Thou Shalt Not Pass.... Nearly.
The second of our run of dodgy fixtures is an away trip to
The Emirates to play Arsenal who are having a dodgy season themselves. A couple of seasons ago I predicted that
their run of finishing in the top 4 would come to an end but it hasn’t as yet
and you can see them doing it again this season. Arsenal’s seasons are all much the same: Top
4 in the League, play kids in the Carling Cup, get knocked out, come 2nd in
group stage of Champions League, draw a big gun in knockout round, lose. Usually in the FA Cup they look like they
might win it but never do but last year they bucked that particular trend by
winning Arsene’s first silverwear since Calum Chambers was 8.
Ah Calum, the latest Saints youth product who has been
stolen away by the master Child Catcher.
Every time he’s interviewed, Chambers make a great play of thanking
Saints and the fans and he “wouldn’t be the player he was without us” etc.
Fucking save it mate. You played half a
season, finished 8th in the Premier League and fucked off as soon as
you could. Yes we got £16million quid
but even so. Calum’s new team mates
Theo and Alex left when a) we were in the Championship and totally skint and b)
we were in the Championship so they’re given a bit of slack.
I don’t usually do away matches but I’m here today and via
the M25 and a tube from Cockfosters, I arrive at the ground which looks
impressive from the outside. Has the
game been called off or put back an hour though as there’s no bugger here. Inside is impressive as well but he same
applied regarding people. Kick off is in
5 minutes and it’s about a third full.
Morgan Schneiderlin is missing for us but Corky is back and
Shane Long has been preferred to Mané on the wing. This will enable Tadic to play on his natural
left side and hopefully shake him out of the dip in form that he’s in. Arsenal have had injury problems in defence
but typically they’re all fit now with Chambers at right back. The front 6 of Arsenal all look decent with
Flamini and Ramsey deeper and Chamberlain, Welbeck, Cazorla and Sanchez
providing the goal threat. Sanchez is of
course the player Liverpool should have signed to replace Suarez. They could have done with the 14 goals he’s
already scored more than Balotelli.
A quiet start to the game is interrupted as Cazorla threads
a great ball inbetween Fonte and Clyne to Welbeck. Will we get United Welbeck or Arsenal Welbeck
tonight? 1-0 to United as Welbeck tries
to knock it first time past Forster which he does, but also well wide of the
post. Saints are getting it down with
Corky and Big Vic looking good until Ramsey tried to tackle Cork on the edge of
the box and looks like he’s caught him high on the inside of the knee. Corky collapses in a heap and everyone stops
for a second. Ramsey is almost
apologising but Andre Marriner, who couldn’t have been better placed, waves
play on. Fuck off.
Corky’s hobbling but we’re playing well and we should take
the lead on 20 minutes as following a move down the right which originated from
Chambers arguing about a throw in rather than defending it, Pellè ships a ball
into Steve Davis who cushions a lovely return header into the Italian’s
path. He should score but it sits up a
bit and he tries to rip the net off with a left footed volley and smashes it
into the crowd.
With the Arsenal fans waking up a bit, their team tries to
quicken the tempo with all their good stuff coming through Chamberlain. Every time one of our players but
particularly Big Vic, sticks a foot in or uses a bit of strength, it’s a foul
as a lightweight Arsenal midfielder goes tumbling. Chamberlain works an opening for himself on
the edge of the box but drags his shot a bit and Forster gets down well to
save.
The non-foul on Corky finally means he has to go off and
Koeman goes for the same substitution as last week with Yoshida coming on and
Alderweireld moving into midfield. I’m
not sure about this and Maya immediately makes me worry by doing an impression
of that tap dancing penguin and treading on the ball right in front of the
goal. The chaos ends as United Welbeck
tries a backheel and puts it wide.
For once, Marriner lets it go as Big Vic ran over Sanchez
and took the ball away before feeding Graziano and his long range effort
deflected off of a Gooner defender and flew at a comfortable height for
Martinez to grab. We have one scare
ourselves before half time as Big Vic does this time trash someone and the free
kick is flicked goalwards by Welbeck but Forster takes off to palm it over the
bar. It looked good but he’d have been
disappointed if it had gone in. Half
time.
Arsenal have changed tactics at the start of the second half
with Welbeck moved left and Sanchez up the middle. They’re pinning us back a bit but most of
their moves are failing with misplaced passes and the Man United Version of
Welbeck to the fore. This is the Welbeck
we like – the one that plays a ball into space where there’s no Arsenal player
within 30 yards. We win a corner and
Tadic has given up on trying to cross one in and plays it short to Clyne. His cross is chested down by Graziano beyond
the back post and his volley is travelling but immediately blocked by
Koscielny. We’re on the attack the next
time we’ve got the ball as Big Vic sends Long sprinting away behind Monreal but
instead of looking up and picking out Pellè at the back stick, he lashes
horribly into the crowd.
As we approach the hour mark, Tadic is off to be replaced by
Mané but this makes no difference to the increased pressure we’re coming under.
Giroud has come on for Chamberlain (whose removal is greeted with a chorus of
boos from the Arsenal fans who aren’t clinically dead) and he’s having an
impact straight away, hitting a volley goalwards from a Sanchez pass which
Forster parried away. Fraser is at it
again a few minutes later as Giroud flicks on a Sanchez cross and Welbeck hooks
goalwards only to see the big man claw it away one handed.
As we reach 80 minutes we’re looking comfortable and a
couple of substitutions are made which tell you all you need to know about
Arsenal’s resources compared to ours.
They take off Welbeck and bring on Podolski who has won the World Cup
and 100 caps and 60 goals for Germany.
We take off Shane Long who has worked his nuts off and bring on Mayuka
who has won a game of keepy uppy with a passing man and his dog on the Veracity
Ground. It’s worrying anyway but three
minutes later it’s a disaster as the Magnificent Alderweireld pulls up holding
his hamstring. Shiiiiit! He’s done and gone, 7 minutes to go with 10
men.
Arsenal, roared on by the 3000 or so fans who aren’t in a
coma, throw a cross into the box and up goes Giroud. It’s a perfect header over the keeper and it
looks for all the world like a goal but Fraser arches backwards and claws it
out for a quite brilliant save. There is
still a feeling that we’re not going to get away with this. Mayuka does not have a clue how to defend on
the right wing (not his fault) and there is all sorts of space out there. Interestingly, Podolski wants to leave Arsenal in January... we'll have him please Ronald!
Anyway... with 3 minutes to go, the problem comes on
the other side of the pitch as Chambers finds space. His cross into the mixer is hit by Jose Fonte
onto his own arm and he fails to clear.
The loose ball drops to the one player who isn’t going to miss and
Sanchez knocks it into the net. Fuck off!
The only consolation was that a lot of the casual Gooner twats had
missed the goal either through being in a coma or on their way home. Bollocks.
We play spot on the allotted injury time and Andre Marriner
can’t wait to end the game. Wanker. I’m
not blaming the ref for us losing but he sure as hell didn’t make our job any
easier. From the moment he didn’t give
the foul when Corky got injured then you knew he was going to be a typical one
eyed, big team at home, bag of shit. The
most annoying thing about him was the way he totally fails to appreciate that
Big Vic is a strong player and all Arsenal’s midfielders are tiny. If he leans on them, it’s not necessarily a
foul if they fall down, which they always do.
Big Vic went down in a challenge at the end and Marriner waved play on.
It’s probably wasn’t a foul but you can’t give those all day to Arsenal and
then not give them the other way round.
Here's a thing. This was the first time Andre Marriner had refereed Arsenal since he thought Kieran Gibbs and Alex Chamberlain looked the same and sent the wrong one off in that game against Chelsea. Remember what happened when we got Clattenburg in the first time he'd refereed Everton for ages. Yes, we got a shitload of crap decisions in that game as well. Just saying...
Forgetting him for a minute though, I just feel that we’ve
been done, ripped off and basically that we didn’t get what we deserved. I don’t think Arsenal would have scored if
either Cork or Alderweireld hadn’t got injured.
Cork’s injury brought Yoshida into the game and whilst he didn’t do
badly, as soon as Giroud came on he didn’t have a clue, the same way he never
has a clue when he plays against any physical striker. Toby would have handled him much better. What a player Toby Alderweireld is – the boss
in defence and superb in midfield until he had to go off and that’s where the
bad luck comes in, 3 subs already made and having to defend with 10 men, two of
whom are Mané and Mayuka. Bollocks.
After the final whistle, Chamberlain came over to give us a
clap and he got an appreciative round back. Chambers came over and got boos and
wanker signs and fuck offs. The way it
should be. It occurred to me how much I
enjoyed going to a game and not being in the family centre and being able to
call the referee a cunt and generally have a good old swear at everything. I would like to think that my bad language is
all over the footage that the knob in front of me has on his mobile phone. The first half corner that Steve Davis
shanked along the ground just before I shouted “get it off the fucking ground
for fucks sake” should make a good You Tube clip. He recorded practically the whole game.
Into the London night and home. Pissed off. The bigger picture is that we played well and
it’s only City who’ve really done us this season and even that was close for 80
minutes. Other than that, we’ve lost to
Liverpool 2-1 and hit the bar in the last minute, lost to Spurs 1-0 when they
should have had a man sent off and we missed a sitter in the last minute and
we’ve lost 1-0 to Arsenal when down to 10 men, in the last minute. Small margins and all that. As for tonight – we played well and Fraser
Forster finally proved to Saints fans what a good goalkeeper he is. The congested Xmas period always favours the
sides with bigger squads and like last year, playing all the big guns at this
time of year is not doing us any favours.
Still….Proud to be a Saint.
So, we’re still 3rd in the League and it’s Man
United up next who will replace us in 3rd if they beat us. We have an injury crisis in midfield as I
can’t see any of Morgan, Corky, Toby or JWP being available. In addition to that, Dusan Tadic is also
injured apparently. It looks like
Harrison Reed must be very close to getting a start unless Ronald decides on
something left field like playing Maya or Gardos in midfield. If Mayuka starts
I might cry. News is coming though that
United’s injuries are all clearing up as well. Great. There’s addition spice to this one with
Koeman and Van Gaal not being the best of mates so I’m sure the press
conferences will be interesting.
We march (limp) on!
No comments:
Post a Comment