Arsenal: Cry Cry Cry Crybabies!
Being a bad loser is not exclusive to the Arse. Sir Alex Ferguson and Rio Ferdinand, for example, can be snarling bad losers. The poor Security lady Rio kicked a couple of years ago will surely attest to that, although she was the first one to testify afterwards that players do all kinds of crazy childlike stuff when they lose. Perhaps the worse case Ive seen was Chelsea losing to Barcelona in the E.C.C. semifinals and the dreadful behavior of Didier Drogba and John Terry in the immediate aftermath of some horrific refereeing. I understand such bad behavior and excuse it because Im human and a passionate fan. In Arsenals case, however, there is a difference.
We do! I say. Manchester United. Better than you.
The most entertaining?
Umm, Barcelona!
I disagree. We play really pretty football and. and. ! look at the gorgeous way we pass the ball around.
Ill cut it there, because such arguments simply become futile exercises in contradiction. Suffice to say that passing off the prettiest girl in the room as the best marriage prospect will not convince anyone blessed with intelligence and the gift of analysis. Beyond prettiness and vague notions of entertainment, Ill still take the Real Madrid team of the fifties and early sixties featuring Di Stefano, Puskas and Gento, the Spurs double team of 1961 featuring the fantastic Cliff Jones on the wing, or the United team of 1968 featuring Best, Charlton and the Law Man. They all played exquisitely beautiful football when it was allowed by the opposition or ground it out when necessary. But, wait! Is that what Arsenal do? The beautiful game? Really?
Sundays referee, Howard Laxo Webb, is a good man, I believe. Yet from the get-go, the clearest tactic I saw beyond Arsenals high-speed passing game was their parallel tactic utilizing the systematic foul. Nothing reckless, mind you, just the usual Gooner professionalism to hinder Uniteds passing game: Trips, ankle-tapping, that particularly French staple of grabbing underarm hair through the shirt, the backwards head butt and always, always, alwaysthe one they could count on to drive Ruud Van Nistelrooy bonkersthe hard studded foot stomp. In other words, the kind of consistent, cynical fouling which has to be practiced clinically on the training ground before a match.
Now theres no doubt that football is a hard game. Youve got to take your lumps and Arsenal, you may say, are only proving the old adage of Whats good for the goose ! Its nothing personal, right? Fair enough, if it became clear to the Arsenal team that Webb was willing to let all kinds of off-the-ball mayhem go on, they had a right to be a bit thuggish. Why thenand this is obvious to anyone who reads regularly about the gamehas Wenger repeatedly been slagging off Darren Fletcher as a dirty player? Anyone who reads my column knows that I a! m no fan of Darreninho and am particularly cynical about his passing ability. But labeling Darren as a Dirty Player is beyond daft. No. The truth is that he is a bloody good fair tackler and Wenger has had no one like him on his own side since Patrick Vieira. Its slander on Wengers part, but I choose to write it off as a Wengeresque mind game. Well, that is until Sunday, when he had his boys take turns fouling and provoking him, particularly Alex Song. Song is a fine footballer, but he is also a very accomplished and crafty testicle twister and spitter. So when Darren Fletcher finally exploded into a state of rage midway through the second half it all really blew up in Wengers face.
Why? Because, even though Howard Webb lets a lot go by, he and his assistants know exactly whats going on around them. Darren Fletcher is an accomplished professional, not a thug, and Webb knows it. Consequently, Webb began brandishing the yellow card and all Arsne Wengers year-long petty libelous machinations with a view to getting Fletcher sent off early failed miserably. So much for Arsenal as victims.
All that aside, it was not a great game. Nevertheless, theres nothing like watching these two teams go at each other at breakneck speed. Didnt the Gaffer do what he always does strategically against Arsenal? Stifle them in midfield and stand for no nonsense at the back. And with neither Chamakh nor Arshavin willing to get reckless and take the fight to our two superb stoppers, Vidic and Ferdinand, what chance did the in-form Samir Nasri stand against the constant harassment of Rafael and an ultra-amped Patrice Evra.
The pitch was shocking, Jack Wilshere moaned. They wanted to stop us playing.
We didnt deserve defeat, according to Arshavin. We were very unlucky.
Some of you may recall how, two years ago, having lost again,two days after the loss, the evening before a Champions Cup game, Arsne went on a rant about Manchester United playing anti-football. Wenger also babbled out various bellicose insults in the direction of referee Mike Dean for letting United repeatedly foul his side. Mike Dean: Friend of Manchester United?
How is it you expect me to comment on something I clearly did not see, he insisted with a, umm, Gallic shrug
A certain American journeyman who just retired after many seasons with two different clubs in the Premiership can wax philosophical when it comes to Arsenal. Having had his nose b! roken on two different occasions, once by Sol Campbell and once by Johan Djorou, he accepts that it goes with the territory, but wonders who teaches them that back-of-the-head move? He thinks they are dominated by a French mentalitythe scars to its collective psyche from a revolution which was reversed by reactionary counterrevolution and five years of complete collaboration with nazi GermanyWenger and his players categorically refuse to rigorously examine themselves, be self critical and institute the changes that are necessary, he thinks. As such reasoning goes, I think he hits the nail on the head.
But you know, really, in the end, he says. Theyre just a bunch of f#%*@g cry babies!
Watch Free Live Soccer Football Matches Online Here
Comments