Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, it is still morning. Just. I apologise for the tardiness, but last night was a late one, and it wasn’t until after a series of hefty *boilks* was I able to raise myself. We’ve all been there. You know how it is.
Anyway, here now, and we’ll start with the news that the lying liars at Hull City have managed to get Cesc charged with improper conduct by The FA, following whatever it is that happened after our FA Cup tie with them. The FA have charged him for allegedly spitting at Brian Horton, and for coming onto the pitch after the game. Apparently there is video and written evidence to back this up.
As one of our forum members pointed out, the video evidence must relate to the charge for coming on the pitch; if there was video of him spitting at Horton, there’s no way it wouldn’t be all over the Internet by now, and The FA seem to have confirmed that view. I’m not sure how he’s broken any rules by coming onto the pitch, but I’m sure there’s some regulation they’ll find to hang on him. Managers frequently go onto the pitch after games – I’m not sure how that’s any different. As for the spitting charge, it’s simply his word against Horton’s, and I don’t see how they can ban him for that.
Arsene Wenger was in bullish mood:
Certainly if he had been wearing a black tie he wouldn’t have been charged. I can show you the tape, you can watch the tape and you will surprised he’s been charged. We’ve nothing to hide.
He won’t be banned. He’s been charged, we have to accept that, we’re open to investigation, we’re open to any evidence, if they have something we accept the punishment.
If they have nothing we hope he won’t to be punished. On what I’ve seen he won’t be.
But such a big thing has been made of this story that the FA go further. I know how it works at the FA. I have known them for long, long enough.
Yeah, we certainly do now how it goes at The FA. We’ll just have to see. It’s going to take a while for anything to get done anyway because of the fixture list.
As the chairman said recently, I’d like to see players not involved wearing a suit. It just looks classier.
Phil Liar Brown has also been charged with improper conduct for basically calling Mike Riley a cunt on live TV after the game. Now, calling Mike Riley a cunt is a bit like saying the sky is blue and grass is green, but Brown’s likely to be in quite a lot of trouble since he has previous. Which is all rather amusing. But really, I couldn’t care less about them any more.
Onto other news now and the boss has been telling us why we didn’t win the title this season – because we didn’t have a midfield. Now, I’m sure I’m not the only one, but I think I saw that coming. To be fair though, even though we struggled in the first half of the season, the second half has been a different story, and I think given the fact that we have had so many players out, and were in a rebuilding process too, to be just 12 points off the top isn’t actually that bad. It’s not good enough, obviously, but it’s not disastrous either. I think we all thought at some stage that this team wasn’t good enough for 4th place, but we seem to have that sewn up now, and Arsene Wenger has his sights on Chelsea. I think that’s probably a slightly lofty ambition, but you never know. We still have to play them.
Team news for today now. Rosicky’s out. No, really, he is. Actually that was a rubbish way of linking to the story that the manager has been talking about Rosicky and how he’ll be back next season.
There’s a nice interview with the boss on the BBC website. You’ve probably all found it for yourselves by now, of course.
So, team news for today, and it’s much as was reported yesterday. Robin Van Persie is out with a knackered ball bag, and Blogger so eloquently put it, and Emmanuel Adebayor may start, having recovered from a hamstring problem. However, I’d have thought if there was even the slightest doubt over Adebayor, we’ll see Bendtner start up front. The BBC report Djourou is available, but I’m not sure I believe that. We shall see.
It’ll be a tough game today, but I expect us to get the three points. We’re at home, in a good run of form, and although Boro are a decent enough side, I still think we should have too much for them.
I hope the Arseblog five-a-sides are going well, and that the right team is winning. And by the right team, I obviously mean…well, you know which team I mean. Don’t you?
Have a good one, and see you tomorrow. Maybe a bit earlier.
Update: in the above, for “today’s game”, please read “tomorrow’s game”..back to bed for me.
