april 5th
“We simply cannot dwell on this defeat and feel down — we don’t have time. We have to pick ourselves up because we now have a massive game against Chelsea.”
Thierry Henry sums it up perfectly. Today might be a bit crap for those of you going back to work with United supporting colleagues, but fuck it. It’s over and done with. Let them on with their Cup Final against Milwall, and let’s get on with with the games that are going to make our season.
I’m going to say it again, but make Highbury an intimidating place for Chelsea on Tuesday. Not a place full of people still dwelling on Saturday’s defeat. When Chelsea have the ball whistle and jeer and remind them what utter, utter cunts they are. When we have the ball cheer the lads, make some noise, encourage them, support them. It will make a difference.
Not much going on this morning really – Arsene Wenger has spoken about Dennis Bergkamp’s contract situation and suggested that a new deal is likely once Dennis accepts the fact he’s not going to be an automatic first choice. I think it’s pretty obvious that the first choice striking duo for next season is going to be Henry and Reyes, but Dennis still has something to offer, and with so many talented young players at the club who could learn a lot from him it’d be a good idea to keep him, in my opinion.
The boss has also had a pop at Demento’s claim that Arsenal would go out of Europe tomorrow night against Chelsea. He said “For a long time we have not listened to what he says.”
He also raised a point that bothered me after seeing Paul Scholes terrible challenge on Reyes. Just before it happened Scholes was in conversation with the United manager, then he took out our young Spaniard with a ‘tackle’ that deserved more than the yellow card he got. AW was obviously very angry at the challenge and the fact that Reyes will be out for at least 3 weeks, but also said “I hope it wasn’t the case from Scholes that he felt he had to stop Reyes because it would be very disappointing.”
More a case of the United manager feeling he had to stop Reyes because he was really causing them problems, Scholes was just the hatchet man. Of course it’s all speculation, but if you asked me to put money on whether or not it was deliberate, I wouldn’t bet against it.
So, injury problems, relatively poor form, out of the FA Cup, the same press that were labelling us the best team football had ever seen a couple of weeks ago are now writing us off, it’s all part and parcel of the rollercoaster ride that is being an Arsenal fan.
We never make it easy for ourselves if we can avoid it.
