Bend It Like Saint Nick
Dec 23rd, 2007 by 'holic
It’s the season of goodwill to all men, so here goes…
I hope the other eighteen Premiership managers were looking at the way Tottenham approached yesterday’s game at the Grove. How long has it been since Arsenal fans have been treated to a visiting team who came to play football, and not defend for ninety minutes and hope to nick something on the break? Teams have even started playing that way at home against us now. If Robbie Keane could hit a cow up the arse with a banjo then a point could have been heading back up the Seven Sisters Road.
As it is the other managers will point out the foolhardy error of their ways and for the rest of the season we can look forward to a series of wars of attrition. They will ignore the fact that Spurs had marginally the upper hand in the opening goal-less half, and a ten minute purple patch in the second when they could have snatched a point.
The bulk of the second half though belonged to the Gunners, given the lead when the sublime backheel of Fabregas left Adebayor clear to land my first goalscorer prediction at odds of 5/1. I hope you took my advice.
It wouldn’t have been a derby if the neighbours hadn’t responded, and after Keane hit the bar, Berbatov blasted an equaliser from an acute angle. Any accusing fingers pointed at Almunia were rammed back in pockets when the Spaniard swooped to keep out the hapless Keane’s penalty minutes later. Television replays showed that of the four penalty claims in the game this one had the least merit. Berbatov seemed to have ‘slippery’ boots on throughout.
A Christmas derby deserves a fairytale ending, and it arrived in the shape of Saint Nick himself. Bendtner climbed off the bench, trotted up for a corner, and his first touch was a firm header past Paul Robinson. I hope you all remembered to shout ‘It’s behind you!‘
At the whistle the group hugs centred around Almunia, but the plaudits were for the whole side. They awoke from their first-half slumbers to produce another match-winning display, but credit the old enemy for the part they played. The kids could have a much stiffer task against them in the Carling Cup semi-final than a year ago.
So that is it from me until after the festive season. I’m off for a few days of family fun and frolics. Can I take this opportunity to thank you all for reading this stuff in the past year. I hope that you are treated to a happy Christmas, and a healthy and prosperous new year.
Cheers ‘holics.
14 Responses to “Bend It Like Saint Nick”
Have a happy Christmas ‘holic and thanks for the entertaining blogs.
Happy Christmas ‘holic
I read quite a few Arsenal blogs and yours is one of the better ones.
hi holic, i enjoy ur blog all the way from Nigeria. keep up the good job. i feel the younger gunners will prove their worth against tottenham and surely arsenal is going for the carling cup glory… love from africa
HI, followed the match on bbc from Nigeria and it was quite a nice Xmas present. Your blog always makes my day and im sure the young guns will also show the class against the white piece of s***.
have a great holiday
Happy Christmas ‘holic
Thanks for your blogs man, even though I work in a radio station in Nigeria and have all the information I need for my job, I still make sure i read your blogs as they are refreshingly beautiful. Arsenal did enough to ein the three points and I thingk that’s all that is important to us gunner fans in Nigeria. Thanks Almunia, thanks Saint Bendtner and thanks to every member of the Arsenal squad for making this Christmas a very merry one for us all. Gunner all the way
Happy Christmas you old git!
Good read as always 🙂
»»Arsene Knows««
Merry xmas Holic and keep up the good work on the blog.
Thanks also for your Ade betting tip. Unfortunately I then put the winnings and stake on Matt Di Angelo for the Strictly Come Dancing final and lost the lot.
Merry Christmas everyone! Have a fun & safe holiday! Hope Santa got you what you wanted! :D!!!
ALMUNIA! ALMUNIA! ALMUNIA! What a penalty save!!! come on …gunners
Well it was strange game for us Spuds as yet again we hear the claim from the other teams manager that their team did not play well. Fact is when we had the chance to end this who do we bottled it. Bendtners run was clever, he got clean and clear for that goal.. So why was it strange.. well we were not anyway intimidated by the atmosphere or the game. When we went down, our reply was not a through everything bar the kitchen sink over the top jonny attitude of yester year. The team got on with the job in a workman like atmosphere similar to our recent games. FOD!! The second half was equal honours.. Just the stronger team won.. As for making the quip about the kids.. Add the age of the players up including subs and do the average you will be surprised who had the lowest average age..
The Carling Cup will be interesting..
Have a great Christmas for you and your family..
Cusop!!
Fact is when we had the chance to end this who do we bottled it = bad grammer … but
Fact is when we had the chance to end this endless who do losing streak. We bottled it
Soorrryy
No worries Cusop; no problem following your post: Spurs bottled it.
In a nutshell
Merry Christmas, holic. Your blogs are always a good read. Cheers.