WENGER NEEDS AN OPTICIAN
(6 votes, average: 2.83 out of 5)No sooner had Arsenal crashed to another defeat to Chelsea – their fourth in less than a year – than Sky Sports had thrust a microphone in front of Arsene Wenger. What did the learned professor say? “We felt we were the better team and I’m very proud of our performance”.
Hello? Earth calling Arsene. What is it about the scoreline ‘two nil’ that you don’t understand?
It’s not as though Wenger doesn’t have ‘previous’ with his eyesight problems. As far back as twelve years ago, in the Chelsea Independent fanzine (the forerunner of CFCnet), our match reviewer had this to say about the Frenchman during a game in the late 90’s:
“They always said there was no such thing as the perfect crime, well they are wrong. If you’re a burglar, all you have to do is break into Arsene Wenger’s house whilst he’s at home. All you need do is wear an Arsenal shirt and you can nick what you like, you could even give him an elbow and flatten him with a smack in the mouth. One thing is for sure, if you’re wearing that shirt, he won’t see a damn thing.”
Whilst that might appear harsh, it’s instructive to be reminded that the quoted piece was written not last decade but the decade before. With eyesight problems spanning half a generation, if I was Arsene at the very least I’d sue my optician.
The fact that it was Drogba who ran Arsenal ragged made the result all the sweeter. After November’s imperious brace, Wenger accused our Ivorian of ‘not doing much during the game’. Even Wenger thought twice about trotting that line out again as Didier banged in another two goals and hit the woodwork as a mickey take. That’s twelve goals in the last twelve games for Didier against the Gooners. Love it.
With the Matthew Harding Lower in fine voice, the support for our team and John Terry in particular was outstanding throughout the match. Eagle eyed supporters will have noticed that the ‘JT, Captain, Leader, Legend’ flag was placed directly behind the goal for this game. The CFCnet and cfcuk flag crew did this on purpose to let our Captain know, if he didn’t already, that he commands our 100% loyalty.
Overall it was blistering display and whilst we tired towards the end, the fact that we had beaten our London rivals and gone top of the table in the process was enough to send any Chelsea fan home happy.
A particularly cheerful supporter was a certain Mark Worrall, one of Chelsea’s most loyal and die-hard fans. Author of a number of Chelsea books, including the classic ‘Over Land & Sea’ and more recently ‘Chelsea here, Chelsea there’, he looked content but tired. Why? Mark and his partner JoJo are the proud new parents of a baby girl, appropriately named Misty Blue – in a few years time Mark tells us she’ll be sitting in Gate 17. Congratulations from us all at CFCnet.
Comments
By Gerry Thompson on February 8th, 2010 at 11:25 am
Mr Wenger wasn’t the only one who felt Arsenal were the best team yesterday. The normally understated Graeme Souness thought so, Andy Gray hardly a fan of Arsenal thought so. The stats for the game (admitably unrealiable) thought so. Two reasons why Chelsea won , the mental strength of John Terry and the sheer strength of Drogba. Arsenal owned mid-field, owned the ball but were never looking likely to score. Drogba is world class, he has everything, (something Wenger said after the Emirates game, but the media chose to take one line from his interview, read the full transcript and Wenger was being complimentary). If Arsenal had Van Persie yesterday the attack would have had a focal point. Not as good as Drogba yesterday but a leader up front. Take Arsenal’s long term injuries over this season and put them into another club. Only Everton come close, and look where they are. Arsene has to say Arsenal are in the race for the title, the supporters know differently. I would rather see the trophy in Stamford Bridge than Old Trafford, one reason is thatI have long felt that Chelsea have never got credit from the media, mainly Sky for what they achieved over the last six or so seasons. Sky continue to pump up the two “reds” from up north. Getting back to the original point of this, Chelsea had a massive win yesterday, to suggest it was routine in any way is to kid yourselves…
By Nigel on February 8th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
Arsenal are a good side and Wenger has done remarkably well considering his self-imposed transfer restrictions. But he does a disservice to our great game if we continue to allow him to define what football ‘is’.
Both Chelsea and, credit where it’s due, United demonstrated magnificent power, allied to speed of thought and fleetness of foot and both teams are a credit to the Premier League.
Sadly, once again, it’s all about Arsenal’s failure, rather than a celebration of the dynamism shown by those who, continually, reveal Wenger to be ploughing a remote footballing furrow and telling us all we are wrong.
And ‘possession’ in a game is really only relevant if your opponent is trying to get the ball off you once it’s scored twice…