Robin The Poor In The 'Hood
Nov 1st, 2009 by 'holic
This was supposed to be a halloween nightmare with a difference. A real horror story had been promised by Robbie Keane, “If you look at the two squads, you look at us and think we’re definitely on a par with them”. Peter Crouch had promised the robot dance would get another airing. I’m waiting!
Instead an altogether different but more familiar pantomime unfolded at the Grove as the deluded were put firmly in their place. By the end the big, bad, Spurs were huffing and puffing but it was their own house that had very much been blown down, largely it must be said as a result of their own frailties.
Harry Redknapp, looking decidedly twitchy, moaned afterwards “On 42 minutes I felt the crowd were getting onto them, they weren’t creating anything worth talking about, and I felt very comfortable.” Well, nothing worth worrying about had been created except the games best chance when the ususally fallible Gomes produced a wonder save to deny Fabregas with an extended hand that suspiciously resembled ‘The Thing’. You must have blinked and missed that H!
We needn’t have worried though. The head of the Addams family returned to type just before the break when the excellent Sagna crossed to the near post, van Persie reacted quicker than ‘no knees’ King, and poor old Gomes could only help the instinctive effort over the line.
Just seconds later it was laughter all round as Palios (how good would we be with him, eh Harry?) surrendered the ball at the restart and Cesc ran through the entire Tottenham defence to beat Gomes at his near post. Cue, ‘It’s behind you!’, and much hilarity in Block 25.
The shambolic visitors had saved the best for last, however. The assistant referee flagged for a crude lunge by Assou-Ekotto on Eduardo and the entire defence came to a standstill yet again as Sagna crossed, Gomes allowed it through his grasp, and a grateful van Persie bagged his second. By now we were rolling in the aisles.
Given that N17’s answer to the Keystone Cops had proved so generous we opted to spurn the best chances we created with some superb football. Eduardo in particular could have had a hat-trick, but his day will undoubtedly come, and possibly soon. The one black mark was the loss of Bendtner, who had started very brightly indeed. A groin knack could rule him out for a month. Shame that.
A word too for Manuel Almunia, hardly overworked, but very composed and commanding in his area. It was a good game to make his comeback, and fragile confidence will be largely restored.
As the curtain came down we retired to the bars around the theatre, and like some reprise of the Rocky Horror Show we sang our songs and drank our toasts to the players in this richly entertaining farce. I can’t help but feel a little something was missing, however. Come on Crouch, you freak, where was that robot dance?
31 Responses to “Robin The Poor In The 'Hood”
Morning ‘holic! Michael Fishing it down in deepest Shropshire.
Too early for me to have a drink with you – tea and coffee only so far.
Do you think Ticking Harry will ever manage a big club?
Morning daft, and welcome. Can’t see it myself. Looks too nervous to be trusted with a truly big outfit.
Have to agree with you there guys. When they showed him sat alone in the dugout at 3 – nil you got the feeling you were looking at a man who had come to the end of his resources and knew he was still short.
Anyway, it may be Fishing it down, but we woke up winners!
Cheers.
Did you read that piece about the death of Almunia’s mother in law in a car crash in Spain, ‘holic? That is apparently the real reason he hasn’t been playing.
This link in the mirror in fact: http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Arsenal-keeper-Manuel-Almunia-s-secret-family-tragedy-revealed-article207443.html
Just seen it Snail, thanks. It actually explains a lot of things we were hearing that could not be verified.
Excellent article, ‘holic.
I trust you had a pleasant day out yesterday.
Pint of cider, please.
A pastis please, ‘holic.
Great day yesterday, good to see you in good form!
Cheers.
He’s got a twitch….he’s got a twitch…
‘Arry already manages a big club, supposedly. ๐
Yesterday was the most fun football had been in a very long time. If only Chelsea and Utd didn’t get 3 points, it would have been perfect.
‘holic, I like the pantomine article. It sums it up perfectly. The whole team, bar a couple Eduardo misses, were immense. And yet I get a certain amount of pride seeing us score ‘simple’ goals. We are so accustomed to beautiful goals that scrappy tap-ins are the equivilant of what beautiful goals are to other clubs! Tap-ins are like our Johnny Walker Blue in its rarity on our palette and should be savoured.
Up the arse. And van Persie or Cesc for FA Player of the Season. Only Torres and Drogba are coming close to either.
Oh man, pour one out for Manuel’s mother-in-law.
Pleasant goes nowhere near describing it nelly. I’m pretty sure most of the 61000 there bought me a pint of Guinness I think. It was difficult not dribbling the whisky out of the side of my mouth when I got in. Full to the brim I was.
I should say hello and thanks to all who came and introduced themselves yesterday, and those who asked who I was but then stopped short of coming to say hello to the rambling old drunk ๐
Alkmaar, Wolves… Nasri back, Rosicky to come …
Hmm… Life is cool, enjoy a tiny tot.
Nice write up ‘holic.
Good post,
Great response by the lads to the misplaced hype coming from the spuds supporting media. As for twitchy and Keane the less said the better.
Thought the team played within themselves but were always in control. Imo. the back five in conjunction with the excellent Song were immense and totally nullified the Tots โlump it up to the lumpโ tactic.
During the second half we completley dominated and should have bagged a hatful but perhaps thats just being picky.
The only downer for me is the lack of support shown towards some of our own players. Why the hating on Diaby ?
We should know by now that Arsene rates him highly and is a fairly good judge. Diaby is clearly lacking in confidence and as supporters we should encourage and get behind him when things not going well. If we donโt we will crucify a young player and probably undermine the team as a whole (note arry’s comment about the crowd). Now that would be a massive own goal!
Arsenal forever
A pleasure to hear the overture and see the curtain come up on this post, ‘Holic. Seems you were playing the role of Pissed in Boots before you picked up your feathered quill and assumed the J. M. Barrie position? So more of a ‘Holic Pist than a ‘Holic Post?
I’m sure Hawwy Wedknapp must have wished he was Peter Pan, still a boy with his Red Gooner Riding Hood on singing “Someday My Prince Will Come and make me Arsene Wenger”.
Instead, here he is with Crouch the Beanstalk, Ledley Hook and the Seven Dwarfs, Dumbo in Goal and Dame Keane, all dressed up in Snow White just to get the annual pie in the face and realise that he’ll never be Lord Mayor in London, no matter how many times he turns, turns, turns again. AW holds the keys to the north east of the city and there’s only one Dick in town today and that’s Hawwy.
I was in bed in Chicago watching the game, unfortunately and not in the dress circle of the theatre. Enjoyed every minute though. The team is beginning to look really good and Denilson and Theo’s return will bring magnificence. I’m glad you mentioned Nicky B, I thought he had a superb start and was disappointed to see him exit stage left well before the orchestra struck up a chorus of “Who Does More Magic, Cesc or Aladin?” and Hawwy departed for his half-time lamp rub.
It could easily have been seven, one for each of the dwarves to take home and ponder. It’s looking good and it’s going to be between us and Count Dracula Abramowicz’s transylvanian suckers.
Fweng,
The Boo and Bleat brigade are very good at hating and destroying our players’ confidence. Best in the league I’d say, particularly the purple faced eye popper who sits next to me. It’s the main reason Adebayor is playing at City and not bagging his annual 25 for us this season.
Have you been at the mushrooms again, BtM ๐
Brilliant stuff.
Sorry I didn’t get longer to have a chat yesterday ‘holic, you looked in fine form though!
I’ll have what nellys having please.
diaby ???? & arshavin (I think his heart iS at Barca) being replace by either Nasri, Rosicky, Walcott, Bendtner, Vela, Merida, Arsenal will be more clinical with 11 playing players instead of 9)
Hats off to all gooners at the match yesterday, the place was rocking!
BtM,
I share your pain.
Surely we must have learned something from our early mistreatment of players like Hleb and Gilberto. More recently Eboue, Song, Dennilson, Bendtner and Adebayor have all had to undergo the wrath of an unsupportive home crowd. Now we appear to be doing exactly the same thing to Diaby. Why ? He is a member of an Arsenal team that won well yesterday and is in with a very real shout of achieving tangible success THIS season.
Please, let’s cut some slack to Arsenal players who appear to want to do well and wear the jersey with pride. Our home ground should be a fortress that fills all visiting teams with dread. Instead what we see far too often is the opposite whereby our own fans get on the back of our own players and make them less effective at the same team giving heart to the opposition. Tell me what is the point of that!
This team will go from strength to strength if we remain unified and just show a little love.
Funny thing today has been tuning into various radio shows. I have spent a lot of the day in the car so had the radio on. Loads of spuds ringing in and moaning. They all saw this as their year. This was when it was going to happen. As Keane said, they are better than us?????? Bless him. The truth is that we did not have to get out of second gear and that they have had the biggest reality check they could ever have dreampt of. My only regret is that we were not more clinical. We could easily have ended up with 6 or 7 and that would have just put the icing on the cake.
Most spuds on the radio were saying how they just were not good enough. How they have these “great” players but they can not pass and move. I heard at least 2 spud season ticket holders refer to Wenger as a Genius. Do you think these thick twats have eventually got it?????????
I sit in block 4 and the atmosphere was great. No negativity towards anyone. Long may it continue.
Tried to see if I could locate you in the Tollie holic but I guess it was too banged out. It would have been nice to share a pint or two.
Onwards to Wednesday night.
Keep the faith……..
Just tuned in to the Birmingham v Citeh game hoping to see our two old lags in action. Both injured apparently. The wind and rain up there must be making their joints rusty.
Citeh were poor in the extreme. Boring, unimaginative, un-inventful. In short, everything that The Arsenal are NOT. It only goes to show. Money alone can’t buy it, particularly with the Welsh rarebit pulling on the purse strings.
The Young Guns should be feeling confident before their visit there in the Carling Cup. Nothing to fear based on today. And yes. I know. We lost there a month or so ago. I was there. I saw it with my own eyes. I still can’t believe we came away without a point.
It’s so much better to mouth off after the game when you’ve thrashed your local rivals than before the game when it’s all talk and nothing else. I wonder how the crow pie that Crouch, Keane, and ‘arry ‘ad for dinner last night was.
Cheers for the pint holic, and the ticket. ’twas a very pleasing day.
It was a pleasure, Mr Magic. Given the fact we win every time we are at the same game, you are top of the list for future spares.
Great article in tonight’s Standard if anyone still wants a laugh. Any thing that has the headline “Terrible Tottenham still living in fantasy world” has to be worth a look. The link is below.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-sport/football/article-23763213-terrible-tottenham-still-living-in-a-fantasy-world.do
Keep the faith.
Cheers holic, awesome.
Heh Steve, I saw that.
I loved it Steve T but took exception to the penultimate paragraphs:
“Unusually, though, the scoreline flattered both teams.
Despite a virtuoso conducting display from Fabregas and Van Persie’s sharpness and wit, they were very far from their one-touch, quicksilver best, and never looked like potential champions despite the easy win. Then again they never needed to against a Spurs team risible in defence, clueless in midfield and non-existent in attack โ they really were that awful.”
Never looked like champions? I beg to differ and flat out don’t agree. Arsenal are great going forward, rapidly improving in mid-field defence and the back four has doubled its effectiveness versus this time last year, largely as a function of TV’s arrival.
I’m with ‘Holic. It’s between us and Chelsea.
I wish I could have been here ‘Holic. Still I had a glass thinking of your vigil ๐
BTM just a couple of thoughts:
1) I feel we should not underestimate Manchester United. They don’t look too good now but at the same time they’re one good signing away from the top. Chelsea is more likely to falter over the course of the season even more so if they can’t by in January to compensate for the ACN departures.
2) Adebayor will be on fire again for the CC game. It’s also their best chance for some silverware this season. It won’t be too easy for the kids. Winnable but a big fight in perspective.
Arsenal definitively has a problem: we have waaaay too many injuries. With Gael Clichy now injured (lower back stress fracture it seems, somewhat like Denilson) see http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/clichy-sidelined-with-surprise-back-injury , we currently have 10 players out:
Clichy, Traore, Vela, Wilshere, Fabianski, Bendtner, Rosicky, Walcott, Denilson and Djourou. Some of them are due back soon (Rosicky, Vela, Wilshere, Traore) but sill it’s twice as much as our competitors.
We do have a lot of depth this year, that list is an obvious proof considering how Liverpool, Tottenham and Everton have been struggling with half as many injured players.
Still it’s definitively not the first year this is happening and I’ve never heard a valid explanation from the club.
Anyway we’re going to see Gibbsy for a couple of month now and he’s definitively an exciting prospect. We’re likely to play even more offensively with him in the team.