The game at the weekend pretty much went according to plan, although Reading were allowed to go in heavy on the challenge I saw this as just a personal bias from the Ref rather than anything more sinister - there wasn’t too much against us other than that in terms of key decisions, so pretty fair all things considered.
We won 2-0.
I gave up my seat to Adam, so he could sit next to his girlfriend – my brother couldn’t make it so she had that one – I sat somewhere behind the goal. Shit view – but it was a good game none the less. The atmosphere was not so good – there seemed to be a lot of first timers about... you know the ones who laugh, nudge each other and obligingly get to their feet when the now passé “Stand up if you hate Tottenham” chant goes round. Personally, I only sing it when we are playing Tottenham – other than that, who really cares?
I was sat with what seemed to be an Arsenal supporter family – two young lads and a mother. The young lad that was behind me had an incredibly loud voice and sang pretty much all game – to himself for the most part. In between chants he was continually on Gallas’ back for imagined misdemeanours in his playing and captaincy style... Adebayor also got berated when he scored as apparently he:
“Should have been doing that more a few weeks ago, too little too late Ade! Too late now to start playing well now!”.
I informed him that it wasn’t Adebayor’s fault that he was getting continually ruled offside, denied penalties and had perfectly good goals disallowed – we’ve been robbed, nothing to do with the teams performance as we were clearly the best team in the league... he said that I sounded like Adam and went into an ear splitting chant of:
“I’ve got a foreskin haven’t you dirty jew...”
What - we're playing Reading you fucking moron?!?! What slimy dark corner of your 'id' did that one crawl out of?
His brother then said:
"I would rather us play a rubbish, scrappy game of football and win something rather than this shit".
He cast me a nervous, accusatory look – was he testing me? I told him that season tickets are still for sale at Stamford Bridge... and, also, that it would be unlikely that we would win anything until we sold out to Usmanov – the mother chimed in:
"Yeah, that's what we should do – it's for the best init; we should sell out and start winning"
Shit kickers – I can’t believe they took hope from that statement?!? To quote Lydon (again): 'I think you'll find that empty vessels make the loudest noise' - never a truer word spoken - although he probably nicked it...
I left the match feeling like something like Winston Smith in the land of the proles but other than that it was enjoyable – RvP was stepping back up to his amazing form and Theo had an excellent game. I was really pleased that he had done so well from starting the match – he really got stuck into it. I was a happy fan.
I emailed The Joker on Monday with an idea about releasing a video on youtube detailing how matches can be fixed with examples of techniques... match fixing is an art form – I hate it but part of me admires the way it is done. It’s not just the officials either – the whole game is complicit. I might attempt to detail this in later posts but, at present, it’s too much of a mind-fuck to contemplate on a Wednesday morning. The Joker was positive about some of my ideas but maybe he’s just stringing me along and being polite – he’s a nice guy and he has got all the inside information on everything football, where he gets it from I don’t know but his research is amazing.
You should read his blog if you get the chance – he’s a professional gambler... I think?
He told me:
“A rather worrying sign is that Usmanov has got Schalke included in next season's Emirates Cup - this is a concern as Schalke are another Kremlin/Gazprom outfit. Fat boy has already got some clout.”
This looks bad for Arsenal and football in general – I can’t back this up as Google doesn’t bring anything back on the 2009 Emirates cup? As I said – inside info... is it true? Time will tell.
I’ve learned a lot about the game from him and yesterday I put this knowledge to good use and placed some bets based on the reasoning that:
Liverpool are shit, Liverpool will cheat, Chelsea have rested everyone and based their whole season on this game after buying an easy route to the semi's.
Did you see the match? Hilarious – Chelsea got nothing from the ref all game where as Liverpool had it handed to them on a platter... how I laughed at the end, much as I dislike Chelsea – justice was done. It’s going to be a thriller of a 0-0 second leg!
Champions League football seems to get duller as we near the yawn-fest of the final – BTW, dhjackal – you should have taken my advice:
[22/04/2008 13:36:23] DogFace says: well... yes - Chelsea are shit but Abramovic will have the cash out on this one any way he can - Liverpool are tier 1 G14 and that also goes a long way in the CL decisions wise.
[22/04/2008 13:37:03] DogFace says: Liverpool are at home...
[22/04/2008 13:37:21] DogFace says: ...hmm
[22/04/2008 14:42:02] DogFace says: Draw I reckon. I'm going heavy
[22/04/2008 14:47:04] DogFace says: Chelsea to get the away goal due to a ‘Reina howler’.
[22/04/2008 14:49:56] dhjackal says: sounds plasiable
[22/04/2008 14:50:13] DogFace says: might look into the spread betting...
[22/04/2008 14:50:33] DogFace says: I can't see anyone walking away with this one - it'll be 1-1 or 1-0
[22/04/2008 15:07:47] DogFace says: Where's your money going?
[22/04/2008 15:07:56] dhjackal says: not betting
[22/04/2008 15:07:58] dhjackal says: broke
[22/04/2008 15:08:05] DogFace says: thought you had £100?
[22/04/2008 15:08:06] dhjackal says: might have to withdraw that
[22/04/2008 15:08:14] dhjackal says: cos i'm skint
[22/04/2008 15:08:33] DogFace says: if you put it all on 1-1 you'll make £700
[22/04/2008 15:08:43] DogFace says: FREE MONEY
[22/04/2008 15:08:46] DogFace says: (chuckle)
[22/04/2008 15:10:33] DogFace says: I'm going on: 1-1 @ 7 and HT/FT - Liverpool/Draw @17.5 - Speculative bets - but I'll keep the stakes low-ish.
Quids in!
