February 23rd, 2008
And when I say that, I speak not just for the fans, but the players too. It’s clear from our first-half performance that we are suffering from the emotional consequences of a terrible injury to the Croatian.
Let it be in no doubt who is to blame for this tragedy – Martin Taylor made a quick horrific challenge, which I am able to show you here:
The injury that followed was horrible and potentially career-ending. It looks to me like a dislocation and a break. Those you choose to can see evidence of the damage at these links. WARNING: these images are not for the faint-hearted. You choose to follow the links at your own discretion.
If we lose today, I can forgive the players. They are, after all, only human. But I hope we go out there in the second half and win the game for our friend Eduardo. It’s the least we can do.
February 23rd, 2008
We have four Premier League games before we travel to play Chelsea on the 23rd March. They are against Birmingham, Villa, Wigan and Middlesbrough. Whilst I’m not counting any chickens, there is no reason that we should not be able to keep (or even extend) our five point advantage during that run.
In the first of that run of highly winnable games, we travel to St. Andrews to face a Birmingham side who have not won in their last eight games. That’s not to saw they’ve been playing poorly – that run includes creditable draws with both us and West Ham – but it may prove significant that both those results were achieved away from home.  At St. Andrews, they’ve won just three games this season – only Derby have a poorer home record.
After the disappointing draw at the Emirates, we owe Birmingham a beating. Here’s hoping all goes to plan.
Aleksandr Hleb (who along with Adebayor and Almunia is fit to start today’s game), has spoken out on the liberating effect of Thierry Henry’s departure:
“Until last summer, we had just played for Thierry Henry. He was running the show. Whenever I got the ball, I was looking up, ‘where’s Henry?’
I did not dare to go for goal myself! And if once in a while I dared to pass the ball to someone else, he would shout, ‘hey, I was free!’ When he was on form, we won everything. When he was off form, we lost.
That has all changed. We are not a one-man-band any more. Nobody complains when I risk some dribbling. That’s the reason for our good performances — we were set free.”
One has to say that Hleb is possibly the player who has benefited most from Henry’s departure. After a fairly poor season last year, he has become arguably the league’s most potent playmaker, and his interlinking with Cesc Fabregas is an absolute joy to watch.
Hopefully after today, Birmingham will concurr.
