I'll be praying for Martin Taylor on Sunday against Chelsea

Before I start, I ask that all my readers pray for me and Martin Taylor during this holy week. For me because I had to go to the doctor yesterday because my Achilles was killing me and I found out that I have a “partial tear” of the Achilles tendon. I guess it’s extremely rare to partially tear the tendon, but hey, I guess I’m just a special guy… This means 6 weeks in a brace before I can even start to rehab my left leg. The doctor said that 95% of the time, if I don’t heal it properly, I’ll fully tear the tendon. Which he described as “excruciating” and “like being hit in the heel with a 4 wood.” So, pray for me to heal.

Excruciating is also the word to describe the psychic pain that Martin Taylor is feeling right now. At least that’s what Birmingham’s chairman is saying. He then goes on to try to disparage Cesc Fabregas for his emotional comments about the Taylor tackle. Let me remind everyone of exactly what Cesc said:

Taylor did it and he knows why he did it. Of course he is not going to say he did it on purpose. A good player gets injured for a year and the player who makes the free-kick gets suspended for three little games. It is very unfair. This type of tackle shouldn’t be allowed. It doesn’t help football.

Honestly, there’s not much wrong with this statement. I think that chairman Gold is overreacting in order to “protect” Taylor. Which is fine. But let’s not pretend for a second that Gold is being objective or fair. Because if he was being fair, he’d put Alex McLeish up on the podium and have him clear the air. Did McLeish tell the players to “get stuck in right away?” Did McLeish tell the players that they needed to put a “physical stamp on the match right off?” Because for me, that’s the only issue here. And that’s how I interpret Cesc’s remark about how only Taylor “knows why he did it.”

Taylor too could come out and admit that the manager told the team to rough Arsenal up and that his tackle was meant to do that. Of course I don’t think Taylor went in to break Eduardo’s leg, but I do think Taylor was following orders. That tackle, at that time in the match, only has one purpose: send a message to the opposing team that says “if you try to dribble around us, we’re going to tackle you… hard.”

Teams who come out to “put a physical stamp” on matches are a problem. Those teams and their managers should be punished. That’s the whole issue for me: I want to know what Allie McLeish told the Birmingham players in the locker room before the match. Until we have a statement about that, then the rest of this is just handbags.

So shut the fuck up, Gold.

Sunday at Chelsea is a huge match. A season defining match, in fact. On Wednesday, Man U plays Bolton and Chelsea plays Tottenham which means that Arsenal supporters have to be rooting for Tottenham for one day. I don’t have any hangup about doing that. Let’s go you Spurs! You can certainly be bigger cunts than Chelsea! And you notloB cunts! Come on! “Put a physical stamp on the match” like you do against Arsenal.  That should make SA’s head assplode!
On Sunday, Arsenal could drop as far as 3rd place, but we have to wait and see what happens on Wednesday. There are too many points at stake and the race is too close to get too excited about Arsenal dropping to 3rd just yet.

Make no mistake, Sunday is the big showdown — Chelsea will be looking for revenge for what they perceived as an overly physical match that Arsenal took 1-0 back in December. Everyone expects this to be a very tense and physical encounter between two teams who have a history of tense, physical encounters.

Chelsea tend to get away with being a pack of cheating cunts like they did at the League Cup final where Mikel (one of the worst offenders on a team of criminals) started the whole thing with a dangerous tackle on Toure, who took exception, and then Lampard decided to ramp up the bullshit by attacking Toure.

Wait… I meant to say: “Lampard was protecting his teammate.”

Fights like that are more of a probability than a rarity on Sunday, sadly. Chelsea are like the Detroit Pistons of the EPL: they are a dirty team who knows full well that the instigator is rarely blamed. So, they like to come out and push Arsenal around hoping to get a reaction.  At the very least, pushing Arsenal’s buttons will make them lose concentration on their game.  At the very best (for Chelsea) Arsenal will have two main players sent off for one role player.

In a situation like that the Referee’s Association would want to put their best ref on the job.

You would think.

But NO!

In a shock move, Mark Clattenburg has been put in charge.

…This should end well.

What I find truly mind boggling is that referees’ chief Keith Hackett, who has TWICE punished Clattenburg this season for his poor handling of the Liverpool/Everton match and then for the Blackburn/Wigan debacle, is calling on Clattenburg for the one match this season which will probably be the most tense. I’m all for giving a guy a second or third chance, but I just don’t think this is the match to let him shine through. I would love to hear what special instructions they give him: like “whatever you do, don’t give too many cards.”

Ugh.

I have a bad feeling about Sunday.

And that’s going to have to do for today.  Until tomorrow.

Related articles