It was a stroll in the park illuminated by two utterly stunning goals. We won 7-1 if you count shots on target, and it revealed another element of the Lord Wenger’s masterplan for football domination.
So it seems a bit churlish to complain, but I am going to anyway. If ever there was a case of bringing the game into disrepute it was this. OK not at the level of the way Sepp Blatter brings the game into disrepute every day (a journalist recently asked him what his salary was, and in response the God of Football had him thrown out of the press conference, and banned from all FIFA press conferences from then on), but still it was clearly in the disrepute league.
First there was the Vela goal. All the way to the goal Vela was being pulled back. It was so obvious a blind man in Peru could see it, and yet the ref did utterly absolutely totally nothing. To have given the offender (number 8 I think) a yellow would have been lenient, because the utter proof that it was a goal scoring opportunity was that a goal was scored. A red was more appropriate for such a brazen attempt to stop a goal.
Had Vela not scored we would have been shouting and screaming (well I would) but it is easy to forget the awfulness of that decision in the light of the celebration. The ref clearly brought the game into disrepute and is either incompetent or was bribed.
Then, just to rub in the stuff that goes with the fish and chips, there was a beautiful Arsenal attack during part 2, which resulted in the ball being thumped into the goal and the linesman gave off side. It didn’t look it to me – in fact it looked several light years on side – and a peek at the TV replay shows the same. More disrepute. How can anyone make a mistake like that?
Will the EPL and FA take action? Of course not, no more than they ever do against Sepp Blatter for creating a set of FIFA accounts that are so murky it is impossible to know who gets paid for what. As the judge said in court, “FIFA lie and lie and lie again.”
But despite the efforts of the ref and lino we won, and everyone including moi can rave about Eduardo.
The bigger picture is becoming clear. We were running into some difficulty (a certain Manchester A debacle springs to mind) so the Lord Wenger sorted out the defence. And seemingly he left it at that, and we got a lot of 0-0 draws. But he saw what we could not see… Eduardo in training. He knew that if he could have Eduardo (not to mention Theo) back then with a solid defence we would have a team and a half.
And that’s what he has done. The Eduardo goal reminded me that Eduardo was bought with the money we got for Henry. And it was an Henry goal – not in the exact style of course but in the sheer unexpectedness of it. You’ll perhaps remember the goal at Highbury where Henry had his back to goal and three defenders crowding around him, and the goalkeeper there too. Henry, facing away from the north bank simply back heeled it. I was fortunate enough to be sitting in the upper tier behind that goal on that day, and it is one of those moments (like Dennis’ back to goal, flip ball right, turn left, goal) that stays in the mind forever.
Eduardo is like that – goals that stay with you forever. As for AFC I make that 19 without defeat in the EPL, FAC and Eurozone. I’m getting rather excited about this.
(c) Tony Attwood, Cloud 9, Seventh Heaven, Corby. 2009
It’s great Eduardo with his goalscoring instinct is back, but his link up play and movement is much more welcome. I think it may be exagerrating to call the refereeing disrepute as Foy had a good game and the linesman had to make a tight decision with Walcott (not RVP). All’s well that Vela scored but I never had any doubt about that as his balance is so good he can shrug a guy of Gudjohnsen’s size, not to mention great composure and technique.
We can make a strong finish, me thinks.
Burnley are a championship side pushing for the playoffs. They are not as bad as some people are making them out to be. Song was my man of the match for sure. He broke up play and added to our offensive play. The offensive side is something he has developed very well recently. His ball distribution has imoroved tremendously, both in the air and along the ground. And he¿s always been a defensive player so his defensive play is getting better & better. As i mentioned before, i liked Arshavin¿s defensive game as he tackled very well, and offensive play continues to improve¿his thru ball were top-class. Eduardo was very good as was Vela. Vela was all over the pitch, contributing very well all-round and like Eduardo scored a great goal. Eboue looked sharp, good goal for him. Our defensive & Fabianski were solid. Theo looked fresh and ready for action. As is the usual story with us, we could have scored more but the game made my day without a doubt. Arshavin is just in a class of his own. Just unfortunate the team doesn¿t make the most of it.
@ cital
“The offensive side is something he has developed very well recently.”
It’s not recent – Song played like that with Charlton and plays like that for Cameroon, and in the Carling Cup. We’re seeing it more now because his confidence is growing.
We need both Ade and Bendtner at times. They are our ‘big men’ up front. Surely you must realise that their physical presence can be a useful weapon in breaking down certain opponents. This said, I still believe we could sell Ade and cash in on a big fee if anyone is willing to pay. His attitude is not right and he is quite overrated. With Bendtner able to fill the same role, and a horde of other options like RvP, Eduardo, Vela, Arshavin, Walcott, Simpson etc, we would probably manage very well without him. Any opinions? I still believe there is a lot more to come from Bendtner, who is young and would not bring in the same kind of cash if he was sold..
Confidence, that is the key word. You see Arsene knew all along, these are very good players who initially lacked confidence. Added to this the fact that some of the more gifted players were injured and we struggled. But now players are coming back and this itself breeds confidence, we are unbeaten for ages which breeds confidence and we have a manager who yet again is proved right which breeds even more confidence. As Mr Song said at breakfast yesterday morning “I’ll have a large bowl of confidence, sprinkled with confidence and some confidence on the side, oh and a cup of tea would be nice!”
Having watched Eduardo against Cardiff and Burnley, I can’t help feeling that he is actually far better than I thought he was. And calling him “fox-in-the-box” is not quite right. As Brain said above, his link-up play, as well as his instinct of goal poaching, makes him a truly unique player.
I’m happy to have him back at the Arsenal, and am truly previledged to witness him rising again to the top against all odds.
hail Eduardo da Silva!
when i seen Eduardo score his first few goals for arsenal he reminded me of Romario . I then watched old footage of Romario . There are a lot of similarities. I think Romario was a bit faster but then again the defenders might have been slower at those times. The more i saw of eduardo the more it seems he is like romario, but obviously he is his own man. 15 goals in 33 games. Thats with trying to settle into the arsenal setup, having a major injury and then having settle again overcoming the fear. Eduardo is a great striker, but patience and humility is needed. FAITH FOR THE FUTURE.
yesterdays performance, albeit against a championship side (who have already beaten us this season) was great. after trotting through a few blogs and news bits this evening, i can’t find one negative comment about eboue. it’s catching, all the negativity, foir the last few weeks whenever he’s played, i got that sinking feeling. I realise now that it is unfounded, it’s just the negativity of large parts of e-arsenal community rubbing off on me.
i think the same may be true for ade. just as arsene proves himself right in his belief in eboue, i reckon he will prove right about ade. maybe he was right about hleb and flamini too, i mean they haven’t had great seasons have they?
obviously i am aware of the arsenal curse, and maybe they would have had great seasons had they stayed.
eduardos’ goal has to be goal of the year / season. and a trip to rome a goal up on the back of a 4-0 win couldn’t come at a better time.
Unfortunately pig, that negativity was real and was channeled by boos against Wigain. Most of these e-arsenal fans don’t know a thing but even adults who are unlikely to read such blogs written by teenagers (not this one) joined in. I remember on SoccerAM (yes, I know, it’s crap) Kazim-Richards came on and felt a similar way to these fans (i.e. Wenger’s time may be up).
Eboue has always been good but this is not the best of him yet. I’ve always felt he had much more to offer especially when we start clicking better.