Something Great

Arsene Wenger cobbled together starting lineups with spit and duct tape and Denilson and somehow the team dragged its ass over the finish line in third or fourth.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Are We Tottenham In Disguise?

And are they Arsenal? Recent results have led me to question whether that favorite Gunners chant should be directed at our own team. Giving up THREE late goals to Wigan? Disgraceful. (And classic Tottenham behavior.) If this is how Arsenal are going to go out, I wish they would have signaled their intent earlier so I could have actually started studying for my finals.

Meanwhile, Spurs look amazing. I have never seen them play so well, and I can only hope that it's just a precursor to letting their fans down in some unthinkable, heartbreaking collapse that sees them take fifth place. But in the meantime, all I see is well-organized defending, crisp passing, and intelligent movement off the ball. That 2-1 scoreline was flattering... to Chelsea. It could have easily been 5-1 or 6-1. Also, it seems that JT's sway with the refs has finally come to a crashing halt, and he was deservedly sent off. People have been saying his poor form was/is a blip, but I think it signals the beginning of a steady and continuous decline. And when that happens, as a defender, the only way to stay competitive is to always receive the benefit of the doubt from the referee in tight situations and 50/50 tackles (see, e.g., Carragher, Jamie). Since Terry has gotten away with some high profile errors in recent weeks and apparently had some off-field troubles (dunno what that's about), I really doubt that he's going to get that treatment going forward. He may never be the same.

And so, in keeping with my inability to make predictions that have any relation to results in the real world, the EPL title race has been blown wide open by Tottenham Hotspur... and Paul Scholes. Yeah, didn't really see that one coming. Also, if you've eaten recently, you may want to avert your eyes from the image I've placed below:














I guess if I were a United supporter, I'd probably be tempted to do that after this. But as I'm not, I'll just go on the record and say that the only thing more repulsive in the world of soccer might be a Carlos Tevez - Franck Ribery towel fight. Yikes.

4 comments:

Jim said...

OK, this has nothing to do with the post I just put up, but I don't care. After watching Vucinic single-handedly drag Roma back to the front of the Serie A title race, I was reminded of one of the reasons he's so awesome. Last season, he scored a winning goal and then celebrated in ridiculous fashion. Go ahead and watch. OK, now two things: (1) he's wearing another Roma jersey underneath his jersey. He was playing the whole game with two jerseys on. Who does that? When he takes his top off it's like watching a magic trick. And (2) it's the middle of winter. You have to be a brave man to do that celebration in December.

JuanFucile said...

we may finish 5th. that's all im gonna say.

Adam said...

After that disgusting "performance" Sunday, I've gotta echo Juan. If we spend the next three weeks looking like that, it's probably no worse than we deserve.

Speaking of Roma, heard a great story about Totti on the pod the other day. Apparently the headmaster of his kid's school is a big Juve fan and would always have a bit of banter with Totti about the clubs when he came to pick up the kid. The week Roma beat Juve, Totti showed up grinning and asked the headmaster how he'd liked the game, the obvious response being "Not so much."

Totti responded "Well, maybe you'll like this a bit more," and gave the guy a freshly worn del Piero shirt from the match.

Two words: class act.

JuanFucile said...

I believe you've been quoted on Goonerholic Dadric!

I'm sure you know this by now, but hey, that's more than Jim and I can say.

Totti is one of those players that I wish I saw more of when he was in his prime. He's been playing for Roma since 1992. That's absurd and especially in today's transfer market. If he had started his career 10 years later we'd be hearing about a $100m bid for him every summer by a misc oil sheik. Anyway, that's a hilarious story.