utd). In one sense, I’m sad for him, because I always liked the lad, but on the other hand, it’s quite nice to see a man who turned his back on the club struggling as a result of that very decision. For me, though, he’d always be welcome back at the Lane.

Finally, Darren Anderton, ex-Tottenham hero, has hung up his boots in the best possible way, with a late winner for Bournemouth on Saturday against Chester City. When he was fit, he was a wonderful player, so all the best to him in the future; maybe he’ll go into TV punditry, and we’ll get to hear his words of wisdom on Soccer Saturday or something like that. Oh, and nice to see Nick Barmby back in the Prem with Hull City too! A fine Spurs’ player he was too, before he defected to Everton.

Well, that’s all I can think of for now.

Simon

Chelsea 1 Arsenal 2

What a wonderful weekend for an Arsenal fan.  After a week of turmoil regarding William Gallas and two disappointing performances against Villa and Man City, they managed to turn it all around by beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

In a game of two halves, Arsenal came out in the second and for the first time since playing Man Utd, played with strong determination and pushed for the win.  Van Persie’s goals in particular were superb. He’s a striker who sometimes can be amazing and at other times make hardly any impact, but on Sunday he scored two great goals.  Was the first goal offside?  Yes. But I’m not too fussed.  I would be really annoyed if it had been the other way round, but it was the luck Arsenal needed so I gladly accept it.  

So overall a great result, but a bizarre reflection on Arsenal’s season.  They beat Man United and now Chelsea at Stamford Bridge (only the second team to do so since the new Chelsea arena was finished), but they are still fourth after losing too many games.   So I’m really happy with Arsenal at the moment, and at the same time not.  I believe they will hopefully pick things up in the second half of the season, but they won’t win the title.

As good as the Arsenal result was, there was another footballing incident over the weekend that I enjoyed as much.  It was the sending off of Cristiano Ronaldo.  To begin with, he should of been sent of earlier in the game for his sarcastic clapping and atittude towards the ref.  But then justice was served, when bizzarely Ronaldo slapped the ball from a corner, blaming a supposed referees whistle for his actions.  

Did he deserve to be sent off?  It was a bit harsh, but yes.  He gave the ref no choice.  He had to follow the letter of the law.  His excuse as well sounded to me a little thin.  Perhaps it was one of those moments where you do something stupid and then try to justify it afterwards so you don’t look as stupid.  The only whistle type noise was the airhorn that was set of by some City fans.  If I was the fan with that horn, I would be extremely pleased with myself.  Plus almost every player would have still headed the ball despite the whistle going off just incase.  He was silly not to do so and I’m flipping glad he got sent off.  Hopefully this will knock him down a peg or two.  

James