april 17th
Well, as I’m sure you all know by now Arsenal are through to the FA Cup final next month after a 3-0 win over Blackburn Rovers and their 8 fans yesterday.
It was a fairly bitty first half with Blackburn employing the now favoured 4-5-1 formation which is popular with teams who like to spoil and prevent the opposition playing rather than play football themselves. It’s anti-football. As expected they were very physical and picked up a number of bookings in the first half, most of them for challenges on Patrick Vieira (who, according to Robert Pires, Rovers were out ‘to destroy‘). Not long before half-time though we opened the scoring. Nice work from Kolo Toure in their box saw him square the ball across the 6 yard line and who else but the master poacher himself, Robert Pires, was on hand to make it 1-0 Arsenal.
The second half saw Blackburn change to 4-4-2 to try and actually create something and they did have one or two spells where they had some decent possession if not any real chances.
They brought Robbie Savage on whose first action of any note was a disgusting, over the ball ‘tackle’ to the knee of Cesc Fabregas. Incredibly referee Steve Dunn didn’t even book him. Actually, it’s not that incredible as Dunn was ridiculously poor all day. Luckily there was no lasting damage to Cesc but Savage really is a spiteful, emminently hateable, kicker of a talentless cunt. I’d love Toshack to pick him for Wales again then sub him in the first minute of the game. And a word for former Gunner Paul Dickov – I’m glad he’s a former Gunner. As he stood sneering at Cesc after that challenge, adding to his afternoon of moaning and whining, I wouldn’t have been upset if he’d had a stroke and dropped dead on the pitch the little shitbag.
Then came the best 10 minutes of the game. Dennis Bergkamp, who had been pretty ineffectual most of the game, came off and Robin van Persie came on. I was hoping he’d cream Savage and Dickov in one tackle but he did something even better. Collecting a Vieira pass he turned one defender inside out, left another on his arse and rolled a beautiful left foot shot past Brad Friedel to make it 2-0. The kind of goal Dennis used to score. There was a poignant moment when the TV cameras cut to Dennis just afterwards. The future is wearing number 11.
With just a couple of minutes of injury time to go Pires then broke down the left, played the ball into van Persie who finished in some style into the top corner to make it 3-0. Sadly he was unable to celebrate the goal as Blackburn’s Andy Todd decided to shoulder the young Dutchman right in the face leaving him prostrate on the ground. To me it looked totally deliberate and the FA should be looking at that incident along with the Savage one. Todd’s ‘challenge’ on van Persie was totally unnecessary and the TV cameras showed him looking rather mournful like he knew what he’d done was out of order.
At the end the players, led by van Persie, ended up celebrating by throwing their shirts to the crowd. Afterwards the boss was criticial of Blackburn’s physical approach but full of praise for van Persie who must now be beginning to win over some of the doubters. To me he’s always looked like a very talented player and he’s got an eye for goal which sadly Dennis doesn’t possess anymore. He’s surely played himself into contention for a start on Wednesday even if Thierry is fit. José had another quiet game and never looked like scoring either.
A word too for Patrick Vieira. I’ve been not entirely impressed by him at times this season but yesterday he got stuck in, challenged for things, won headers and looked more like the Vieira we’re used to. I hope he keeps it up because when he plays like that we’re a better team. However, the News of the World are reporting this morning that Real Madrid are back on his trail so perhaps the more cynical might suggest that had something to do with his improved performance.
Yesterday saw another excellent performance from Philippe Senderos as well. As a no-nonsense centre-half myself he’s my new favourite player (although I’m not as good on the ball, or off the ball, or in the air but I foul better) and you should take some time to read this fantastic interview with him in the Observer. He comes across as a very intelligent, level-headed young man and we’re now seeing why all the big clubs wanted to sign him. Comparisons with Tony Adams are inevitable but he shrugs them off “That’s crazy. He accomplished so much in his career, he was a legend. I’m just at the beginning of my journey.”
And that’s about it for this Sunday morning. Enjoy your lazy day, the sun is out here so I think it’s newspapers and a beer and sandwich outside. Till tomorrow.
