Same Old Arsenal – But Better
Oct 23rd, 2007 by 'holic
Little more than a week ago I was treated to the combined wisdom of the ‘Match of the Day’ experts as England cruised into a three goal half-time lead against Estonia. ‘It’s so difficult to keep playing when you are three up at half-time’.
Thankfully Arsene Wenger does the team talk during the interval at the Grove, not the combined talents of Hansen, Shearer, Wright, and Lineker. With his words ringing in their ears the latest exponents of Wengerball, mark three, set about dismantling a side who were clearly not as bad as the final scoreline of 7-0 suggested.
I don’t need to walk you through the goals, I know. It is such a shame that the hat-trick evaded Theo Walcott and Cesc Fabregas, both worthy claimants of two goals. In fact I will add the excellent Alexander Hleb to that list. Credited officially with one goal he had a failed claim to another, and his display on the night was just breathtaking. Nicklas Bendtner should be mentioned for grabbing the final score in the last minute.
The fact that Manuel Almunia was called upon to make a couple of significant second-half saves is testament to the fact that the visitors were better than the seven goal margin suggests. In truth, Arsenal were quite magnificent in their fluidity and execution. Please, please let them have kept something in the tank for the weekend visit to Anfield.
We Have A Winner
The arseshirts tee was up for grabs to whoever predicted the first goalscorer. Three correct entries rolled over from Saturday (nobody got it right tonight!) and the highly sophisticated random number generator, or hat as it is better known, produced the name of Alexandra Phillips. Congratulations Alexandra, you should have a mail requesting your details so I can send you the prize.
And We Have A Loser
The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that the Arsenal Goals Clips link has vanished from the sidebar. I know the legal representatives of the Premier League have been very active lately with UK based sites demanding even links to clips providers should be removed.
Well, now they have got to Blogger as well and a really useful service has been denied to us. Yes, I understand the issues involved, but really, do you think for one moment that the posting of links to clips of variable quality would ever disadvantage those who have paid for the rights to broadcast the games? In all honesty I would go and check out those clips or streams, because they provided the first opportunity to fans at home to see the goals as they happened. I wouldn’t let it stop me from attending matches, or watching the higher quality transmissions of the Sky’s, Setanta’s And BBC’s of this world.
The guy who ran that service, let’s call him Gooner4ever, because that is how he enjoyed being known elsewhere, has asked me to thank all of his readers, and to apologise for not being able to provide you with the service for the forseeable future. He is angry at his treatment and is awaiting the outcome of various legal cases with interest.
On your behalf I would like to thank him for providing a really good service to us. You may still care to look at his cached pages on Google, but for now, sadly, nothing new will be added. Having said that it is not all that difficult to find the links you need if you are really determined. Just keep them to yourself, for now!
4 Responses to “Same Old Arsenal – But Better”
Hey dude,
First of all, great win for the Arsenal.
Regarding the “And We Have A Loser” comments I agree, I am a red member, the last game I went to see was Arsenal v Bolton, however, I know a service that is better than SOPCast or any of the other P2P applications to watch live games yet I still try to go and see as many games as I can afford at the Emirates, if I watched the game “illegally” I still try watch the highlights on Sky or whoever has them, for clubs like us, Man Utd and Liverpool I think it doesnt matter how many people watch clips on youtube or other sites, the facts is that we would all go watch at the Emirates or watch live if we could, Arsenal has a lot of fans worldwide and “illegal” watching would not affect the club.
I spent a whole year in South America between 2005-2006 and not being biased but Barcelona and Arsenal were the most supported clubs down there.
Alex Hleb, alongside Cesc & RVP , is proving to be absolutely crucial to this emerging Arsenal team. In my opinion he was the MOTM tonight, and that’s saying something considering everyone one of the lad’s played brilliantly.
Spot on wth the MOTD pundits remarks ‘holic! – was a real joy to hear the ITV4 teams comments about us (not much else they could really say though, after our brilliant performance)
What a night!
PS Glad you got your Reading ticket!
Thank you ‘holic for mentioning ArsenalGoalsClips, you are a great friend.
Best of luck with Goonerholic, keep up the great writing!