My co-workers make me sick, maDe, made, sorry about that. My co-workers made me sick by coming in to work while coughing up a lung. And now, I’m sitting here, unable to sleep, but tired, coughing up what little lungs I have left, high on nyQuil.
This will either be the best or worst blog. evar.
My two favorite quotes ahead of the match today are the one in the headline, spoken by Eduardo, and this gem from Wenger
To be professional is to do what it takes for your team to be successful, no more than that. It does not mean that you go to paradise together. (emph. added)
To the first, after an injured Eduardo missed his penalty, he came back to the group, clearly distraught and instead of the woe is me that we saw from Ronaldo last year in their penalty shoot out with slippy boots Chelsea, simply said “Kolo, we’re going to win.”
I’ve been calling for a leader to step up on this team and it looks like we finally have one; a man who overcame the horror of Martin Taylor’s lunge to step back on the pitch and face hundreds of Taylor’s and score on them with flair.
Guts, Dudu’s got guts and sometimes guts are enough.
I’m also quite liking this Toure renaissance. Yes he spoke out about his feud with Cappy and I don’t like that, but he didn’t reveal much and in fact said that what happens in the locker room stays in the locker room. It was exactly the kind of clear the air that was needed.
Now, he’s out here, geeing up the club with all this positive talk. I see a lesson there for us gloom and doomers and the folks who like to jump on us: in ‘Merica we say, you get more flies with honey than with vinegar. Never mind that I don’t like flies because flies means fly eggs and fly eggs mean maggots, which are gross.
(BRING IT HOME, NYQUIL)
The point is, we could all use a dose of positive thinking and certainly some of the signs are there so it’s really good to see our stand-in captain saying really positive things. Sort of shining sunshine on those of us who have been a bit negative of late.
I have some maxims and one is that “In a leadership vacuum, leaders always emerge.” It looks like we’ve got a few leaders suddenly emerging, and that give me great hope.
And them of course, you have to have a laugh at Wenger’s quote. “Go to paradise together” what does that even mean? Screwing on top of a rainbow? Unicorns and ponies for everyone?
I don’t get it, is that a French-ism?
Maybe it’s the nyQuil, but for me it sort of conjures up Kolo and Gallas walking off into the sunset, hand in hand, bluebirds are tweeting nearby and unicorns look up from grazing in a field of poppies by a deep blue lake.
No wait… isn’t paradise Kolo and Cappy raising Ole Big Ears while streamers pop-off near by and Cesc drinks from a giant glass of champagne held up by Jack Wilshere and Theo Walcott and the final score was 13-0 and everyone scored except Eboue who scored a hat trick and the press write about Arsenal’s “miracle season” and we all go off into the summer sun singing
“We love the Arsenal we do, we love the Arsenal we do, we love the Arsenal, we do, oh Arsenal we love you!”
In that case, I actually want Cappy and Kolo to go to paradise together.
Back in reality, Arsenal face Blackburn today and they will need all the positive imagery they can muster to overcome Sam’s lump and crunch football.
I’m imagining an early goal from Arshavin… that would be a mini paradise wouldn’t it?
I have always seen Dudu as the strong, silent leader type. His attitude before and after the injury, his determination and humility makes him my favorite and I think his attitude rubs off on the younger players.
Arshavin has come in and immediately has brought some more leadership ability. Take note of him talking to players on the field and showing them where to be positioned, etc. He wants to win, and his winning attitude should also rub off. Toure, Fabregas and Clichy also seem to provide some leadership and this nucleus may help us to move forward and get a committed persona.
“I’m imagining an early goal from Arshavin… that would be a mini paradise wouldn’t it?”
Blimey, you’re good. I hope it is given to him, I had him to score first at 5-1! But looks like an OG.
I don’t know whether to post this as I don’t know when/where you are watching the game…sorry if I’ve given that away.
Dudu is short, dark and rat-like in appearance.
Awesome game. Song’s surprisingly good at football when he runs. Walcott’s a lovely boy. And the Owl is going to save our season. And even Eboue got two goals. Incredibly, looks like Wenger might actually know something about football. Who’d have thunk it?
I hope Tim and my fellow Gunners will forgive me if I say that I will be a Spurs fan in the morning.
Amazing game, could have been a 6-0 romp if Nicky ever finds his shooting boots. He has a great striker’s brain and knows where he needs to be but not a great striker’s foot to put them in the net. If he ever learns to finish he’d be one of the best striker in the league but missing easily 5-6 chances in the second half has only justified that he’s just not ready yet.
Arshavin – money well spent it seems. Wenger I hope now sees that frugality doesn’t always work as well as he hopes. Sometimes you just have to spend big for a big player.
4th place is ours and maybe even 3rd? Chavs still have to come to North London.
The pressure s now on Villa, so hopefully they succumb to lack of experience against the Spuds tomorrow.
Even though we shelled out a fair bit of dosh for Arshavin, he is still bargain compared to the either bozos going at a higher price (read Bent). Frugality methinks served Arsenal well there.
Arshavin may really be as good as Bobby was for us and this excites me to no end.
WHatever the case, surely a 4-2-3-1 formation is the way forward for the Arsenal. With Cesc and Densilong in midfield, with an attacking 3 of arshavin, walcott, rosicky, RVP and Nasri. Eduardo up front with Adebayor hopfully f*cking off to Spain soon.
That is a potent attacking force, with that midfield trio changing place at will. That will be something to behold. With Cesc feeding them with quality balls, holy shit!