Citeh v. Arsenal and video recording

mmmm 5am kickoffs, I love em. Last season Doyle’s would open at 5am for these Shitanta early matches, and even once or twice opened at 4am, so I could watch these games live.   But the liquor control board took a dim view of a bar opening before 6am and asked them, politely, not to open that early.  They weren’t serving alcohol mind you, but the liquor control board didn’t want to have to get an inspector out there at 5am to do spot checks to make sure they weren’t serving.  Doyle’s solution was to record the matches and play them on tape delay which meant a 9am replay today.

So, now I’m relegated to either catching the replay at 9am or watching via Sopcast because I’m sure as hell not going to sit here and read the damn match on BBC! The 9am replay was right out as I have practice at 10am. So, I Sopcasted it. And I have to say that the quality of the broadcast was good, the commentary was English, and it had a built-in recording feature so I was able to record a goal and upload it to YouTube.

Sure, it’s the last goal… It’s no Eduardo masterpiece (from Arsenalist.com) but it’s my first video so I’m excited! Expect to see more videos from me in the future now that I can record them so easily.

Anyway, about the match. Last night we learned that Almunia had suffered a thumb injury and so Lehmann would be his replacement. I have to admit that my butthole puckered at the thought of Jens in goal. But as Jens has done his entire career, he surprised a lot of folks. He was pretty solid at the back, he didn’t have a single freakout (of course City only had 1 corner), and he didn’t go apeshit on his teammates when they weren’t absolutely perfect. He looked a humbled man which is not something I thought I would ever say about Jens Lehmann.

The rest of the squad looked so good today I don’t even know where to start. Cesc looked his old self, patrolling the middle of the park and opening up the defense with great passes. Some credit for that has to go to Man City who play an open, attacking brand of football and Arsenal always play so much better against those teams than they do against shit-kicking cunts like Chelsea. Maybe it’s a chicken and egg thing. I’ll have to think on it a while. Whatever the cause, Cesc was great. Here’s to him keeping that form for the rest of the season.

Eduardo had that brilliant goal that I mentioned earlier and that’s exactly what he was brought in to do: score insanely good goals. He hadn’t scored in six matches so it was good to see him get off the snide. Here’s to him getting back into goal scoring form in such a spectacular way.

And then there’s Adebayor. I think this might have been the perfect match to sum up Adebayor’s season. He displays some bad touch, got fouled a couple of times that could have been penalties, displays some poor passing, but then scores two goals. What I think we all need to remember is that this is only his first full season as the starting striker on one of the best teams in the world. He’s playing football against defenses comprised of the world’s top footballers. And he keeps getting better. Some of the criticisms of him have died down but I’d like to appeal to his detractors by simply saying: give him some more time. He’s gotten better every season and I think we have to wait at least one more season until we can fully judge him. Here’s to us all just enjoying what Adebayor is doing right now; 12 goals in 8 consecutive matches.

So, three points and Arsenal are back on top of the table with a well deserved win against a squad that hasn’t lost a match at home all season. Quite a performance and what a way to start the day!

Until tomorrow, Kickers.

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