She that is Queen of Tunis; she that dwells
Ten leagues beyond man’s life; she that from Naples
Can have no note, unless the sun were post—
The Man i’ th’ Moon’s too slow—till new-born chins
Be rough and razorable; she that from whom
We all were sea-swallow’d, though some cast again
(And by that destiny) to perform an act
Whereof what’s past is prologue; what to come,
In yours and my discharge. — Antonio, The Tempest, Act 2 Scene 1
Nationalism week is finally over. The body paint has been painted, the flags waived, the drums beaten, and the vuvuzelas annoyingly blown. Some teams, ranked teams like Croatia, won’t be going to the World Cup leaving Messers Eduardo, Vermaelen, and Ramsey to play Scrabble with Almunia and Denilson this Summer. Though, if Oliver Kay had his way, Ole Manny Pickledickle would travel to South Africa and be in a pretty good position to win a World Cup from the looks of that team.
Oliver Kay does make a rather compelling point about Almunia; that if you look at Germany, their 4 man strike team consists of just one German-born player, Mario Gomez and you could look at pretty much every squad and see a naturalized player. But, that Scotland is just now letting all of her citizens play for the national team, coupled with the statements of Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, John Terry and pretty much all of the English players (except Theo Walcott) I think says a lot about the attitude of the United Kingdom toward foreigners. As I have said repeatedly, Almunia would need one hell of a spine to bear the tempest of scorn and play for England. As I have also stated repeatedly, if chosen he should accept.
Whilst away on their Nationalism duty on Wednesday both Ramsey and Arshavin scored goals, with only Rambo’s being noteworthy. Arshavin got a tap in and if you want to see that, go over to 101 Great Goals and check it out. I want to post the Wales v. Liechtenstein match here, though, because I absolutely love this video. It’s about 5 minutes long, shows all the highlights, has absolutely no commentary, and there’s a nice light sound track which doesn’t drown out the crowd noise. All football videos should be made like this. ALL OF THEM
But that’s all behind us, if you want to live in that past, the dot com serves up all the Nationalism Team action for all of Arsenal’s players last week. What we’ve got to look forward to is a month of Premier League, Champions League, and a whopper of a Carling Cup match before our next Nationalism break.
In the distant haze of my memory is this one match against a team called Birmingham. I wrote passionately about that match in January, when I was doing my round up of the most important moments of the year. I don’t think I can improve on what I said there so I won’t even try. My main points were that it was a moment that altered Arsenal history, that it should have been remembered for Theo’s performance but it never will be, and that the press’ constant sniveling about how hard it is for TAYLOR to recover from this mortal wound was about as disgusting as I have ever seen from them. The British press still, to this day, refuse to use the active tense when describing the incident, saying things like “Eduardo broke his leg” rather than the more accurate “Taylor broke Eduardo’s leg.” As if Eduardo tripped and fell on Taylor’s outstretched leg, thus placing the blame entirely on the Croatian.
This will be the first time that the two teams have met since that day and I have no doubt that the incident and subsequent disappointing 2-2 draw will be very much on the minds of every Arsenal player on Saturday. In fact, if I was a Birmingham player, coach, or supporter I’d be happy to have just a regular 2-0 loss rather than the absolute hiding that I suspect Arsenal will want to give. An absolute hiding: that’s how much emotion I expect this Arsenal team to have ahead of this match.
Funny thing, though, Taylor is pretty much completely out of contention for the match with an injury and poor form which has kept him out of every match this season. And Eduardo didn’t play on Wednesday, still suffering from a bit of a thigh strain. So, it’s entirely possible that neither of the two actors in that infamous incident will get on stage. That fact could drain some of the emotion from what I expect will be a heated match though how much remains to be seen. We’ll find out more about the lineups when the boss gives his Friday presser tommorrow.
In the end, I am hoping that Eduardo gets on in the last 20 minutes and scores a goal, there would be no better way to both honor the past and look to the future and thereby make what’s past truly a prologue.
how many more years til Don Vito Mannone is naturalized?
really shows the sad state of ‘keeping in England, when Manny Pickledickle is the best option.
on another and more positive note… young Aaron Ramsey is coming along nicely. I wonder if that’s part of the reason why Thomas Rosicky doesn’t have a new contract yet?
Hate to be a grammar Nazi, but “Eduardo broke his leg” is in the active tense. The passive tense they use would be “Eduardo’s leg was broken.”
Your point, however, is still quite valid, and the English press indeed pander to xenophobic scum.
Keep up the good work!
Nice goal from Rambo. Verminator EA player of the month(again), making the double, Samir’s recovery are some nther good news! Plus, have anyone read arseblog today? He just nailed our new system. It isnt 4-3-3. It is 0-7-3. LMAO…
one word on Rambo’s goal… wow. impressive for a teenager.
Clichy’s a doubt w/ an ankle injury. Opportunity knocks for “They call me Mr. Tibbs”.
Diaby is available following his ankle injury.
Eduardo should be back for WHU on the 25th. His injury absence is prolonged because Wenger amazingly took a chance when he played him against Olympiakos. Eduardo was injured at that time and not fully recovered.
Nasri should be back for Liverpool.
I believe Rosicky has to prove that he can be durable this season. The Czechs being out of the WC should be a positive for us in that regard
Fabregas will play.
Since Ramsey played for Wales, I guess his back must be ‘better’.
October 14, 2009
Dear Steve:
Hope your feeling better. 20th century medicine is so wonderful today and they will work miracles w/ your injury. In fact, they’ll have you fit as a butcher’s dog by the summer Please do not even let Axel Witsel breath on you. Take all your flu shots. Don’t eat the cafeteria lasagna and beware of flying pizzas.
You are in our hearts, prayers and bank account. If the lord is willing, the creek don’t rise and the banks don’t foreclose on our debt, we’ll see you at OT in the summer.
Your ‘friend’,
Alex
News flash: “…of course I would love to play for Barclona, who wouldn’t?”-Robinho. Too funny.
Your aim is to get into the WC. You play for Wales who have coached for 5 yrs by John Toshack. If your team cannot beat Liechtenstein by at least 5 goals, you don’t deserve to get in.
I have a pet peeve. I get annoyed when every tall slender Black midfield player is proclaimed the next ‘Patrick Vieira’. Sometimes events come together to say fuck that BS. This is one of those occasions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HllFsh1E0s
The past can only become a prologue if our boys absolutely whips Birmingham ‘Shity’ till their blue turns red at the week end.
Dude, great article. Just found your site a few weeks ago and it is quality. Great work mate, keep it up an all that.
In a f/u to the Robinho to Barcelona story comes this story on ESPN Soccernet w/ enough meat on it bones that it will have Arsenal supporters wailing and gnashing there teeth: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=685645&sec=transfers&cc=5901
The thought of Man City getting Henry back as a make weight in a Robinho to Barcelona deal makes my head hurt. The ramifications of that possible deal are just mind boggling. First of all Henry would never sanction such a deal. Second of all, it is an insult to even mention Robinho in the same sentence as Henry. Henry at 29yo has scored more in 1 season in La Liga than Robinho did in his days at Real Madrid.
Calling all locals. Date: Sat the 17th. Travis The Septopus turns 30 Cm toDoyle’s and watch B’ham wither and take a sh!t on the field (subliminal messag starts here- buy me a drink)
I like international weeks. It a chance to support my second and third favorite sides – Australia and Anyone But England. They both did well, a draw and a win for Australia, a win and a loss for Anyone But England.
How do you like this shit? I was screwing around in the Daily Fail (pops) and found a list of biggest cheats in sport. They list Eduardo at #20. Pete Rose – a man who bet against the team he was managing was listed as #30. Really? WTF?
@Alex, their lists are almost always stupid, that one is infuriating.
Bendtner joins Clichy on the sidelines w/ a groin injury. Doesn’t surprise me as he was practically carrying the Danes in their lost on Wed. despite being ‘confined’ to the (L) wing. Jon Dahl Tommason can no longer carrying the mail at CF for Denmark.
The game to watch will be Sunderland -Liverpool who will be missing Gerrard and Torres. This is the scenario we’ve predicted would be most damaging to Liverpool’s title aspirations.
Man U without Rooney should also mean dropped points especially w/ the referees being unhappy w/ Alex (fit as a butcher’s dog) Ferguson.