Rope-A-Dope Gunners Are Contenders Again
Dec 13th, 2009 by 'holic
There are some funny things that happen during the course of a football season. It doesn’t matter which season. It was as true forty years ago as it is today. Now they can be funny good, or funny bad, because both always occur, but for them arrive in ninety remarkable minutes is rare, and makes for gripping, if not quality, entertainment.
It was a day of mistakes, and for Liverpool and ‘holic, a day of what might have been. As I planted my ‘holic pound on the draw this morning, I noticed I had a free bet to use up. For a while my finger hovered over the button offering 40/1 on Arsenal winning after Liverpool had been in front at half-time. I dallied, then decided to keep it back for a lower-priced good thing. What a twat!
The opening half set up that possibility. Somehow we avoided going behind when Gerrard freed Torres, and when Gallas upended the Liverpool skipper in the box. You won’t convince me that we would not have been spitting blood if that had happened at the other end.
However, as wasteful as Liverpool were, we seemed determined to lay down and die in front of them. I think were it not for the outstanding Denilson in that first forty-five minutes we would have been in deep, deep trouble. Of course our luck couldn’t hold, and when Almunia produced another howler, Kuyt finally gave the scoreline a realistic look.
Now the biggest difference between that sort of performance occurring forty years ago, or today, is that back in the day, three thousand travelling Gooners would have been bemoaning the apparent lack of effort of those in front of them, and the rest of us would have been blissfully unaware of the depths we had plumbed.
Today though a thousand message boards and forums have to be filled with instant, and often angry and ill-considered words. Apparently though it was not just the world wide web that went ballistic. In the visitors changing room an educated and reasoned Frenchman went off on one, as they say.
‘Zoot alors,’ he screamed (that is French for FFS, I believe) and he proceeded to give a mid-season appraisal to the bunch of expensive slackers in front of him. They were left in no doubt that any continued lack of fortitude would result in dire consequences, and the effect was both effective, and immediate.
Five minutes after the restart the equaliser arrived when Nasri’s cross deflected off the imbecile that is Carragher and Johnson couldn’t resist the opportunity to apply the finishing touch. Own goal or not, Arsenal were now in the ascendancy.
Before the hour was out, Andrey Arshavin carried on where he left off last season. He had spoken on Sky beforehand of his lack of contribution here back in April, when he only touched the ball four times, and scored four goals. Again today he was anonymous, until needed that is. A neat little cut-in, a swing of that venemous right boot, and Arsenal had the points.
Yes, with over half an hour left we had the points, because you just knew that this Liverpool side had been beaten on the ropes too many times this season. They are punch-drunk, and never looked like getting back into it. This was Ali and Foreman, the sequel.
Ian St John was almost welling up afterwards as he lamented ‘that is Liverpool’s best team‘ and shook his head. He knew it wasn’t Arsenal’s best team, by a long shot, and that the visitors had not needed to approach anything like their best to win.
Liverpool’s problems are not our concern though. I’m loving the fact that for the second time this season (Fulham away anyone?) we have secured an away win when we had to roll up our sleeves and battle for it. Yes, titles are won by teams that can get a result on days such as this.
If ‘you-know-who’ do football weekends, then they most certainly did this one for us. There will be worse ones to come, but for now let’s savour the moment. We may not have a centre-forward, but we are within six points of the top of the Premiership. “Oi, Rafa, another Carlsberg here please, waiter“.
Thanks to Arsenalist for the goal clips.
71 Responses to “Rope-A-Dope Gunners Are Contenders Again”
Totally ecstatic at a wonderful afternoon and a great weekend. I treated myself to an early Christmas present of a 42″ HD TV. It arrived yesterday at 2pm. So far it’s delivered me a Man Utd defeat and a Gunners win at Anfield. I like this machine!
For me Song (again) and TV5 were immense. Good on Wenger for doing a little horoscope reading at half time. It’s 8.10 and at 9pm my Spurs supporting mate will be ringing the doorbell for our usual Sunday evening pint. Happy days!
Plenty of contact on Gerrard, but the ball was long gone. No more than 50-50 for me. Games against other top four sides (Scousers enjoy that tag while you can) come down to taking your chances, today Arsh did and Torres didn’t. We’ve played much better this season but there hasn’t been a sweeter result…
โOi, Rafa, another Carlsberg here please, waiterโ – class ending… ๐
Another Carlsberg here Goonerholic….cheer to the Gunners!!! ๐
“You know who”? Schweppes?
๐
I do think we have Johnson to thank for both goals, and so did Rafa Beneath Us when he took him off after our second.
Staying with the diving theme, I thought Gerrard was a little bit guilty, especially when he looked to run in to Song in the second half to “win” a free kick, but Song cutely stepped out of the way and left Gerrard looking like a bit of a chump.
Anyway, I have been on continental lager all afternoon and see no reason to change now.
A pint of your best imported foreign brew please, barman.
Great win within touching distance of the top. If we keep this up we will catch the russians, if not now in january/febuary. Go gunners… Guiness Extra smooth plssss
40-1 odds what a same.
walcott is a weed!
ยฃ25 free bet too, stonroy. How dumb was that?
Thank you for that reasoned contribution, alan.
Jebus ‘holic. You weren’t to know.
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On this grand day, I’d like to order a round for all my fellow gooners at the bar . cheers.
In that case I’ll have another cold continental beer then.
Cheers.
Heh.
Time for rum, methinks.
Appletons. Yum yum.
I feel sorry for Rafa that he can only complain about “the penalty”,what he should look at is we were very poor today and still came away with 3pts from fortress Anfield against there “best 11”,top4 your havin a laugh……..
sorry, gza
Sorry, glad l’m not having to moan because of a loss but he is afraid of his shadow
He has nothing to fear who would take over at Liverpool with “no money to spend”
It was one of those days where there existed two self-fulfilling prophecies. Nr One is Arsenal pressing for the opening goal in a tough match, letting one in themselves, having to chase the game and conceding a few more. Nr Two was Liverpool collapsing yet again after taking the lead. Either way it would have been written in the stars.
We did horribly. It is no critique, really, just fact. Regular drinkers in here know that I’m the bloke that always looks to the positives. And we did horribly in the sense that we can play football at twice the speed and with twice the accuracy. I don’t care. Because we won, and we [copy paste regular Wenger speech about attitude, handbrakes etc]. We really did do just what The Professor always says we can do. And it was scrappy, and it was nail biting, and it was hilarious and some other words as well – but damn did I enjoy this.
Hard fought win, Liverpool fading away, and the greatest weekend for a while (both in terms of alcohol intake and actual football matches).
I’ll go for a shot of vodka barman. Short glass, lots of bite and… erhm… almost no back-lift.
We were poor today in both halves, but a little better in the second half. Both center backs and song had good games though. Walcott is not good enough and Ramsey should play ahead of him every time. Arshavin was not up for it until he scored that great goal. He is not the one to play upfront on his own. We need a striker like Dzeko or Villa to win the PL I’m afraid.
Christmas arrived early for me! This weekend was an early Christmas gift! Manchester Untidy and Spuds losing and the Russians drawing a game at home to a team we beat 6-1 away! Hallelujah!
2-1 as predicted yesterday. We always win on Sunday when the Va. sun shines on Saturday.
Without being close to their best, the mighty pyramid that is Fabregas, Denilson and Song, was the foundation for this win. That right foot to left foot move that Alex does to beat his man is sensational. It’s an every game event now.
A couple of squirrely moments at the back, particularly the keeper’s flap for the goal. But overall, sound enough at the back. Traore gave pretty much as good as he got. What a difference it makes to have a CB who can head clear.
The front three were too easily contained for most of the game, but all credit to AA for a superb strike.
What a superb outcome. Add a front man who can carry the load and this becomes a great squad.
IF NOT for the oustanding Denilson???????????????????????????????
Should be…..if not for the oustanding manomatch SONG.
Only Song stood up to the challenge frm liverpool mid.
Very lucky.
THink Almunia needs to score 10own goals before he’s dropped,rubbish.
Sorry wambam. Song was dreadful opening half, and I suspect one of those surprised to get a rocket from Wenger. Granted, second-half he was superb, but look again at the first half when you get a chance.
I think, it was Wenger’s tactical change in the second half, which was key to our victory as well as the Wenger’s outburst at the half time. In the second half, we actually started without a striker; Walcott moved to the left, Nasri to the right and Arshavin in the hole. This allowed Walcott to drift in and create more space for Arshavin. Walcott was involved in the both goals although he didn’t touch the ball. But he was in the box and was challenging for the ball. IMO, that small change.. dumfounded the Liverpool defense and we improved our play, so they didn’t create chances…
Denilson was superb he ran his socks off for full 90 mins – he was everywhere. And Song’s close control of the ball and holding onto the ball is SUPERB! Amazing.
Evening Gents.
What a great bunch of results this weekend. Chelski, Merc City, Spuds, and Manure all dropping points and today the cherry on the icing on the cake an away win at Anfield.
Lets be honest, we weren’t great, in fact in the first half we were pretty bad. Almunia looked like an accident waiting to happen and as you so rightly posted L’pool went into the break with a deserved lead.
The second half we weren’t that much better, but L’pool were terrible, a Johnson own goal and a moment of magic fron our Russian wizard and we had stolen the points.
It’s great when we play beutifull footy and win, but I must admit for some reason this feels like the best result of the season, I’m lovin’ it.
I’ll have one of those Carlsbergs too, please.
Cheers.
If we are to have any hope of lifting a major trophy ALMUNIA has to go …he is a total liability. Over the course of a season a team should be able to reflect on the points your keeper has saved you ..in the case of Almunia it is simply the case of how many points he has cost us . He unsettles the whole defence.
The best week-end for us in a long time. Yes we were quite poor in the first half but the way we played in the second half no one would ever score against us. perhaps AW turning into Alex Ferguson at half-time had something to do with it. From the beeb:
Wenger had lost his temper at half-time, with Cesc Fabregas noting: “I have never seen him like that.”
I’ll have a few pints, Carlsbergs of course!
Firstly.WHAT A WEEKEND!!Secondly.It goes to show how good feels to win even if we were poxy at times and not playing magical football that we seem to expect all the time from a gang of teens.
We will always be able spank some teams 6-0 when playing well but will always be able to lose when playing well also.For me its getting to the stage that I just want to win!!!Dont care how.If you just remember how you felt today at the final wistle today!
Get in the hole!
More details on the Guardian: “The boss screamed. I’ve never seen him like that before. He was really disappointed in the first half and said we didn’t deserve to wear the Arsenal shirt if we played like that,” said Fรกbregas. “I think he was right but in the second half we turned it round.”
On this special night I can confirm that all of the Guinness has been passed by me personally ๐
Well done ‘holic.
๐
If you cant enjoy a Guinness tonite when can ya!!!!
Geez ‘holic…. If you’ve passed all the Guinness I’m definitely not ordering any of that warm stuff? Plenty of continental lager over here…..
Oh; just how badly injured IS Carlton Cole? He, or a bang in form NB could make a huge difference ….
A cup of Ovaltine for me.
I’ll definetly be sleeping easier tonight ๐
Holic, I think a special mention has to go to the ref. He was under immense pressure from the crowd and the diving from Gerrard, Torres and Kuyt. But he coped really well. Great result though.
Another San Miguel for me please ‘holic. This is a wonderful feeling…..that I want to experience for as long as possible.
We didn’t perform at all well in the first half but I’m not convinced Liverpool were that much better. In the 2nd half we were well under control so Liverpool didn’t stand a chance ~ had them in our pocket.
Arshavin did what he is paid too – produce inspired football when no one expects it from him. Song, Vermaelen and Sagna worth a mention. Thought Traore equipped himself well too.
All days are great days to be a Gooner ~ but this one, this one is especially so. Keep on believing ๐
Fabulous result, I haven’t felt this good in quite sometime. Thanks for the write up, as usually, ‘holic. A lot of us read your posts out here in Oakland, California. Any news on Traore? He seemed to finally pull it all together and play a nice game. Pint a Guinness, if you will!
A great 3 points. Let’s be honest, most of us would have taken a point before the game. I agree with a lot of what has already been said so far. Denilson was awesome. I think he makes such a difference to our side. Vermaelen was also imense. I have never been an Almunia fan and do feel this is another area we need to look at.
What pleased me today was the spirit. We still have loads out and the first half was poor at best. But we did not crumble, we still battled on and fought. 2nd half we saw the results. They did not have a single effort on target 2nd half. That tells you how much we improved as a unit. This is a game that last season we would have struggled to come away with anything.
The other pleasing thing was that we seemed to get a bit of luck. Something we have lacked for a while now. I do think it was a penalty of the Gerrard foul. I do not know where this rule is that if the ball is not under control that it is not a foul. Gallas took him out and got away with it. Perhaps his reputation went before him. Oh well, shit happens.
Burnley and Hull in the next 6 days. Take maximum points from those as we should do and we will have people taking notice again.
Wengerball back on track.
Now, what shal I have to drink??? Can only be a London Pride after that afternoon.
Keep the faith.
If chelski gets rid of Cech do you think we should get him?
Lesson from this match: don’t get Wenger angry, you wouldn’t like him to be angry!
But seriously, it’s about time he shouted at some of the slackers on the team.
So what did you blow the free bet on then ‘holic? Funny thing Martin Tyler pointed out. Odds for a 4-4 before the game was 250-1. When we scored to go 2-1 up they were at 100-1 and dropping like shit in a potty! ๐
Excellent result and excellent blogging holic. Good to see Denilson getting praise for keeping us alive in the first.
Wenger kept his powder dry for as long as possible. It shows how much belief he has in this team that he knew they should beat Liverpool at Anfield. This might’ve been our last chance to keep our champions hopes alive, psychologically as well after losing to chavski. He’s given the players so much responsibility and they’ll be better for it in the long run, but this was the time to set the rockets off in the changing room and KABOOM it worked. That wasn’t a lucky second half turn around, we outplayed them all over the pitch and reduced them to cheating. I’ve never seen a team dive so much.
Catching chavski will be hard but if Wenger’s belief rubs off on the players (and a few more ifs such as a new CB, surviving Song’s ANC absence and either a new striker or Vela/Walcott/Bendtner hitting form, the team maturing and taking on the responsibility given them and playing for the club) then we can.
Maddy – phone home. Your parents are worried witless.
Just had a revelation. I cannot for the life of me understand why this hasn’t even been paper talk, should have been, even if it’s a bad idea (I mean, come on, Pavlyuchenko!)
Louis Saha.
I saw the Chelsea – Everton game and I agree with Moyes when he said:
“He did really well today,” said Moyes. “I have to say, I thought the centre-forward was in a class of his own. Louis gave them as tough a time as they will come up against. I thought he was all over them.
Big, strong and could probably do the job in the middle of our attack. Or let me put it like this – Everton are 15th in the league and still Saha has scored 9 this season, that is two less than Drogba and Rooney, who play for top teams.
Best news – His contract runs out at the end of the season so he’s free to talk to clubs come January and the transfer window. Could be an option on the cheap, with power, and a proven enough goalscorer. Sure, he is not THE world class player, but all this together, the contract running out soon, scores goals this season, has been good against top teams and adds some muscle and a more traditional centre-forward, at least we should have a look at him?
And please, don’t beat me up for suggesting Saha, lads!
Excellent result yesterday puts us back in the mix, for the time being at least.
@ Toby – I actualy agree regarding Saha being worth a look, even if its temporary. He fits the criteria of being cheap (if his contract is due to run out as you say), eligable for the champion league, he is big, good in the air, can finish and is french too.
Saha? No thanks. Useful player but he has had more than his fair share of time being injured. Knowing our luck, the minute he signs on the dotted line he’ll probably walk straight onto the treatment table.
@Matty – Heh, yeah, didn’t even think of the fact that he’s french.
@Don – Very true and a good point, but as for me, he’d only have to be able to walk when Bendts can’t and vice-versa. I’m really thinking short-term here. Which, of course, might not be the best thing to say to a player you want to buy (“could you please play for us until Bendts has regained form and at the very most until Persie comes back?”).
For me it all comes down to two things that only Wenger knows about – if he really think that Saha would work with our passing game and if we could sort out a really shrewd deal with pay-as-you-play-clauses and something quite short term.
Tidy player Toby. Too, he seems to be enjoying his football at the moment. I think you make a good suggestion. Strong, combative and plays well off the shoulder of the last man. As I say, my only concerns are over his liability to get injured (apart from our trying to prize him from a more ‘stable’ role at Everton in favour of effective ‘instability’ at Arsenal).
Good write up as always Holic,
Must say its nice to see Denilson getting some praise on here as most blogs ive read this morning have rubbished his contibution i thought he was our outstanding player in the first 45 mins and run his bollocks of, Thought i was losing the plot to then read this morning that he was shit,
When o When is Wenger going to drop Almunia hes a walking mistake at the moment and could not catch an std in Glasgow let alone a football, Surely this was his last mistake for a while and really the time has come for Fabianski to stake his claim,
Just watched the game and Denislon did play well.
Humble pie for me!
Would be happy to see him play more attacking with his good shooting ability but he gets dominated too easily for me.
I’m well used to the taste of that pie myself, wambam. Thanks for coming back.
Also should have added to my last post that for a team derided as Southern softies it was amazing that those tough northern brutes spent more time on their arses than there feet in the second half having serious temper tantrums and beating the floor like children the chief culprit was a certain S-Gerrard,
Some great points in these comments.
‘Holic – you are definitely right about Song’s performance. He’s been our player of the season this year but in the first half yesterday he couldn’t win a tackle and was getting bundled off the ball even by smaller players. Totally different in the second half, thank heavens.
And the ref did well with all diving going on. Yes, it was probably a penalty to them in the first half, but the Scousers don’t help themselves by being a team with several players (Gerrard, Kuyt, Benayoun) all looking to go down in a heap at the slightest brush from an opposing player. Gerrard particularly pisses me off. You can see how he boots the ball too far away to control it, then angles his run in to the opposing player to try to win a free kick. On one occasion Song highlighted it brilliantly by anticipating it and pulling out of the tackle, leaving Stevie to do his Tom Daley impression all by his self.
Top man wambam. I really want to watch the match again and count how many times Gerard dived. I know I’m going on about it but I’ve never seen anything like it.
Magic Hat, Come on man pull yourself together Stevey G would never lower himself to that level its the dirty foreigners i tell yer, His constant swearing at the ref should have also brought him a card as should his constant pleas to book anyone in an Arsenal shirt. You can tell the pressure is getting to them tho by there players actions they were pretty damn desperate,Gerrard and Carragher seemed to be the most desperate makes you wonder if they know how bad Liverpool need 4th spot !!!
Can’t understand how anyone can dismiss Denilson’s contribution yesterday, it beggars belief.
AW’s tactical switch with Nasri and Walcott was crucial for the second half.
AW getting angry at his players (and showing it) is not as unique as many believe. His players in Japan said his rages would terrify them. I don’t know if it was Adams but one of his veteran players once told the story of how AW flew into a rage in the dressing room after a loss to Man Utd. He screamed obscenities and threw things at his players.
I presume the English media will be full of columns bemoaning the downslide of sportsmanship and morality in football after those two English wonderboys, Rooney and Gerrard, blatantly dived in one weekend. I’m sure those columns are being written as I type.
In case you want to know, Liverpool forums:
1) Blame the ref
2) Turn against Benitez and the players including Gerrard
3) Hope and pray for 4th place
4) Want to buy buy buy
Overall serious dooming in full swing…
“Worried to fuck now”
“All over. Bollocks.”
“** Shakes head **”
“Another week, Another game lost. I’m getting really used to this”
“Don’t know whats happened to Liverpool, but goodbye to 4th spot”
“feel lke crying lads.. scratching my head as to whats going wrong”
“I feel sick. Literally close to throwing up.” (from a forum legend, 11K posts! get a life man…)
“most disappointing thing for me was how we never looked
like getting back in it after Arsenal went ahead, never got at Arsenal or created a decent chance”
“I wouldn’t say we deserved to lose, but we lost the spirit, determination and belief and fell apart after Johnson’s OG.”
My favourite: I didn’t hear one thing in the second half besides ‘Who the f**k are Liverpool?’ and ‘Arsenal! Arsenal! Arsenal!’
I think AW got it right, they are getting better and many teams will lose points at Anfield this season. 5th off fourth spot with 22 games to go is not unmanageable. Not that deserve it any more than Villa, Spurs, Citeh or even Birmingham, Sunderland and Everton…
BTW I learned that it was the first time in the league since 2003 (6 years!) that a team went behind at Andfield before turning it around. The last team to do it was… Arsenal.
If we’re able to consistently hold a lead like we did in the second half on Sunday we’re about to win a lot of silverware.
Just a thought. How good we actually be as a side if we had bought Torres? He is a genuine world class player. Stick him up front with our side and the title would be as good as ours…… Shame we missed out really…
Another few good ones, I had some good laughs. If you have time to waste the match threads there are even more hilarious.
“Wenger told his lot they weren’t fit to wear the Arsenal shirt at half-time … could someone get him to stop in on our dressing room before he leaves?”
“I fuckin hate Arshavin. Hes the new fuckin Viduka. Does fuck all, absoloute fuck all but has scored 5 goals.”
“on the bright side, all those bandwagon fans from post 2005 will fuck off now.”
“Of course we can still get up to 4th, but we should be so much better than that”
“You know shit is bad when the manager gets it spot on and we still play like shit.”
“We were done by a team of 4 defenders and 6 midfielders.”
“I’m not football expert and I’m not Liverpool expert but do you know if the club has a psychologist in the payroll?”
“Arshavin’s insane against us as well, he gets a half chance and he scores. I hope the fucker’s on the bench the next time we play them.”
“Almunia could of put his suit back on at half time and got his head down on the coach ,not one effort on goal in the second half ”
“We were facing Arsenal not Stoke City “
Steve T: Well considering he’s only injured half of the games as opposed to RVP’s 75% that would have been a great improvement.
Was discussing Torres being at Arsenal down the pub last night. What an incredible spectacle it woud be if Arsenal could dig deep and afford the coffers to purchase his monumental footballing talents. I’ll ponder no more over the thought, it’ll clearly never happen!
Matt, thanks for posting those, great reading!
Frankly, they remind me of a lot of gooners (incl. myself) last season. LOL!
I think they can still turn it around and make 4th — but that will take Villa or Spurs or City messing up (which is inevitable for spurs) and pool finding some form. They had it in the first half, they showed that comeback ability last season.
holic, you’re right that we would’ve been just as angry if that penalty had not been awarded to us. That said, I did like the take from this gooner poster on another blog (who agreed with Webb’s non-call):
“The Diving Thug knocked the ball way past Gallas deliberately knowing that instinctively the defender will stick his leg out and then he changed direction so that he collided with Gallasโ leg.
I think this was a fantastic decision from the ref as this sort of thing is so, so difficult to spot. Gerrard’s past record of dives also counted against him so good I say.”
And we’ve suffered a few non-calls for legit penalties recently since the Eduardo hysteria.
I took great pleasure in watching Hughes’ mercenary drawboys underachieve yet again. I loved that result even more than Chelsea drawing and the spuds losing.
Agreed on Citeh really. I’m not that found on the other 3 either (Villa, Spuds, Sunderland who have all bought their way up like Citeh.
Everton with all their inuries drawing at Chelski was the cherry on the cake. I have a lot of respect for Moyes, too bad they got so rattled by Citeh’s tapping of Lescott and their injuries.
Birmingham is the other team I’d like to see get a sniff at 4th spot. If only because I always liked Larsson and was disappointed to see him leave.
Great finds there, Matt. Thanks. But BIRMINGHAM! Perlease…
Yep pool fans sound exactly as ours did last year ๐ the Big Big problem for them tho is we really were only in a fight with Villa for fourth theyve also got to contend with City and Spurs who both look like they could also have a real go at it as city will surely strengthen and for all spurs being shit they actually look like they can score goals, So me thinks pool are in major shit,
Matt they are classics was reading through them last night the funniest one was from the bloke that reckoned the spirit of shankly group had gone as Arsenal fans and spent 90 minutes drowing out the home support in fake cockney accents ๐ before all leaving on masse with 10 minutes to go as a sign of there displeasure.
SO Saha playing in the ‘Europa’ cup doesn’t disqualify him from playing in the Champions League this year? Not a terrible idea. The semi-lateral thinking of getting Adriano out is not so bad either, though who knows what his mental state is like these days. Would still like to see a big guy come in who scores a lot of goals (to add another dimension to the team, and provide continual squad competition when RVP returns) but they don’t come cheap – also unlikely to be available for europe this season, but at this stage we can still win the league!
‘Holic: Been away for too long to know what’s off-putting about Birmingham. I just have respect for what McLeish is doing there on a shoestring budget. With Larsson.
chippy: actually they aren’t exactly the same to be honest. We have more young “football manager”-type fans than them. Lots of older/more traditional types at Pool. I just didn’t include the “stay behind the team” kind of postings but there are plenty of them.
A good beeb article about the ACN: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/8389588.stm
It’s between January 10th and 31st.
Chelski will be with 4 players (Essien, Drogba, Obi Mikel and Kalou) just returning when we meet them on Feb 6th (we’ll get Song and Eboue back).
Interestingly Man United and Pool don’t have a single african player.
Don’t know if you remember Adriano’s antics all along his career in Europe but if we get him he will make Adebayor look like a Zen master. We could perhaps use him on the pitch but there could be a huge price to pay in the dressing room and in training. A very big gamble.
Guessing Wenger is fuming now since Wolves are playing their reserves against Man Utd. 10 changes since the game that beat the Tiny Totts. Wouldn’t it be great if all bottom-10-teams always played ten reserves players against the top four. Would kind of make the top four stay the top four wouldn’t it? I’m all for playing a side that is “strong enough” for the opposition and rest a few important players for a big game, but play just the reserves? This early in the season? If Wenger isn’t fuming at least I am. Just hoping Wolves will do us the same “honor” when they play us…
PS. The rule we’ve all seen time and time again but here it is once more: “Section E, rule 20 says: “In every league match each participating club shall field a full strength team.”