march 2nd
22.00 – Pics to your left and right of tonight’s game. Haven’t managed to see the goals yet – but I’ve just about got over listening to the game on the radio. I swear once you get to a certain age, listening to football on the radio is bad for your health. It’s almost masochistic. My impressions of the game were that you couldn’t really single anyone out, they all played really well. Obviously Dennis will get some praise for what sounded like another superb goal. This was a real TEAM performance. I hope people will enjoy this win, and realise that the Grimster, Oleg and Igors may not be world beaters, but they have a place in the squad and we’d struggle without them.
On a lighter note, the radio comms from arsenal.com had Malcolm MacDonald as co-commentator, and he sounded like he was pissed to begin with, and fucking buckled by the end of the game. What entertainment.
20.27 – Full time: Newcastle 0-2 Arsenal (Bergkamp, Campbell). FAB. Thoughts later.
13.06 – My hangover is not helped by the news that Thierry Henry is out of this evening’s game against Newcastle. Bobby Robson has been mouthing off saying that he can’t believe Henry has not been up in front of the FA for his outburst at the end of the Arsenal v Newcastle game at Highbury. He’s suggested there’s Arsenal bias at the FA. The fact that Henry didn’t really do anything wrong doesn’t seem to enter into it. He tried to ask self-styled hardman ref Graham Poll a question. He didn’t swear, use abusive language, lay hands on the referee. He didn’t put someone out of the game for 9 months will a terrible tackle – Hello to you Steve Finnan of Fulham. He didn’t throw a coin back into the crowd and get away with it. If the FA are going to ban Thierry Henry for merely trying to speak to the referee, and they let Jamie Carragher away with his inciteful and disgraceful behaviour, then Mr Robson, you can be sure there is bias at the FA, but it’s not towards Arsenal.
The other point to consider is that if Graham Poll had the manners and decency to actually speak to Henry that time, this whole thing wouldn’t have happened. Instead of standing there like a ‘little Hitler’ (©Ian Wright), thinking he doesn’t have to answer to anyone, he could have simply had a word with Thierry and said ‘We’ll discuss it inside’. No, he had to play the hardman. It’s as much Poll’s fault as anyone else’s. The FA and the referees association are always talking about improving communication between officials and players. No doubt they’ll keep talking about it and do fuck all as usual.
I hope we spank those Geordie twats tonight.
