But what I did see was, for the most part, rather typical. Nice start, great pissy-passing, and the away team getting the first goal. It's a sad indictment that eight games on, the only clean sheet we've had so far was against a dismal 10-man Blackpool. So it came from the head of the tallest player ever to play in the Premier League, but you sorta expect our opponents to score from their most obvious outlets. Oh yeah, of course, given that we had a very very marginal offisde decision against us, I'd figured it would be a matter of time before the combination of arse luck, over-elaborate passing and the lack of any killer instinct would do us in.
Till the inevitable goal, Wilshere was, as he has been, the best player for us on the pitch. And Arshavin was beginning to look like he has for the last 8 games: totally out of it.
Having gone a goal down, and nearly letting a second one in, we were rather thankfully gifted a second through an admittedly iffy penalty. Scott Dann may or may not have touched Chamakh, and it may have been slight if he did. But hey, Chamakh's fall was convincing enough for me. Penalty dispatched with sufficient confidence from Nasri.
Half time then, and I was thankfully able to get through the 15 minutes in an acceptably decent mood for the rest of the family. Didn't take long for it to get before. Less than two minutes into the half, and Chamakh twirls his way round the defence and Scott Carson before slipping a nice one into the net. Nice...Chamakh scores one, earned the second...and I had to think about just how many of our goals this season he's actually scored, earned or assisted in. Quite a few methinks.
Along that line too, was of course Wilshere's assist. The boy's a wonder.
The rest of the half was either non-existent for me, save for the last 10 minutes. We held on, looked better with Arsh off and Rosicky on, and could even bring on Bent Nick for a little run in.
2-1. Hard won, but three points. Honestly, after our last two (or even three) results, anything less than 3 points would really have killed the team, so to grind out the points today was nice.
As for Wilshere, well. Red card too, eh? I'm glad he came out thereafter with a mea culpa, and Wenger said what he said too. All in all, the boy was in need of a good rest too, so having to sit out Manciti, Newcastle in the Carling Cup and then West Ham should be fine. The boss should give him a little bit of another run on Tuesday with Shakhtar, then let Rosicky do the rest.
It's been a tough couple of weeks for us. And next weekend's another crunch match. 2nd vs 3rd, and if muck up the lines again at the City of Manchester Stadium, shit...we lose and it'll be 6 points behind them, forget Chelski. So I'll take one point there, and anything more would one hell of a bonus.
Elsewhere, Man Utd are getting really entertaining methinks. Giving leads away, doing cool Fabianki impersonations, fuelling rumours of a Fergie-Rooney rift, the works man. Keep it up! Pool's just as entertaining, no? One off the bottom courtesy of a better GD than West Ham. Classic. You can't be blaming the whole ownership on their crapness. That'd be just too convenient. They're just too damn mediocre. Apart from Torres (who's doing his best to be crap) and Gerrard (who half the time looks pissed off), there's nobody on that team who looks vaguely competent.
What was it Joe Cole said about why he chose Liverpool, when he signed?? The fool...
It's nice to be back to normal football. Saturday, Sunday, Monday (even if it's Sunderland and Blackburn) and then European Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Toodle-oo then. Wonder if Koscielny's going to get over his "injury" by Tuesday.
1 comment:
Where the heck you been. Long time no blog Arsewiper.
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