Thursday, November 30, 2006

Shit. Damn. Motherfucker...

... is the name of a great song by D'Angelo off of a great album called Brown Sugar.

It also perfectly describes Arsenal's last 3 premiership matches, which have seen their title hopes destroyed before December.


Pretty much sums it up

Shit
Arsenal 1-1 Newcastle United. Sat. Nov 18. (match highlights)

Same old story. Concede and early goal, dominate the rest of the match, get a brilliant equalizer on a TH14 free kick, but finish 1-1 and drop 2 points against a 17th place team that you outshot 26-2.

Damn
Bolton 3-1 Arsenal. Sat. Nov. 25 (match highlights)

Same old story with Bolton. They used their physical style to bully the smallish, finesse, technical Arsenal, and ex-wunderkind Nicolas Anelka scored a stunner and added a 2nd against the club that made him famous. (aside: most Arsenal fans hate Anelka because of the way he left the club like a spoiled brat and boo him and will never forgive him and the rest, but I look at it differently- I just kind of laugh at the dude because Arsene bought him for 500,000 pounds as an unknown and sold him 2 years later for 22.3 million pounds. Arsenal 'used' him to help win the double in 98, made a 22 million pound profit off of him, and his career has been pretty terrible ever since then while Arsenal have enjoyed much success, so I don't really see the point in hating him- the club got absolute max value out of the dude and used the money to become even better).

The Arse had not given up more than 1 goal in any match all year, and here they concede 3. Hitting the woodwork three times just made it more painful. Title dreams are basically over, and there's still leftover turkey in the fridge.

Motherfucker
Fulham 2-1 Arsenal. Wed Nov 29 (match highlights {with the voice of EA FIFA games John Motson})

As disappointing as it was dropping points to Villa, Boro, West Ham, and Newcastle this season, this is Fulham, who Arsenal simply own. Fulham had never beat Arsenal in the Premiership; in fact, in their 10 prem meetings Fulham have managed one 0-0 draw and 9 losses to the Gunners. Furthermore, they have not beaten Arsenal in any competition since 1966. Well, you can change that have to had, for they went 2-0 up in 18 minutes and held on to win 2-1 in what would have been a fantastically entertaining match for a neutral fan. RVPs stunning free kick from 30 yards out cut the defecit in half, but the red mist descended as Senderos was sent off for his 2nd yellow. Soon thereafter Henry scored a great and perfectly legitimate equalizer, but it was called back as he was ruled offsides. Unfortunately the replays all showed him to be onsides. Walcott then hit the post and that was that. This match was different from all the others in the Fulham had tons of chances and hit the bar themselves. So after not letting in more than a goal any match this season they have allowed 3 to Bolton and 2 in 18 minutes to Fulham (to a freaking American and a Canadian no less). 16 behind ManU and 13 behind Chelsea means the Prem is officially a 2 horse race this year.

Amazingly, Arsenal have conceded the first goal in 9 of their 14 prem matches, and their style of play works infinitely better when they score first than when their opponents do, since many teams that get 1-0 up on Arsenal just put 10 men behind the ball and close up shop. I could go on and on about what is or isn't the cause of the malaise and what should be done, but if you care that much about it then you already read ANR, Arseblog and the other sites and you've heard all the theories. I will only say that the people who are saying Arsene Wenger has lost the plot and should leave Arsenal are truly, truly morons.

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