march 13th
So Arsenal are through to the semi-finals of the FA Cup after a 1-0 victory over Bolton who are going to become famous for their anti-football. We scored after three minutes when Robert Pires put Freddie Ljungberg through then Bolton were reduced to 10 men after ElHadji Diouf, without doubt one of the most odious cretins to ever ‘grace’ the Premiership, dived in the box looking for a penalty then elbowed Jens Lehmann in the face. It says everything about Bolton that their fat cunt of a manager looked to lay the blame on Jens and said Diouf should have made sure he pushed him in the chest. Real class that.
I only saw the first half hour but reports suggest Bolton played their usual game but found this time they couldn’t intimidate Arsenal with their physical/dirty (delete where appropriate) game.
Ashley Cole was on the bench because of a hamstring problem and not because of any other reason according to the boss but there’s more on the Chelsea story. We said yesterday that only a strenuous denial from Cole or his agent would be good enough and that’s what we’ve got. Jonathan Barnett said yesterday described claims that he and Cole had set up the meeting with Kenyon, Mourinho and Pini Colada as “Ludicrous.”
He went on to say “Unsubstantiated accusations have been made against my client, which are totally wrong. As a result, he has been subjected to an intolerable level of pressure I find unacceptable. I am happy to confirm that the accusations levelled at Ashley are entirely false. Not only that, they are both appalling and offensive.”
So there you have it. There’s no denial that the meeting took place but a serious counter to Chelsea’s claim that they didn’t initiate proceedings.
Arsene Wenger has also spoken about how he believes the meeting took place (the papers are full of headlines like ‘LIARS’ even though that word wasn’t used by the boss) and how he wants Ashley to stay and be captain of Arsenal one day.
What we have now though is a very serious situation for Chelsea. Firstly it seems beyond any doubt that they’re guilty of tapping up Cole and now, if Barnett’s rebuttal is the truth, they’ve falsified the evidence they’ve given to the investigation – which is hardly upstanding behaviour (not that you’d expect much from a club run by Abramovich and Kenyon). When the FA decide what sort of punishment to hand out I’m sure it will be much harsher than it would have been if Chelsea had just put their hands up and admitted what had happened in the first place. Maybe this is part of a strategy by Chelsea to colour the water and make it difficult for anyone to prove what went on but there can’t be too many people out there who can’t see that Chelsea have got caught red-handed. It will be interesting to see what develops over the next few days as Chelsea’s puppets in Fleet Street try and soften the blow.
As for Ashley he didn’t play yesterday, as we said earlier Arsene Wenger said it was because of a hamstring problem, but he’s got to consider his part in this. He’s a young guy earning good money playing for the club he supports. I don’t think anyone will deny he deserves a decent pay rise because of his standing in the game and how much he’s improved but to go door to door with his agent as part of a bargaining tool was silly. He should remember why it is he’s one of the most coveted left backs in the world, who it was that gave him the chance and the training that improved him so much. He might be naive and swayed by the figures his agent is throwing at him but he’s got to have more common sense when it comes to his future and how to sort it out.
And that’s about all there is this Sunday morning. Enjoy the rest of your day while I rest my bruised ribs (and I wasn’t even playing against Bolton yesterday).
