Things we do

As I was saying on Saturday, I had to miss the live broadcast of the match on Saturday evening as I was out with Jo and her friends, Jen and Chris. We met in Camden and went to a pub on the Lock for a drink whilst we decided where we would go to eat. As it invariably does when we get together, the prospect of Wagamamas came up and I said something like "If it's good enough for Thierry Henry, it's good enough for me" (I seem to remember Thierry frequenting the Camden branch whilst still at Arsenal, though it might have been Miso). Jen's response to this was brilliant, "Is he the new rapper?"

Aw, bless. Jo and I soon disabused her of that notion.

I didn't fancy being in the position of waiting to watch the game, sitting down to watch it, seeing Arsenal go 2-0 up only to blow it again - so I was a bit preoccupied with my phone for a while. Long enough to establish that Arsenal were 3-0 up and pretty much home and hosed. So, with only a few drinks inside me, once Jo and I got home, I stuck the football on. And Jo told me I had an hour to watch it.

Thank God for V+, much of the first half passed by at 2x or 6x the speed of a normal game (thank God again that we weren't at our imperious best, it'd have sent me dizzy). I couldn't really tell you what was going on, but the ball did seem to be down our end a lot. Is that how I saw it? Or have I been influenced by what I have read of the game since? Maybe. Anyway, it seems that once the own goals had happened - the second one coming from good work by Ramsey and Eduardo, we pretty much played the game we wanted to play.

If the opening goals, though, owed something to fortune, the third goal was a thing of beauty. Of course, this is just how we do, but nonetheless, from Bac Sagna's play down the right (is Eboue really better going forward? Really?) to RvP's "wall" pass to Cesc's clinical finish, well, it was just precision play. Arshavin's second half goal, returning Wayne Hennessey's flappy punch with interest, was a little snapshot of the quality that he possesses.

After that, it seemed like one way traffic and - yet, again - it really should have been more than four - RvP went round to keeper but onto his "chocolate" leg, so missed his opportunity to shoot before being crowded out and Rosicky shot over after some lovely interplay. There was one more goal though, as Jody Craddock headed home a last minute consolation for the home side and their "loyal supporters".

I know these goals are but footnotes at this stage of the game, but I'm getting a bit annoyed at our seeming inability to keep a clean sheet - although it goes without saying if we win every game between now and May 4-1, we're not just going to be Champions, we're going to be the highest scoring Champions in history. Obviously, we're not going to be able to keep that rate up, so maybe I should just enjoy the goals whilst they last. It's a point not lost on Cesc Fabregas who, in his characteristic feet on the ground fashion, acknowledges that we are bound to go through a period where the goals will dry up and then we'll be back in "crisis" mode again.

The media thing is weird, though. We are second in the table, 5 points behind Chelsea with a game in hand and a home against them to come at the end of the month. Yet, we're still being essentially ignored as title contenders. It seems to me that we need to beat a team like Chelsea to be taken seriously and I look at that Chelsea team, a team that has lost to Wigan and to Aston Villa and I think "Why not?" Why can't we beat Chelsea? No reason at all, with the quality we have in our squad now.

Speaking of Chelsea, I was most amused to see Darren Fletcher blaming Arsène Wenger for the attention he is now attracting from referees - this, of course, resulted in the award of a free kick at the Bridge yesterday which gave Chelsea their winning goal. Well, Darren, if the ref had done his job properly a couple of months back, perhaps our manager wouldn't have needed to say anything bout you. It's just dawned on me that this has actually backfired on us, as Robin van Persie admitted, the draw would have been the result we were looking for yesterday - shut it boss! We've suffered with this ourselves, we haven't had a penalty since that Celtic game and Eduardogate, despite some very good shouts. What goes around, comes around.

It also occurred to me earlier, we like to moan about the international breaks, but - even on this brilliant run we're on at the moment, given that November is indeed the month of doom, should we not be grateful for the fact we now have a two week respite? Of course, we've got an intense week when we come back from it, with little time between a trip to Sunderland for which we will have minimal preparation, a home game in the Champions League and then that game against Chelsea.

Hopefully, Alex Song will come back to us in one piece and manage not to get booked against Sunderland (if selected) because that will mean him missing the Chelsea game. I'm very pleased that Aaron Ramsey got a start on Saturday - and did well, by all accounts, but the idea of Abou Diaby, injured again, filling the holding role against Chelsea scares me a little. We may have Denilson and Theo available by then, let's hope we haven't lost anyone else in the meantime.

User Comments

User Comments

• Got something to say?
• Read comments

Vs chelsea