Time To Put The Record Straight
Mar 16th, 2009 by 'holic
Back in September I got back from the Grove at some ungodly hour, full of Guinness and curry, and published my thoughts on our Premiership clash with Hull while still in a bit of a grump.
“It would be remiss of me at the outset not to state that Hull City were worth the three points. For once we were second best…”
With the benefit of hindsight it wasn’t as bad a day as I thought at the time. Performances that followed were worse. We were beaten that day by a side prepared to attack when they had the ball, and when we shook hands with the visiting supporters at the final whistle there was a degree of relief that they had not come and shut up shop in the way that so many do.
The performance at the KC stadium in January levelled things. We enjoyed the fortune that Hull had drawn on at the Grove and produced an excellent victory. Some who were present on Saturday might care to reflect that Nicklas Bendtner came on to swing that game in our favour.
Tuesday gives us the opportunity to show Hull how fortunate they were on that sunny autumn day, and given that their priorities have since changed I suspect we will have a significant psychological advantage.
There is no way of me recording my belief that Arsenal are destined to face Chelsea at Wembley in the semi-final without sounding arrogant and irritating to the visitors. I’m sorry, that is not the intention. Hull earned a little piece of my heart as they enjoyed a pre-Christmas brush with the upper regions of the Premiership.
I cannot however get away from the gut-feel that this Arsenal side is building some positive momentum, and even with a ‘squad’ side out they will represent an irresistible force to Hull, who have now been given a reality check.
Although widespread changes can be anticipated I would expect Andrey Arshavin to be retained in a starting berth. He can rest on Champions League nights and will surely benefit from another hour, at least, as he strives to reach full match fitness. I’m hopeful he will add to his magnificent strike on Saturday, and I’m sorry I cannot re-invest some of my ill-gotten gains on Saturday with Ladbrokes!
If you want a score prediction I am thinking 2-0 to Arsenal looks tempting, but the ‘holic pound is being sentimentally placed on Nicklas Bendtner to open the scoring and silence those who jeered him on Saturday. That is a best price of 11/2 with Stan James, and I already have an account with them. Yahoo!
As always, can I wish those who are going a great night. I’m really gutted not to be enjoying a pre-match session in ‘the Pins’ on Guinness to celebrate Paddys Day (but thank you Sainsbury, Guinness is seven quid for eight cans and Bushmills original is £13.99 a bottle!). Setanta is a poor second best, but better than chasing streams around which many of you may have to do. I hope your searches are fruitful.
And don’t forget to get on Nick. I could be on a roll!
16 Responses to “Time To Put The Record Straight”
Time for a quick nightcap?
I’ll have one of those bushmills please 🙂
Steak and kidney pie, Bushmills, and Arsenal on the box tomorrow.
God is in his heaven and all is well with the world.
G’night all.
Good post mate.
Bushmills sounds good but its a 3.50 pint for me at the emirates tomorrow! I was singing ‘super nick’ on saturday and i will be singing it again tomorrow. Im taking that bet! The boys gonna come good.
Totally agree on Hull who were the most enjoyable promoted side to watch in a long while (also I remember liking Wigan a lot when they were promoted).
And on Bendtner, your faith deserves to be rewarded sooner than later.
Sadly not on Bushmills. Luckily I don’t have to as I just found a long-forgotten bottle of Chimay.
A strong display required. If Eboue can get 2 in a game there is no reason why Super Nic can not get a sniff. He had no luck on Saturday. The Eboue tap in would have been his had he not been taken off.
I fancy another good win for the Glorious Gunners. Hull have bigger problems and more pressing engagements to worrry about. A semi final berth secured and then we can all look forward to the draw on Friday.
Keep the faith.
I’ll have to watch in a pub tomorrow.
Oh no!
Theo to score, Bendtner to come off the bench, miss a couple, then score.
Greetings from Bangkok, holic. The match is on here at 2.45am so I’m puzzling on whether I should go to bed and get up or stay up then go to bed. I’m fancying Arsenal to win and I think it’ll be a good game. Hull have absolutely nothing to lose and may enjoy an evening free of the pressure they’re currently under in the league. If they “go for it” they may give us a scare, but at the same time may be very susceptible to counters and fast breaks. Could be a high scoring game.
Would be good to see Ramsey, Merida or Bischoff get a run out in the second half if things are going our way by then.
Enjoy! Come on you Gunners!
Another late night for the Blogger, I see. That doesn’t bode well for Paddys day 😉
Guinness today, ta.
Me too, Ollie, and lots of it 😉
Come on you rip-roaring!
Update on the ‘holic pound. With Nick not starting I’ve gone for Theo to score first, available most places at 7/1.
Good luck all.
Sunny autumn day? It was a 5.30 KO and I seem to remember it finishing by floodlights.
Fortunate? Well, they rode their luck a bit at the end but credit to them they did come to play and deserved the win.
The match essentially highlighted how we were prone to complacency, with a dollop of arrogance, plus 2 of the glaring failures in the 1st half of the season: no concentration at corners and the failure to close down on advancing midfielders.
There certainly was worse to come but there had been worse before – Fulham; and, for that matter, WBA wasn’t too clever.
Anyway, what I really wanted to comment on is Richard Clarke’s piece on the Club website. RC makes the very valid point that our useless neighbours did actually manage to win something last year (he fails to add that, effectively, it was at our expense) and rightly goes on to say: “You cannot put ribbons on a top-four place and parade it to your Town Hall from an open-top bus.”
Arsene then comes on the scene to say that we “sacrificed it” (the FA Cup) in 2006 because of the CL and last year because we were in with a shout of the EPL – not entirely sure what the reason was against Blackburn (spit) in 2007 though.
Having achieved 2 Doubles Arsene knows that more than 1 trophy is possible. The mancs and ‘pool have also gone through various permutations of multiple success over the years; so what’s so special about now?
Too many young players? Well in 70/71 we had George, Kelly, Kennedy and a certain Pat Rice – all of whom were rather new to the game and were part of a much smaller squad than we run today and consequently played a lot more games.
The pace was different? Well yes, but so was the culture of drinking, smoking and bad diet, yet still they coped.
What I really find reprehensible is the admission that essentially he was putting out teams that, if not with explicit instructions to lose, were left in little doubt that he didn’t care about the result – albeit that was obvious last year at OT.
The Club’s policy of reduced prices in the League Cup is commendable. If their/AW’s view of the FA Cup is that it is now a similar learning curve for youngsters, or simply something we can’t be arsed about, then be honest and again go for reduced prices – something particularly relevant for the away support for lower division teams who tend to pay considerably less than we do.
I too can’t make it tonight and in light of Arsene’s comments I’m rather glad as who knows what the priority will be. We’re in the CL 1/4s so do we really want the distraction of the FA Cup?
I think we’ll win tonight and this diatribe will get lost in a deluge of “We’re on our way . . . .” but I do think there’s a fundamental problem here.
Double absinthe please.
what did she wear
tell my mum, my mum, i wont be home for tea, im going to wembley, tell my mum, my mum
Triple absinth, a speedball and a reality check all round please . . . .