Let’s face it Wenger, you have put together a team of losers

As much as it pains me to say this, the Arsenal I love are a bunch of pansies Nancy-boys.

They have no guts, no determination to give more than required, no pluck to lay their bodies on the line to get that goal. They even look like the least intimidating team in the whole Premier League. Pansies, all of them!

All they’re good for is passing the ball around, making pretty patterns on the football field, in their  well-coiffured hairdo’s and fancy socks and shirts. As pansies are want to do. They seem to only get penalised for being stupid, rather than for making hard tackles.

When someone gets injured, they usually wind up spending most of the season recovering on the sidelines, probably while getting pampered the whole time. Like pansies.

Is it any wonder those players with some sort of ambition, up and leave for clubs that want to be winners. Sure, they go for the money too. But I’ll bet you lot could get more pay, if you actually started winning something. Seven years, we’ve been watching you preening yourselves…

Grow some balls, you bunch of pansy losers.

Who needs Robin?

“Who needs Batman, when you have Robin?”

That’s what the fans were loudly proclaiming last year. There were banners at Emirates Stadium. Hell, there’s a Facebook page for that hallowed chant… which is now no doubt destined for the scrap heap of Facebook pages.

Robin van Persie was greatly revered by the Arsenal faithful, for all of one magnificent year in which he produced his best football. The other seven odd years were average and injury-plagued. But last year was special. Did it make up for all those other years? The jury’s out on that.

But now he’s gone! Like so many other promising players before him in recent years. Why? One can’t help feeling that the ego’s of football players inflate in direct proportion to their popularity. Perhaps the fans are to blame for treating them like demigods.

Club loyalty plays second fiddle to personal ambition. Perhaps it’s just the lure of easy money. Certainly, 200 000 quid a week can buy a few Batmobiles and a some Harley’s besides. Is anyone capable of resisting?

And then, perhaps it’s a good thing he’s gone. An unhappy player does the team no good, as Cesc Fabregas proved a few years ago. Besides, the £24m due from Manchester United for van Persie, almost wipes out the cost of bringing in Podolski, Giroud and Cazorla, who by one friendly pre-season performance alone, look like the real deal.

Yes, perhaps all’s well that ends well…

Lessons for Arsenal in fantastic Chelsea win

I think the consensus of opinion is that 10-man Chelsea played perhaps the best game of the year against Barcelona last night, in the Champions League semi-final. And the win by Chelsea against great odds was definitely well deserved.

Would an Arsenal team forced to play Barcelona under the same circumstances as Chelsea have done as well? I think the consensus of opinion would be that they would have capitulated quite easily. But perhaps the same opinionated people would have to concede that Arsenal is a superior team to Chelsea in several areas.

But not in the one that mattered the most last night.

Chelsea could teach Arsenal a thing or three about defending resolutely. And about hanging on, no matter what. Arsenal have the class of Barcelona, but without the tenacity and sheer will to win against great odds, the physical and mental toughness, they are not going to become giant killers like Chelsea or consistent winners like Barcelona.

Arsenal have however got probably the best manager in the business in Wenger, and a crop of promising players that have the potential. But will that potential mature in time for next season?

Let’s wait and see…

Former gunner shows the lazy incumbents how to shoot

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“Pinch me, I’m dreaming.”

That’s probably what Thierry Henry was shouting after scoring the only goal after coming on as a substitute in the FA Cup match against Leeds United last night. And what a goal it was too – typical Thierry Henry finesse.

Thierry Henry?

Yes, the one and only. Five years after leaving Arsenal for Barcelona and New York Red Bulls, he is back… and boy was he needed. I’m sure a fairly large number of supporters at the stadium, and even those watching on television viewed his comeback and goal-scoring as a kind of fairy tale. It was indeed a magical night; one to remember. Perhaps a twin statue outside the Emirates Stadium is required to commemorate this fantastic event. It certainly does not happen very often.

Hopefully Marouane Chamakh and Andrey Arshavin were attentive and learnt how to find the net from the ageing master. However if they did, it seems certain that they will only get to use the knowledge effectively with new clubs, as they are set to leave Arsenal after yet another dismal performance. Arshavin is a busy player but lacks the concentration and finesse of a goal scorer. Chamakh on the other hand is just too lazy for me.

One can only hope that Henry gets more games and extends his stay into the Champions League spell. More goals from the hero of Highbury, would send the Emirates into spasms of pure ecstasy.

17 shopping days until the end of the world?

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October 21, 2011 approaches!

According to Harold Camping, the world is supposed to be in the final stages of 5 months of horrible torment since the fabled Judgment Day which passed with hardly any fuss, on 21 May 2011. With just 17 days to go before that supposed all-defining moment in the brief history of mankind, die-hard believers are presumably wringing their hands in glee, while those who have not accepted Camping’s Lord, should either be wondering if there’s anything to all this flim-flam, or laughing hysterically.

To be fair, the last five months have been kinda unusual. Could Camping be onto something? Or is he on something, which seems to be the consensus of opinion?

World events over the last 5 months have been rather unusual. Or so it would have seemed to the casual observer. I’m not even going to try to imagine what it must have seemed like, to the stoned observer.

Despots who were apparently well-loved by the people being ousted in North Africa, the darling of the freedom movements, the ANC revealing themselves to be plain old scum, economic crisis in Europe, snow near Sun City and tornadoes in other parts of South Africa, Julius Malema being disciplined and the ANC Youth League losing popularity, and Arsenal languishing just above the relegation zone in the English Premier League table.

Now those were just some of the mighty unusual occurrences over the last 5 months. Or Harold Camping will have you believe so.

Either way, whether you’re a believer or not, it’s the ideal time to get in some shopping. Whether it’s to buy some wine for that last supper, a gift for Harold for warning everyone, a new bible to search for those passages to help you repent, or a bottle of the usual plonk, to ease those mouth muscles while you laugh at those who fell for it again…

8 and 2 for the Arsenal…or maybe not

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I set out to write another scathing attack on Arsenal after their dismal performance on Sunday against Manchester United, but I think there will be many of those already.

Instead I decided to look at the positive side by finding 8 things that suggest there is still a prospect of good things to come [I do despise the word hope]:

1. Arsene Wenger is among the best two Managers in the Premier League, if not the best
2. Arsenal have consistently been one of the top four sides in the Premiership, with a sound financial situation and a marvellous stadium
3. Die-hard Gunners fans…around the world
4. Jack Wilshere and maybe Aaron Ramsey to boot
5. The makings of a world-class goalkeeper in Wojciech Szczesny
6. Some good experience in Robin van Persie, Alex Song, Bacary Sagna and Thomas Vermaelen
7. Good future prospects in Emmanuel Frimpong, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ryo Miyaichi, Theo Walcott and Chu Young Park
8. Per Mertesacker, if Wenger manages to sign him on

And 2 things that still leave me exasperated:

1. The laziness of players such as Bendtner, Arshavin and Chamakh
2. The lack of passion displayed on the field

So there you have it: 8 for the Arsenal and 2 against…

Some invasive surgery needed to fix wounded Arsenal

So we lost the game to Barcelona. The aggregate scoreline of 4-3 suggests a close battle over two legs, but Arsenal did all the hard work in one game only – last night they just showed up to watch Barcelona pass the ball around.

Forget about the abysmal refereeing decision that led to Van Persie being sent off. That’s going to keep happening until FIFA realise that referees are not the reason people pay money to watch football; until FIFA start sanctioning referees for obvious bad decisions.

Let’s talk about the abysmal Arsenal performance on the night. The only players who were prepared to put in some work were Nasri, Van Persie, Wilshere, Almunia and perhaps Koscielny, Clichy and Djourou did enough. Diaby’s performance was atrocious and Rosicky continued his downward spiral towards has-been-dom.

But the worst player on the night, was conspicuous by his desire to please…the Barcelona fans. I have never seen Fabregas this disinterested in making an effort for his team before. In keeping with all the rumours of his intentions to move back to Spain, it was mentioned by a friend that he could be deemed to have started playing his first match for Barcelona last night.

The other player to have disgusted me the most last night was Bendtner. Seems that his lazy-arse approach creeped in again. Having the chance to win the game by scoring what would have been hailed as a wonder-goal, he couldn’t find that extra five percent to stick his leg out and tip the ball goalwards. What a loser! Strikers have that killer instinct in the goal area – Bendtner has just the lazy itch.

We really missed Song in the midfield and the pace of Walcott on the wing. Why are Arsenal’s most inspiring players always injured for the most crucial games.

Its time for Wenger to perform some drastic surgery. It’s time to cut the lazy players loose. I think we all know who they are.

Match officials are ruining the beautiful game

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I’m as disgusted as Arsene Wenger over the two blatantly unfair refereeing decisions against the Arsenal in the game versus Sunderland, yesterday. However, this is not the first time, nor will it be the last, until some sort of technology is introduced into the sport to aid the match officials.

Off-side decisions which are glaringly wrong are being given so often, it’s turning the beautiful game into a farce. The linesmen it seems are competing for attention, as much as the players. The game today is invariably played at a furious pace, and there are some genuine speedster’s in most teams, and Arsenal are masters at the fast flowing game. Their pace unfortunately tends to show up the linesmen’s inability to keep up with the flow of the game.

Surely there is technology already available that can assist the match officials? What about a simple tag in the player’s clothing or boots which transmit a signal that processing software can interpret to show his position on the field at all times relative to opposing players. Such a system could easily be linked to the officials ear-piece to emit a signal when an advancing player strays beyond the last opposing player’s position.

I’m no software or hardware boffin, but this is in no way rocket science. Sure there are problems to be overcome, such as delays to the flow of the game, but match officials blow up such petty transgressions anyways, I’m sure the viewing public can learn to live with it.

It’s time that that dinosaur in charge of FIFA, Septic Bladder gives technology a chance.

It’s certainly better that cheating good teams by making decisions that cost them vital games; because that’s exactly what it is – cheating, albeit from the officials rather than opposing players.

On a brighter note, it seems that the refereeing blunders from yesterday may not cost Arsenal that much after all – Liverpool have done us a monumental favor by downing Manchester United. The title race is on again, but I would have loved to have seen Arsenal on level points terms with United, with a game in hand…