Hello Everybody, Broadcasting Live From Somewhere, It's ArseblogUSA,
I've missed the last couple days because of running around Atlanta looking for a bloody job with the missus. She got hired and subsequently had to spend 3 hours filling out paper work during the second leg against Celtic. I ran around Down Town ATL looking for a pub that was airing the game and had no luck. It was hugely infuriating as I really don't feel you can call yourself a Pub if you don't show football matches! George's 11th St. Pub ought to burn to the ground. Or just change the name to George's 11th St. Terrible Service No Soccer Bar.
Anyway, I did manage to catch some extended highlights but don't feel, having read the match reports that I got an appropriate view of the game.
We played without Cesc, Diaby deputized but apparently wasn't on his weekend form. Our regular full backs came in and the awesome on the night Eboue came on up front along with Bendtner to flank Eduardo.
The 1st goal was touted as the most important thing in the tie, which I don't really think was ever true. If they got a goal, they'd still have to score 2 more to win the fucking thing.
The game looked to have started quickly and Celtic were definitely out to play, but we were just too good from the get go. They won a free kick with Maloni(sp?) doing some good dribbling but it hit the wall and we broke into their half in seconds.
We could have, should have scored really early with excellent work from Clichy and Eboue on the left working an opening for Bendtner, who put a really clever flick on target and forced a great save from Boruc. Eduardo had an open goal to put the ball into but curled his shot wide with his studs.
It seemed to me, having watched the highlights (heavy sigh), that we continued to pressure and the game was fairly open, although we didn't allow them much space in the middle with Song and Denilson doing good work.
We did score after I think 30 minutes, the highlights don't make it clear, and the goal is covered in controversy, we'll talk about all of it later.
Eduardo ran charging into the box and took the ball past the keeper and hit the ground after zero contact. A penalty was given and he dispatched it very coolly, despite having been given an earful from Boruc and some other Celtic players.
1 nil up and the tie was put to bed. We carried on pressing high and going at Celtic for the rest of the half where Bendtner saw a corner come at him late, giving him a split second free header, which he put wide. Celtic had had a goal disallowed for offsides, which it was by a mile. Eduardo hit an awesome curler to the far post from 30 yards after a great break from Eboue, but Boruc was equal to it with a fantastic save.
Celtic responded pretty well in the second half, Aiden McGeady went close with a 30 yard drive that curled away from the top corner, and to be fair it looked like Almunia had it covered.
Up the other end Eduardo should have scored another having beat two defenders with a great touch from Clichy's pass, but hit the ball badly wide with his right foot. Eboue scored our 4th of the tie after Bendtner's back heal flick to Diaby, who played the ball square to Eboue, who cut across his defender and slotted home with ease. A very good goal for an ever improved Eboue.
This goal must have really killed off the game as there weren't many highlights afterwards. Arshavin and Wilshere came on after Ramsey had already come on for Diaby. Arshavin scored having been on 2 minutes. Denilson charged hard through the middle having intercepted a pass, as he does so well. He lost the ball but Arshavin was on hand to nip in and play the ball to Ramsey who looked set to shoot as he cut a cute reverse pass to the little Russian whose swivel turn was excellent before he scored a la Eboue.
Ramsey came close to scoring but Boruc made a good save and that was about it. Except for that awesome Celtic goal with the last kick of the game.
We've finished the job, we're in the Champions' League again and we've been drawn in a very nice group, AZ Aklemaar, Olympiacos and some team from Belgium.
Now, all this about Eduardo is getting silly. No doubt you've seen the news and Wenger is bullish about UEFA's investigation. He's right in calling it a witch hunt. He's a foreign player, the worst kind because he's from 2 different foreign countries, and he plays for Arsenal, so naturally his scrutiny in this situation will be much harder than the scrutiny that has come down on English players who have been in the same situation. Oh, wait, no English player ever has been in this situation, because when one of them dives, it's OK. No talk, not pundits banging on about it, no Football Association investigations, no news papers, no nothing. Steven Gerrard is always going down easily, winning countless penalties for Liverpool with minimal contact, and still he's never put under the scope. Rooney's dive against the invincibles also comes to mind. There was literally no contact whatsoever and there was never an article in any newspaper and Gary Lineker and the rest of them on match of the day said nothing. Even other foreign players for other clubs don't get this kind of stick. Ronaldo didn't get anything like this even though he's a terrible serial diver. Drogba and Ballack are the scummiest players in football, diving all over the place, despite the fact that they weight 190 lbs each, not to mention how dirty they are otherwise, throwing elbows and putting in high tackles, etc. It's really ridiculous.
Speaking of other dirty things, what about Martin Taylor? He broke Eduardo's leg into 1000 pieces and all that happened was, "He's not that type of player," came out of every fucking mouth that could have said it. Same with Kevin Nolan when he stamped two feet down on Victor Anichebe last season. What about Steven Taylor? He came at Arshavin with an elbow to the jaw without an eye anywhere near the ball in our second game against them last year and he didn't even get a yellow card.
Speaking of yellow cards, isn't that the norm for punishment for dives? So give Eduardo a retrospective yellow and call it a day. I'm not defending Eduardo, it was a bad dive and lord knows I hate divers. It's ruining the modern game and I've thought for years that there needs to be some more serious action to try and phase it out. Players should receive lengthy bans and big fines for dives and so I wouldn't have a problem with this Eduardo business if it wasn't so full of blatant double standards. What about that UEFA cup game when Leeds lost in the semi finals to Galataseri, who eventually beat us in the final. Harry Kewell, who was on fire at the time, jumped over a Turk defender and jogged off. The ref ran over and gave him a red card, he turned around and saw the defender rolling on the ground clutching his face. The replay showed that absolutely zero contact was made and Kewell was cleared, but nothing happened to the Turk, I think it was Pepescu.
If they're going to ban Eduardo, they need to start doing to every player for every dive.
Right then, enough about that. Cesc is out for our trip to Man U tomorrow, which'll make things that much more difficult, it'll be a real test of Arsenal metal tomorrow. There's more news but we'll preview the game tomorrow.
Until then,
Highbury86
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