Where Was This?

It's another short post, and I assure you this blog is not devolving into short one subject paragraphs, but the readers of TLOCA must watch the Derby - Arsenal highlights.

Not for the goals, not for the assists, but for the dancing.

This link will self-destruct in around 20 hours

For those of you at work, unfortunately, sound is a must. So pull out your headphones (it's brief), fast forward to the 4:00 mark and listen to Tim Caple poke fun at Eboue and Adebayor as they dance.

The first "rehersal" is understandable, enjoyable, nice to see if you're an Arsenal fan. The second one though, at the 5:00 mark, is absolutely terrifying. There is no script and something very pressing in the back of my mind tells me that this is how Adebayor dances when he's out on the town. It must be something about the slow motion because if you really try hard enough, you can picture him in the middle of a crowd confounding the honored guest.

If your reaction was similar to mine, then it's sort of like getting a glimpse of what Norah Jones might be like when no one else is watching. Except you end up watching. Wouldn't that be jaw-dropping?

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After the dust settled and I thought some more about what I saw in the smiles of that Arsenal team, I kept coming back to one question. Where the hell was this?

It's so clear to me now than it was before that the pressure of being on top got to these kids. They faced adversity and suddenly the dancing stopped and the smiles faded. Adebayor went from dancing like a fool and not caring, to talking noise at the fans (Liverpool). Gallas' shit-eating grin from a botched pass gone right, went to collapsing at midfield after dropping one point. Van Persie came back as the answer we needed instead of that pretty boy that can play.

They took the game too seriously and the title started meaning too much. The same might be happening to Manchester United right now and they'll learn too - that can't happen. We're in the era of the underdog and the team that has nothing to lose sometimes ends up winning it all. In the censored words of Nelly, "change the game, don't let the game change you."

Good Timing

In case you hadn't seen it already, here is the list of players who made the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) Team of the Year

PFA Premier League Team of the Year:
David James (Portsmouth)
Bacary Sagna (Arsenal)
Rio Ferdinand (Man Utd)
Nemanja Vidic (Man Utd)
Gael Clichy (Arsenal)
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd)
Ashley Young (Aston Villa)
Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal)
Fernando Torres (Liverpool)

Some thoughts - Notice how no Chelsea players made it and both my favs Clichy (take that Jim) and Sagna did. This could end up being a little bit odd for Chelsea if they win the Premiership and none of their guys would start on the all-EPL team.
I was fairly alarmed when I saw Plaxico Burress on the list. Rest assured though that Ade is back to his old self after his mid-season transformation into the Randy Moss of the Premier League. He had Jim and I pretty excited and the phrase, "next level" was used at least 30 times in every one of our conversations. Now we sigh that many times.

Does anyone else find it a tad awkward that Fabregas (20) won the "Young" player award and Cristiano (23) won the POY award. Is 23 old? Is Cristi not allowed to win both awards? Props for Fab anyway.