I have just awoken from a City-induced coma
793 comments April 26th, 2010
Arsenal 0 – Man City 0
Highlights (Honestly, it’s not worth it) | Arsene’s reaction
As if we needed any confirmation that our season was well and truly over, this match provided it. The ingredients were there for a thrilling occasion. City needed a win in the chase for fourth, whilst three points for us would have provided security against any challenge for third. Robin van Persie returned and was captain, coaxing an already raucous crowd in to a frenzy before the game with a series of universally motivational arm gestures. Patrick Vieira and Kolo Toure were present in the City line-up, both receiving rapturous applause in contrast to the pantomime villain of the piece, Emmanuel Adebayor. The Togolese started on the bench and came on as a substitute for Patrick Vieira, the crowd delighting in the opportunity to show the stark contrast between their regard for the two players. Cheers have rarely turned to boos quite so quickly, nor poignantly.
Someone unaware of the intricate relationships between certain players involved and the fans would have wondered what all the fuss was about. The game itself passed almost entirely without incident: a Sol Campbell lunge to deny Patrick Vieira when through on goal and a Van Persie free-kick that drifted just past the top corner were the only moments of football-based excitement in the game. The fact that every newspaper write-up of the game has headlined with Shay Given’s shoulder injury shows just how note-worthy a spectacle the match was.
Possibly the most interesting point in the game, from my seat at any rate, occurred when a yobbish sort behind me started singing chants that glorified in Adebayor’s traumatic experiences aboard a coach in Angola. An elderly man in front of me turned around, and demanded the guy shut up. His argument was plain: whatever our problems with Adebayor, people died that day. It’s not something to be made light of. It’s fans like that, who are not prepared to see the good name of this club tarnished by a few imbeciles, who make me proud to support Arsenal. If we’re going to jump on to our high horse when Arsene is made the victim of sick chants, we can at the least apply the same moral code to ourselves.
Another game down – just two more to go now. One win from the two games away to Blackburn and home to Fulham would secure third place and put the season soundly to bed.
Come back tomorrow for a look at which players will have their contracts renewed this summer – and, more interestingly, which won’t.
ps. if City can get an emergency goalie on the grounds that the ones they’re left with aren’t very good, then why the hell did we not pursue that avenue?
