The Beauty of Football at it’s Worst

Well, I’ll begin with the match preview I promised for yesterday and move on to the match itself, which was altogether white knuckling beyond belief.

We started without our so far this season injuries and without Cesc. Rosicky is back in full training, which is good and early and he’s been called up to the Czech Republic team for the interlul. Should he play in that game, and he does have to play eventually, it should put him back in the reckoning for our squad in the next few league matches. There’s still no word on Djourou, Nasri, Fabianski and whoever else is injured.

In unrelated news Jay Simpson has been loaned out to QPR, I think, it could be Crystal Palace too, I’ve always got those guys a bit mixed up. It should be good for him, and while I like him I don’t really see any room for him in the current Arsenal structure.

Moving on, yesterday was to be a real test of our metal as we were without our captain and main ball mover and shaker and we were up against United at Old Trafford. They were without Rio Ferdinand and Edwin Van Der Saar, big losses too.

The game kicked off and for the first little while neither team could settle the ball, both lacking flow, the midfields just about canceling each other out with each set of midfielders making mistakes and giving the ball away too easily. We looked shaky at the back, particularly Gael Clichy, who I didn’t feel had a very good game, in fact it was one of his worst. Valencia couldn’t really capitalize though and United never really looked too threatening. As the half wore on we looked the better team. RvP was doing some good work, as were Denilson, Diaby and Song, we just couldn’t quite get the ball moving away from pressure, which is where Cesc would have come in handy. Given this fact, I wonder how we would have faired fielding 19 year old Fran Merida over Diaby. Merida is a crafty player who has obviously been watching Cesc intently as he is a very similar player and with his left foot he could have been a useful passer opening up angles that the others in midfield could not.

Eboue was getting involved and was active on both sides of the field, while Arshavin wasn’t really able to get going, loosing the ball on the dribble too often. He seemed to be getting frustrated with himself, though, and began working hard to reclaim the ball and to get it in to feet. He did so inside the box and cut the ball back as Darren Fletcher came sliding in. Fletcher’s momentum completely took Arshavin out and just to complete the flagrancy he scooped the ball up with his hand before running out of the box. Mike Dean had a clear view of the situation and gave nothing. It was a stonewall penalty and the decision not to give it is nothing short of inept. If that decision had gone against my U12 girls team I would have been furious, at this level, it’s inexcusable.

Not long after, only seconds in fact, Arshavin dropped off the edge of the area to collect the ball about 40 yards from goal. He moved forward, about 15 yards unchallenged and unleashed a frozen swerver to the near post top corner that Ben Foster could only push into the goal. The original Arseblog quite rightly says that had it been Almunia, there would be articles in the papers about his mistake. The commentary said nothing about Foster.

Now, it can be argued that while we got no penalty, we went on to score not long after and so the two instances cancel each other out. In fact, we may not even have scored the penalty because nothing is guaranteed in this sport, so the goal is better. There’s no telling any of that, should we have received the penalty and scored or missed, there’s no saying certainly that Arshavin wouldn’t have done exactly what he did not long afterwards. Likewise there’s no telling that on the flip side, we could have missed the penalty, RvP could have torn his hamstring doing it and a flock of terradachtals could have pillaged the stadium. But what it did do for certain was set a precedent. From then on the Old Trafford crowd was going to rule over the decisions. It was made clear that Mike Dean is not a strong referee, that he is scared to make correct decisions in front of a home crowd and really ought to be looked at as a candidate for Division 1. In Estonia.

Arshavin had had a chance earlier in the game from one of the several corners we forced. The corner was forced by an RvP blocked shot, which looked like scoring. The ball was half cleared from the corner to just beyond the penalty spot and the little Russian came to it first and under pressure got a shot off that looked to be heading to the top corner, but it sailed inches wide. I don’t think he could have been expected to do much better, I think if the shot had been on target that it would have been blocked as he was pressed very tightly from the front.

We finished off the half looking on top, we kept the ball fairly well and looked good value for our lead. They tried to counter attack but really didn’t have what it took to get past us with Gallas and Vermaelen making great tackles to stop their attacks. The second half was a slightly different game. Both teams looked a bit better but again we were the ones on top, just 4 minutes in we could have been ahead by 2. Arshavin skinned O’Shea with ease and crossed along the ground for van Persie who side footed the ball into the goal, oh wait, there was a quick leg by Ben Foster denying our Dutchman. People in the pub were furious about the miss but really it was a great save from Foster. We continued to keep the ball fairly well and while we were never peppering their goal, we were certainly creating more than our opponents, who created literally nothing.

After about 15 minutes it seemed we weren’t satisfied with the way things were going and rushed our attacks a bit. They were being broken up by the constant fouling from Fletcher and Carrick, neither of whom received yellow cards, in fact their fouls were rarely whistled. Meanwhile, Song was booked for his first foul about 5 minutes in, Gallas for a maybe deserved foul on Evra, van Persie for a perfectly good tackle (later on in the game Vidic made an identical tackle on the edge of the United area and there was no free kick or booking), Sagna for throwing his arm into the air at a bad decision and others we’ll get into later.

As we were pressing harder and faster and they were fouling more and more, Giggs sent Rooney through with a clever pass behind Gallas. Gallas couldn’t catch Shrek and Almunia came rushing off his line with Rooney going nowhere. Rooney kicked the ball ahead of Almunia and began to fall when the keeper was about 2 yards away. The ball headed for the stands at a pace no living man could catch, and Almunia’s momentum clashed with the already grounded Rooney. The ref, a full 20/30 yards away blew the whistle for a penalty and gave another yellow card to Almunia.

It was a dive similar to Eduardo’s and so we can’t really complain about it being given, although the ball was completely out of Rooney’s reach, which seems to be, by letter of the law, no penalty should be given. However, Almunia had no business coming out with Gallas recovering and Rooney likely unable to catch the ball in time to create a real threat.

With Almunia’s mistake, the weak ref, the home crowd and it being United, the penalty under the circumstances was inevitable despite Mike Dean being so far away. So, we’ve done it to ourselves. We know going to Old Trafford we’ll be up against 12.5 men and even though the ref did make it a full 13 yesterday, the real kick in the teeth is going to be the absurd contradiction in Rooney’s treatment in a dive scandal compared to Eduardo’s. The commentators said nothing, the papers will say nothing, and you better believe we will say nothing. Celtic is like a kid on the playground that got punched in the nose, he ran away crying and grassed on us to the principal. And even though a million kids have done it a million times and nothing has happened, the kid that did it to Celtic will be suspended for a week and none of the other kids will want to play with him. We’ve just been punched in the nose and we won’t grass. We’ll punch back with performances, goals and trophies. And so you’ll see nothing in the papers about Rooney’s dive, there will be no FA inquiry, there will be no suspension, there will be nothing but people talking about how clever Rooney is for having made the foul happen.



Anyway, Rooney put the penalty away and the score was 1-1 with 25 minutes to go. We then decided to go at them a bit more and we did get a couple of chances. We won a free kick on the right side of the box from good work from Diaby and Sagna and van Persie crashed it against the bar with Foster certainly beaten. He really must feel that things are going against him. He didn’t get a chance to take a penalty in the first half, he had a shot going in that was blocked by a defender, a shot going in that was miraculously saved by Ben Foster’s leg and hit a deadly curler against the bar with the keeper already beaten. This can only be looked at as a good thing though, as he’s due about 700 goals in the upcoming games.

Then, Eboue was left all alone on the far post and chose to try and control the ball instead of just hammer it, or come in for a header, and the chance went away with his poor control. Shortly afterwards he hit the floor, diving around Evra when he had already dribbled by him. I never really understand Eboue, I’ve been singing his praises, talking him up as a good player, one that I didn’t want to see go. He didn’t and I was happy and he seemed to be making me look very clever with some very good performances, then in a week where the whole club is under serious scrutiny in the wake of Eduardo’s dive against Celtic, he dives needlessly in a position that was never likely to be advantageous for us. Unbelievable really, he was rightly booked and pushed the water over the edge so to speak, as the club is now due a fine for 6 bookings in a match.

The game went on and United weren’t creating anything, they never looked a threat and hardly ever had the ball in our half. Then, Fletcher had the ball on the right touch line and Denilson came in to tackle and the Scott went to ground. Free kick, despite all of the similar situations, and to be fair even more clear cut ones, that went against us. Giggs floated the free kick into the 6 yard box with no attacker near it. Almunia chose to stay on his line and for some reason, some how Diaby headed the ball into the top corner. It was as if he had been bribed. It was totally gutting. We were 1 nil up, good value for our lead, looking like we were going to win by 2/3 goals, then 2-1 down after a dubious penalty and an outrageous own goal. A serious kick in the pants.

We had about 18 minutes to set things right and Diaby almost did so nearly immediately. He dribbled through 3 United defenders on the edge of the box and was clear in on goal. He looked odds on to score but dragged his shot wide with his left. After that we never really seemed likely to score. We came at them and came at them and they packed their box and we packed their half and they broke at us a few times and wasted a couple of good chances. We never carved out a good chance with Clichy and substitute Ramsey fluffing crosses when good deliveries were needed and Bendtner and Eduardo, also late subs, unable to make an impact. Then the electronic numbers board came up and flashed a big, glorious, red number FIVE. We had another 5 minutes to get a point, the least we deserved.

Again, when quality was needed, the deliveries didn’t come. When that something extra was needed, the second to last ball, the last ball, the finish, it never came. Then, finally a ball that could be challenged for. A cross came in from the left and Gallas rose from between two defenders to challenge, the ball fell to van Persie and he pushed it over the line. Que wild celebrations, the players on the pitch, the boys in the pub, Wenger in the dug out. A bottle broke in the pub and everyone fell entirely silent. We all loked up at the screen and there it was, a flag had been raised. The goal was disallowed for offside against Gallas.

What happened afterwards was a complete disgrace and I’ll refer you to www.Goodplaya.com and www.anotherarsenalblog.blogspot.com for the skinny and opinion on the situation with Wenger getting sent to the stands.

It was a dramatic match, one with controversy, good play, bad play, physicality and frustration. It was tough blow for Arsenal fans, a lucky relief for United fans and a wonderful spectacle for neutrals. It’s a game where the ref was poor and seemingly bias and where scenes were heated. It was a classic big four clash, a classic Arsenal United game and I’m happy to have seen it. At the end of the day, that’s the way the world works. In the season’s opening matches we’ve had a bit of luck go for us after years of it going the other way. And now it’s back to normal, it’s time to make our own luck. The ref influenced the game, that is certain, but not beyond our ability to fix it. Human error is part of football and it’s what helps make it the game it is. It’s what separates it from those boring passionless American sports, we don’t use video replays, we don’t have commercials mid-game, we don’t have managers challenging decisions and jumbotron screens showing what had just happened. We don’t wear pads when we play, our crowds don’t have just two chants, but 1000’s of songs for different players and teams and games. We live the best sport in the history of the world and while this result and match will be difficult to take on the chin, we have to as we have a duty to the game, we love football and, while it’s at it’s worst for the Arsenal, this is football at it’s finest.