Now We Know...

Mrs Arsewiper happened to catch a couple of bits of the Arse-West Ham game over the weekend, and all she said afte Cesc had scored his penalty was: "Why has he grown a beard?"

I admit I did notice it, but I can safely say that that was not one of my major preoccupations while sitting through the 90 minutes. I said I didn't know. It was probably one of those passing Spanish fad things. You know Cesc. There's been the longish-hair with the hair-band thingy, the slightly mohawkish look, the closer shave, whatever.

But now we know. The dude had a pimple. On his neck. Must've been an awfully big, ugly, painful one:

"I also had a little bit of an infection on my face as well. I could not really train too much. So I took it a little bit easy. It was my throat. That is why I have grown my beard - if I shaved you could see the lump. At the beginning it was tough but at the end I was strong."

I was wondering about the quote for a while. I mean, if it was a throat infection so bad that it could show - shit - he'd be out of action for more than a couple of weeks. Then I figured it out. It was just a damn painful pimple. Not his throat, the silly boy. On his neck! One that even affected his training (?!?). But he got over his pimple. He was strong. He the man, I say.

Gianfranco Zola has had some nice things to say of us too, it seems:

“When we played Chelsea last week they probably didn’t play with the same quality or intensity as Arsenal. Arsenal are terrible, if you leave them a little bit of space because they punish you.

Arsenal, along with Barcelona, are the team who are playing the best football in Europe probably. They are very good to watch."

Thanks, but I'll take this with a pinch of salt. Probably his way of saying: hell, we got beat by 10-man Arsenal, only because they're shit good, better than Chelski and way up there with Barca. Sorry dude, don't think that's going to help you with your job. Liked you as a player, like you as a person, but methinks you ain't been a good enough manager (so far).

Finally, then. Gonna close with a funny story from the French league. All revolves around that very exciting prospect of Bordeaux v Lyon in the quarters. You see, UEFA Champions League games are usually played in midweek, right? Well, it looks like the weekend before their match, "someone", i.e. Lyon, will play on Friday, while "someone else", i.e. Bordeaux will play on Saturday. So what Bordeaux have done is ask that the Lyon game be moved to Saturday:

"So today Bordeaux asks the LFP to re-establish the equilibrium between the two clubs by making Lyon play on Saturday, March 27. Bordeaux, who have excellent relations with Lyon, don't doubt their sportsmanship and their understanding in this approach and count on the support of the LFP.''

Equilibrium. Indeed. Hear ye, hear ye. All those who agree with equilibrium, rise.

I just hope the LFP takes a look at this, snorts, does that French "pfffff....vaht can I do uh?" and chucks the request in the bin. Start on this, and all hell breaks loose with every other European league. Good thing UEFA has already ignored it.

For those with the propensity to remember: remember our tie at Old Trafford lst season, where we were absolutely hammered and got away with only goal conceded? Well, remember too that we played on Sunday prior to the Wednesday game, while Man U played on Saturday. So what's with equilibrium? Who said life was fair? Or equilibriumated? Maybe it was because we were dis-equilibriumised? I think I've found the answer...