A painful night watching the Champions League
583 comments April 11th, 2007
Congratulations to United and Chelsea, who both played superbly, but this was sickening viewing for Arsenal fans. We are one of Europe’s biggest clubs, and should’ve been there. The fact that there are now three English clubs in the semis (unless PSV pull off a miracle to contend with Jesus’ Easter Houdini act) and we are not one of them really does grate.
But then, one only needs to watch the games to understand why we’re so far off the pace these days. We don’t have the mental strength and discipline of Chelsea, nor the clinical attacking of Manchester United. Take Michael Carrick’s first goal last night – the reason he scored was because he opened his body and took the shot early. His second wasn’t bad either. How often have you seen one of our players do that? We only tend to shoot when urged to by a disgruntled crowd. It’s a last resort as opposed to a shock attack.
Then Ronaldo’s goal – he drifted wide, powered towards the edge of the are and fired in low at the near post. A player with that kind of penetration is a must for us in the Summer.
I will now go and wash my mouth out with soap for praising that lot so much. But you know, when you’re looking to improve you have to look to whoever’s best at that moment in time. There are reason’s that United and Chelsea have had brilliant seasons, and we haven’t. And the answer is not injuries – just look at Chelsea’s injury list this season.
Myles Palmer has some more on Stan Kroenke, who I’m now convinced will certainly try to buy the club this Summer, and two more rumours:
One is that Wenger loves Baptista, absolutely loves him. I don’t believe that rumour. Baptista is so bad he makes Wiltord look like Pele.
Second rumour is that Robin van Persie is running around and kicking balls.
One of those rumours makes me very happy. The other one makes me want to kill Julio Baptista AND Arsene Wenger. I’ll let you decide which is which.
