Early blog today because the central air was set 14 degrees above it’s normal setting and kicked in at 1:45am with a long and strong gust of hot air. Well, actually I’m not sure it was the central air, it could have been the bloviating over at Arsenal America that raised the temperature in my house.
I especially love that some people are claiming “no one could have seen that Flamini would be this good.” Yes, yes indeed, some people did see it. Some people commented on it last year when he selflessly played utility man. Some of us commented on it when he had a brilliant Champions League run. Some of us have been singing his praises now for two years. But don’t let that cloud your fantasy!
Irregardless of all that, it is now abundantly clear to everyone that he is a very important part of Arsenal’s success this season. And I’m not even talking about his goal and his assist. I’m talking about the fact that he was tireless; defending, attacking, holding, passing, tackling, and leading. The goal and the assist were just icing on the cake.
Wenger sees it too and seems eager to sign him.
I feel we have a few who have improved but he is one of them. His work-rate is tremendous, his run on the first goal was great, the timings of his runs are good and his composure with the final ball is great. That was not the case in the years before. On top of that he scored a great goal tonight. We are talking [about a contract]. I’m hoping to finalise it, he wants to stay, I want him to stay, so we should find an agreement. I’m not especially concerned because I believe what he tells me.
Yes, let’s all collectively relax and trust that Wenger is doing his best to sign Flamini to a new deal.
As for the game — it was altogether a great match, controlled from whistle to whistle by Arsenal. This was probably not the most welcoming way for Kevin Keegan to start his third stint at Newcastle. Which is kind of sad, because the reality there is that Fat Sam created a team of talentless assholes and against an open, fit, and talented team like Arsenal you can’t really expect to play anything other than crunch and hoof football that is the hallmark of Sam’s coaching career. So, Keegan’s valiant attempt to play attacking football is destined to fail against Arsenal: he just doesn’t have the talent. The 6-0 scoreline over two matches should draw a bright red line under that. Unsurprisingly, three matches in and the British press is already spelling his downfall. Amazing.
Speaking of amazing! Adebayor now has 20 goals in all competitions, 17 goals in the Premiership, and10 goals in the last 7 games, scoring at least one goal in each of those matches consecutively. In fact, and I had forgotten about this because of the black cloud that hung over the match, up until the Tottenham match Arsenal had never lost a match in which Adebayor had scored. And he’s reclaimed the top goal scoring spot (because of his alphabetical dominance over Winky-Divey) and is at third place in the Actim stats table. He also tops my stats as the number one reason people travel to my blog. But perhaps the most amazing thing is that all of the negative chatter about him has almost completely died off. Good. Long may it rest.
As the Adebayor phenomenon has taken off, the Gael Clichy phenomenon has been happy running all over the pitch in Ade’s shadow. But make no mistake, Clichy is the real deal and while he’s being overshadowed by Adebayor in the eyes of some people, the guys who matter see performances like last night and recognize him for his brilliance. Just see what Cesc said:
Mathieu has stepped up this year as have Adebayor and Gael [Clichy] and all these kind of players. We need them so badly.
And that about sums up yesterday’s match doesn’t it? “We need them so badly.” Indeed.
OK, that’s all, I’ve combed through the RSS feeds and shared a bunch of stuff that I think is funny or interesting (like Moyes calling for an ACN “break” to the Premiership or The Sun reporting that Woodgate is injured already). If you’re interested you should check out my shared feed. There’s just so much stuff going on right now, this blog could literally take almost any direction. If it seems a bit confusing right now, stick in there, I’m sure a way out will present itself.
Until tomorrow!
