Morning to you,
it’s exceptionally quiet this morning. It’s like the calm before the storm. Imagine if the first person to use that phrase had gotten it wrong and instead had written the ‘clam before the storm’.
It’d be much easier to know there was a storm coming if there was a giant clam about the place. Plus we’d be able to cope much better with the intemperate weather because we’d have so much delicious chowder to eat.
Obviously we’re waiting for something to happen with Andrei Arshavin this week. We’ve been invited over to have some talks with Zenit, as we all know, and we’ll just have to hope that Ivan Gazidis and his suitcase full of Mr Kipling’s French Fancies can do the business. It’s a little known fact that Russians love Mr Kipling’s French Fancies, particularly the yellow ones. This led to an almighty row between Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan as they met in Iceland in 1986. Reagan scoffed all the yellows, something old smudge-head only discovered as he got up for a midnight snack, and the Russian leader had to persuaded at length not to nuke Delaware off the map.
I was thinking a bit about Robin van Persie. He’s in rather good form at the moment and his three assists against Hull have catapulted him to the top of the Premier League charts. He’s sharing top with Berbatov, Malbranque and Ashley Young.
In his last four games I make it that he’s scored three, had four assists, hit the post once, hit the bar once and, well, that’s about it. But it’s enough, isn’t it? The plaudits being sent his way for his current form are well deserved. The Independent says:
In Van Persie they have a Netherlander who is proving to be as outstanding an attacking orchestrator as the brilliant Dennis Bergkamp.
High praise indeed. You look at the starting XI against Hull and really the only two players on the pitch capable of something individualistic, something that can change a game, are van Persie and Samir Nasri. So there’s a fair measure of responsibility there and it’s not really something van Persie has shown on a consistent basis before.
He let the side down badly with his sending off against Stoke. It was silly and petulant and although he returned to the side in the 3-0 massacre we got at Man City he’s got his head down and worked hard. Maybe he felt he owed something to the side and two goals against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge kick-started his, and our, season.
Since then his contribution has been fantastic, taking up the creative slack in a side that’s missing the likes of Cesc, Walcott and Rosicky. He’s captained the side and appears to have matured a bit this season. I know that generally comes with age but some players are too thick for that to happen. While comparisons with Bergkamp are a bit lazy, and perhaps a touch premature, there’s no doubt that if this team is to continue its good run and keep up the pressure on the sides ahead of it then Robin has got a big part to play.
12 goals, 8 assists and the jazziest jazz hands you ever did see. Let’s hope there’s more to come.
Arsene Wenger is confident that the teams above us will drop points and allow us to keep pace. He says:
Nobody is flying at the moment, which is good because it gives hope to everybody. We don’t talk about the title, we just talk about the next game and focus on that. We have momentum, so let’s strengthen the belief in the team and see where we are in April. Everyone plays each other and we have some big games coming up. We need to be on our toes and get closer.
And the strangeness of this season continues. If you’d said to me that Chelsea would need two late goals to beat Stoke I’d have thought you were a bit mad, or you’d replaced the creamy-icing bit in your French Fancies will some kind of narcotic, but that’s what happened. United needing a late, late winner against Bolton seemed unlikely too but it happened, and it’s been happening all season long. The games against Chelsea, United and Liverpool are going to be absolutely crucial, especially as they all come quite close together towards the end of the season.
April 18th – Liverpool away. May 9th – Chelsea home. May 16th – United away in the second last game of the season. Gulp. Anyway, there’s plenty of time to be looking ahead to those. No point greying up more hairs when we don’t have to.
Right, there’s little or nothing else happening so I shall go do the school-run. Till tomorrow.
