october 25th
When you go on a 49 unbeaten Premiership, something no other team has done, you get days when the ball bounces for you, when the decisions go your way, when you have a bit of luck here and there.
That also means that at some stage you’re going to get days when things don’t go your way. Like when Rio Ferdinand escaped a straight red card for taking out Freddie when he was last man.
Like when Ruud van Nistelrooy escaped a straight red card for his spiteful, nasty and typical cowardly challenge on Ashley Cole’s knee. It’s certainly one for the FA video panel to take a look at and we can be thankful that Ashley wasn’t seriously hurt.
Like when Mike Riley gave his customary penalty at Old Trafford when Fat Shrek’s dive fooled nobody but him (that’s eight penalties in the last eight games he’s reffed there and you have to ask questions about a statistic like that) and the bloke who shouldn’t have been on the pitch in the first place stuck it away. It’s also curious that Graham Poll was initially scheduled to referee this game but it got changed during the week. Not that I’m any big fan of Poll, far from it, but Riley’s penalty giving antics at Old Trafford are gone beyond the point where it’s an interesting statistic.
There’s not much you can do on days like that. Up until the penalty United were as dangerous as a toothless dog. That’s not to say we were up to much either but neither team did enough to warrant a win. After all the hype a 0-0 was all the game deserved, both teams pretty much cancelled each other out. Towards the end when we were pushing for an equaliser we left space at the back and that fat cunt made it 2-0 right at the death. There are times when you hold your hands up and admit you’ve been beaten by a better team or a team that played better on the day. This isn’t one of those times.
Afterwards both Arsene Wenger and Patrick Vieira were highly critical of Mike Riley. The boss said “The referee’s decision made the difference. Out of nowhere Riley has given the penalty like he can do at Old Trafford as we know. It’s very difficult to take to see how lightly the referee gives the penalty. I think this defeat will make the players stronger because they feel a deep injustice.”
I suspect that won’t be the last we hear of those comments, while Vieira said “You get used to it when you play at Old Trafford, we are used to it.”
So we lose a game at last. I have to say watching the United players, fans and management celebrate like they’d won the World Cup softened the blow. It’s a reflection of how their season has gone and how far they’ve fallen behind when winning one game produces such overblown rhapsody. They know. The cunts.
What I do want to say though is ‘Thank you’ to the lads. Thank you for 49 games without feeling crap because we lost. Thank you for 49 games which won us the league last season. Thank you for being champions. Thank you for the football you’ve played and if you don’t think it too forward, thank you for the next unbeaten run you’re about to embark on.
I’m not going to disect the performance of the team or individuals. I’m going to hold my hands up and applaud a marvellous achievement and know that it’s unlikely I’m going to see it repeated in my lifetime. We’ve been lucky to see it, it’s always minging to lose, but when Richard Keys on Sky said ‘The title race is blown wide open’ I had to laugh when I saw United’s 3 points put them in touching distance of Bolton and Everton. Not us.
On a lighter note there are reports this morning that Demento was pelted with soup and sandwiches by an un-named Arsenal player in the dressing room area after the match. It seems he had to change his suit before giving his post match interview. Just beautiful. Well done that, man.
And that’s it. Expect this whole thing to rumble on for a day or two yet.
