february 27th
09.02 – “Feb 27th…..2002. A date that will live……..in infamy.”
Well not really, but it was 1 year ago today that I typed the first words here on Arseblog, and unfortunately for you I haven’t stopped since.
Over 350 separate postings have been made, more than 30 wallpapers, countless pictures, jokes, cartoons and other images, over 6200 ‘arses’ have been left, more than 5000 postings have been made on the forum, there have been over 350,000 page views – with 100,000 coming this month alone, you can now get Arseblog on your phone or PDA and I’ve become an international celebrity and playboy with my own yacht and access to the world’s most beautiful women….er….well, that last part is a lie. Stupid reality.
Anyway, thanks to you for making the site so popular. I expect my fabulous present is in the post.
And where would be without Arsenal? Another disappointing night in Europe for the Gunners. Held 0-0 by Ajax in Amsterdam, and Arsene Wenger has blamed Ajax’s negative tactics for the result. Ajax coach Ronald Koeman disputes that by saying “I’m not worried if anyone says we are negative as we got the maximum out of our two games against Arsenal.” Does anybody want to tell Ronald that 1+1=2 and not 6?
Dennis Bergkamp’s return home might have seen him get a nice welcome from the Ajax fans, but nothing more. Martin Keown says he has plenty of time to win the Champions League. Not so sure about that to be honest. So Ajax top the group with Arsenal second. Roma’s 3-0 away win at Valencia opens up the group, but there’s still plenty to do.
I have ventured the opinion to one or two people that Arsenal have a bit of a mental block when it comes to Europe. Whether it’s the players or whether it’s the way AW sends them out to play in European games, I just don’t know. What I do know is that there can be no more excuses if this Arsenal team wants to be seen as one of the top teams in Europe. We’ve done the learning curve thing – this is our 5th consecutive Champions League campaign (I think), and while previous eliminations could be attributed to a certain naivity in terms of European football, the same can’t be said now. It’s time to deliver, and with 4 points needed from the final two games – home to Roma and away to Valencia – the Arsenal players are not making it easy for themselves. However, that is quite often when we’re at our best. Fingers crossed.
Right, I’m off to eat cake, pin the tail on the Donkey (many thanks to Man Utd for lending me Ryan Giggs for this) and drink fizzy pop laced with rubbing alcohol.
