PL ManU 2 – 1 ARSE
Sky managed to not bill the game as Super Duper Trooper Sunday, or some such nonsense and restrained them selves to predicting an exiting game due to its importance. Thank fuck. A surprisingly, amazingly sensible point of view and even more amazingly, an accurate one.
The game itself was in fact rather super duper…oh dear. Well it was a good game. Arsenal came out flying and had some rather outrageous periods of possession and produced their best chances, which as usual they wasted. Defensively Man U were surprisingly solid without Vidic, only conceding a goal thanks to a hint of handball and a Ferdinand lapse which allowed Adebayor to get ahead of him. Its unfortunate that these lapses are what prevent Ferdinand from being a truly great player and for Arsenal its Adebayors profligacy which prevents him, and probably them, from being great.
Then of, all things, four minutes later Arsenal gifted Man U a penalty thanks to a blatant Gallas handball. I suspect Mr Wenger may have been tempted to throw some tea cups and unleash a hairdryer after that one. Their inability to hold a lead is inexplicable and has undoubtedly cost them everything this season. Ronaldo had to score it twice thanks to some silliness and I do hope all English footballers were watching him on how to take a penalty, keep it low, to the side (within the posts!!!) and hit it bloody hard.
The winner was a wonderful Hargreaves free kick, a tighter, more dipping, bending curve ball I have rarely seen.
Arsenal showed an unfortunate streak of petulance, Abedayor and Hleb in particular, the five cards Arsenal received in total perhaps an indication of their frustration of possessing better technical skills and maintaining such possession against a total failure to win, anything. At least so far. Rooney also showed his own brand of petulance with 92 minutes on the clock when a decision went against him and suggesting the referee go make love with himself, amongst other things. Considering that his team was winning, the stage of the game and the fact the ball was at the oppositions end he would do well to shut the fuck up and grow up. I welcome the day when the ref can card him for it, preferably a red one. While you could argue a good ref keeps a sensible hand on the game by not carding for such outbursts and potentially ruining a game for sending offs for just calling the ref a part of the female anatomy, they are inexcusable and for me gives the players the excuse (and lack of fear of punishment) to go on to harass and try to undermine the ref. If they can get away with a bit of verbals, then its got to be worth a go trying to change the refs mind, it certainly seems to be the prevailing attitude with the players. On Rooneys part this was more that just a bit of verbals, can you not just say “come on ref no way?” Does it have to be “fucking, fuck fuck ref, go fuck yourself, cunt, fucking fuck. ” I appreciate he is a mostly illiterate sportsman with an IQ that barely registers, but its the sort of abuse that should be stamped out.
Arsenal lost without really deserving to do so with the football they played, but failed to do things required to win, score and defend. Scholes and Giggs must have played their last seasons now because with Nani and Anderson etc. they have players coming towards the peak of their game, not desperately hanging on. They are a rather good unit with them and a better one without, and are going to take some beating.
Arsenal have bigger problems, one which might be sorted with some cash. Fabregas needs a more reliable partner in midfield, and a rest. I can only assume that Walcott lacks the stamina to do full games as his end product and pace would seem good enough for most teams, although I suspect not good enough for Mr Wenger which could be part of their problem. They need a new Captain as Gallas is clearly not up to the job, Fabregas would seem to the man to build the team around. Bendtner is also a luxury they cannot afford as their sub striker if they expect to win the biggest prizes.