Hubris...

...would be to overdo last night's result, but a picture paints a thousand words:

However, as Rowan, a Chelsea fan for whom I have the utmost respect, said (on Twitter):

Get back to me in May and we'll talk

Nuff said.

Which Witch?

I hope FIFA, UEFA, The FA, The RICS, Ofcom, The ASA, RoSPA, UNESCO, The RSPB and the Co-Op are all called in to look at Wayne Rooney's penalty winning dive from yesterday.

Yes, that's DIVE.

D. I. V. E.

Watch his back leg below; totally pre-meditated going to ground before any contact is made. Isn't that exactly what Eduardo is accused of against Celtic? Attempting to influence the referee through unfair means? Yes, it is. So I await the outcome of the forthcoming Rooney investigation with keen interest. Everyone seems to be calling for a two match ban for this kind of thing; Sir Alex will be ever so pleased. You want a witch hunt? Sure, we can do that too.

By the way, unlike Celtic I'm not saying that this decision cost us the game (we managed to throw that away ourselves, unfortunately) but simply that every single incident of this kind must be treated exactly the same from now on, and closely investigated using all the available technology.

Or is that not what everyone wants, suddenly? Well?

Something To Say

This morning, I was reading a load of reviews of last night's Arsenal -v- Celtic match, in particular the furore around the Eduardo dive* which led to the penalty. The Telegraph, the Times and the Mail all had articles which asked for Your Comments but then required you to 1) register your details, 2) wait an unspecified time for an email from them with a confirmation link, 3) click the link, 4) re-enter your now approved login, 5) continue back to the original page to add your comment, 5) wait an unspecified time for it to be moderated and then eventually 6) see it posted -- by which time someone else has probably already made all the salient points you were so keen to express.

I didn't bother.

Now I fully realise the need to moderate comments on a national newspaper site. I also understand about comment spam and email address confirmation. But it doesn't feel much like the 'conversation' they so desperately claim to crave with their readers. It just feels slooooooooow.

1-0 to Twitter (at least)

UPDATE: I have since signed up for the Times to test how long it actually takes to get a comment published, more later...

UPDATE 2: It took three hours from start (clicking the Register button) to finish (seeing the comment at the bottom of the article). Sheesh.

* yes, he dived and yes, I am disappointed in that from such an apparently genuine guy.

Kicking Off

So it all starts again today with a 5.30pm kick-off away at Everton. Now this is by no means an Arsenal blog - there are many that fulfil that role way better than I could) but I do chip in from time to time when something piques my interest. Like this, the Arsenal Pledge (I've always been more of a Mr Sheen man myself):

All well and good, but where are all the other players?

I want to see Fabianski's pledge to not come charging out of his goal like a freak every five minutes, Song's pledge to look less like he smoked a massive reefer before putting his shin-pads in and Eboué's pledge to be a bit less Eboué (or should that be fewer Eboué...)

Anyway, off we go. Come on you Gunners!

Boycott The Shirts

So I've started a petition:

Boycott of all three of Arsenal's awful 09/10 shirts

They're bloody awful and I hope nobody buys them. I don't care if the replica kit income would pay for a new defensive midfielder; they're taking the piss.

It's A Fix(ture)

This is a fascinating insight into the vagaries of the football fixtures calendar.

BBC Sport: Secrets of the fixture computer

Essentially, it's a massive Zebra Puzzle (incorporating the railways, the police, the FSF, bank holidays and horseracing amongst other things) and takes months to complete. For example:

"West Ham are paired with Dagenham and Redbridge. But for reasons of revenue, Southend request they do not play at home on the same day as the Hammers as they believe it impacts upon their attendance."

However:

"Southend are in Essex, as are Colchester, so they cannot play together on the same weekend. Colchester share stewards with Ipswich so those two clubs also request they do not play home games on the same weekend. Transport links dictate Ipswich and Norwich do not play together on the same weekend either. In other words, when West Ham play at home can have an impact on when a club as far away as Norwich (108 miles) play their home fixtures."

As I say, fascinating. Geek out.

Women And Children First

Just moments ago, Arsenal added the 2009 FA Youth Cup to the trophy cabinet with a 6-2 aggregate victory over Liverpool. In a remarkable coincidence, tonight was the 20th anniversary of the astonishing last-gasp title-clinching goal* from Michael Thomas - also at Anfield and a game in which Steve Bould, tonight's coach, was a key member of the back four. Funny how these things work out.

Huge congratulations to them and also to Arsenal Ladies who this year won the FA Women's Premier League (again), FA Cup (again) and League Cup (again).

Now if some of that sweet smell of victory could work its way into the First Team dressing room before next season, I shall be a very happy man.

* the goal comes about 7'25" into the video and brings tears to my eyes to this day (and how odd does it look when the goalkeeper picks it up from a backpass)

Getting Shirty

I see that my football team has a new away kit. Didn't we have one last year (and the year before that, and the year before that)? For the benefit of readers who do not scour the blogoverse for Arsenal-related news, here is our super Spaniard modelling said items:

So it's blue. The blue is OK. It’s a nice dark blue. As a colour, I quite like it. As a kit? It’s fine. It’s OK. No, really. I mean, I look at it and I think mid-table. I see Blackburn, Bolton, Wigan*, Portsmouth & Spurs but it's OK, I guess. Sort of. OK.

But is that how much the kit means to the club - it just has to be ‘OK’?

With all the history we have with our club colours - the cup finals, the last gasp championships, the European away wins - what I find galling is that clearly, despite all the experiments (white, blue, horizontal stripes, redcurrant, green) the fans’ favourite shirts are red with white sleeves (home) and yellow with blue sleeves (away). So why not stick with that? If we need a third kit (and actually, why would we ever, with those colour combinations) then swap the shorts over. Voila. Done. Sorted. And anyway, can you see Chelsea or Spurs having a red/white away kit? You can stop laughing now.

I know, I know, I'm being deliberately obtuse - it's all about the money. Nike sponsors the shirt; Nike gets to release a new slightly different replica kit each year and thousands will buy it, out of loyalty. I even nearly bought that one-off redcurrant one to celebrate the club's anniversary. But basically, it stinks.

Hey, I’ve an idea - why not be the first big club NOT to actively fleece the fans who put you where you are, eh? Buck the trend, challenge consensus. Arsene does it with his youth project; why not front up and try it at the *spit* 'brand' level? Pick a kit (you could maybe get the fans to choose...) and then that's it for, say, three years.

And you know what?

Everyone would buy it. I would. Everyone. Because they know that it would be worth the investment to stand alongside similarly-attired fellow supporters and not feel cheated. Part of what attracts about football is belonging to a gang; throughout history, gangs have worn clothing that identifies your lot from their lot (makes it easier in a scrap). It would look better on the terraces too; a chanting sea of red/yellow (home/away) rather than the patchwork quilt of random shirts from years gone by we currently display. At the moment, our 'look' is changing every 'season' - remind you of anything?

Proud of that much? No, didn’t think so. Think on.

* by the way, 'Wigan' was not in the embedded spell checker; I think that speaks volumes :)

Boom Boom

Haringey council has just rejected plans for the proposed new Spurs stadium on a local park. A spokesperson for the council said "It’s one thing having a funfair there twice a year, but a circus every fortnight is simply not acceptable”

I thang hew.

The Pen Is Mightier

Not much to offer on our 3-1 loss to Man Utd; more erudite bloggers than me have already said all there is to say.

However, the Fletcher incident WAS a penalty and WAS a sending off. It was. Watch it again.

His intention was clearly to stop the player first, and divert the ball second. If you look at the incident, he poked his left leg in the vague direction of the ball whilst simultaneously (and most importantly) wrapping his other leg around Cesc's knees and ankles, bringing him down. Yes, he did get the faintest of touches on the ball (which I don't deny) but that was not enough to alter its course so much that if Cesc had continued his run, he would clearly have had a chance to score. He was blatantly prevented from continuing this run by Fletcher; thus he was denied a goalscoring opportunity. Under the rules, that is a penalty and a red card.

The referee got it right.

We can feel sorry for Darren Fletcher - and even as a disappointed, lifelong Arsenal fan, believe me when I say I do feel some sympathy - but bleating that he got the faintest end of one of his studs onto the ball and that means he didn't commit a foul is totally, utterly, completely wrong.

Thanks. If anyone wants me, I'll be over there trying to flog Adebayor to AC Milan.

UPDATE: Graham Poll agrees with me. I'm not sure if that's a good thing :)

I Am Really Excited About Tonight

and Twitter is not functioning for me at work so this is me shouting "Come On You Gunners!" at you lot on the twitosphere (via twitterfeed) and wishing it was 7.45 already. Shouting at televisions to come.

On One Leg

Well that was pretty awful: Manchester Utd 1 -0 Arsenal

United were strong, fast, resilient, determined and scored.

Arsenal were quiet, shy, meek, slow and didn't.

What can be said is that Almunia's early heroics meant that this is still a two-legged tie; it could well have been 3-0 or 4-0 before half time and that would have almost certainly been game over, adios amigos, goodnight Vienna*. But at only 1-0 going into the second leg, we have to play to win -something we do rather well at home.

Six days to sort ourselves out and get RvP back, Eduardo fully fit, Gallas/Djourou up to speed, pump Theo full of Red Bull, throw out 4-5-1, decide the best formation & where to use Cesc, kick Adebayor repeatedly up his lazy arse and pray like crazy.

Even Arseblogger agrees with me:

Cesc has to play in his natural position, we should play 4-4-2, we have to go and attack them, and that is when we're at our best. It was disappointing last night and we're on the back foot, no question, but it's not over yet.

But Arsene knows. He does, doesn't he?

* yes, yes, I know the final is in Rome :)

Bring It On

I am now officially ridiculously excited about the Man Utd v Arsenal Champions League Semi Final (1st Leg) in only 21 hours and 17 minutes (and the 2nd Leg next Tuesday).

Two of the very best, most fluent, free flowing, attacking sides in Europe, over two legs, home and away. Too close to call? Prety much - the previous 37 meetings between Messrs Wenger and Ferguson have ended as follows:

Arsenal win: 15
Man Utd win: 14
Draw: 8

I can't even bring myself to put any money on it...

Come. On. You. Gunners

Red Is The Colour*

So tomorrow sees the beginning of the start of the finish of the end or something.

Arsenal could play the three teams above them a grand total of eight times in various competitions between now and the end of May, as follows:

18/4 Chelsea, FA Cup Semi-Final
21/4 Liverpool, Premier League
29/4 Man Utd, Champions League Semi-Final (away)
5/5 Man Utd, Champions League Semi-Final (home)
10/5 Chelsea, Premier League
16/5 Man Utd, Premier League
27/5 Chelsea, Champions League Final (if we beat Man Utd & they beat Barca)
30/5 Man Utd, FA Cup Final (if we beat Chelsea)

I imagine there won't be much call for swapping shirts at the end: "Sorry, mate, I've got that one already..."

"Come. On. You. Gunners."

* that's especially for Rowan - hopefully it will be a good game tomorrow (and may the better team win :)

Disgraceful

Read this: The FootyTweets “Cease and Desist” Story

Now read this: Wikipedia: Football DataCo

Especially this:

The company has been racked by controversy in the UK media, after a 2004 European Court of Justice ruling that the Premier League and Football League cannot use the European Database Directive to demand payment from media and pools companies for the publication of fixture lists.

Football DataCo refute the ruling, arguing that a legal precedent was set in the UK back in 1959, when the Football League won a landmark copyright victory against Littlewoods, claiming income from the pools company for their use of the fixtures list.

Staunch opponents of Football DataCo argue that the ruling is long out of date, and needs to be brought more inline with the advances in information collection and delivery that we are seeing with the world wide web.

Small, independently owned football fan sites have been the worst hit by Football DataCo, who charge even non-profit making enterprises the standard fee for use of single club fixture data. Many fanzines have been threatened with removal of the fixtures by Football DataCo. The company has also challenged many not-for-profit websites over their use of football club badges on their websites.

Legal precedent from 1959? For internet-based distribution? What a set of tiny-brained idiots.

There have always been genuine football fans who want to support their club through fanzines and websites - it has even been proven that traffic to the clubs' official sites has increased as a direct result of the service from FootyTweets. It would appear that the self-centered mindless fools at Football DataCo (and how that awful US-style company name sticks in the craw) care not a jot for the average fan; blinkered protectionism is their default - and apparently only - setting.

So, in the interests of my fellow Gooners, I am now going to list the remaining 2008/09 Arsenal fixtures, right here, right now:

Saturday, 11 April 2009: Wigan v Arsenal, 15:00
Tuesday, 21 April 2009: Liverpool v Arsenal, 20:00
Sunday, 26 April 2009: Arsenal v Middlesbrough, 13:30
Saturday, 02 May 2009: Portsmouth v Arsenal, 15:00
Saturday, 09 May 2009: Arsenal v Chelsea, 15:00
Saturday, 16 May 2009: Man Utd v Arsenal, 15:00
Sunday, 24 May 2009: Arsenal v Stoke, 16:00

Bring it on...

270,000 Seconds

We* have eight (8) matches in the next twenty-five (25) days. That's a game every 3⅛ Days or 75 Hours or 4500 Minutes or 50 Football Matches.

Of course, that's what comes with still pushing for the Champions League, the FA Cup and 4th (surely 3rd? - Optimism Ed) place in the Premier League and it's great for the watching fans, but this could be the time in the season that shows up our** lack of depth in the squad.

We've*** already potentially lost RvP, Bendtner and Nasri after the STUPID international week and despite our**** big players (Adebayor, Walcott, Fabregas) all returning, as well as the recent run of form, it's rapidly approaching 'squeaky bum time' starting with the visit of Man City at the weekend.

Come on lads! Let's see what you're made of...

* that is to say Arsenal Football Club, not that I play for them or anything, as parodied brilliantly by Mitchell & Webb, but I shall continue to say 'we' through force of habit and the mistaken belief that I am in a big playground gang of shouty boys, which is actually not far from the truth :)

** that counts too

*** and another one

**** etc and so on

Team Player

I could play with this all day, albeit with the same outcome:


Arsene knows.

Had Your Phil Yet?

I am incredulous.

"Brown has questioned whether Fabregas should have been allowed on the pitch, adding that he thought his attire of jeans and a puffa jacket was unsuitable."

I'm sorry, Mr Fashion, but you lost. We are in the semi-final. Cesc's choice of outerwear had nothing to do with your Allardyce-esque, spoiling, time-wasting, anti-football tactics. And guess what? They came back and bit you on the ass. Now STFU and get back to the Championship where you belong, fool.

Out Of The Hat

Following Arsenal's win on penalties in Rome, myself and Jeremy at work had a natter about the possible outcomes of the Champions League Quarter Final & Semi Final draw this coming Friday.

He reckons the English clubs will be thrown together; I think they'll be kept apart (thus maintaining the potential Blatter/Platini hell of an all-English semi-final) but what do you think?

Go on, bung your predictions in the comments (and I'll pretend like there's a prize* for the person who gets nearest or something).

Format: winners of Q1 & Q2 meet in one semi-final; winners of Q3 & Q4 in the other.

Me:

Q1. Arsenal v Porto
Q2. Chelsea v Barcelona
Q3. Manchester Utd v Bayern Munich
Q4. Liverpool v Villareal

Jeremy:

Q1. Manchester Utd v Liverpool
Q2. Arsenal v Chelsea
Q3. Porto v Villareal
Q4. Bayern Munich v Barcelona

Alex:
Q1. Arsenal v Liverpool
Q2. Manchester Utd v Chelsea
Q3. Bayern Munich v Villareal
Q4. Porto v Barcelona

Rowan, sort of:
Q1. Arsenal v Barcelona
Q2. Manchester Utd v Villareal
Q3. Chelsea v Porto
Q4. Liverpool v Bayern Munich

* oh alright then, I'll stretch to a M&S pork pie (winner to collect)

Fast Eddy

Brilliant volleyed goal from Eduardo in our 3-0 win this weekend; praise all over the blogs so I won't bother adding my 2p, except to put up this picture, which really demonstrates his fantastically cheeky technique, right off the beaches of Brazil:


However, one thing which did totally surprise me was the use of an embedded YouTube video of the goal on the Daily Telegraph website, here:

Eduardos-beach-goal-delights-Arsenal-manager

UPDATE: they have pulled the embedded version, now just a link to the YouTube page

In the current climate, where large organisations are frantically protecting their intellectual property and demanding even the briefest sporting clips be taken down from video hosting sites with frightening alacrity, I find this astonishing from a mainstream newspaper. Especially as it turns out that they didn't upload the clip - although I desperately wish they had. Anyway, by linking to this clip, uploaded by a random internet punter, they're seemingly giving tacit approval to the 'theft of copyright material', if you side with the FA?

Now I really want to see if it suddenly says "This content has been removed after a claim by the copyright owner" and what (if any) comment the paper puts out at that time. Anyone know if The Daily Telegraph is part of the same media group as Setanta or are they just pushing their luck? Interesting move.

That said, if the quality of the Setanta Sports satellite feed is anything to go on, they're not very technical over there so I suppose they might just never find out :)