Jun

30

WC 1/4s, Arsenal round-up

Filed Under The Arsenal | 691 arses

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.

Jun

29

Various bits and bobs

Filed Under The Arsenal | 840 arses

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.

Jun

28

Henry’s face clutching out of character but…

Filed Under The Arsenal | 788 arses

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.

Jun

27

France v Spain is all about football, nothing else…

Filed Under The Arsenal | 721 arses

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.

Jun

26

England dull, Portgual v Holland hilarious

Filed Under The Arsenal | 870 arses

We had the ying and yang of the World Cup yesterday. Firstly 90 minutes of tedium from England and Ecuador. I should know better but every time England play it’s a little bit more exciting because of the familiarity with the player and every time it’s just horrible to watch.

A David Beckham free kick put England into the quarter finals and Ashley Cole saved their bacon before that with a great block  on some Ecuadorian who was clean through after a mistake by John Terry. Apart from those two incidents nothing exciting happened.

The same can’t be said for last night’s game between Holland and Portugal though. It finished 1-0 to the Portuguese who will now play England on Saturday but it was a game packed full of incident. It finished 9 v 9 with the most card happy referee I’ve ever seen. Little Ronaldo got his thigh impaled on a Dutch bloke’s boot, Luis Figo ‘headbutted’ Marc van Bommell and the referee missed it (although who amongst us wouldn’t headbutt that cunt if we had half the chance?), Maniche scored a great goal, Holland hit the crossbar, there was timewasting, mayhem, and even though Holland desperately needed a goal Marco van Basten refused to bring on Ruud van Nistelrooy even though his replacement, Dirk Kuyt, could only be described as fucking shite and that’s being kind to him.

Going back to Figo’s ‘headbutt’ it was nothing much really. You can’t do what he did but in some reports this morning I’ve seen it described as appalling and savage. If it had really been that bad van Bommell wouldn’t have taken 3 or 4 seconds to decide to fall over theatrically. He’d have gone down like Paris Hilton in a room full of marines.

So, rubbish refereeing, van Nistelrooy fuming on the bench, end to end action, bookings galore and 4 red cards. England need to bring a bit of that to this World Cup before they truly become the most boring team in history.

Portugal will be without Deco and Costinha for sure. Little Ronaldo might not recover from what was a really vicious tackle that actually deserved a straight red and Figo probably faces a video probe. Not up there, you sicko. From FIFA. Tremendous entertainment though.

Let’s hope we get equally entertaining football today. Australia take on Italy which could be another very physical game. Then later on we have Arsenal interest as Johan Djourou fills in for his buddy Senderos in the Swiss defence. Reports yesterday suggest Phil could be out for 6 weeks so hopefully he’ll be fit in time for the start of the season.

In other World Cup news it looks as if Cesc will start for Spain against France on Tuesday. I have to say I’m really looking forward to that one.

Kolo Toure on his brother Yaya joining Arsenal:

It would be nice, but I think he has a contract now in Greece. He has the talent, for sure. He is a better player than me. I tell him that, just as I tell everyone else.

I’m not convinced by Yaya. He’s obviously talented but he needs to impose himself on games more. Perhaps Kolo should tell him he’s not a better player than him and try and provoke a reaction.

And there you go. Hope you had a fun weekend.

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