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.
You must be logged in to post a comment.