The Answer to a Frequently Asked Question.

So I get asked a lot of questions. The one I get asked most of all: Why are you so crazy about Arsenal F.C.?

Prior to today, I had very little in way of an answer. Asking someone to condense a passion such as this down to a neat little answer is almost impossible. However, today I ran into an answer in one of the many Arsenal blogs that I follow. Interestingly, these are the words of a Chelsea fan.

"Something that happens too often with Arsenal happened again yesterday: you played the better, more classy football but lost to a more ruthless, clinical and efficient team. I don’t mind people comparing us to a “machine”, because machines tend to win trophies. [...] This Chelsea team is better than that Porto team because we’ve spent more money and therefore technically have better players, but the mentality remains the same."


This is how I picture Mourinho's philosophy.

I guess I would have to say that I adore Arsenal because we do play classy football. We nuture players from the beginning, we make bargin deals into class acts, and we make other teams look... well like they belong in the second league, win, lose or tie. It does NOT matter to me that we win trophies, although those look nice on the shelf. What matters to me is that we play a brand of football that is beyond what I see any other team has. It warrants us now having more fans than any other team in the world (175,00 and counting, check the Guiness Book, it's official).

So that is the answer to that question, if anyone asks me again, I'm just going to make them look this up instead of waxing elegant any longer.


On to other news, the wise Chelsea fan had this to say about Diaby:

"Being played out of position, he [Diaby] terrorised our midfield, often storming past the likes of Ballack and Lampard. There was one point in the second half when he tackled Lampard, took it past Ballack and then bounced right off Essien. It was insulting. A guy to my left looked at me as if to say “who the hell is this kid?” In March 2003, Patrick Vieira gave the best individual performance I’ve ever seen in 13 years at Stamford Bridge. When Vieira was 19, he was not as good as Diaby is now."

If that's what the opposition has to say about Diaby, then I am willing to wait for him to get better. He did pick up an injury kicking Terry, which is such a shame as Terry was quite fine. Overall, I am as always, excited about the coming season. Chelsea can continue to spend their Russian money, and the other teams can just continue to not matter in my world.

I am a forever Arsenal fan.

Coalition to have Adebayor's red revoked and given to Eboue!

Well. Jeez.

For a game that started off so well for us, it really ended awfully for everyone. Well except maybe for Diaby because I mean, any day where you get to kick John Terry in the face is an excellent day indeed.


The bitter sting of being outplayed.

However.... it was in extremely poor sport and I do hope that Terry is okay. Anyhow, like I was saying, we came out of the blocks absolutely on fire. Our youngsters were making these millionaire players at Chelsea look like a cheap second rate team. To quote my friend at Arseblogger who saw the thing live "Our midfield pissed all over Lampard and Ballack and Essien and Makelele and to see Lampard giving it the clenched fists like they’d just beaten Brazil at the end was maddening but completely in character for him - the actions of a deluded cunt. Then they showed why they really are the most despicable football club on earth as they went to collect the trophy."

So we outplayed them and still lost, but there is still this small matter of Adebayor and Eboue. And it was NO small matter. Part of the reason for this bust up to begin with was the lack of control by the referee, and the poor calls by the deluded linesmen. One of the aforementioned deluded linesmen had some difficulty discerning Adebayor (6'4" unbelievably lanky) and Eboue (5'10" quite stocky) apart. So evidently, Adebayor spotted some unsporting conduct courtesy of Eboue, and made sure to indicate this to the linesman. Adebayor was absolutely correct to report this, as Eboue was once again out of line and out of hand. Anyhow, the ref was so confused in this melee that he proceeds to give Adebayor, who never touched ANYONE, a red card.


Kids, in the circle on your left, you will see the towering figure of Adebayor. In the highlighted square, you see Eboue having his bust up with Bridge, his offending hand again highlighted with a circle.

Even getty images has the wrong caption on their website, with Adebayor identified as the man who laid hands on Bridge. Look at the photo folks, last I checked, that man hitting Bridge isn't even the length of one of Adebayor's legs.


These men do not look REMOTELY alike, apart from their skin color.

Sigh. I've gone a little picture happy, but I mean really, I just don't understand what the refs were thinking. I can understand the red card to Diaby (he really shouldn't have roundhoused Terry) AND I can understand the yellow cards to the remaining players (Cesc you rascal) but there really is NO justification for what happened to Adebayor.

So that was the game. Walcott made his first goal in his Arsenal career, and the kids played beyond amazing. Too bad it was all overshadowed by some bad sportsmanship at the end. Any thoughts on the blatant miscarriage of justice? Can anyone else make the case to me about confusing Eboue with Adebayor?

We've taken our shite to the Champion's League

Remember my rant about how we always tie?

Well things just got worse. We had our first official loss of 2007, and it just had to be in the Champions League.

Wegner shows to be much more optimistic than I am, as I feel that this is just more of our lackluster performances against mediocre teams. Had we been playing Barca I'd bet for a shutout.

So here it is boys... I'm laying it on the line for you. Shape up, or... or I'll pretend like I don't love Arsenal with the heat of a thousand suns anymore.


You know, in ancient Rome that was the symbol of death. Ugly bugger.

And by the way, if there is any sense of justice in the world, Mourinho will lose against FC Porto today.

Manchester fans... what happened with the fence? Let's not have another Hillsborough. That's for the mickeys over at Liverpool. (Disclaimer: I'm really just kidding, Hillsborough was an awful disaster, but I mean if a girl can't take a crack at Man U it's just not a complete day.)

Edit: Oh yeah, so Arsenal announced their losses today, and it was a whopping 6.2 million pounds. Sound like a major loss? Well it's a good thing that we are in the same league with a crazy Russian billionaire. Yesterday Chelsea posted a loss of over 80 million pounds. That's right... more than 10 times what we spent. We bought the 3 time Czech player of year and built a brand new stadium and Chelsea STILL outspent us. Just something else to add to the list that Jose ain't so good at. Money management.

For God's Sake

So we were ahead of Liverpool right? And we were all set to play Blackburn which, my God, is horrible. And what did we do?

Put your arm down Flamini.

Evidently, we skipped around holding hands with the opponents... in addition to tying them.

Thank God the best team in the Premiership gives these horrible teams points or they would all be relegated into the second league. We're much nicer than those heartless monsters at Stamford Bridge or Old Trafford. They actually act like they care about winning the league. Sigh...

One point behind, one game in hand

So the good news is that we won again Wigan today, something I might not have predicted. We truly do have a terrible record against teams at the bottom of the table, as well as a history of terrible starts. This game was no exception, as we gave them the first point. We've REALLY got to stop doing that, because sometimes there just isn't enough time for that second goal to seal the win.

Anyhow... the game was looking dismal until an own goal by Wigan, followed by a nice strike by Rosicky. This is Rosicky's first goal for the Gunners in the Premiership, so well done him. I think with a little more time he'll really prove to be an important element in our team. He's also been named the Czech player of the year for the third time in a row, so again, bravo!

Henry was accused of showboating and poor sportsmanship by the other team, and I have to say that I'm in agreement. That little dance of his and Ade's is not in good sport. So a little word to the wise, cease and desist.

So we made it through the internationals without injury, we're one point behind Liverpool with one game in hand, and we are now the only one of the big four still British owned. I'd say its a good end to the season, now the boys just need to wrap it up. Well done us.

UPDATE: Okay okay, I've been going back through the footage, and it wasn't Henry's dancing, it was his bitching and moaning about time wasting. And actually, I have to say that I'm on his side for that one, although I completely understand where a team like Wigan is coming from. I've also decided that the people at Sky Sports News are a bunch of twats who moan way too much. That's all.

Another day, another tie

I've been pretty quiet since the Manchester game and in all honesty, there isn't much to talk about.

As usual... we've had lots of tied games puncuated by, well more tied games. We are a team that ties indiscriminately. We tie teams at the top of the table (Chelsea), teams at the bottom of the table (Middlesborough), and teams in between (Tottenham). We tie teams in every cup competition we play in. We tie teams on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

And it is frustrating. But then I root for Arsenal, and therefore will always have to deal with ties.


Anyhow... in other news. Robbie Savage broke his leg just a few weeks after his play acting at the Grove. Do I feel sorry for him? Not in the slightest. Ashley C*le has also racked up an injury, something I'm sure that all other Gunners I know snickered about. In one of those tied games I was speaking of, Senderos got a red card, which of course brings a 3 game ban, something else we need of course. It's also being reported that Wegner is going to let our youngsters play Chelsea in the Carling Cup final. I have mixed feelings about this, but I guess we can only wait for the result to see how this gamble pays off.

Really the only thing to look forward to is that Gallas, Diaby, Eboue, Baptista, Hleb will all be back in action soon.

I know I haven't written a note in a while but it's just been a bad combination of being/pretending to be busy and having crap games to talk about. We generally follow up tied games with excellent games or losses to terrible teams. We're playing Wigan next week, so unfortunately I'm afraid it could be the latter. Here's to kicking Chelsea's tail in the Carling Cup.