garbage day

Thursday is that day of the week in the EPL cycle where the press sits back, sated from the week’s feast on real news and starts digging up garbage and stirring shit. It’s also literally garbage day for me. I have to remember to put the garbage out this morning.

But back to the press, so far they’ve been largely positive and there are several puff pieces about Cesc floating around out there right now. So, let’s just let the positive press wash over us. They’ll be back with their xenophobic shit stirring soon enough…

HEY! Look! Bentley said something assinine! For some unknown reason, some reporters went to David Bentley after Arsenal’s win at the San Siro and asked him what he thought of the Theo Walcott ‘situation.’ To wit he replied:

It’s your job. If you want to make a career for yourself you can’t afford to stay at a club where you might be 24 or 25 with 30 games under your belt.

Theo is 18 and already has 28 ‘games’ (assume that Bentley meant ‘starts’) under his belt. Sorry David, but I think Theo has higher aspirations than you did. See, Theo wants to start at The Arsenal, and not for some shit-kicking country bumpkin mid-table also ran. Now, and I know this will be hard for you to understand because you’re thick, there are two ways you can go when you have Theo’s talent: you can stick around, play hard, and bide your time and through hard work you earn your starting spot at The Arsenal or… you can bitch and moan and fuck off to Blackburn and ‘earn’ a starting spot by virtue of your passport.

I think everyone sees this for what it is: David Bentley wasn’t good enough to start at Arsenal and now he’s sowing sour grapes with his former team. What he really needs to do is try to improve his sorry squad and stop worrying about what the young players on Arsenal are doing. Which is a nioce way of saying “fuck off Bentley — we all know you’d give your left nut to start at Arsenal right now, but you were given your chance and you were found wanting.”

Speaking of stirring shit, the press is also having a go at Arsenal’s 4-4-1-1 formation. Of course they call it a 4-5-1 and remind readers that Wenger once called the formation negative. I’m going to say it… I prefer the 4-5-1. I think it’s very positive for this team. The defensive nature of the formation gives cover for the more creative players and allows them to roam and attack. In other words, it’s all in how you play it. Chelsea playing a 4-5-1 would be very negative. Because they play negative football no matter what formation you line them up with. Arsenal could play a 6-4-0 and it would be attacking because you just can’t keep Sagna and Clichy off the attack. So, let’s put this one to rest. The 4-5-1 works for Arsenal.

And finally, there are a spate of positive articles on the Flamini and Fabregas partnership. Regular readers know exactly how I feel about the importance of Flamini on the team’s success this season. And while the press are already proclaiming Fabregas as the next world footballer of the year I would argue that it’s Flamini who has freed Cesc to be as good as he was on Tuesday. Cesc himself agrees with me and goes one step further to describe the mentoring that Flamini provides: especially defensively. All the stories right now are about how much Flamini wants to stay. With him going this far:

I’m very happy. Do I look as if I want to leave? I want to be part of this squad. We are a new generation and we have created a bit of history in this stadium [first English team to beat Milan there], and I want to be part of the history of this club. I hope I’ll be here for the next season. At the moment my adviser is talking to the club and I really hope everything will be OK. I cannot say when it will be sorted out, but I really want to stay here.

Case closed then, right? Sign the deal and let’s get on with the two trophies.

Anyway, that’s it for today. I hear the garbage man out there and I have to run.

Until tomorrow!

Related articles