Monthly Archives: June 2006

WC 1/4s, Arsenal round-up

Morning all, the first World Cup quarter finals take place today with Arsenal interest centering around Jens Lehmann as Germany play Argentina. He talks about the build up here and as good as Argentina have been I have a sneak feeling the Germans will go through. The home advantage is not something you can underestimate. It promises to be a fantastic game though.

In the other match Italy play Ukraine. And that’s it.

In Arsenal news the club has been cleared by FIFA of any wrong doing with regards to Beveren. After an FA investigation FIFA announced yesterday that:

There is no evidence or indication of any infringement of the relevant regulations. Fifa does not see any reason for further investigation or for any additional measures to be taken in this connection.

So, in the end it was a load of old bollocks instigated by a Sp*rs fan and just before the vote which saw David Dein replaced on the FA Committee. As I said at the time I couldn’t care less about Dein’s position at the FA, I still don’t, but given the complete lack of anything incriminating you have to think that the timing was a bit suspicious.

Philippe Senderos has had surgery on the shoulder injury he picked up playing for Switzerland. Hopefully he’ll get well soon.

More Real Madrid bullshit as another candidate claims to have reached an agreement with Cesc Fabregas. Not according to Cesc though who says:

I am an Arsenal player right now and I am very happy and at ease there. I don’t need anything else.

Huurah for Cesc. In vague transfer related news Yaya Toure says he wants to leave Olypiakos and Arsenal is a destination that’s always mentioned. The Sun reports our continued interest in Frank Ribery.

And that’s it. I was going to mention something about some other cheeky Arsenal website but I won’t. Hasta mañana.

Various bits and bobs

No football last night so a quick round-up of the Arsenal related stories.

Thierry Henry has denied cheating to win the free kick against Spain. He said:

Spain’s left-back Mariano Perina was going to win the ball so I don’t know why Puyol cut across me, but he did. I don’t cheat.

I think it was a free kick, to be honest, but that wasn’t the issue that had people talking. It was the way he held his face when there wasn’t any contact above his chest. Anyway, it’s all in the past now. We have to stop living in the past. Anyway, Henry is glad to have won for Zinedine Zidane and the French coach Raymond Dommenech has blasted the Spanish fans for being racist. He obviously saw and heard something but the one thing that was a surprise was the Spanish fans whistling and booing the French national anthem.

As Henry looks forward to the quarter-finals Cesc Fabregas is upset that Spain went out. The young midfielder said:

Once again I walk out as a loser. It has already happened in the Champions League final and it’s painful. I know that I am young and that there will be other tournaments, but time flies and you need to take advantage of these opportunities.

And that’s the kind of attitude that will make him a winner. Defeats like that are character building. Not much fun though.

In non World Cup news Sheffield Wednesday are interested in Mart Poom whose Arsenal career highlight is giving me a high-five after our goal in the Champions League final.

Former captain Tony Adams has been named assistant manager at Portsmouth. Harry + Tony = the biggest bollocks talkers in the league.

Finally Keith Edelman says the new stadium is on schedule and practically ready to go. He also revealed that parts of the stadium would be named and fans would have the chance to vote via the Arsenal website.

“The David Hiller luggage lockers” – “The Glenn Helder car park” – “The Nelson Vivas steakhouse” – “The Sol Campbell specially extended doorway for really fat people to get through”
Plenty more, no doubt.

Henry's face clutching out of character but…

So it’s France that go through to the quarter finals as Spain’s World Cup took on more familar form last night. They started well but faded as the game went on and you have to say that France were the better side even if they did play defensively for most of the game.

It was 1-1 with 10 minutes to go when Thierry Henry collided with Carles Puyol and fell to the ground clutching his face. From the resulting free kick Patrick Vieira put the French ahead. There’s been lots of debate about Henry’s actions and that kind of thing is not something you normally associate with him. I suppose that’s what there’s been so much debate. We expect better from him and that’s why people are talking about it and ignoring the countless other players who do it all the time. It will be interesting to see if he has anything to say about it.

He has had run-ins in recent times with Puyol and his certainly won’t feel like he has anything to apologise to Aragones for but for most of us it wasn’t nice to see the Arsenal captain resort to that. To be fair he didn’t roll around for long, it was just the face clutching which was not right. It is out of character for the man though and that needs to be pointed out. A one off indiscretion, we hope.

Zidane sealed the game late on and after the final whistle the French danced up and down a little prematurely in my opinion. They’re only into the 1/4s where we’ll see a replay of the 98 final against Brazil.

I thought Cesc did well for Spain who offered little or nothing of an attacking threat. He will have learnt a lot from the World Cup experience and he was visibly upset at the end of the game. Ribery scored a good goal for France, Torres was pretty much anonymous throughout apart from a dive in the box which should have seen him booked. Reyes didn’t get a game at all.

Not much else happening. An agent in Spain yesterday rubbished claims that Arsene Wenger has already signed a deal to become the new Real Madrid manager, but I think we all knew that already.

Anyway, have to run. More tomorrow.

France v Spain is all about football, nothing else…

Yesterday’s games saw more rubbish refereeing. Italy had a man sent off when it was nothing more than a yellow card and then they got a last minute penalty for a quite obvious dive. They go through, the Aussies go out.

In the other game, which I didn’t watch because I’m a bit footballed out, Ukraine beat Switzerland on penalties after a tedious 0-0 draw.

Today’s games have a bit of spice about them. Cesc wil start for Spain against France meaning he’ll come up against teammate Thierry Henry and former captain Patrick Vieira who, no matter what some people say, will be looking to put in a performance against the young man who has taken his place in the Arsenal team.

It also sees Henry come face to face with Luis Aragones after the Spanish coach’s well publicised remarks last year. Mikael Silvestre had something to say about it yesterday but the man at the centre of the row, José Antonio Reyes, feels the French man should have kept his mouth shut (he is a bit fish faced though. I’m not sure he mouth does actually close). Reyes said:

I think it is nonsense for Silvestre to try to heat up the game and it is because they are nervous about being eliminated by Spain. Henry knows well that Aragones is not a racist person. The matter was all cleared up a year and a half ago so I don’t understand why he has to talk about this topic now.

He’s got a point, in fairness, about talking about it again now. Whether Aragones is racist or not depends on your interpretation of his remarks and that’s a debate we don’t need to start again. Whatever happens it’s certainly going to be an interesting game on a purely footballing level.

I’d have Spain as slight favourites. I’m not sure Zidane’s return to the team will allow the French to play the football they need to win but if Henry performs and Vieira’s performance in the last game wasn’t a one off then they could push them hard. I’m really looking forward to it. It has the potential to be one of the games of the tournament.

In the other game Brazil play Ghana and Roberto Carlos says his team can’t lose. Famous last words those. I’m up for the Africans, no question.

In other news Arsene Wenger reveals he had Dutch striker Dirk Kuyt watched and described him as a ‘generous’ player. A rather unusual way to describe him, I thought. Maybe he’s a ‘comfy’ player or a ‘shiny’ player. Whatever, he’s a shite player based on what we’ve seen of him in this World Cup. Certainly not good enough for Arsenal.

Rio Ferdinand says Ashley Cole v Cristiano Ronaldo will be the key duel in the England v Portugal game while Cole described his tackle in the Ecuador game as his best ever for England.

Gunnerblog has more pictures of the new kit and an alleged third kit which looks, quite frankly, hideous. I’m really hoping that this is not real. It looks like an eBay fake. If it is real we need to gather up the money that Nike gave us and shove up their fucking holes before we go and find someone who can actually make a decent Arsenal shirt.

Right, a busy day ahead before the football kicks off. Laters.