If Wenger had said something contentious about the Henry tackle after the game, you can bet your bottom dollar it would have been discussed in depth – just as it was on FiveLive who weirdly enough, are also a BBC station so people shouting BIAS might want to think again. Let’s also not forget the corporation employ two of the staunchest gooners of modern times in Dixon and Keown
A typically bi-polar week for those of us cursed with following our beloved Arsenal. Lows followed by highs followed by whatever resides in between a low and a high. Constantly playing havoc with health, stress levels and blood pressure alike, you have to ask yourself if following a football team is any worse for the body than injecting speedballs straight into your testicles before you even brush your teeth every morning. Brushing your teeth with purred magic mushrooms laced with ecstasy no less!
Sunday, Monday, Flappy Days…
There is one member of the team that represents the ultimate microcosm of The Arseanl’s current inconsistency streak. Step forward Lukasz Fabianski. It seems to be written into the contracts of Arsenal players at the minute that they must not play well for a specified number of games without at least one moment of ineptitude to disgrace and humiliate themselves in a less dignified fashion than shitting your pants on a bus. After what some may have suggested was a fairly decent run of form for Flappy (let’s face it, he can’t possibly be any worse than last season) including a top performance at Eastlands a few weeks back. The butter-wristed Polish keeper reverted to type on Sunday as a came, saw and failed to deal with an aerial ball allowing Andy Carroll to score and give Newcastle the victory at the Emirates. Say what you want about the defending and the lack of protection offered by the rest of the Arsenal team but as the last line of defence, it’s don’t think it’s crazy to expect a keeper to catch a ball. Having the advantage of being able to use your hands makes it unacceptable in my eyes to allow yourself to be beaten in the air. The fact that Joey Barton came out and admitted that Newcastle planned to target our man in goal and the fact it worked tells you all you need to know about the problems we have in this department.
But this is what we come to expect from Flappy, right? He’s inevitably going to fuck up more often than not so why work yourself up to a cardiac arrest about it? It’s going to happen so you may as well resign yourself to the fact so that everything else is seen as an unexpected bonus. Kind of like a trip to the sexual health clinic. Walk in expecting Syphilis and you will be mightily relieved when you only come away with only a mild case of crabs. Hell, you’ll even take a bit of herpes too.
Those herpes came on Wednesday in the form of Flappy’s one man show at Molineux as he successfully managed to keep the Wolves at the door so to speak. The much maligned (by me) goalkeeper pulled off a string of fantastic saves to prevent The Arsenal from suffering their second defeat in a three days. Credit to Flappy for what was a great performance and even though wouldn’t trust him to keep hold of super glue, let’s hope for much more of the same in future. I personally think the electric pink shirt had a lot to do with it.
The knee jerk reaction is going to naturally proclaim him to be the next Walter Zenga but like a lot of gooners, I feel that he still has some way to go to make up for the howlers of the past. Look no further than Sunday for the most recent and obvious example before getting too excited.
“Don’t worry, it happens to most guys”
Despite the win at Wolves, there is still very much a feeling that the are problems in the team that even the most rose-tinted gooner cannot deny. Last week I suggested with hope rather than optimism that the blunt performance against West Ham and the surrender against Shakhtar were just a minor blip: “Sorry baby, I’ve had too much to drink tonight. I’ll be fine in the morning”. But the morning has come and the impotence remains. The Newcastle and Wolves performances have hardly calmed my fears. It’s not often I agree with Mick McCarthy partly because I’m sure a little section of one’s brain actually shuts down when you ever discover that you have anything in common with the big dopey Yorkshireman but he was spot on when he said Wolves were the better team (in the second half at least) on Wednesday. Hopefully Wenger can wave his magic wand and get this group of players playing at the level we have been led to believe they can otherwise, on current form, I think we will see more results like that from Sunday as opposed to Wednesday.
Home Alone
Interestingly enough, the win over Wolves sees the gunners currently boast the best away record in the league albeit by a solitary point. Travel sickness is presently not an ailment that afflicts the lads this season but expect that record to be tested hard in the coming weeks at Goodison, Villa Park and Old Trafford! Conversely, despite four wins from six, it seems to be at the Grove where problems lie. With the two much discussed defeats against newly promoted West Brom and Newcastle as well as two scrappy recent victories over West Ham and Birmingham, you have to go back to the Bolton game in September to find the last time Arsenal won ‘convincingly’ in their big shiny newish home ground.
Ultimately, a team with the ambitions that Arsenal have need to make their home ground a fortress complete with a moat and the severed head of Phil Brown on a pike as you enter the stadium. Again going back to the Newcastle game and their ‘plan’ just goes to show that there is no fear factor for visiting teams anymore. Recent games have shown that teams fancy their chances against Arsenal even in our own back yard. At Stamford Bridge most teams are mentally beaten before kick off but even Chelsea went up to Anfield on Sunday and were, in truth, intimidated by the cauldron of red noise and hostility they entered.
This moves me onto my next point. I was embarrassed to see Arsenal fans leaving early on Sunday with five minutes left of the game plus stoppage time. It seems strange to say with our millions of fan blogs and constant sell-outs at home but we have to be the worst supported of all the big clubs. The so-called supporters that show up in their drones are a disgrace at times. You hear more moans and groans at the Emirates than you hear singing. Twice in the last year I’ve been threatened with ejection by the stewards for being too loud. Admittedly, I’m usually drunk and using the C-word more often than is accepted in civilised society. My point is, the Emirates faithful are pitiful when it comes to supporting the team and as a result, there is no sense of intimidation for any opposition team who shows up.
At Anfield on Sunday, the home fans were out in full voice in support of their team sending decibel levels in the north of England to their highest since the last new pie factory in Rochdale opened. At the risk of sounding clichéd, they were very much the 12th man. We can only dream of generating that kind of noise at yet we have 20,000 more people in the house. Work that one out. You cant tell me a bit of vocal support from the stands wont galvanise the players. Ask any player, past or present and they will tell you how much of a difference it makes.
Clean your Dirty Arsenal
Another negative to come out of Sunday was ‘dirty’ Arsenal’s fourth red card of the season and Koscielny’s second in just a handful of games played for the club. For a team that dominates possession so much, the number of fouls given away and cards collected is slightly worrying. With the exception of Wilshere’s lunge on Nicola Zigic, all the other dismissals have been more clum
sy than malicious suggesting a lack of focus and concentration creeping into the game. Something Wenger acknowledged last week but doesn’t seem to be addressing a great deal. Four reds could have easily become five at Wolves as Cesc was lucky not to walk after a late, reckless and unnecessary lunge on Stephen Ward in the Wolves game. Apology or no apology, the captain could well have been given his marching orders with little by way of complaint. Yes, Karl Henry made a terrible challenge on Arshavin and could have just as easily seen red but let’s not use this to deflect away from our own problems. We need to get our own house in order before pointing the a long, crooked accusing finger at others.
Bi-Arse
A big whoo-ha has erupted following Wednesday’s game thanks to some select editing by Match of the Day in ignoring Karl Henry’s tackle.
If you believe what you read, this minor omission means that Match of the Day has an anti-Arsenal bias, which in turn means the entire BBC has an anti-Arsenal bias which somehow means every media outlet that even so much as published a pamphlet on Jehovah’s Witnesses has an anti-Arsenal bias. Oftentimes the paranoia of Arsenal fans gets to such an extreme that it would be laughable if it wasn’t so ridiculously misguided.
Are the BBC anti-Arsenal? Well, probably about as much as Hugh Hefner is anti-vagina! The reason the Fabregas incident got more airtime was simply because of the post match interviews and the fact Wenger and McCarthy drew attention to the apology. That’s it. No cover-up or Roswell-like conspiracy. If Wenger had said something contentious about the Henry tackle after the game, you can bet your bottom dollar it would have been discussed in depth – just as it was on FiveLive who weirdly enough, are also a BBC station so people shouting BIAS might want to think again. Let’s also not forget the corporation employ two of the staunchest gooners of modern times in Dixon and Keown as part of their punditry team and this Saturday’s Football Focus has a feature on Cesc Fabregas and Theo Walcott. The scoundrels. If this is ‘anti-Arsenal’, could you imagine what it would be like if they actually liked us? Just because Alan Hansen decides to act like a crazy ranting fool (who was put in his place by Dixon in the end), it doesn’t mean there BBC editorial guidelines state that no positive words should be spoken about Arsenal. Some folk need to get a grip.
Injuries
The Arsenal Royal Infirmary has no new patients checking in once again this week leaving the “medical staff” scratching their heads. Long term casualties Abou Diaby and Thomas Vermaelen have reportedly had set-backs this week and could be out a while longer. I’m suspicious. This news has come to light in the very same week that Call of Duty: Black Ops came out AND the final series of 24 was released on Blu-Ray. Keiren Gibbs, who is more of a Halo and Mad Men fan, is suspiciously fit again. Hmmm…
Looking ahead
Everton away on Sunday. Goodison is one of those weird grounds that is the epitome of mixed fortunes for Arsenal. The last seven years at their place have seen a random mix of big wins and late defeats as well as a couple of draws to garnish. They’re a side you expect to come on strong so as I mentioned above, a good performance (or at least better than recent performances) is needed if we are to take anything from this game. They’ve had another typically stuttering start to the season but as a team who constantly secures top half finishes and have a record better than most against the country’s bigger sides, you’d be crazy to the point of shaving your own head with a potato peeler if you think there will be a repeat of last season’s 6-1 opening day massacre. Hopefully Chamakh can pick up where he left off on Wednesday and if Flappy is wearing the fruity electric pink number, maybe he will have another barnstormer of game. No more red cards this week though lads.
Come on The Arsenal!!!
For more anti-arsenal media bias, check out my blog
For an example of why some people ought to banned from expressing an opinion without a suitable screening process, follow me on Twitter
EXAMPLE OF AD POSITION
