Man City 4-2 Arsenal; the Good, Bad, and Ade

Adebayor is an Elephantine Cunt

What is good at City is that the fans are truly fans. They love you. Arsenal have a lot of fans who are not fans. Arsenal have fans from America and Jamaica. Today they are Arsenal fans, tomorrow they will be Liverpool fans and after tomorrow they will be Manchester United fans. — Emanuel Adebayor.

Match Reports:

ESPNSoccernet: Man City shoot down Gunners

Telegraph: Emmanuel Adebayor could face a double FA probe after marring his goalscoring display against former club Arsenal with a stamp on Robin van Persie and incendiary goal celebration in front of the travelling supporters.

Match Video:

Hmmm… check back later.

The Good

A fine goal from Thomas Roskicy and one from the chocolate leg of Robin van Persie had to be the highlights of what was always going to be a tough match for the Arsenal. Regardless of the flattering scoreline I think Arsenal fans can take a few positive things away from this match.

First is the fact that Rosicky came off the bench and had an immediate impact. Having a player of his quality available for the whole season, whether to start some games and give a rest to Cesc, or to come off the bench and add impact to the game when needed, is massively important if Arsenal are going to have any hope of winning something this season. His supply in the midfield and his goal scoring prowess, as demonstrated today, in his first match back after 16 months out, is immense.

Second I thought that Song was absolutely massive in this match. He completely neutralized Adebayor when he was on the pitch, filled in for the center halves when they went forward, and controlled the midfield making Barry and Ireland look like the second class players they are. In fact, had Barry been rightly sent off for the intentional handball in the box I think Song would have had a good shot at man of the match. People will point to the goal by Bellamy which immediately followed Song’s yellow card and his loss of concentration on Richards which set the goal up, but blaming Song there would be very harsh.

Watch the replay, Adebayor kicks Song from behind, hard, and I think Song is right to show Adebayor that he’s not going to take that from him and kicks him back. It’s a poor decision by Clattenburg to give a yellow there. More importantly, who was supposed to be marking Richards? Diaby, who was literally jogging back as Song was left one-on-one in the box.

It was no surprise to me that once Song was removed, Adebayor scored. He had been keeping the big cunt at bay for 77 minutes. That’s my strongest proof that Song was bossing the City attack.

I also want to give credit to Nigel de Jong who basically kept Fabregas in his pocket all day, but especially in the first half where Arsenal only managed one shot on goal. In fact, it took the introduction of Rosicky, a second creative midfielder, to break up de Jong’s control of the creative end of the Arsenal midfield.

The Bad

Gael Clichy will want to forget this match. I’m not sure if he was lacking match fitness, or if he’s got swine flu, or what the deal is but he was being routinely beaten on his side, by guys like Micah Richards to boot. Plus, when he got forward his crosses were, erm, less than useless. Uselessless?

Chesk, too, seemed to have a real struggle, especially in the first half, when the combination of Adebayor’s stamp and de Jong’s relentless shadowing gave him fits. That could be chalked up to the fact that Denilson and Diaby weren’t supporting as well as they could.

And Diaby… He clearly has loads of talent, but talent doesn’t mean shit if you won’t work hard. Call me old-fashioned, but, I just can’t stand to see an Arsenal player jogging or walking back on defense. I don’t care if you feel like you’re being played out of position on the left, you still work hard, on both ends of the pitch. It just seemed to me like he felt defense was other people’s job. This in turn put a ton of pressure on Clichy and the others, which could explain why Clichy had such a bad game.Whatever the case, I’d like to see Wenger address this with the lad. We need all the players on this team to be 100% committed: you’re either with us or you’re against us.

As for Almunia, he’s a divisive figure among supporters. A lot of people think he’s just not good enough but I know a few folks who think he’s got what it takes. For me, he’s had a poor couple of matches and you’d have to wonder if Fabianski was healthy would he be pushing Mooney for the #1 shirt? Man City managed just 5 shots on goal all day, and Almunia made just one save. That’s not going to cut it, bro.

The Ade

I remember last year when some Liverpool supporters were watching an Arsenal game and Howard Webb gave Adebayor a yellow card for a step over move he liked to do which shielded the ball and took it away from his opponent. I remember them remarking that Adebayor is a dirty player and that the card was likely because Webb knows what a dirty player Adebayor is.  At the time, I remember defending Adebayor, in fact, I think I was pretty much the only person on the planet who believed in the big cunt.

But I do have to wonder now if maybe my loyalty to the Arsenal doesn’t blind me sometimes, because today Adebayor was very clearly one of the dirtiest players I have seen. And that’s saying a lot since I have seen Kevin Davies play rugby disguised as a footballer.

Adebayor’s first act of maliciousness was direct at Cesc’s ankle. When Arsenal’s captain had the temerity to take the ball off him with a wonderful tackle, Adebayor simply stamped on his ankle.

Next up was the intentional elbow to the head of William Gallas. Clattenburg called the foul but still hadn’t amassed enough evidence to give him a yellow card.

And then, in an action that will certainly garner an FA charge and hopefully at least a three match ban, after another perfectly timed tackle, Adebayor again leapt into the air, and this time looked down at his target, and with what looked a lot like intent, stamped on Robin van Persie’s face.

To be perfectly fair, I think he was just trying to stamp Robin’s hand and he’s just so profligate that once again, he missed. After that action, he should never have been on the pitch to score his goal and even if the FA take extraordinary action against him it will be a case of too little too late.

Two stamps and an elbow, what could he possibly do to follow that up? How about a 100 yard sprint down to the Arsenal supporter’s end for your goal celebration? What an elephantine cunt. That’s the kind of guy who would say that Arsenal’s American and Jamaican fans aren’t real fans, and blame them for his 40 offsides last year.

It was a disgraceful display and proof that money can buy lots of things but it can’t buy class. Good riddance and here’s hoping he gets syphilis of the AIDS.

Conclusions

“Manchester City have never lost a match with Mark Clattenburg in charge” said the color commentator before the match and at the final whistle Clattenburg’s 100% record remained. Still, despite the fact that he missed several crucial calls, like the Adebayor stamp(s) and the Barry handball, we should have won. Arsenal had 60% of the possession, had 23 shots, and only managed to score 2 goals. Clattenburg’s hardly to blame for the fact that up front we looked like that Arsenal team of three years ago who couldn’t score in a whorehouse and at the back we looked like the arsenal team of last year who basically allowed the opponent a goal for every shot they managed.

That said, I still think Arsenal have a solid team. Last year the 3-0 loss to City in the same game sparked a renaissance on this team and they managed a 21 match unbeaten league run. Looking at the competition ahead we’re due for a solid run of good form and they should be just the ones to give it to us.

Wenger said that the start of the season was crucial and Arsenal fans have to have seen these first four matches and see two losses on the spreadsheet and start to wonder. Yes, they were tough matches, but they were tough matches where we should have gotten points.

We didn’t.

And now, the team need to respond. Personally, I’m hoping for a good old fashioned hiding of Standard Liege on Wednesday followed by an ass whuppin’ on Saturday and then maybe some of the boys will start strutting around again. We’ll have to see, right now, they’re probably feeling pretty low. I know I am.

0 comments

  1. Well where to start…Adebayor is a cunt, i was more pissed off at the effort he put in today, haven’t seen that since 07 08. The stamp was disgraceful, ref looking right at it an all. I’m still liking the 4 3 3 and thought we fell apart when Song came off. Almunia never has been good enough, never will. But who is available and better, i can’t think of many. Anyway it’s still early days, good win in Europe on Wednesday and then look forward to Saturday. My girlfriends one visit to the Grove with me per year (it’s only one cos i’ve always said shes bad luck)

  2. seriously I thought it was not wise of wenger to take Denilson off for Rosicky, instead it should have been Diaby because because Denilson is more defensive minded and Rosicky is very much capable of playing on the left instead of Diaby who was hardly seen on the left, I was pissed when I saw Diaby jogging back when Micah was one on one with song for the second goal, it was suppose to him tracking back for clichy not Song, I really want to see what punishment Ade gets for stamping on RVP which was intentional and for his Idiotic celebration.Cesc is not 100 percent and that Cunt challenge early on did not help either.

  3. I’m not sure why Denilson was withdrawn. I thought that was a bit of a poor move by Wenger. I thought Diaby would have come off for Rosicky, which would have made sense if you ask me. I think enger should give Nicky a shot at a central role because really he’s just not that good being one of the wider frontmen. I realize the formation allows him to drift in but hes being played alot of diagonal balls out there and RVP just doesn’t have the air game to latch onto crosses consistently.

    Everyone berated me for saying we need a Huntelaar but this goes to show you what a big man can bring to a game. It changes the total dynamic of the game, especially when you
    are down and need to play direct football.

    I think the defense lost focus, were blitzed and paid the price for their drop in concentration. Clichy should be more consistent at his age but he’s shown himself to be a liability when he’s off, rather than solid at worst. Maybe it’s time for Traore or Gibbs to take over full time.

    1. @WC, sorry mate I dont agree with u on clichy part, he was suppose to get help from Diaby, whcih he never got, look at bellamy and wright philips, they were all over our fullback.

      1. Clichy often makes costly mistakes – 7 or so last season, at least – but he also saves our skin time after time. I wouldn’t replace him with Gibbs. Problem is, with this 4-2-3-1 he’s effectively got a striker in front of him, as opposed to a midfielder, so he’s never going to have as much help as needs: certainly not from Arshavin or Eduardo or Walcott or Vela; Nasri is the best bet defensively.

    2. @WC, I too was assuming that Diaby was the logical choice to come off when I saw Rosicky suit up. I am going to have to disagree w/ Wenger’s subs today. Both Bendtner and Diaby should have come off.

      The game was officially over after Song and Diaby come off. Neither Diaby nor Rosicky tracked back on the Bellamy goal. He was in an acre of space for the pass and shot. Vermaelen was committed to backing up Clichy when he got beat.

      Until Rosicky came on there was not one attacking pass into Man City’s left side of the box.

  4. a match very similar to the united game in that we deserved something out of it, but decisions and bad luck seemed to rob us of at least a point.

    ok, clichy had a bit of a mare, but that had a lot to do with diaby not helping him out. almunia had another average to poor game. it really is in games like this you need a keeper who will make a world class save to keep you in it, just think if he had been better positioned for the bellamy goal, he could have palmed it away. at that stage of the match we were looking lively and it knocked the stuffing out of us, and thats the difference a great goalkeeper can make.

    i think song really has improved monumentally, and was startled wen arsene chose to keep denilson on instead of songy. and as per usual, the pundits blame bendtner for everything – he bangs in a world class goal against portugal in midweek that everybody ignores. the pundits really have it in for the danish lad dont they? yeah he didnt perform brilliantly, but neither did most of our team, and he is being played on the right wing.

    im not getting disheartened at all by the defeat, i realy believe our squad has the character to bounce back, with the likes of rosicky, walcott, nasri and arshavin to come in (which includes 2 international captains), we have a lot of options. hopeufully that will spell the end of diaby on the fucking left at least.

    and also lets not forget that we have verton away, united away and now city away done and dusted. we have a much more pleasant run of games to come, and it will be very interesting to see how the manchester derby turns out next week as well as the numerous “top 5” encounters where teams will be taking points of each other. lets just rememeber liverpool have lost twice already this season against much more inferior opposition to us. not that i consider them as title contenders anyway, it makes me feel better….

  5. I don’t think Ade is relevant. Arsenal is what’s relevant. I’ve said already (on yesterday’s thing) what I think about the striker situation, but tactics generally are maybe worth mentioning. City could have been easily beaten with pace and clinical finishing. We have got the fastest sprinter in Europe – Traore – and we have a striker in Eduardo who can put crosses away. Traore wasn’t even on the bench but he’d have given more defensive help to Clichy than Diaby.

    I hate saying this, but I think it so often I will. Wenger simply isn’t interested in tactics – they’re somewhat beneath him and at odds with his philosophy. He picks his team according to a pecking order – Diaby is in front of Traore – rather than shuffling his resources to meet the demands of a particular game. Same with his acquisitions policy: he buys the players he likes, when the price is good, which isn’t quite the same as buying the players we need. What will we do when Song goes to the African Nations?

    1. @Mia, Out on the wings is just not Diaby’s position. But then he isn’t yet focused enough to be picked ahead of cesc in the middle. Sometimes I really wish Abou gets the seriousness of the situation (here’s wishing him to be a flamini type turn around revelation by the next game — Is that going to happen?).
      About Wenger’s philosophy over tactics, I just feel he believes in standing by his man and giving him a chance/chances. You can call it philosophy or you can look at song this year (flamini before) and see that its s tactic that really works. Obviously Wenger sees the potential in Abou but Abou doesnt want to grab it.

      Interesting fact about Traore there. Is he really the fastest?? or were you did you mean he’s one of the fastest?!?

      1. I think Traore is – or was – the fastest. When he first came he could outpace both Clichy and Walcott in the sprints.

        I’ve loved Song since the first game I ever saw him in, and I’ve loathed Bendtner from when he played in the academy with Lupoli. So I’m a bit split on the loyalty thing!

      2. On Diaby, no he’s not a winger but he’s not a Flamini type either – we just used to imagine he was because he looked like Vieira! He can’t tackle, he mistimes them and gets carded, and he usually injures himself in the process. The one thing he can do – sometimes – is score, but defensively I just don’t see him cutting it, ever. I’m not a big Denilson fan but I do think he’s improving fast and might be our best bet for the Flamini role. Poor Flam: Milan have just drawn 0-0 with lowly Livorno.

  6. Might sound stupid but there is a lot more expected of the full backs now in the new formation, it can leave them more exposed plus they are expected to provide most of the width now. They are maybe still getting used to that so maybe dropping one of them would do more harm than good. End of the day the whole team switched off after 2 1

  7. Oh dear, did we lose again today? The City revolution is picking up speed, we’ll dispense the rags next week and then… Just remind me again of the score will you, 4-2 I made it. It doesn’t matter how many shots you have on goal as long as they go IN. Ours DID yours DIDN’T.

    1. Don’t count your chickens. You’ve beaten a couple of lowly teams, plus Arsenal, who can be beaten by absolutely anyone – Stoke, Hull, Boro, come to mind – when the circumstances are right, which they generally are after internationals.

  8. I was watching Rooney score the 3rd goal for Man U today and I got to thinking about how we have no one at Arsenal right now who can score a goal like that.

    I was watching Drogba score the 1st goal for Chelsea today and I got to thinking about how we have no one at Arsenal right now who can score a goal like that.

    Midfield and defensive goals should be a bonus and not the foundation on which to build a title challenging season. Houston, we are 4 games in and we have a problem.

    1. @ctpa, Arshavin?!? RvP ?!? (ok he’s out of form right now, but a little bit of confidence can make huge difference).

      I really don’t think the situation is dire. Yes we have a problem but i think we have the tools to fix it inhouse!!

  9. So it is true, every club that gets a few wins, bit of money and a bit excited has those fans who end up getting bit twatty. Maybe it would be wise to leave the mouthing for 4 games left in the season, not 4 games gone. Just be happy that your club have made a good start

  10. Someone up there mentioned “decisions & bad luck” and that’s just what it has been in both Manchester games. Poor refereeing and the bloody ‘magnetic’ woodwork have cost 6 points.

    However, I truly believe it’s not going to be that way for 38 games (just as City aren’t going to play that well in all their 38 games either). When RvP hit the post at the end, it summed it up; had that gone in, we were all over them and another goal (or 2?) was likely to draw/win the game. It didn’t, and we didn’t. We will bounce back; I wouldn’t want to be Liege on Wednesday.

    1. @fourstar, It should have been “City aren’t going to win in all their 38 games. Cos seriously they didnt play well. Thats makes the defeat for us worse!!

  11. Frankly, I’m getting sick of being optimistic instead of ecstatic.
    What also scares me is the thought that just two or three seasons ago, you could have said: “you’d have to wonder if Almunia was healthy would he be pushing Lehmann for the #1 shirt?”. And now, even though Almunia is in his third season (i think) as a first choice goalkeeper, Tim, you are allready thinking about Fabianski challenging him for this role. Imagine this scenario, we sell Almunia to Sunderlend two seasons from now, Fabianski is our first choice keeper, and then “you’d have to wonder if Mannone was healthy would he be pushing Fabianski for the #1 shirt?” comments start to roll. It scares me that I could get used to the Arsene method of just promoting younger and younger players as a solution for thinking this would make us better.
    No, I hope to God Fabianski doesn’t challenge Aluminium, I hope we buy Akinfeev for example and a couple of Arshavins, instead of the Eboues and Diabys. Although I am still trying to come to a conclusion whether Arsene doesn’t have the cheddar or is he still so god damn stubborn on insisting with his philosophy. Lately, I think it’s both. And, this unfortunately won’t change any time soon. So, yes, we are good. I don’t think we will be best any time soon, though.

    1. @Teampossible, Least a fan can do is be optimistic right!! Its a far worse situation when you are feeling hopeless!!
      I don’t think its (blooding in younger players) a philosophy but more of a self sustaining venture (which is important given the clubs financial situation).

    2. @Teampossible, well if thats the way of it go ‘support’ chelsea united or barca.simple.scared?things have been a lot darker at this club, a lot darker. 4 2 loss to city,4 games into the season.people need to get some bloody perspective

    3. @Teampossible, Too right, Teampossible. Fabi-I-flap-at-anything-anksi isn’t the answer to Almunia. Almunia isn’t the answer to Almunia. If we had a good goalkeeper, we could’ve won against Man Utd and Man City. And if that had been the case, we’d be 4 from 4 and a decent shot at the title. Now, we’re 2-2 and up against it. I know you can’t win the league in September, but you sure as heck can lose it. And we’re this close to losing it.

  12. A very balanced view, without the slightest hint of bitterness then?

    Your comments on Barry being second class alone mark out your lack of objectivity…

    You’d LOVE him in your team.

    Arsenal are a very good team. For parts of todays game they did threaten to win it. But your ‘one-eyed’ take on City’s contribution and football once they’d changed tactics to respond to Arsenal’s pressure( and secured the win with three great goals on the break) is nearly as sad as Wenger comparing Bendtner favourably against Adebayor!.

  13. We were on the receiving end of what Adebayor meant when he was urging Arsenal to win “ugly”. Who knew he was really a Blackburn player at heart. As Sparky said, let’s not let one incident detract from a great win.

  14. Hilarious that supporters of our opponents come on here for an objective viewpoint. I’ve addressed the deep-rooted problems these people have seeking us out here, so I best ignore it and focus on us. Anyway, let’s cry our tears, drink our beers, and run the table in the next 10 games. This team is good enough; we just need to get healthy, get rest, get to the Emirates and we’ll be okay. Tough scheduling to start the season and some bad luck.

    1. @ArseChicago, Well as Man Utd have shown us last season – you don’t have to beat the other top four or top five to win the title. You just have to beat everyone else. I hate losing in general but I hate losing to teams we can easily handle even worse. As long as we beat everyone else in the lower echelons of the table we still have a good chance. Mancs and Pool are far weaker teams than last season and you have to believe Chelsea will slow down at some point, especially with the ACN coming and their transfer ban. We lost 2 away games to supposed big teams so we better give them hell in London.

      However, Wenger definitely needs to contemplate what Diaby really brings to the team because in big games, he’s a cock up and at best should only feature against weak opposition. I think he really needs to dip into the kitty because even the so called depth in the squad is injured and we’re looking thin right now, even in attack.

  15. This was a fine read. Congrats, and summed up my feelings about the game concisely.

    What is clear is that we cannot play with two 6’3″ wingers. We need to balance the team which Rosicky & Walcotts return will remedy

    1. @Fab Phil, 100% agree, even RVP playing right side like he does for the Dutch, can cut in, same for Theo on the left. A midfield 3 of Song holding, Cesc and TR7 free to roam. Although it would be far too attacking, we might get away with it at home.

  16. The FA are going to investigate the 2 Adebayor incidents. Hopefully a 3 to 6 game suspension will be the result.
    RVP claims the face stamp was on purpose.

    Watching the Inter game and the announcer cannot tell the difference between Balotelli and Eto’o.

    1. Really? But Ade only tried to gouge out Robin’s eye. It’s not like he did anything serious, like going down in the box.

  17. I’m fairly new to this site, so could someone explain these ‘current score’ things? As far as I can see, posts about tactics and similar things almost always score 0, cheery banter scores 1, and posts about the blog itself, especially if praiseful, score 2-5! Is there a polite message in this? I’d like to talk about Liege; I’d especially like to talk about Wednesday’s tie with people who watch them a lot. But maybe that kind of discussion isn’t what this site is about?

    1. @Mia, Hi Mia, the current score is just a voting system. I like to use it to determine winners of the captions threads.

      As for discussion, it’s wide open, I’d love to hear what others think of Liege. The problem with discussion is that the only free apps I’ve found are junk and the one on Arseblog was written by Gunnerblog and he’s not interested in sharing it with me.

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