Craziness in the EPL

What a morning in the Premiership. With the lead for first place a separation of a mere 3 points, Chelsea had a great opportunity to pull themselves level before Manchester United took the pitch at Goodison Park. That choking sound you hear is clothed in a blue, blue uniform. Chelsea 2, Bolton 2.

And then Manchester United, which looked to have a game on its hands with Everton went down 2 goals in the first half, before roaring back with 4, count 'em 4, baggers in the second half. Judging from the scoreline, it was so riotous, even some fan named Chris Eagles jumped onto the pitch and scored. What's that? Oh, he's a rarely used sub? I see. So, while RMA can't beat Fat Sam's Blunderers at home with all their big, big stars, The Red Devils get the job done, despite injuries, and despite relying on players whom I've never heard of before. That title's looming ever more distant in the Chelsea rear view mirror.

I guess the only question is who will Josie More-Whine-yo complain about after this match?

Henry quashes speculation...sort of. Thierry says that he will stay with the club...as long as Arsene Wenger is there. How about putting positive pressure on ownership to support the current regime.

And the crazy German is staying another year. At least it'll be exciting.

Some things never change. Chelsea lose or draw and Jose whines and whinges about the conspiracy against his poor liddle club. Reminds me of a comment I heard from a ref walking off the field after a youth championship game, responding to a coach protesting calls:

"If you'd have been a better coach or your team had been more skilled, you wouldn't have to worry about penalty kicks."

For the record, though Manchester United's game was not a great performance, I watched the replay of O'Shea's tackle on Gook about ten times and O'Shea did get (just!) the ball before he clattered through the player. No penalty.

Last year, I was saying he was all dribble, no net. This year he's going to win every award on the planet. CRon has been phenomenal this year. He deserves it (Dammit!).

The Portuguese winger declared it was a 'big honour' to be singled out by
his peers - but does not intend to rest on his laurels.

Ronaldo said: 'I want to keep working hard and getting better because these
trophies have now given me more motivation.

Uh, oh...

At least not all is lost for Arsenal

According to a newspaper report on Monday the 81-year-old
Queen Elizabeth, like her late mother, has been a keen follower
of the Gunners for 50 years.

'It seems the Queen follows football and she told us she was
an Arsenal fan,' Fabregas is quoted as saying. 'She appeared to
definitely know who I was and we exchanged a few special words.'


An unnamed senior royal source also confirms in the article,
which is accompanied by a mocked up photograph of the Queen
wearing a red Arsenal shirt, that she supports the club.

Hmmm. Not sure that isn't the equivalent of having your grandmother think that new band you like is "pretty snazzy..."

Another disappointing weekend for the Gunners, BTB, allowing Jermaine Jenas (rhymes with...er...weenus) to equalize at the very, very, very last kick of the game, when they'd dominated all day long. Arsenal is reported to have only come to life after young Cesc Fabregas was subbed on. How much does this team need this kid?!

On a brighter note, Celtic won the Scottish Premier League for a record 1,000th time in a row! Ok, I may be stretching it a bit, but they've won a lot of titles. Shunsuke Nakamura - perhaps, the deadliest dead ball hitter alive - notched the win out of a knotted affair with an absolutely magical free kick.
Check out some of Nakamura's work at YouTube.

 

Wow. Manchester United teed off on Roma, drubbing them 7-1 to advance to the semis. This is a game in which SAF could've suited me up and I would've scored - they were that potent a side. 

If I were Arsene for a day, I'd have all the Gunners lads watch this game at least once a day til the end of the season. It's all about the finishing. It'll be interesting to see if the Red Devils are able to use the momentum from this historic win to win out the table in the EPL.

As for Chelsea, Man U's EPL rival, they won in a decidedly less one-sided fashion. Where, oh where, would the Blues be without Michael Essien? Is there any doubt that the Ghanaian is there money player?

Poor Finishers Should be Finished

Arsene is still trying to explain the near-unexplainable loss to Worst Ham Saturday after 15 solid shots on target.

"We should have scored 10 and in the end we lost 1-0, so it is very difficult to understand how it happened.

"I can never remember a game like that. It was one-way traffic from the first minute to the last.

Well, the game wasn't televised so I can't comment fully on that, but from the highlights it looked like a lot of losses or ties we should've won from this season.

And:

"That is a little bit of the disease we have shown all season - creating, creating, creating, and not finishing."

Wenger
added: "When you lose a game like that you are tempted to blame the
players who missed the chances, but we just have to keep going and not
put too much pressure on the players who missed.

The manager's job is to manage the players, and Wenger is being diplomatic, but in the end if certain players show a consistent lack of finishing, they're finished in the EPL.

It's tempting to pin the blame for Man U's woeful loss at Portsmouth on Rio Ferdinand's bonehead own goal (that was pretty damn stupid - do best defenders in the world do that sort of thing?), but the Red Devil defense looked discombobulated all game long. Do they miss Vidic that much?

Aside from allowing Chelsea back into the title race in a big way, it was a great game. Nails on teeth all the way to the end.

Ouch.

The painful unraveling of Arsenal's 2007 season continues with a 1-0 loss to bottom feeders West Ham. 30 shots, 15 on goal for the Gunners to WH's 6 with 5 on frame and still they lose. Again, a reminder that no matter how pretty and cheeky your brand of football, you still have to get the onion in the onion bag.
...when does next season begin?

Arsenal America??

Wow. I've been so depressed by the Gunners run of form (actually work has been grinding me down to a little nub) that I haven't been able to post anything for weeks.

Now, comes this news that Kroenke Sports Enterprises has bought 10% stake in Arsenal. Could another American buyout be on the way? Of course, being a yank I don't care. As long as the owner puts the money into the club to win, then I'm all smiles.

And, if it raises the prospect of Arsenal coming to America for a game or two (I'm not getting to England anytime soon), then all the better.

As for the rest of the team, they're still a mess with injuries. I wouldn't be surprised if I get a call up, they're looking that desperate.