november 1st 2004
Welcome to a brand new month on Arseblog.
Sir Alex Ferguson this morning launched yet another broadside at Arsenal in the wake of his side’s 2-0 defeat at Portsmouth. He says that Arsenal players behaviour at Old Trafford was worse than anything he’d ever seen since the last worst thing he’d ever seen in football. Our spies tell us Ferguson will cite Arsenal players’s behaviour in the tunnel and dressing room areas and it will include the following:
- Ashley Cole left the hot water running.
- An un-named Arsenal player did a number 2 and didn’t flush. It was a floater too, apparently.
- Not one Arsenal player wiped their feet when they arrived at Old Trafford.
- Cesc Fabregas quite openly caused wear and tear to one of the seats in the dug out by being on the bench for the whole game.
- Dennis Bergkamp wore odd socks, blatantly mocking Sir Matt Busby who, in his twilight years, used to wear odd socks as gloves.
- Thierry Henry – not content with trying to knock Gabriel Heinze’s head off with his trailing leg – then chased the United player around the tunnel with an enormous cutlass until he was restrained by one of his
ship-matesteam-mates. - Jens Lehmann kept trying to set Ryan Giggs on fire
- Some of the players spoke French to each other while manager Arsene Wenger humiliated Ferguson by speaking English which people could understand.
- Arsenal’s players all bought shares in Manchester United which they then sold to Malcolm Glazer.
Shocking stuff. I’m sure the world of football is sickened and disgusted. How will the game ever recover from such atrocities?
Arsene Wenger thinks Ferguson should shut his fat, hubba-bubba filled mouth and has said that the war of words, at least from his point of view is over. In this article he has his say, Bob Wilson gives us his 2cents and the boss talks about Pires and French coach Dommenech.
Nigel Winterburn, who Ferguson accused of starting the bad feeling between the two clubs after he taunted Brian McClair after a penalty miss at Highbury in 1874, has said Ferguson is being petty while ex-referee Jeff Winter reckons United have no chance of getting Arsenal punished with their 2 foot thick dossier. He says “The Bergkamp and Henry incidents certainly don’t warrant any further action. It is clear Henry did not mean to hit Heinze while the Bergkamp-Smith incident was nothing — completely different compared to Ruud van Nistelrooy’s challenge on Ashley Cole. That was evil.”
On a more positive note Dennis Bergkamp is tipping Robin van Persie for greatness, saying “He is a player who can make a difference to this Arsenal team.” I’ll talk about this more tomorrow but I’d be tempted to start him against Panathinaikos tomorrow night, at the expense of his more senior Dutch colleague. But that’s for tomorrow.
