It's Chelsea Week, And Rosicky Is Irked
Mar 17th, 2008 by 'holic
Chelsea, at Stamford Bridge. For older Arsenal supporters it is a fixture to anticipate with some relish. For some reason relations with followers of the Blues have always been less strained than those with other London rivals.
We have come a cropper at the Bridge on a few occasions, and possibly the most painful was our one and only league defeat in the 1990-91 season. But for that one blemish Arsene Wenger in 2004 would have been emulating a George Graham ‘invincible’ team.
By and large though we have been a bogey team to the boys from West London. In recent times we enjoyed a near six year unbeaten run against them from November 1998, when they beat a weakened Arsenal side 5-0 in a League Cup tie, to April 2004 and that Champions League defeat.
Back in the sixties and early seventies the highlight of the encounters was usually the running battle between Frank Mclintock and Peter Osgood, although Peter Storey and Ron Harris made sure that nobody would hang on to the ball for too long!
Thereafter, until they cemented their place in the Premiership, Chelsea alternated between the top two flights of English football, flirting dangerously with bankruptcy on more than one occasion. A far cry from their position today and the Abramovich millions have certainly engineered a change in the balance of power in the Premiership.
That balance may just be tipping our way again following a single goal triumph at the Grove courtesy of a William Gallas goal against his old club in December. The Easter trip to the Bridge could not have come at a more vital time and I’ll spend the rest of this week looking at the upcoming game and a little bit more on the history of the fixture. It would be great if some of you other oldies could share memories of these games too.
Tomas Rosicky Injury Is ‘Irksome’
You’re telling me it is Tommy boy! Or rather the brittle Czech is telling real reporters that he cannot return to training.
“There is nothing I can do but wait and hope that the injury goes away.”
I really feel his absence is starting to have an effect on Alex Hleb, forced to play on the left and clearly not enjoying the experience.
Get well soon Tomas, we really need you back, and soon.
5 Responses to “It's Chelsea Week, And Rosicky Is Irked”
Norman Burtenshaw changing his mind and awarding a penalty after a foul on George Armstrong in a cup game in 1973.
Frank Mclintock dragged him over to a linesman after he first awarded s free kick on the edge of the area.
We were a goal down Charlie scored the penalty and Ray Kennedy went on to net the winner.
Agree with you about Hleb but we have to live without Rozzer for the time being. RVP’s return should help a bunch. Otherwise best hope is to adapt to Walcott’s more direct running and hope the boy wonder comes good in the next few games.
The one advantage Arsenal have is that the “easy” games are now over. Its all difficult from here on in and Arsenal shine when facing the best teams. If we beat Chelsea, Pool and the mancs we win the league.
Also we are now being written off again which as we know is a carrot for this team. I am certainly irritated by the draws, but am very optimistic for the game this weekend. All I can hope is that somehow United drop points away to Bolton because I get a strong feeling Liverpool are going to beat United and we will be top again this weekend!
Walcott to start on the right. I wish Wenger would have the balls to start Bendtner over Ade alongside RVP. Ade for me has been really shocking lately. The man has no idea how to say onside or pass the ball. He needs a little time on the bench to sort his head out!
Finger crossed for gunners……….I didnt need the pain
once or twice was enough ,come on ,arsenal !!win 3 points against chavs!!win the title to show how marvellous skills you’ve.it ‘ll in vain if we get nothing this season .However,i am so proud to be a firm fan of arsenal.Keep, keep bleeding love ,i am sure we’ll do sth ,do the big step on sun.
um quietly confident bout the weekend game,i think that stems from the fact that against the top teams we havent eased up we have played well and showed we deserve to be where we are.
Chavs have really creeped up on us jus noticed to day that if they win their game in hand against the tiny tots then we are level on points meaning GSS winner will take second firmly into their hand for that meantime.
i hope the tiny tots do them and more so tire the asses out and when we meet we can run them ragged but considering its tiny tots we talkeing bout and the fact that the chavs have a massive squad it will be a case of ‘if you want a job done…….’
its way unfair to blame Ade,considering he has played alone upfront and quite frankly at the beginning of the season he was our n0.2 striker behind V.P so you have to give the guy props for what he has done but still that not to say his not frustatingly infuriating…
lets hope bolton,tiny tots and Liverpool spring up surprises all round..
We Gunner Gunn Em…