Oct

31

Where the ‘Henry was booed’ story came from

Filed Under The Arsenal | 602 arses

On the forums and on the arses and I’m sure on other sites too people who hadn’t been at the Everton game reacted to stories about Thierry Henry being booed. Understandably they were upset by it. I’m not sure about elsewhere but on Arseblog people who had been at the game were quick to dispel the story. Yes, there were some mutterings of discontent at moments during what was, by his own high standards, a quiet performance but no more so than there are when Gilberto gives the ball away or even when Kolo misses a header to allow Tim Cahill to score.

There was no booing. So where did the story come from? It came from a journalist, and I use the term lightly, who was at the game. His name is Antony Kastrinakis and he works for the News of the World.

At the post-game press conference he was first to ask a question, which had other journalists looking at the floor and cringing as they’re wont to do when he opens his mouth, saying “Arsene, was that that worst performance you’ve ever seen from Thierry Henry?”. Naturally the boss wasn’t rising to the bait only for Kastrinakis to say something along the lines of “Well, 55,000 Arsenal fans thought he was appalling today” prompting the boss to compliment him for speaking on behalf of so many people. Anyway, he reported that in his News of the World match report. He said that Henry was booed.

I’ve read the posts of people who were at the game who state categorically and to a man/woman that Henry was not booed. Now, this could be a number of things.

1 - The 55,000 Arsenal fans who were there suffer from dreadful hearing and didn’t hear themselves boo Thierry Henry
2 - Antony Kastrinakis has fantasic hearing and only he heard the boos
3 - As someone else pointed out perhaps he was confusing cries of ’shooooot’ with boos (God knows how he would have coped if Eduuuuu set up a goal for Kanuuuuuu)
4 - He’s making stuff up and ‘making stuff up’ is a polite way of saying ‘lying’ to stir the shit.

Obviously saying Thierry Henry was booed by Arsenal fans makes for good copy for the News of the World. It doesn’t matter that it’s complete bollocks other papers picked up the story and soon it spreads and despite the fact it’s not true stories like this are remembered. ‘Oh, remember when Arsenal fans booed their captain?!’ some wankbag pundit on some TV show (most likely that shiny-foreheaded cunt Hansen) will pipe up and at that point it doesn’t matter how many times you tell people it’s not true too many people believe it (sort of like that Marc Almond story).

Thierry Henry was not booed and I can imagine that he wouldn’t have enjoyed reading the reports based on the falsehood which started in the News of the World. Remember, Thierry has been known to pick up the phone to journalists who he feels have misquoted or misrepresented him so it might be of some interest to him to know where it began.

Now, the News of the World is not renowned for its integrity and high journalistic standards but surely the least one would expect of someone there to do a match report is for them to just report what happened and not invent stuff. We can all accept minor errors in match reports, it’s normal, but saying Rosicky took a corner when it was actually Cesc is not the same as saying Thierry was barracked by his own fans. He might as well have said a spaceship landed on the penalty spot because that’s the level of invention we’re talking about.

It’s designed purely and simply to create a story where there isn’t one. Perhaps to cause some trouble, to damage the relationship between Henry and the fans. Now, I’m sure Thierry knows fine well that he wasn’t booed but it’s better to get it out there and to give you an idea of how these kinds of stories start. Journos with an agenda, reporters who can’t simply report, sports editors who want to stir the shit and tabloids that want sensationalism ahead of the ‘fearless advocacy of the truth’.

Now, the News of the World likes to boast about its football coverage. For the vast majority of football fans of any club one of the main ways they find out about matches is through match reports. You expect them to be relatively honest. You don’t expect some Liverpool supporting penny-a-liner to make up blatant untruths. Perhaps, if you’re a loyal News of the World reader (or even if you’re not), you might feel like contacting the editor to ask him to assign Arsenal matches to somebody who won’t make up crap and try and cause problems for the fans or the captain. Ask him if they can just report what happened during the match and leave the fiction and creative writing to people who can do it well. Ask him if he could send someone who doesn’t think they can speak for Arsenal fans because Antony Kastrinakis tried to do that last Saturday and I’m quite sure not one of the Arsenal fans would choose him to speak on their behalf.

Either way the more people that know that this is how these kinds of stories are vomited into the public domain and that they should be treated with the contempt you might reserve for a new Phil Collins album it the better.

To sum up: Thierry Henry = Arsenal legend. Antony Kastrinakis = Liverpool supporting hack.

In a quick look at the other stories around Thierry believes we can still win the title. As he points out we’ve won 5 and drawn 1 of our last 6 league games. Not bad going by any standards. Cesc believes we can win the Champions League however, ahead of tomorrow’s game against CSKA Moscow the boss has warned the team against being too cocky, saying:

I was very positive going to Moscow but as a team we were too confident of taking the points. We were not giving 100 per cent in every tackle, we were not fighting for the ball enough. It was an arrogant way of not being urgent.

A little rap on the knuckles for the boys there, expect a reaction tomorrow at the Grove. And speaking of Groves let’s not forget the mighty Perry and his book ‘We all live in a Perry Groves world’. Hopefully I’ll have some copies to give away, more on that tomorrow, but it seems it’s already got a higher Amazon ranking that Ashley Cole. He’s at 829 while Ashley’s lamentable stay-inside-the-lines-oh-that’s-colouring-innit effort languishes at number 7,913. I’m not sure what that means in terms of total sales figures but I’ll try and find out.

Until tomorrow and happy hallowe’en to you all.

Oct

30

Sshhhhhhhh….

Filed Under The Arsenal | 446 arses

There has been, in the 4 1/2 year history of Arseblog, only ever been one single syllable blog entry. It is the one syllable, the one word, that defines this blog.

It is *boilk*, has been *boilk* and will be *boilk* ever after. This morning, my dear chums, it is *boilk* to the max and there is only one person to blame. It is the mug smasher. The evil, nefarious reprobate that is my brother. My stomach churns, I *boilk* a little and I taste rum, coca cola, jaegermeister and some kind of kebab.

I am silently weeping as I type this early on a bank holiday Monday and I can’t find the painkillers. I’m thinking of hitting my head off the wall lots of times just to make myself go into a coma.

But I won’t. You want Arsenal news and Arsenal news you shall get. Thierry Henry says he’d rather die than do something which I don’t know what it is. I think it’s play football like Everton. To be fair I’d rather die than play football like Everton. I’d rather die than stand up though so I may not be the best person to talk to about this.

Some Swiss striker says that Arsenal have been watching him. Peeping toms, so we are.

And that is as much as I can muster. Remember, if you have questions for this week’s arsecast email away to arsecast@[removethis]arseblog.com.

I’m going to curl into a ball now and whimper. Ahhhh, that’s the stuff.

Oct

29

Everton’s anti-football wins them a point

Filed Under The Arsenal | 319 arses

The good - Robin van Persie’s free kick. The bad - defensive error gifts Everton a goal. The ugly - Everton’s football.

And that about sums it up. We did exactly what we didn’t want to do against a team that has suffered some heavy defeats at our place in recent season and that was to concede the first goal. Not only that we conceded it early. Tim Cahill, of all people, was left unmarked at a corner and when Kolo missed the ball he stabbed it home to put Everton one up after 6 minutes.

After that it became clear what their gameplan would be. Defend, defend some more, time waste, disrupt and get as many men behind the ball as possible at all times. Of course it’s understandable. We’ve taken Everton apart a number of times, they’ve just seen us pass Reading to death so the obvious thing to do is shut up shop and not allow us room around their box to open them up with the intricate passing we do so well. On the other hand though this is a top 6 side, not some lower league outfit that has just fluked a goal in a game they can’t possibly expect to win, and it is horrible to watch.

Everton will point to their point and say it’s entirely justified but to me it’s anti-football. Arsene Wenger understands why they played that way too but he was not impressed and again pointed to the gamesmanship and timewasting.

When it became obvious that we were going to have difficulty breaking them down we did start shooting from outside the box. Rosicky went close a couple of times, I remember Howard making a great save from Fabregas and time was running out. To demonstrate how far apart the two teams were in their outlook we made substition playing with 2 at the back as Everton had so many men back defending. We had Theo Walcott, a 17 year old winger/striker playing in a kind of right back position and had van Persie, Henry and Aliadiere on the pitch as well. Yes, we had to attack but we stayed the same to try and win the game after we had equalised.

Robin van Persie scores...When it came it was a cracker. A free kick, pretty much central, just outside the D. Thierry Henry, who was practically anonymous yesterday for whatever reason, had taken one earlier. This time it was van Persie’s turn and he curled it beautifully into the top right hand corner.

Try as we might though we couldn’t get the winner, Moyes was sent to the stand for his constant sniping at the officials and Everton came away with a point that they worked very hard to get. There’s no arguing that but it’s either a measure of how much we’re feared if we’re allowed play or an indication of how limited Everton are that they performed the way they did. Personally I think they’re a much more capable side than the one we saw yesterday but as I said they got their point and they’ll be happy.

You felt during the game that this would have been an ideal game for Baptista or Adebayor to provide that little something different. Baptista in particular as I think Adebayor tries to play too much like we already play when he should be using his height and presence in a different way. The sheer size and strength of Baptista would have been fun to watch though.

So another team plays negatively and we have problems. What can we do though? Arsene Wenger said:

I feel in many respects of the game we did very well, but in the final third we lacked something. A little bit of sharpness, a little bit of vision, a little bit of attacking the ball on crosses.

Which is true. Henry wasn’t at the races and maybe having someone like Adebayor or Baptista scaring the shit out of the defence would have brought dividends yesterday. The main thing though is not to concede like we did. It’s obvious now that very few teams will come back and attack us if they go a goal up. Maybe United would, maybe Liverpool but practically every other team in the league is going to sit back and deny us space in the final third.

However, earlier in the season when Villa played like this people bemoaned our lack of shooting and having a go. That can’t be said of yesterday so we’re doing something to try and combat it. As well as that we did better than when Man City did the same to us so we’re improving and learning as we go. I’m not too disheartened by the result at all. As I said Everton are a decent side and in a game of real football would be a tough test. They beat Sp*rs away with 10 men. It’s just that the way they played leaves a sour taste and obviously raises questions about our ability to cope with that kind of game. I thought we answered some, if not all, all of those questions though. We remain unbeatable at home though.

In a brief look at the other stories the boss talks about resting Cesc and how he sees him developing. With CSKA in midweek a must-win to pretty much qualify for the next round of the CL I can’t see him not playing but should we qualify he might get a rest for the other games (depending on who’s fit).

Congratulations to Anthony Stokes who scored a hat-trick for Falkirk yesterday. Obviously a mention in Friday’s arsecast inspired him to great things.

And that’s about it. Don’t forget to place your orders for Perry Groves’ much better than Ashley Cole’s illiterate piece of crap biography. Get in there before the Christmas rush. Then we can really sing ‘at number 1, it’s Perry Groves…’

Have a good Sunday.

Oct

28

Let’s make Perry Groves better than Ashley Cole

Filed Under The Arsenal | 506 arses

Ahead of the Everton game the boss had his usual press conference. We discovered that Senderos and Flamini are back in the squad but Gael Clichy is rested as AW doesn’t want him doing too much too soon after being out for so long. Other than that the squad is as expected with the injuries mentioned during the week.

If you listened to yesterday’s arsecast you’ll have heard bluesq.com’s bet of the week which involved Andy Johnson winning a penalty. Wenger revealed yesterday that he had been interested in the player and that he thought 80% of the penalties he won were genuine. So Johnson is only a diving cheat 20% of the time. Beautiful. Watch out at the back today, lads.

Wenger’s other snippets involved ruling out a move for David Beckham whose time in Spain looks to be coming to an end and his belief that West Ham should keep faith with Alan Pardew which is brilliantly sneaky. Pardew couldn’t win a fixed raffle this season and if he stays I’d put money on them going down.

While Everton manager David Moyes has been full of praise for Cesc Fabregas our Spanish midfielder is not letting the plaudits go to his head. He says:

I appreciate these comments when they come for you but I still think I am just 19. I am still growing up as a player and a person in a great club and with great players next to me and I think this is very positive.

I know it’s a point we keep going back to but the difference in his attitude to that of some other young players who they’ve got it made as soon as they get near the first team is worth pointing out again. I love that little guy.

Another game at the Grove today and it now feels like home to the players. Thierry Henry says:

The first two games were difficult, now it seems like we have a home.

Fortress Ashburton? Fortress Grove? Whatever. Let’s just make sure it’s as difficult as possible for anyone who comes to our place.

Finally for today thanks to everyone who emailed me to tell me that Ashley Cole’s book has only sold 3,500 copies, far less than the biographies of Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard and Arnold Cunthammer who lives in Blackpool and nobody knows who he is. Serves him right.

It was suggested on the forums here yesterday that more people should be made aware of this fine tome. Yes, it’s ‘We all live in a Perry Groves world’ by Perry Groves. Wouldn’t it be fun if Perry Groves’ book sold more than Ashley’s? Yes, indeed it would.

Tell your friends and family that this is what you want for Christmas. Order now. Let’s make Perry Groves officially much, much better than Ashley Cole.

More tomorrow.

Oct

27

Arsecast 2, the second one - quick round-up

Filed Under The Arsenal | 459 arses

Morning all, it’s a pretty quiet one considering we have a match tomorrow. Let’s do what we can with the little that’s there.

The Lauren story that was all over the feeds yesterday is slightly confusing. Last week Arsene Wenger said we wouldn’t see him until the new year because of his knee injury and I reported that on the blog. Then yesterday lots of stories appeared about how it was a ’shock’ and other things because he wouldn’t be back until the new year. It doesn’t seem like he’s done anything new, they’re using the same AW quotes from the other day, but we’ll see I suppose.

Another injury shocker was the Queen who was supposed to ‘officially’ open the new stadium yesterday. It seems she did her back in, pulled a muscle in her quim and could be out for up to 6 weeks. Her place was taken by the Duke of Edinburgh who did the honours and had a bit of a meet and greet with the players. The last picture on the right hand side is just crying out for a caption, isn’t it?

In other injury news we’ll be without Adebayor for the Everton game. He joins Freddie, Julio Baptista, and Lauren on the sidelines. Also out in Abou Diaby but he’s working his way back to fitness. He’s done an interview with the Arsenal TV Online thingy but what happens is that some of the other sites, especially Sky Sports, subscribe to that then give us the story during the week at some stage. Saves us having to do it, eh? Anyway, he says:

I will work hard. I accept the competition between the players. I will give my best to regain my place.

Excellent. When he does get fit we really do have lots of options in midfield and with youngsters like Fran Merida still to come it’s going to mean survival of the fittest. The cream will rise to the top. And other clichés.

Right then, the moment none of you have been waiting for. It’s the second ever arsecast in association with classicfootballshirts.co.uk
Arsecasts
In this episode I try and explain the difference between an arsecast and an arsecast, chat to the man from East Lower, reveal the winner of the classicfootballshirts.co.uk competition, give you another bet of the week from bluesq.com, Arsene Wenger Hawkins will be along and I make a little phone call.

You can download directly here and remember you can subscribe to the arsecast in iTunes. Just do the following: In iTunes go to advanced > subscribe to podcast

Then put in the following url: http://arseblog.com/podcasts/arsecastfeed.xml

Whenever there’s a new episode it’ll download automatically. It should also be available through the iTunes music store soon. Sound quality should be better this week although the levels in some places vary a bit. I haven’t quite figured out which filter I need to use to equalise the whole thing, advice readily accepted on that.

And that’s about it. Later on I’ll update today’s blog with the winner of the bluesq.com competition. One lucky person will be going to see the Everton game in their executive box. Stand by for that.

Update: The winner of the tickets is Aidan Finch. Well done, Aidan. And just to mention that bluesq.com paid out £25,000 extra on last week’s best of the week on the arsecast. Tune in for this week’s!

Away with ye, then.

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