october 29th
08.37 – Well, I reckon last night’s game against Rotherham was value for money.
27,000+ got to see Cesc Fabregas break Jermaine Pennant’s record and become Arsenal’s youngest ever first team player – as revealed exclusively here on Arseblog yesterday. At 16 years and 177 days old (yesterday) the Catalan youngster seemed to make a pretty solid debut. I didn’t hear the game, see the game, and followed the penalty shoot-out in the arseblog IRC channel, so if anyone who was there wants to fill the rest of us in, please feel free to arse.
Jeremie Aliadiere said he wanted to give Arsene Wenger something to think about with his performance, and a goal and penalty (at the first time of asking) may see him in contention at the weekend.
Then there were penalty kicks. I don’t need to tell you how popular Wiltord was when he missed the first one, but without that miss maybe we wouldn’t have seen the youngsters like Spicer, Clichy and another 16 year old, Ryan Smith, all step up knowing that if they missed Arsenal would be out. They all scored. Class.
Kanu scored one, even Cygan fer crissakes scored one, and when both keepers had taken one, and Rotherham’s first man went again and missed, it was up to Sylvain to win the game for Arsenal. Would he impale the ball on his tongue? Would he run up in a giant circle and make himself too dizzy to score? Nah, he buried it. A hero once again. Arsenal through, Northerners gutted. A fun night out for all the family.
When’s the last time we won a penalty shoot-out 9-8 then? Arsene Wenger said “I’m very happy that we won the game, especially as the team we finished with must be the youngest to have played for Arsenal. I feel sorry for Rotherham. They had fantastic spirit and gave everything until the last minute.”
About Cesc, AW said “He looked very comfortable. I think he had a little bit of a timid start but after that he looked great. Of course he’s only 16 and has not played for one month because he was not qualified, but over all he looked very good.”
Tribal Football says we’re after Miroslav Klose. Arsenal’s players will face their FA hearings tomorrow with regard to the Old Trafford Disaster ™ – all rights reserved. Expect bans for Lauren and Keown while the rest get warnings. Proper punching between Blackburn and Southampton, Rufus Brevett getting away with decking Joe Cole and a copper and other proper bad behaviour should see the Gunners slapped on the wrist and nothing more. So, they’ll all get 5 match bans now…
How are the heads this morning then?
