I just want to make it clear quickly, that I'm not being petty here; I've got over Chelsea
winning the Champions League and this article is not intended to have a dig (I've done that more
than enough already), merely to have a look at something, admittedly kind of pointless, that
interests me.
The Wengerism 'like a new signing' will never be greeted with more excitement than when Jack
Wilshere returns to action for Arsenal next season.
The extremely talented 20-year-old missed the entire 2011/12 season with a recurring ankle
problem after a highly impressive first campaign in Arsenal's midfield.
There's usually a lot of sizzle and no steak when it comes to offseason football rumours, but
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger does have some actual decisions to make concerning the club's roster
for next season. As most fans have probably heard by now, Chelsea has more or less given Wenger an
ultimatum regarding on-loan midfielder Yossi Benayoun.
It has passed without too much attention that Arsenal's 'Invincibles' of 2003/04 were last week
named the best team of the Premier League 20-year awards. A fine achievement considering some
strong opposition down the years, but also very much deserved, with the team of Vieira, Pires,
Bergkamp and Henry playing possibly the finest football this land has seen on the way to their
unbeaten title triumph that year.
A warning...
Don't read this blog if you think that Arsene Wenger walks on water, and don't read this blog
if you lack independent thought and support the club because that is how it is and how it will
always be, and especially do not waste ten precious minutes of your life if you think that writing
a negative blog about the club means that RTK does not love Arsenal.
Like other ‘80s phenomena including the video recorder and the ZX81, George Graham is now
almost viewed almost with a degree of scorn by a modern generation of Arsenal fans. But just as we
shouldn't forget the impact the video market and Clive Sinclair's opening stab at bringing
computers into our homes have had on our lives, the same applies to George's managerial tenure at
Highbury.
We've seen it so many times in recent years – inferior teams go to difficult games (at
Barcelona and Arsenal in particular) with the sole intention of ‘parking the bus' in front of
their goal. Ironically, this term was coined by the master of this tactic, Jose Mourinho, when
Spurs came to Stamford Bridge and played in this fashion for a 0-0 draw.
There are few sicker sights I've seen in football than that of Chelsea's Champions League
celebrations last night. They are the first London team to bring home the European Cup.
It should have been us. We are London's biggest club. Chelsea were nothing before 2005 when
Roman Abramovich's millions and Jose Mourinho's dull, defensive football won them only their second
ever title.
The culmination of the European club season is upon us. Bayern Munich takes on aging interlopers
Chelsea in the Allianz Arena which happens to be Bayern's home ground. (For US viewers: kickoff
is at 3pmET, and the match will be televised on Fox's main network. In fact, the Fox networks are
going full bore with almost-Super Bowl levels of TV coverage see below for the full schedule.
If there's anybody who can offer advice to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain about representing England at a
major football tournament as a teenager, it's his Arsenal teammate Theo Walcott. Theo knows all
about the expectations heaped on upon a youngster since he was selected to England's World Cup team
back in 2006 by Sven Goran Eriksson when he was just 17 years old.
24 hours later and it still doesn't make any sense. This team, without Fabregas, Nasri and
Wilshere, with the worst start to a season in living memory, without fullbacks for much of the
winter period, with the most goals conceded from ridiculous individual errors in the league, has
somehow finished in a higher position and with more points than the team that challenged for the
title for much of the previous campaign.
Over the past seven years Arsenal has unfortunately been labeled as chokers by supporters of
many other teams and it's becomingly increasingly hard to argue the point with them. However, the
club will have an excellent opportunity to shake the monkey off their back on Sunday when they head
to West Brom for the season finale.
I have to admit that I naively raised an eyebrow yesterday when Roberto Mancini, chasing a
much-needed win at Newcastle, took off attacking midfielder Samir Nasri for defensive midfielder
Nigel De Jong. In the end this turned out to be the masterstroke that won City the game, and
possibly the league title.
With five games to go, 3rd place was in Arsenal's hands. It wasn't the season we'd hoped for,
but considering how badly we started, we looked like saving some dignity. Four games later, we are
looking at another typical end-of-season collapse.
Of course, it's nothing like last season, where the prize we'd lost was far greater.
Would we really miss it?
Arsenal's focus since their elimination from the Champions League by Milan back in March (or
February if you accept the tie was over after the first leg) has been on securing a top four place
in the Premier League. Tottenham's remarkable collapse has even made third place a likelihood now,
which is just as well given Chelsea might take the fourth English club place in the competition if
they win in Munich on May 19th.
Roy Hodgson Courtesy Wikipedia
When I read about Roy Hodgson's appointment as the new England manager I was hoping my calendar
said April 1st not May 1st. This news would have been ideal on April Fool's Day. Now, I have
nothing against senior citizens. I believe they're a major reason why Britain is prefixed by the
word Great.
With Arsenal dropping another two points in a 1-1 draw at Stoke on Saturday, they dodged a major
bullet when Newcastle was humbled 4-0 at Wigan. If Newcastle had won, like most fans expected,
they'd be just one point behind the Gunners for third place with a game in hand. A win over Stoke
might have sealed third spot by giving them a seven-point lead.
You can't win the league and the Champions League every year. Five out of the last six of those
isn't bad, with a few other smaller trophies thrown in and the possibility of another Copa del Rey
still to come this season. However, second in the league and a semi-final exit to an inferior team
is being widely regarded as a failure, maybe even a disaster, for Barcelona this season.
Chelsea's unlikely draw at Barcelona and their advancement to the Champions League Final means a
third place finish in the English Premier League could be essential for Arsenal if they're to make
the Champions League next season. There's now a 50 per cent chance that Chelsea's going to lift the
trophy on May 19 in Munich's Allianz Arena.
With a summer of wild speculation about Robin Van Persie's future at Arsenal ahead, it's
refreshing to learn that we do have players who love the club unequivocally and are committed to
the cause. Of course, there is every chance RVP will sign a new deal and secure a long future at
the Emirates and who can fault our main man?
Yes, we're eagerly looking forward to the big-name UEFA Champions League semifinal ties but
don't overlook UEFA's other final four. (Indeed, as Zonal_Marking wrote for ESPN today, the Europa
League deserves more respect.) Given our growing interest in La Liga beyond the Big Two,
yesterday's quarterfinal results make for an especially interesting Europa League run-in: Athletic
Bilbao, Atlético Madrid, Valencia, and Sporting Clube de Portugal advanced to the semifinals,
setting up an all-Iberian set of semifinal ties:
1st legs on Thursday April 19: Atlético Madrid-Valencia &
Sporting CP-Athletic Bilbao
2nd legs a week later, Thursday April 26: Valencia-Atlético Madrid &
Athletic Bilbao-Atlético Madrid
As we wrote earlier in the week, the Athletic Bilbao-Schalke tie was the only was that was
pretty much wrapped up after the 1st leg, with Athletic's 4-2 win in Germany.
So the semifinalists are set for the Champions League, making for some tantalizing fixtures
coming up in a couple weeks:
Tues 17 April: Bayern-Real Madrid
Wed 18 April Chelsea-Barcelona
Tues 24 April: Barcelona-Chelsea
Wed 25 April: Real Madrid-Bayern
(and the final: Sat 19 May at Fußball Arena München, Munich)
And now on to today.
On Wednesday against Everton, Arsenal entered the last quarter of the season. The victory and
results elsewhere meant that after the first game of the final fourth of the season, we occupy
third place, six points separating us from the rich but fifth-placed Blues and one point ahead of
the Lilywhites.
There's a full slate of mid-week La Liga fixtures this week two matches today and the rest of La
Liga playing tomorrow. One of today's matches has Barcelona hosting Granada. It shouldn't
really be much of a contest Barcelona hasn't lost at home all season. Perhaps the only reason to
watch is that there's a good chance Lionel Messi will pull even with or even surpass César as
Barcelona's all-time leading scorer.
We gathered at CultFootball HQ yesterday afternoon to watch Super Tuesday results roll in.
Although there had been some noise about opting for the more closely contested matchup in Lisbon,
we went with the bigger-name but more lopsided faceoff in London. AC Milan had destroyed and
embarrassed Arsenal 4-0 in the first leg at the San Siro a few weeks ago ("the Milan massacre"),
and although there were historical precedents for a 2nd leg comeback against Milan, we thought it
unlikely.
Arsene Wenger was allegedly seen loading briefcase after briefcase of unmarked bills into each
of the Blackburn players' cars at precisely noon today in every time zone.
The 7-1 home exhibition match between Arsenal and Blackburn in the early kickoff Saturday
contained everything anyone could ask for in a match.
The Tevez-Pato "will he? won't he" questions ricocheted every which way this January as the
musical chairs transfers song played at AC Milan, but at the end everyone retook their own chairs.
Boring. Perhaps they were dating Berlusconi's daughter, or were on £200,000 a week slave wages
that no one else could match, but whatever the reason, that anti-climax will be followed up by a
busy February and early March.
With Arsenal currently sitting 7th in the Premier League Table, it's now truly inevitable that
Robin van Persie will choose a new club come summertime, barring some miracle. Because it seems so
predestined, the notion doesn't trigger anxiety levels of Fabregas proportions in summers past,
where you just really didn't know what was going to happen.
African Cup of
Nations (Group C), Gabon vs Tunisia (1pmET, Al-Jazeera Sports / Eurosport
International):Tunisia and tournament co-host Gabon both won their first two group games and hence
will advance to the final eight (while the other two teams in the group, Niger and disappointing
Morocco, will go home).
We've got to post a quick recap of what we watched this past weekend but first, very briefly,
here are two games today that you could tune in for, in case you're looking for something to watch
this afternoon/evening (depending on your timezone):
African Cup of Nations, Côte d'Ivoire vs Angola (1pmET, Al-Jazeera Sports /
Eurosport International): The group stage of AfCON2012 wraps up over the next couple days.
After the 2-1 defeat to Manchester United at the Emirates on Sunday, I was emailing with a
friend who has been an Arsenal season ticket holder since the ‘70s. He knows infinitely more
about the team than I do, so I figured I'd let him speak in his own words. (My email comments
inserted for clarity of what questions/comments he's responding to.
Without a "Group of Death," and without 5 of the top 8 ranked African countries (Egypt, Algeria,
Nigeria, Cameroon and South Africa all failed to qualify), the opening stages of the African Cup of
Nations lacks a bit in the tasty fixtures department. For perspective, Tunisia, the participating
country with the fourth-highest FIFA ranking is still behind tiny Cape Verde Islands (who also did
not qualify).
We've semi-regularly tried to post a Friday "What to Watch this Weekend" (WtWtW) viewing guide.
Starting today, we'll aim to bookend that with a companion "What We Watched this Weekend" (WWWtW)
summary pulled primarily from weekend email chatter among the CultFootball crew, maybe spiced up
with some video highlights.
Come on everybody, channel your inner Piers Morgan. Throw your hands up in the air, aim for the
hills and run with abandon. Just don't forget to unlock your wrists, so that the sprint for the
horizon seems that much more fueled by pure terror. And remember to shrill.
Wayne Rooney, his sidekick hair transplant and his nefarious Mancunian buddies traveled to the
Emirates on Sunday.
The Ivory Coast won their first match of the 2012 African Cup of Nations today, a 1-0 defeat of
Sudan with Didier Drogba scoring the lone goal.
Curious as to their current FIFA ranking and who else might likely put up a fight against the
Elephants, I looked it up. Learning that they rank 18th internationally didn't surprise, but the
fact that only 5 other African countries make up the top 50 did.
The Ivory Coast won their first match of the 2012 African Cup of Nations today, a 1-0 defeat of
Sudan with Didier Drogba scoring the lone goal.
Curious as to their current FIFA ranking and who else might likely put up a fight against the
Elephants, I looked it up. Learning that they rank 18th internationally didn't surprise, but the
fact that only 5 other African countries make up the top 50 did.
It's Super Sunday due to the two big EPL North London-Manchester games, but there's also a
couple interesting La Liga matchups and an relevant Eredivisie matchup today:
Super Sunday, Jan 22
Netherlands, Alkmaar-Ajax (8:30amET ESPN Deportes, ESPN3.
We watched Wednesday's Clásico in its entirety with spirited company at WoodworkBK. We had
the sense then that Barcelona slowly took control after the early goal by Cristiano Ronaldo, and
that Pepe was terrible. Watch this extended highlight clip, which should reinforce the
conclusions that (a) Barcelona completely dominated after about the 25′ mark, and (b) Pepe was a
complete embarrassment and not only for the already-infamous Messi hand stamp:
Real Madrid v Barcelona by vynylr
Acting!
"I never knew that music like that was possible!"
After watching the second half of yesterday's Clasico, I'm beginning to see Mourinho as Salieri
to Guardiola's Mozart. When a team of Madrid's caliber gets schooled and forced into errant passes
and frantic individual dribbles on offense and desperate tackles on defense, huffing shadow-chasing
and hapless outreached hands pleading for offside calls that won't come, the opposition must be
touched by the divine; the divine stringing of passes, la pelota always kept just a
fleeting inch away from Madrid's lunging cleats, and importantly, the divine total defense, which
at one point saw Özil attempting to dribble into the box only to be surrounded by seven (7!
"Wilma...!" -- Fred Flintstone in a paroxysm of ecstasy after he convinces Betty Rubble to "role
play a bit."
We'll keep you posted. More on this at 5.
Wait, start from the beginning.
Out of seemingly nowhere, the U.S. Soccer Federation has cleared house. Today, the U.S. power
that be announced U.
