november 25th
Under the circumstances I think that’s what you’d call a good point.
It started badly for Arsenal as PSV took the lead in the 8th minute. A Marc van Bommel corner was admired by the Arsenal defence and some cunt with too many vowels and Js in his name planted a neat header into our goal. I was all ready to break out the YADNIEFA ©™® template right there.
There wasn’t too much else to talk about until a beautiful move from Arsenal created the equaliser. Henry had the ball on the right hand side, he drove infield, played a ball to Ljungberg who knocked it back perfectly for Thierry to drive the ball past the PSV keeper to make it 1-1.
José had a decent shot and Jens Lehmann made a good save after van Bommel ran into the Arsenal penalty area. The only other real incident of note in the first half was a booking for Vieira which was pretty harsh considering the challenge he made.
The second half began and Lauren got a stupid yellow card for making the ‘Hey ref, book him’ motion and I have to say the ref was right to do it.
We brought on Robin van Persie for the fairly ineffectual Reyes with about 30 minutes to go, then things started to go wrong. Lauren got a second yellow card for a challenge on one of the PSV players who tumbled and rolled on the ground like he’d hit by a mammoth. So off he went and Arsenal are down to 10. I didn’t see much in the second yellow but it wouldn’t have been an issue if he hadn’t been as stupid as to make that gesture to the ref for his first. It’s one of my pet hates and it cost us tonight.
Justin Hoyte then came on for the very ineffectual Robert Pires and not too long after that Patrick Vieira made a decent challenge on our left hand side, he got the ball, the PSV player took his cue from his mammoth flattened team-mate, the ref fell for it and Paddy got a red card. What makes Vieira’s red card even more galling is that Marc van Bommel was allowed go around all night leaving his leg in, making sly, snide challenges which were more deserving of a yellow card than either of Vieira’s and the ref didn’t say a word to him. He’s been linked with Sp*rs in recent weeks and I have to say he’d suit them down to the ground because he’s a cheating, classless cunt. And let’s be honest, what sort of a fucking pussy wears a polo neck to play football? Yes, I’ve seen Kanu wear a polo neck in cold climes, but he’s from the fucking equator. Van Bommel is from Holland therefore wearing of thermal undergarments means he’s a big pansy.
So Arsenal are down to 9 and then Robin van Persie got injured on the edge of our box in a challenge with some PSV goon and it looked pretty bad. I didn’t see too much in the challenge that would have hurt him but it looked like a knee and it looked pretty serious. On came Mathieu Flamini and PSV, as you might imagine, had most of the ball for the last 10 or 15 minutes. Chumley the ref then managed to book Freddie for running too vigorously, still no card for van Bommel. There were a couple of nervy moments but we held out well enough for the point.
A draw between Rosenborg and Panathinaikos means that PSV qualify and we’ll go through if we beat Rosenborg at Highbury. Of course we’ll have to do it without Lauren and Vieira who’ll be suspended, but if we can’t beat them at home then you’d have to say we wouldn’t deserve to go through.
Now, maybe some people might not agree with me, but I kind of enjoyed seeing us down to 9 men. I enjoyed the sense of injustice. Before the game we were saying that maybe we were too nice now, so concerned with not getting red cards since the Old Trafford game that it’s taken some of the bite out of our game. Yes, the referee was an twat but there’s something galvanising about going down to 9 men and still getting a result. We need something to kick-start our season again, maybe this is it.
Afterwards Arsene Wenger declared himself pleased with the spirit, had no complaints about the sendings off (I think he’s being diplomatic), and with regard to the injuries he said we’d have to wait and see about van Persie, although he’s hopeful, while Henry’s achilles injury makes him, at this stage, a doubt for Sunday’s trip to Liverpool.
Finally for today my old friends at harderthansatan.com have provided me with one of these fine Thierry shirts to give away. To enter just email [email protected] and tell me which club we signed him from. Winner announced tomorrow, so be quick. Over and out.
