Diarrwho?

Early blog today because the central air was set 14 degrees above it’s normal setting and kicked in at 1:45am with a long and strong gust of hot air.  Well, actually I’m not sure it was the central air, it could have been the bloviating over at Arsenal America that raised the temperature in my house.

I especially love that some people are claiming “no one could have seen that Flamini would be this good.”  Yes, yes indeed, some people did see it.  Some people commented on it last year when he selflessly played utility man.  Some of us commented on it when he had a brilliant Champions League run.  Some of us have been singing his praises now for two years.  But don’t let that cloud your fantasy!

Irregardless of all that, it is now abundantly clear to everyone that he is a very important part of Arsenal’s success this season.  And I’m not even talking about his goal and his assist.  I’m talking about the fact that he was tireless; defending, attacking, holding, passing, tackling, and leading.  The goal and the assist were just icing on the cake.

Wenger sees it too and seems eager to sign him.

I feel we have a few who have improved but he is one of them. His work-rate is tremendous, his run on the first goal was great, the timings of his runs are good and his composure with the final ball is great. That was not the case in the years before. On top of that he scored a great goal tonight. We are talking [about a contract]. I’m hoping to finalise it, he wants to stay, I want him to stay, so we should find an agreement. I’m not especially concerned because I believe what he tells me.

Yes, let’s all collectively relax and trust that Wenger is doing his best to sign Flamini to a new deal.

As for the game — it was altogether a great match, controlled from whistle to whistle by Arsenal.  This was probably not the most welcoming way for Kevin Keegan to start his third stint at Newcastle.  Which is kind of sad, because the reality there is that Fat Sam created a team of talentless assholes and against an open, fit, and talented team like Arsenal you can’t really expect to play anything other than crunch and hoof football that is the hallmark of Sam’s coaching career.  So, Keegan’s valiant attempt to play attacking football is destined to fail against Arsenal: he just doesn’t have the talent. The 6-0 scoreline over two matches should draw a bright red line under that.  Unsurprisingly, three matches in and the British press is already spelling his downfall.   Amazing.

Speaking of amazing!  Adebayor now has 20 goals in all competitions, 17 goals in the Premiership, and10 goals in the last 7 games, scoring at least one goal in each of those matches consecutively.  In fact, and I had forgotten about this because of the black cloud that hung over the match, up until the Tottenham match Arsenal had never lost a match in which Adebayor had scored.  And he’s reclaimed the top goal scoring spot (because of his alphabetical dominance over Winky-Divey) and is at third place in the Actim stats table.  He also tops my stats as the number one reason people travel to my blog.  But perhaps the most amazing thing is that all of the negative chatter about him has almost completely died off.  Good.  Long may it rest.

As the Adebayor phenomenon has taken off, the Gael Clichy phenomenon has been happy running all over the pitch in Ade’s shadow.  But make no mistake, Clichy is the real deal and while he’s being overshadowed by Adebayor in the eyes of some people, the guys who matter see performances like last night and recognize him for his brilliance.  Just see what Cesc said:

Mathieu has stepped up this year as have Adebayor and Gael [Clichy] and all these kind of players. We need them so badly.

And that about sums up yesterday’s match doesn’t it?  “We need them so badly.”  Indeed.

OK, that’s all, I’ve combed through the RSS feeds and shared a bunch of stuff that I think is funny or interesting (like Moyes calling for an ACN “break” to the Premiership or The Sun reporting that Woodgate is injured already).  If you’re interested you should check out my shared feed.  There’s just so much stuff going on right now, this blog could literally take almost any direction.  If it seems a bit confusing right now, stick in there, I’m sure a way out will present itself.

Until tomorrow!

What a morning

I put the blog down with 20 minutes left to get to Doyle’s.  Then I started searching for my wallet and keys.  Nothing… nope, not here… shit, where did it go?  Not in the car, not on the mantle, not in the kitchen, WHERE THE FUCK IS MY WALLET?

Fortunately my girlfriend is a saint.  She got up, dug around and got me $20.  I grabbed my passport and drove out to catch the first half.  I’ll worry about the wallet after the match.

The first half saw Arsenal playing very well, moving the ball, opening up Newcastle’s defense, keeping possession, and shooting on goal.  Given was having a whale of a first half so nothing was going to go in.    But Arsenal looked great in the first half.  Even Diaby was having a decent half — sure he turned the ball over a lot and dribbled too much but at some point he stopped trying to be too intricate and started passing and even had a great shot on goal well saved by Given.  Not too sure about some of the commentary saying that Newcastle “regularly worried” Arsenal in the first half: I’d hardly call two shots on goal “regular worry.”

The second half saw Arsenal rip Newcastle to shreds.  The first goal came when the ball fell to Adebayor after an Eduardo rocket that hit the post and Ade left footed past everyone and into the corner of the net.  Say what you will about him, he is pure talent in front of the goal in my mind.

For the next 30 minutes, Newcastle bumbled around toothlessly attacking and Arsenal  looked like to score.  Then Wenger subbed in Hleb and Gilberto for Diaby and Theo and the match opened up significantly.  Within minutes, Flamini had won the ball and it was moved to Ade who held off two defenders and fired home a powerful side foot past Given that bounced in off some Newcastle defender.

The third goal was an own goal off Butt and well, just icing on the cake.  Arsenal looked like to score anyway so it’s not like the goal was undeserved.

Afterwards Keegan claimed that Newcastle outplayed Arsenal in the first half and even Wenger saw that to some extent, but really only very early in the match.  By the time I got there (12th minute) Arsenal looked the dominant side and I found myself saying that if every team played Arsenal in this open and attacking style, it seems they would win nearly every match.  Since Newcastle came to actually play football instead of act like a bunch of shit-kicking cunts, there was so much space for Cesc to play in, Flamini was allowed to work the midfield and the wing players were given space to run.  This in turn opened spaces for the forwards and that led to chances on goal.

Credit to Newcastle, then, for coming to play.  Credit to Arsenal for taking advantage of it.  Credit to Adebayor for playing at the highest level.  And credit to Flamini for providing the engine to the midfield.  An all around enjoyable match to watch.

Oh, and afterwards, I found my wallet in the car.  So, the whole day is coming up aces.  Have a great night!

it’s over

No, not the cold, it’s still dropping below freezing every morning. Which means that every morning I have to get up and scrape the ice off the windshield of my truck.

No! I mean the Adebayor and Bendtner bust up! It’s over! I mean, for us it’s over: for some people in the press there’s plenty of reasons to keep the story alive but for us, this is done. Wenger has stated that we will deal with it internally and the FA is taking no action. Good. I’m going to do my best to forget about it until some Chelsea supporter brings it up again during an FA Cup final or something. You know, he’ll start whining about how poor, precious, fair, Chelsea is being treated unfairly because since they got caught and punished for 1% of their constant infractions Arsenal should be punished for their one infraction. I’m putting this incident behind me until that happens.

There’s precious little going on in Arsenal news this morning and honestly that’s a good thing. Tomorrow we’ve got an FA Cup match between Arsenal and NewcastleOMGKEEGANISBACK. Arsenal’s squad news says that Senderos and Clichy are fit and ready to go. Which is all well and fine, Clichy is great and Senderos is an improvement over Hoyte. But more importantly, Arsenal have Flamini back in the team. If you’ve read this blog more than once you know that I am of the opinion that more than any other player Flamini has been the glue that holds this team together this season. He agrees with me. It will be good to see him back in and providing cover for Cesc.

On the other side, I guess Newcastle is talking about bringing Barton back for this clash. No doubt he’ll get drunk and attack someone after the match. That said, during the match Flamini will outplay him in every way. I am confident.

That’s it as far as news. I will be watching tomorrow’s match at Doyle’s here in Tacoma. There’s a $10 cover charge mandated by Shitanta Sports. So, bring $10, be there at 7am, and let’s see the Arsenal through to the other side! Because if there’s a draw, then the replay will be held during the week of the Blackburn match, which is the match I’m traveling to London to see, which means that the Blackburn match would be rescheduled for that Saturday instead of a Monday night game, and that would require a change in travel plans and probably cost me money. So, it’ll probably be a draw. Sigh…

UPDATE: 11am 1/25/08

OMG

Spurs have a commemorative mug, tee-shirt, and DVD available for their semi-final victory over Arsenal. Arsene should buy one of those mugs and use it every day.  Fuck, I think I’m going to go to Tottenham and get one.  How lame is your club when you sell commemorative gear for a semi-final Carling Cup victory?

that was quick…

The ink on the contract isn’t even dry and Diarra has already started taking swipes at Arsenal:

I need to play and I really want to think about myself, about those who appreciate me. I read that Arsenal wanted to keep me but when you want to keep someone, you do that by playing them.

I wanted to write this big angry screed but he’s not worth it. Because anyone with half a brain can see that he is a selfish little cunt. Good riddance. My favorite part though is that he’s already saying that he’s ready to leave Pompey for (get this) “a top club.” I hate to break it to you, you fucking retard, but you’ve already been at two of the biggest clubs in Europe. Maybe he’s holding out for a midfield position at the mighty Havant and Waterlooville?

In Arsenal news, the sad saga of Robin van Persie marches on: he’s out for another two weeks. Also Djourou is out of the Saturday match against Fulhamerica with an inflamed groin (insert your own joke about pulling your groin). I don’t have much to add except, well, except that it’s sad. With all these injuries I’m afraid that RvP may never get a chance to show what he can really do with this team.

I just got some really scary news: if Newcuntsle manages a draw at Emirates next Saturday (Jan 26th).  Then the home fixture against Blackburn that is supposed to be played on Monday Feb. 11th will be moved to Sat. the 9th to accommodate the replay.  Dangit!  That would mean a change of plans!  By at least one day!  I guess I’ll just have to root for an Arsenal win.

Speaking of Newkeegan, Scott Murray over at the Guardian is covering the press conference live.  Good fun.

That’s it, match preview tomorrow.

Cupsets galore!

Morning!

I know, it’s morning, what could possibly be so exciting? Well, we have football news! It looks like there were a ton of cupsets yesterday in the FA Cup replays: the biggest came when Newcastle beat Stoke 4-1 to earn a shock trip to Arsenal. I heard that newly crowned King Kevin Keegan (aka His Holiness Kev, aka The Messiah)  channeled the force of 50,000 rabidly drunk Toon supporters to will the ball into the goal 4 times.

Also overcoming tremendous odds was Havant and Waterlooville, a club that is only one division up from the L.A. Galaxy. They eviscerated Swansea 4-2 in order to earn a huge payday at Anfield. I think the only question left is “what rotation will Rafa use?”

So, onto the squad news: £6m for Sagna is looking like a hell of a deal, innit? Not only has he played well on the pitch. But he also has great hair. Oh yeah, and a great attitude. Which the Daily Mail compares unkindly to the stinking thinking of Diarra. For example, Sagna says:

Playing for Arsenal is fantastic. I try to do better game after game and I would like to thank everyone who has helped me adapt…I have always had a fighting spirit and wanted to play for a great team. Now I am playing for Arsenal and want to show what I can do.

See that Diarra? He wanted to fight for his place not just give up and cry about it. So many times in my life I’ve been given the opportunity to fight for something or walk away from something. And every time that I have chosen the latter I have ended up a poorer person. Diarra has now shown himself to be a quitter who prefers to lead with his words rather than his actions.

Oh, and by the way, Diarra, I don’t think they are going to put up with too much of your guff over at Pompey. Anyway, the deal is official and thank god, I was getting sick of hearing about him. I do expect at least one more story, probably about how Diarra think Arsene is a horrible person.