James Bending
The sublime element obviously came from our number 10, who is - week-in, week-out - proving to be (a) the best striker in world football on current form and (b) completely irreplaceable at Arsenal Football Club.
Arsenal didn’t play particularly badly, but were caught napping far too often in the first half and, if wasn’t for Sir Chesney, we could all be moaning that the team isn’t strong enough and where is the ambition from the board?!! Let’s not be fooled; we all know the cracks are being papered over at the moment, as Walcott reverted to his usual mediocre performance and we had the laughable ten-minute cameo from our terminally-ill Diaby, but we did show a great amount of (sorry to quote Wenger) character to dig in and not give up.
The little Mozart has really changed the atmosphere of the midfield. Without the struggling-for-form Rambo, Tomas has really boosted the midfield with some tough tackling and positive play.
I still feel that we will need the injection of Podolski as a back-up striker, and Götze and Hazard (and the return of Wilshere) to rejuvenate the lack of creativity in midfield, and then we may be able to keep the new God in his number 10 shirt, if we give him the justified £150k a week he deserves.
The disappointment came both from my insane view from my seat (see pic) which a lot of people will have experienced at many grounds before, and from the lack of atmosphere from the Scousers. There was no atmosphere from the home team....there was more noise coming from our mural in '92/'93 than from the Kop on Saturday, and this was a massive match for them, a view echoed by a number of cockney Scousers that I spoke to on the train home, who basically said “if it isn’t a semi-final in Europe or Manure, it’s always like that”. So basically, Gooners, never let a Scouser give you any grief on atmosphere at the Emirates, as their one-tiered Kop is all talk and no b-llocks.
Yes, we have too many average players on ridiculous wages, which needs addressing, but for now we have eleven games to go, eleven cup-finals to rein in those scumbags up the road. If they were to finish below us this year, I genuinely think that would completely break their fans and the position of their club; forever in our shadow they would be.
P.S. Anybody fancy a bet on our taking it to extra time tonight?? More cracks would be papered over, but it would make for a special night at the home of football!!
