“Only two ways out of here, football and rock n’ roll; tonight we can have both.” – Bono
I am told that the game at the weekend was the best showcase of football in the premiership this season. I am told that it was great for the neutral. I am told that it was spectacular.
I am told this by the very group of people who’s opinion I trust the least. I have to fight back the temptation to get sucked in, agree and spout the very same nonsense right here.
I would never bullshit you... and I apologise for that – I can only tell it how I see it, and I was actually there to see it.
In my last post I stated that:
“the mancs have a good squad and will want to win”
They did have a good squad but they didn’t want to win... The game was very open and Howard Webb was showing the usual northern bias throughout the game... although the bias was selective in terms of what was given and to whom. For instance – Ronaldo could easily get free kicks in a scoring position for just chucking himself at the ground – although Ronaldo’s free kicks
were piss poor as was his finishing in a scoring position. Webb also held off the cards for Man-u and let them get away with a lot in the tackle – although this didn’t matter as Man-u didn’t go hard in the tackle (particularly at the start of the game) as is their norm when they want to win. Rooney showed his class in everything but the finishing – which again was comical. Berbatov played himself offside in the only scoring opportunity that he found in the game – thus negating the goal (although, true to form, he is an offside goal hanger anyway). In fact Berbatov and Rooney got in each other’s space quite frequently as neither of them wanted to be the one to have to pull the trigger... or not – as the case may be. FYI – Rooney and Berbatov ‘to score’ were heavily backed.
Our goals were of a good quality and it was nice of Berbatov to get the assist with his ‘strikers clearance’, or whatever, and Neville fail to block the first and to buckle under the challenge of Nasri for the second.
Webb also didn’t give a foul for a challenge on Diaby – from where I was sat, it looked like he was clean through so it would have had to have been a straight red... I will assume that this was the case as it didn’t make the highlights on MOTD (FYI – red card was heavily backed). The crowd gave Webb a hard time for these clearly bad decisions... but – to be honest none of the decisions he gave made much difference... so I didn’t join in – they were all for show, a scam.
Rooney got a chorus of:
“You’re just a fat granny shagger”
Which was mildly amusing... but I didn’t join in with that as, the way he was playing – he was doing us a favour by being on the pitch.
All in all - I felt that the match had an air of inevitability to it from the moment it kicked off...
I have been to Arsenal/Man U matches before and there has been something in the air, the teams will run themselves into the ground to get the 3 points and the crowd will respond with an urgency to match... this time – it all seemed a bit civilised. Maybe I’m just cynical and jaded from the Tottenham game and I’m reading it wrong - I hope so.
In my mind Man-U didn’t want to win for reasons stated in the previous post (from the ‘Dan Roebuck’ Guardian article):
“Arsenal have been the bookmakers' saviours this season. Failures to justify odds-on prices against Fulham, Hull City, Sunderland, Tottenham, Stoke and Fenerbahce have scuppered many accumulators and hefty single wagers. The layers will be hoping Arsène Wenger's side can do them another favour tomorrow against Manchester United, only this time they want them to beat their visitors rather than slip up.”
What I can’t decide on is whether the key Arsenal players were in on this too – as I said, it was all a bit civilised and we just sat back for most of the second half soaking up the attack without even attempting to punish them on the break – which is our norm... a lot of things don’t add up – this game was too perfect for the EPL brand, we know that the Arsenal Man-U games get a high viewing figures (last season it was reported at 1,000,000,000 viewers) so it all i.e. every facet of the game seemed a little too convenient for anyone with an interest in it other than football...
So it seems once again Arsenal with a little help from Man U “have been the bookmakers' saviours this season.” – So one thing for sure is the bookies must be well chuffed; they could not have picked a more perfect result – right down to the goal scorers!
Let’s see if it continues...
BTW - I hope you all took my advice and sold the shit out of the Mancs – it was clear that they were never going to win that game... although I also had a sneaky fiver on 2-2 ‘correct score’ at some stupid odds – I really thought it would come in when they flagged up 6 minutes extra time... I remain ambivalent.
Also – Arsenal to win the title has dropped from 20-1 to 13-1... although (if you placed it) I wouldn’t lay it off until we beat Aston Villa this coming Saturday as I reckon it might drop another 3 points or so.
ASI Topic: BBC WTF?
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Post 1 DogFace wrote:
What a bunch of arseholes... why do I pay my licence fee?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/7714854.stm
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Post 2 ChristHeart (Netherlands) wrote:
Wow, I knew exactly what this discussion post was gna be about from just 8 characters.
Has it really become that bad?
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Post 3 The12thMan (Ramapo) wrote:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1083992/Sky-pundits-I-trust-people-walk-dog-Keane-rages.html?ITO=1490
at least keane respects wenger
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Post 4 TheTurbanator (Malaysia) wrote:
Good one.
"They're brainwashing people. People say it's good for the game. It's not good for the game, interviewing people about Arsene Wenger after what that man's done for English football. It's amazing.
Will Arsene Wenger be remembered in 100 years' time for what he has done for football? Bet your life he will. Will these people on the television be remembered for what they've achieved? None
whatsoever. "
Best quote ever.
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Post 5 DogFace wrote:
This from the 'Chief sports writer' of the current bun... try and resist punching your computer screen as they are expensive to replace:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/article1903113.ece
Big respect to Keane - it's a brave stance to take.
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Post 6 DogFace wrote:
Man, re-read that and fucking hell - Keane... fucking respect man!!!
"I wouldn't listen to these people in the pub, and yet they're on television constantly"
That is brilliant!
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Post 7 ChristHeart (Netherlands) wrote:
Wtf - this is weird. Has Keane grown up?
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Post 8 DogFace wrote:
Man he's my new hero... Managment must have opened his eyes to all the shite that's infested the game...
...he was never one to mince his words.
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Post 9 ChristHeart (Netherlands) wrote:
"equally flawed in his failure to condemn the dismissal of the chronically irresponsible Robin van Persie. "
"sit-in-the-hole contradictions like Gilberto"
"And what of Gilberto?
"The man who put the oil in the midfield mechanism that eased the Gunners to their unbeaten season in 2004 is still cranking it out at Panathinaikos. "
Hangon... first Gilberto is not such a brilliant signing, and then he praises him?
This is quite obviously just a hate rant against Arsene Wenger. Chief sports writer. This article can tell you more about Mr Steven Howard than Arsene Wenger.
It's funny reading the Sun article right after that stuff that Keane says, because it is basically just a case study of Keane's point.
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Post 10 TheTurbanator (Malaysia) wrote:
That Sun article, is it written by a 6 year old? Stupid stupid facts really. You can see it is biased towards Man Utd.
But Keane,man. Everything he say is so true. Respected him as a footballer, double respect as a manager.
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Post 11 JabbarBoy wrote:
'If Wenger’s quote at the top of this piece needs a little explaining, the young Spaniard’s does not.
The corollary is simple enough: In the Premier League, we are wearing a big girl’s blouse'
stupid fag....... how the hell can a guy like this become sport editor or whatever the shit he is???
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Post 12 JamesDeGoona (St Joseph's College) wrote:
yer i like Keane now he is Sunderland manager. He seems to stick up for Wenger quite a bit
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Post 13 KashmirGirl (London) wrote:
"You're sitting there with people like Richard Keys and they're trying to sell something that's not there. I tell people any time they watch a game to switch the commentators off, don't listen to
experts, gather your own opinion."
I like this bit. Very interesting.
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Post 14 MohammedArsenal (The Indian High School) wrote:
Wow....all of a sudden i'm like: ''Go Roy!''
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Post 15 KashmirGirl (London) wrote:
Haha me too!
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Post 16 ColonelDecker wrote:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/sunsport_columnists/article1911725.ece
After reading the link on saturday to Mr Howard I was wondering how he was feeling this morning and he has turned on United now.
Clearly he cannot bring himself to praise us so it is 'obviously' Uniteds fault that we won.
I particularly love the glaring contradiction, in saturdays column
''Back in April 1997 — just six months after Wenger arrived at Highbury — Alex Ferguson enthusiastially took the new Arsenal manager to task for the first time, saying: “He has only been here five
minutes and yet seems to have a comment to make every week. He should shut up. ''
“I think he has a problem with Manchester United.”
''Never more so than tomorrow. ''
Yet today he feels:
It was a day when Arsenal desperately needed to come up against a footballing team rather than one sent out either to stop or kick them. Or both.
Oh sorry, so saturday Man Utd are our worst nightmare, yet on monday morning they were just what we needed?
No wonder he's the chief sportswriter of the sun, because that basically equates to the chief accountant of Lehmann Brothers.
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Post 17 DogFace wrote:
LOL - it just goes to show that these cock-ends have no opinion whatsoever.
It's all smoke and mirrors these days man... parasites the lot of them.
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Post 18 PieFace (London) wrote:
I am now a fully paid-up member of the Roy Keane fan club - what a brilliant attack on the media, particularly naming Richard Keys (a brainless front man, if ever there was one - spot on Roy, just what the FUCK qualifies that gibbon to pass judgment on a Premier League manager or player, having never actually been involved in the game at grass roots level?)
Mustard.
And then I read the Steven Howard piece, which is your typical Sun journo shite - pick up on the prevailing mood and blow it up out of all proportion. Get the fans all riled up. Add in a bunch of irrelevant historical nonsense (trawling back to a quote from 1997, 11 years ago? Really, Steve?). And criticising players because of their nationality? Forgive me ifI am very much mistaken, but that is racism, is it not?
That really is quite some crisis going on at Arsenal ain't it Steve - losing THREE games this season (by a whopping single goal margin in each), a miserable FIFTH in the table out of twenty, a massive SIX points behind the leaders (that's an enormous TWO wins off the pace! Criminal!!) How on earth can any of the players, fans, or right-thinking members of he football-watching public NOT think that Arsenal Football Club is a pathetic joke, with a clown at its helm steering the club inexorably downwards???
Red-top journalists. Like sharks, they catch a scent of blood, and ... I swear to God, these fuckers actually derive some sort of perverse pleasure out of hounding people out of football. It isn't the game that they love, it is the kill. If they were legally allowed to dispay the severed heads of the honest hard-working football managers they have driven out of their clubs thanks to some hysterical whipped-up media frenzy following a poor run of form, they would do it. "You see that Sam Allardyce? Got him fucking SACKED, I did - a really vitriolic piece abolut how he was too fat to manage Newcastle, got his head above the fireplace, I have." And Wenger, surely, has the biggest antlers of all - King of the Forest, no less. What these vermin wouldn't do to claim his scalp. However, it was woefully misjudged and I think Keane's statement has caught the mood and exposed gutter journalism for what it really is. You know nothing about the game, you children. We know only ever print what you think your public want to read so people will buy your scandal sheets. Don't pretend you actually hae anything intelligent to bring to the debate about football. Fuck yourselves, pigs, seriously - fuck yourseves.
Right, I'm off to buy a new laptop and some ointment for my right fist.
